Warm-ups

Class atmosphere is an essential part of learning a foriegn language and warm-ups are the perfect time to set a good class atmosphere each day. In order to teach the warm-up section well, you need to balance structure with variation.

• If you do the same thing everyday, the students will get bored.
• If you do entirely different things everyday, the students will get confused.

For JHS English, it is good to have at least three warm-up activities in each class.

1. The first warm-up activity should remain the same everyday. Ideally, it should be an activity that students can do all by themselves. By having your students start the class instead of the teachers, it gets the students involved and gives them an active role in learning.
2. The second warm-up activity should vary from day to day. Ideally, you will have several options available for each day. Some days classes are high energy and some days classes are low energy. You never really know how the class will be until you arrive in the classroom. So you should be prepared to teach a high energy warm-up or a low energy warm up depending on the class' mood.
3. The third warm-up activity should vary from time to time. Ideally, it gives students a chance to practice new material and make use of old material.

Activities

• 60 Second Quiz. Study new vocabulary words.
• ALT's essay. Develop the ability to listen to natural English.
• Bus Stop.
• Phonics karuta. Play karuta with phonics sounds.
• Memory Game. Make and memorize vocabulary or sentences.
• Phonics Card Game. Practice simple phonic sounds.
• Show and Tell. Practice questions and answers.
• Warm-up questions.
• What am I?. Listen to hints and guess the object.
• Whispering game. Develop listening abilities.
• Wordsearch. Review vocabulary words.
• Pac-man Kriss Kross.

See also

• Englipedia's Warm-up Page.
• Junior high school activities.
• Music in the classroom. Sing a song for warm-up.