Game: 15 Seconds of Me
This is a great game to use as an ice-breaker and will also give you an opportunity to gauge your students' ability. I usually use it with older students since it can be a challenge to get them talking. The spontaneous nature of this game forces students to think outside the box.
Materials:
A stopwatch
Warm-Up:
I usually warm up with a series of easy questions and answers, both asking students and accepting answers to their questions.
How to Play:
Each student has 15 seconds to tell me as many things as they can about themselves.
They get a point for each new piece of information.
The person with the most points wins the game.
Information to award points for: name, birthday, city, country, nationality, family, pets, favorites or anything else that comes to mind.
Most students will be really shy to play at first because they're afraid of making mistakes. For a good laugh and to poke fun at myself, I usually demonstrate in Chinese for 15 seconds to get the ball rolling. They love it. If the teacher makes mistakes, they can to.
I always get a few jokers who say, “I like `a', I like `b', I like `c', I like `d'” or “I like `1′, I like `2′, I like `3′”. I guarantee the students will be laughing and speaking loads of English by the end of the game. It has never failed for me.
NOTE: I've played this super simple game with my intermediate beginners as well. You might want to give them a longer time limit. I usually switch the rules to topics the students know really well such as colors, animals, fruits and vegetables and ask them to list their favorites.