Zero and Low prep activities for teachers of any language

 Dear teachers 💓

We are always so busy planning, scoring and preparing multiple things for our classes that it's hard to have a healthy balance between life and work. 

The eager teacher and materials creator in me upgraded her skills and decided to create this blog to share contents, learnings and help others. That's why today I'm sharing this blog entry with zero or low prep activities for teachers of all languages. Although they are not all suitable for all levels, all of them can be used to teach any language.

 🌺You are more than welcomed to comment below. I'm always open to suggestion, ideas and corrections.

by Maria Soledad Bancoff

Translator & Lecturer

1) Noizer:  You can plan or do many zero prep activities by using this site. As you access the website and scroll down, you’ll see “a menu” of sounds classified into categories (background, locations, etc.) There are also variants for each sound and you can even play “DJ” with them. Here are some ideas for the classroom:

 a)  Play any sound and write: WHO? WHERE? WHY? WHAT? on your board or chatbox. Then, ask your students to think answers for those questions: Who is/are there? / What are they doing? and ask them to secretly answer the questions. Then, take them to breakrooms and ask them to exchange the information in pairs.

    b)  They can do the same in writing.

    c)  Depending on the contents you are working with in class, you can use those questions in the past, in the present or the future to check the use of the tenses.

    d)  Ask your students to listen to the sound(s) and secretly draw what they think is happening. Then, they can show their own pictures, and exchange them so another classmate can describe them.

e) To check vocabulary and in a kind of scattegories format, you can ask your students to write words for the following categories connected to the senses: SEE/ SMELL/ HEAR/ TOUCH/ TASTE according to the sounds. 

2) Musical BINGO! : ask your students to take a sheet of paper and divide it into 12 squares drawing 3 vertical lines and 3 horizontal lines. They'll get a bingo card. Then, ask them to randomly choose 4 squares to cross out. Tell your students just the name of the song you’ll play and ask them to imagine 8 words which are likely to be part of the lyrics. Play the song, and play bingo!!! You can also do this activity with any audio.

3) The story behind the image: by using this random picture generator, you can generate pictures and do activities suitable for all levels and contents. Choose among the categories, image type and color and get interesting images to ask your students to describe, brainstorm vocabulary or narrate events. These are some ideas I had:

a) Ask your sts to imagine this picture is a post from an IG account. You can suggest them to: create at least 4 possible hashtags for the picture and a title. Also, you can ask them to imagine what kind of account the picture belongs to and even talk about the profile of this IG user. You can also divide these ideas into stages and ask them to work in pairs or small groups and share ideas with the class after their pair work.

    b) Ask your sts to say where they think the picture was taken, what’s the connection between the photographer and the picture and even suggest writing the story behind the picture.

4) Take a ride or walk around the world: I LOVE this website! Here you can choose to walk, drive, sail, ride a motorcycle or fly in different cities around the globe while listening to the street noise and/or local radio.

The sky is the limit with this site. Here there two quick ideas:

a) Set your screen first and hide the city you are in. Share your screen and ask your sts what they see, where they think they are, what’s the language people speak there, what season it is, etc.

b) Ask them to imagine they are the ones holding the camera and share the screen with them for 3 minutes. Then, ask them to write a short paragraph (4 or 5 sentences) about: what they think about the city, 1 or 2 activities they would like to do there on the next day and what destination they’d like to reach next.

     

   5) Subrogates: Ask your students to choose a different name, occupation, hobby and make up one more piece of information about their imaginary life. Ask them to introduce themselves to the group with their new identity and start asking random questions in the group about their classmates' new identities for others to answer. See how much they can remember! You can make it gamish by giving them points if they answer correctly.

6) "Tell me without telling me":

 a) Ask your sts to brainstorm words to describe how we usually feel. Example: happy, sad, tired, excited, etc.

 b) Ask them to link one of these words with an object (if they don't have it at hand, they can draw it).

 c) Ask them to share their thoughts starting with:

"Tell me you're ______, without telling me you're______."

7) "Find who" with a twist: 

a) Copy the following questions: 1) Who is always late? 2) Who is always on time? 3) Who is very serious? 4) Who speaks more than 2 languages? 5) Who is a coffee lover? 6) How is a netfix addict?

b) As you share each question with your students, ask them to secretly write a classmate's name.

IMPORTANT: They can't write their own names, but they can write "nobody" on the paper.

c) Before sharing each answer, check if anyone thinks (s)he was voted.

d) Check who got more "votes."

e) If a participant's vote matches who considers him/herself being that person, the voter gets 1 point.

f) The "nobody" rounds get no points.

g) The student who scores more points wins.

8) Spontaneous "anti-commercials":  

a) Take different items.

In online classes, you can:

* Let your students choose anything near them. * Prepare a virtual roulette with pictures and spin it. * Google to find an image with different items and let your students pick one each.

In case of in-person classes, you can:

* Choose some items for them (a marker, a book, a lipstick, etc).       * Ask your students to choose one item among their belongings.* Ask your students to choose an object from the classroom.

b) Ask your students to take 2-3 minutes to secretly brainstorm characteristics that are connected with the object enhansing its use and also their opposites (ex.: to save money, to spend money, etc)

c) Use an alarm or a cronometer and ask your students to create an anti-commercial for that item in 2-3 minutes.

Example: This is the worst way to waste your money! The brand new "useless" pen has some unique features: It will never work when you need it. It's extra shiny, because it's "super slippery". And remember: Do never buy it!

c) The funniest "anti-commercial" wins!

9) Pass the word: Use this random time buzzer to have fun and check how much vocabulary your students know. 

a) Organize your students' turn (ej: Maria, Pedro, Mia, etc) 

b) Name a category,

c) Run the timer. When the time's up, the student who couldn't say a word that matches the category looses.

Examples of categories and words: 

* Kitchen stuff (ex: spoon, fork, glass, cup, etc)

* Bathroom stuff (ex: sink, toilet paper, soap, etc)

* Colors (ex: green, blue, pink, yellow, red, etc)

* Places in the city (ex: bank, hospital, police station, convenience store, etc.

* Fruits (ex: apple, banana, watermelon, orange, pear, etc)

* Vegetables (ex: onion, spinach, carrot, kale, etc).

* Occupations (ex: teacher, translator, doctor, dancer, engineer, etc)

* Relationships (ex: neighbour, boss, friend, partner, coworker, classmate, etc)

* Family members (Ex: mother, father, sister, brother, etc)

* Adjectives (ex: nice, ugly, talkative, cheerful, sad, etc)

* Nouns (ex: table, notebook, emotion, plant, etc) 

I hope you enjoy and find this entry useful! Feel free to comment and share this content. Your contribution and comments make a huge difference to me. They encourage my work and help me to reach more educators. 

See you soon!