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Mimes plus

Give students a list of Present Continuous sentences that they can mime to their partners for them

to guess, e.g. “You are eating bread and jam.” You can add the Present Simple to this bychoosing actions that some people do every day e.g. “You are eating spicy food” and “You are

 blo!ing your nose”" and as#ing them to go on to discuss ho! often they do those things and!hy. $his is more interesting if it is a topic that is lin#ed to cultural differences, e.g. table

manners.

3. Definitions game

Give students a list of !ords and as# them to choose one and describe it !ith just sentences using

the Present Simple and Preset Continuous. %or e&ample, if the !ord is “breathe” they could say

“' do this many many times every day” and “(veryone in the !orld is doing this no! e&ceptsome divers.”

4. 20 questions

)ith the same list of !ords as in *efinitions Game above, students as# each other Present

Simple and Present Continuous Yes+o -uestions until they guess !hich of the !ords their partner chose. Possible -uestions include “re you doing this no!/”, “'s anyone in this class

doing this no!/”, “re many people in this city doing this no!/”, “*o you do this every day/”

and “*o you do this more than t!ice a !ee#/”

Ask and tell

Students ma#e Present Continuous and Present Simple -uestions, then flip a coin to see !hether

they !ill have to ans!er the -uestion themselves tails 0 tell" or be allo!ed to as# the -uestion tosomeone else heads 0 as#". $his is more fun that it sounds because many present tense -uestions

are -uite personal and the person !ho has made the -uestion !ill often be dismayed by having toans!er their o!n -uestion. You can ma#e this more ris-u1 and add vocabulary by suggesting

!ords and e&pressions that they can or must include in their -uestions, e.g. “snore” and “itchy”.

lternatively, they could roll a dice to decide !hich tense they should use in their -uestions e.g.Present Simple if they thro! a one, t!o or three", or the topic they should as# about e.g. families

if they thro! a one

11. Describe a photo

Perhaps the most natural situation in !hich to use a mi& of the t!o tenses is to describe a photocontaining people that you #no!, for e&ample “$he person standing ne&t to my brother is hisgirlfriend. She lives in Canada, so they only meet a fe! times a year.”

Postcards

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Im !being" unique

Students ta#e turns trying to ma#e a pair of similar sentences, one in Present Simple and the

other in Present Continuous, neither of !hich is also true for their partner, e.g. “'2m !earing avest. ' almost al!ays !ear a vest.” 'f their partner can say “'2m also !earing a vest” and+ or “'

almost al!ays !ear a vest too”, then they don2t get a point. You might !ant to pre3teach theopposite reactions that they !ant to get, e.g. “4eally+ $hat2s interesting. '2m not+ ' don2t.”

$his can also be played as a mingling game, !ith students going around trying to find pairs ofsentences that no other person in the class can say is true about them too. %or a -uic# game, as#

students to sit do!n as they find a single pair of sentences sho!ing !ays in !hich they are

uni-ue and stop a couple of minutes after the first person sits do!n or !hen most people have.%or a longer game, as# them to continue finding e&amples until you stop the game.

#resent $imple and %ontinuous stations

Students run and touch one of t!o !alls depending on !hat tense they hear or thin# should beused. %or e&ample, they run and touch the Present Continuous !all if they hear “'2m having a

great time” or the Present Simple one if they hear “' blan# my bed every morning”. 5ther hintscould include time e&pressions “at the moment”, “right no!”, “once a !ee#”, etc", pictures

sho!ing routines or people fro6en in mid3action, or blan#ed sentences held up. $o add spea#ing,

you can get students to also shout out the full sentence as they touch the !all.

$o add points, you can give a point to the first team !ho have all their members at the right !all.lternatively, you could only have one person from each team running each time and a!ard

 points to the first to touch the right place, or eliminate people each time and give points to the

 people !ho are still in the game at the end.

'nstead of running and touching, students can thro! things at t!o targets, pretend to shoot thet!o !alls or targets, or put cards !ith “s+ es"” and “3ing” !ritten on them bet!een them on the

table and rush to slap them. calmer version, also suitable for adults and -uieter classes, is

giving each student copies of both of those “s+es"” and “3ing” cards, and students racing to holdup the right one of the t!o cards depending on !hat they see and hear.

$he teacher !ill need to prepare some suitable sentences or #ey !ords before the activity, and

maybe the t!o cards to hold up although students can easily ma#e their o!n !ith a pen and

scrap paper".