A good warmer does three jobs: it gets everyone talking, it recycles language, and it buys you ninety seconds to settle the room. None of these need photocopying.
~ Three things in common
Pairs have two minutes to find three genuinely unusual things they share. Report back, and the class votes on the best one.
~ The word on the board
Write one word related to the lesson topic and ask pairs to generate five questions containing it. Collect the best three and use them later in the lesson.
~ Yesterday in three words
Each learner describes yesterday in exactly three words. The partner reconstructs the story with questions. It is past simple practice disguised as gossip.
~ Guess the object
Describe an object from the lesson's vocabulary set without naming it. Learners guess, then take over the describing.
~ Two truths and a correction
Learners write three sentences about themselves, one with a deliberate error. Partners find the error and correct it. It surfaces exactly the mistakes you will teach today.
Classroom Ideas
Five Warmers for the First Five Minutes
Low-prep openings that get every learner speaking before the register is closed — and set up the language you need later.
Ed Team2 October 20261 min read
Written by Ed Team for grid.Lesson Plans.
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