30 seconds

Lesson starter. Students are shown a number of terms for exactly 30 seconds. They need to memorise as many as possible. After 30 seconds, the terms are hidden and they need to write down as many terms as they can remember along with at least one fact about that term.

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3-2-1

Lesson starter. Display this on the whiteboard as students are walking through the door. They can work individually or in pairs to come up with the answers. Good for differentiation as all students should be able to get at least one of the six points.

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Acting up

A fun starter activity. Students are given a character card. They then have to explain a term related to this topic whilst staying in character.

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Consider all reasons

Starter task. Students are given an open ended statement related to the topic.  In pairs, they identify as many reasons as possible in order to provide an answer to the statement

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Countdown

Starter task. Students are given a set of jumbled up words related to this topic. They have to unscramble each of the words within 30 seconds.

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Memorise this

Lesson starter. Students work in pairs or small groups to remember words which have been shown to them.

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Teach me about

Lesson starter. Students become the teacher! One student is tasked with preparing a five minute revision starter about this topic for the beginning of the following lesson.

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Word tennis

Starter. Students work in groups of three with two 'serving' words related to the topic. The observer monitors for words which are 'out'

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10 questions

A lesson starter activity
A volunteer (either a student or class teacher) is given a slip of paper so they know 'what they are'.

The rest of the class can ask up to a maximum of 10 questions to guess what they are. The volunteer can only answer 'yes' or 'no'

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Hot and cold

Starter. A fun kinaesthetic activity encouraging students to correctly arrange a sentence preparing them for the lesson ahead.

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Mini whiteboards

Starter activity. A great way of quickly assessing which key terms students remember from the previous lesson and where further teaching focus might need to be given

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Post-its

A fun kinaesthetic starter task where students work in teams to solve a puzzle.

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Questions to ask

A starter task. Students are given a list of categories and asked to write down the questions they would like answered from today's lesson

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Scrabble

Starter task. Students are given a blank scrabble type sheet and take it in turns to write down key words related to this topic

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What do I know?

Starter and plenary. Students fill in a sheet at the start of the lesson to indicate their level of knowledge for this topic. At the end of the lesson

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Chinese whispers

Starter or plenary task. Students write a description of a key term, then pass it through translation filters for a different group to put back together.

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Lucky dip questions

Starter or plenary task. Every student is given a number at the start of the activity. This is used to help pick who will ask and answer questions about what has been learned during the lesson.

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One two three

Can be used either as a starter or a plenary task.Students are given a sheet to complete firstly on their own, then with a partner and then joining up with another pair

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Pass the buck

An excellent starter or plenary for involving all students and getting them to identify a large number of facts about the current topic

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Post it key terms

Starter or plenary

A good activity to encourage teamwork.

Students compete in groups to identify as many key terms as possible.

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Three facts

A starter or plenary task in which students are asked to write down three facts that they can remember off the top of their heads about the topic.

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Turn it down

Starter or plenary task. This follows the traditional game of writing a statement, folding or turning the paper down to hide what has been written and then passing it to the next student.

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What? Why? How?

Students are asked three questions framed as "What?" "Why?" and "How?".

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Word association

A starter or plenary task. Students are asked to write down all of the words they associate with this topic. They then work with a partner to categorise them.

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Word chains

Starting with the shaded letter, students find the adjacent letters which spell out a word related to this topic.  Letters can go horizontally, vertically and diagonally in any direction.

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Draw me a picture

Starter or plenary. Students are given a selection of key terms and are asked to illustrate one of them in a diagram.

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Give me ten

A starter or plenary task. Students work in pairs to come up with ten words related to this project before joining up with another pair to expand their list.

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Just a minute

Starter or plenary task. Students are asked to talk to a partner about this topic for 60 seconds whilst abiding by a set of rules

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Pictionary

A starter or plenary task based on the popular game Pictionary

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Teacher talkabout

Starter or plenary task. The class 'test' the teacher on their knowledge of key words related to this topic

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Call my bluff

A plenary activity based on the popular game show, ‘Call My Bluff’

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Mastermind

A plenary activity which is loosely based on the game show 'Mastermind'

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One word

A plenary task. Students have to sum up today's lesson in just one sentence. They must include a given word within that sentence.

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Taboo

A plenary activity. This task follows the traditional Taboo game. Students work in teams with one student from each team having their back to the board. A word is displayed on the board and teams take it in turns to describe the word to the student without actually mentioning the word itself.

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Talkabout

A starter or plenary task. Students work in pairs with one student talking about the topic and the other monitoring how many of the displayed key words they mention.

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Word building

Plenary task. Students work in groups to construct a sentence about today’s lesson

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4 - 4 - 2

A plenary activity where students are asked to summarise the lesson and pick out the main key words related to the topic.

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Corkboard

A great plenary idea both for AFL and for getting feedback from every student

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I predict

This task acts as the plenary from one lesson and the starter for the next lesson

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Lesson summary

This plenary provides students with an opportunity to evaluate the lesson and their learning and an AFL opportunity for the teacher.

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New terms

A plenary task in which students have to identify three new words/terms that they learned during this lesson and then explain their meaning

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Pyramid

A plenary activity. Students are asked to complete a self assessment sheet to indicate what they have learned during this lesson

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Text me

A plenary activity where students are asked to write a text message to explain what they have learned during the lesson

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Tweet it

A plenary activity. Students write a ‘Tweet’ message to sum up what they have learned during the lesson

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Word rummy

Plenary task. Students are provided with a set of letter cards and asked to play a game assembling key words.

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100 words

Students have exactly 100 words to summarise the key points about this topic

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Booklet

Students are given a scenario and asked to research for specific information. They are then given a set of guidelines and asked to create a booklet from the information they have gathered.

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Create your own crossword

Students are given step by step instructions about creating their own crossword which they can then give to fellow students to solve

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In the style of

A fantastic kinaesthetic activity which is bound to produce some amusing results whilst at the same time reinforcing the main concepts of this topic.

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Mnemonic

Students often find it hard to remember long lists of items. A mnemonic is a rhyme or acronym that they can create to help them recall such a list.

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Once upon a time

Students are given a set of words related to this topic and asked to make up a story incorporating as many of the terms as possible.

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PNI

Students are asked to identify the positive, negative and interesting points relating to this topic

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Podcast

Students are given instructions about creating a revision podcast based on this topic

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Poster

Students are asked to create a poster that could be used for a classroom display. Key design techniques are suggested.

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Presentation task

Students can take forever to set up a presentation often wasting valuable lesson time choosing their background colours and font styles.

This resource provides students with a template for this topic with the aim on them spending time on the content rather than the 'pretty stuff'.

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Wordle

Students write a set of notes about this topic and then use them as the basis to create a word cloud. Their work can be used to create a classroom display.

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Wordsearch

Students are given a wordsearch and asked to circle a list of keywords. A low-effort filler task.

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Create your own wordsearch

Students are given step by step instructions about creating their own wordsearch which they can then give to fellow students to solve

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You are the teacher

Students work in small groups to prepare a lesson on this topic. They are provided with information and tips about the tasks they need to prepare.

Because all students will be working on this task there is no real need for them to actually teach it the following lesson

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