The Importance of a Warm-Up Activity
Do you want ideas for fun and engaging warm-up activities for your adult ESL class? A warm-up activity is very important for building background on a lesson topic in order to prime students for optimal learning and increase engagement. It is also a handy way to find out what students may already know about a topic, and in that way, it can inform your teaching. Here are 4 tried-and-true, fun, and simple warm-up activities that you can use for any lesson.
1. Warm Up with Picture Prompts
Find some quality photos that relate to the lesson of the day, project the photos for students to see, and have students discuss them or brainstorm/write about the pictures. For example, if you are teaching a lesson on the simple present tense, show some pictures of people doing everyday routines like waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, etc. Tell students to pair up and discuss what is happening in the photos while writing down as many words they can think of that relate to the photos. Then ask the whole class what the people are doing and connect it to the lesson topic: “These people do these things every day. He brushes his teeth after he wakes up, and she eats breakfast at 7 a.m. This is their daily routine.” You can write down these sentences, underline the verbs in simple present, and circle the word ‘routine’ to draw their attention to the grammar point and lesson topic.
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2. Short Reading Passages or Dialogues Warm-Up
Find or create short reading passages or dialogues that show the grammar in context. Underline or bold the target grammar point in the passage. Then read it aloud or have students read it individually. Ask questions afterward about the passage and what they noticed about the bolded words.
3. Song with Lyrics
Find a song that has several examples of the target grammar point. Print out or display the lyrics with the target grammar bolded, and play the song while students read along. Ask questions afterward. For example, if you are teaching unreal conditional sentences, play “If I Had a Million Dollars” by the Bare Naked Ladies (note: you might want to leave out the band name so as not to offend anyone or be inappropriate! I can see it now: “Mom, today teacher showed us bare naked ladies.”). Ask questions afterward about the passage and what they noticed about the bolded words.
4. Realia Warm-Up
Realia are objects and materials from everyday life. When used in the classroom, realia can be very engaging. Come to class dressed in a costume. For example, if you are teaching a lesson on modals of advice, show up in a parka, hat, gloves, and snow boots. Tell them that you are going on a trip to Antarctica, and these are the items you should bring. Say, “I had better bring my boots, and I should definitely bring my parka. I shouldn’t bring my sandals.”
For another example, bring in a bag of food items, food packages, or fake food. Lay them out on the table, and begin describing what each item looks like and tastes like using adjectives. Then start comparing the items using comparative and superlative adjectives. “This apple is smaller than the orange. The orange is juicier than the apple.”
Try these fun and simple warm-up activities in your ESL class this week!
For tips on creating complete ESL lesson plans, check out this post.
For pre-made, complete ESL lesson plans and activities, check out my store!