Warmers

Join a global community of over 200,000 TEFL teachers working throughout the world! Enrol me!

The first few minutes of a class are a really important part of the lesson. These few minutes are when your students get settled, get into English-mode and start to engage with the language. This is the time when it is necessary to make sure you get their attention and make them interested in the lesson they are about to have. Often students will come in from situations where they were not speaking English or they were thinking about other things, so this is the time when they need to focus their minds on speaking English.

So, what are good warmer activities for your lessons? Well, here are a few of our tried-and-tested activities to start any lesson:

  • Scrambled Words. Choose words from a previous lesson and write them in jumbled form on the board. The students must then try to unscramble them and figure out what the words are.
  • Hangman. Not only for Young Learners, this is a great game for students of all ages.
  • Brainstorming/Association. Provide words as a stimulus and let the students use free association to come up with any related words.
  • 20 Questions. Think of a word and your students only have 20 questions to figure out what it is.
  • Famous Names. Write out familiar celebrity names on pieces of paper, which your students must stick to their foreheads without having looked at them. They must then ask the other students (who can see their “names”) questions to find out who they are.
  • Odd One Out. Write down groups of words on the board. For each group there must be a word that doesn’t fit in with the others, for whatever reason. The students must guess which is the odd word out.
  • Categories. Students draw a table of categories on a piece of paper – for example, Place, Person, Food, Job. You choose a letter and as fast as they can the students must work in groups to complete all the categories with a word beginning with that letter – London, Louise, Lasagne, Lawyer.

There are so many different options for warmer activities and once you become familiar with a few of them they’ll be available for you to use at a moment’s notice. They do not necessarily have to relate directly to the topic or language structure of the lesson, though they can often be manipulated to provide revision from previous lessons. The key for these activities is that they are short and sweet. Don’t spend the entire lesson on them – there are more important things that should take up the bulk of the lesson – but spend enough time for the students to get involved and get focused for the lesson ahead.  If you can manage to get the students’ attention from the beginning of the lesson, you’ll gave a better chance of having a successful lesson.

Get Social

Follow us on social networks, join our newsletter - get the latest news and early discounts

Sign up to our newsletter

Follow us on social networks, sign up to our e-newsletters – get the latest news and early discounts

Accreditation Partners

The TEFL Academy was the world’s first TEFL course provider to receive official recognition from government regulated awarding bodies in both the USA and UK. This means when you graduate you’ll hold a globally recognised Level 3 (120hr) Certificate or Level 5 (168hr) Diploma, meaning you can find work anywhere and apply for jobs immediately.

Product added to your cart

You have added to your cart:

Request call back

    Please leave your details below and one of our TEFL experts will get back to you ASAP:

    captchaType characters on the left:

    Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

    Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

    Thank you! Your message has been sent!

    Download the TEFL World Factbook

      Please enter your details in order to download the latest TEFL World Factbook.

      Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

      Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

      Thank you for downloading the TEFL World Factbook!

      If the TEFL World Factbook did not download
      > Click Here To Download <

      Download the Online Teaching Guide

        Please enter your details in order to download our Online Teaching Guide.

        Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

        Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

        Thank you for downloading our Online Teaching Guide!

        If the Online Teaching Guide did not download
        > Click Here To Download <

        Download Prospectus

          Please enter your details in order to download our latest prospectus.

          Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

          Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

          Thank you for downloading our prospectus!

          We hope you enjoy reading our prospectus, we have tried to make it as useful as possible! Please get in touch if you have any questions.

          If the prospectus did not download automatically
          > Click Here To Download <

          $
          $