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Macmillan Polska 2010

PHOTOCOPIABLE

Teacher’s Notes

Winter questions

by Magdalena Kondro

Type of activity: whole class work
Focus: vocabulary connected with winter; listening

and speaking skills
Level: elementary – intermediate
Time: 25 minutes
Preparation: Make one copy of two pages of the

Student’s Worksheet per class of up to 18 students or

two copies for larger classes. Cut up the copies along

the lines into slips with individual questions.

Procedure:
1. Play a version of Hangman with the word winter.

On the board draw ten steps leading to the sea

with a shark among the waves. On top of the stairs

draw a stick figure. Draw six dashes representing

the letters of the secret word. Students call out

letters of alphabet. If the letter is within the

word, write it over the correct dash. If the letter

is not part of the word, move the stick figure one

step down closer to the water. Students win the

game if they manage to guess the word before

the figure reaches the water.

2. Explain that students are going to ask and answer

questions about winter. Give each student one

question and explain anything they find difficult.

The questions get harder gradually, so in lower

level classes you may wish to have students do

the activity in smaller groups with only the

questions from the first part of worksheet. Make

sure students know the meaning of the following

words: to migrate, to hibernate, a snowball fight,

to go sledging, to shovel snow.

3. Students mingle and find a partner. They ask and

answer each other’s questions. When they have

finished, they exchange their questions and find

new partners to ask the new questions to. Students

continue the activity until the time limit of 10

minutes is up. They can talk to the same classmates

a few times provided they have different

questions. If someone is asked the same question

the second time by someone else, they should

repeat their answer. Encourage students to try to

remember as many answers as possible. You may

ask them to walk with a notebook and take brief

notes.

4. When the time is up, ask students to return to

their seats. In pairs, students tell each other all

the answers they remember.

5. Individual students report to the whole class the

most surprising or unusual things they have found

out from their classmates.

Extension:
Students choose one question each and on a piece of

paper write a 3-5 sentence long paragraph with their

own answer. Collect and distribute the paragraphs at

random. Students read the text they have received

and try to reconstruct the question it answers. They

then approach the author of the paragraph to confirm

their guess.