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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topics

character cards

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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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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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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Three Facts

Starter or plenary task

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 if ...

Starter or plenary task

Students work in pairs to discuss a number of 'what if ....' questions

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What? Why? How?

Starter or plenary task

Students are given a scenario. They have to suggest a solution, explain why they feel their solution is the most appropriate and finally explain how to implement their solution.

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Word Association

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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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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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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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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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

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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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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Countdown

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

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

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Odd one out

Students are shown a number of key terms.   They have to decide which of the terms is the ‘odd one out’ and give a reason for their choice

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When I went on holiday

A starter task

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Word tennis

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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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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Pick me

This provides a differentiated starter or plenary activity. Students are given a question and work in groups to come up with an answer. The group must ensure that all members are able to articulate the answer.

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Pictionary

Starter or plenary, based off of the boardgame 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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Word building

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

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10 seconds

Students are shown a term or given a scenario and they have exactly 10 seconds to come up with 5 different, suitable answers.

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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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answers

Hot and cold

Starter.

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

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Post-its

Starter task

A fun kinesthetic activity 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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Chinese whispers

Starter or plenary task. Students write a description of a key term, then pass it through translation filters to make it difficult for another group to parse

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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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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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Charades

Probably best as a plenary task.
This ever popular acting game is an excellent activity to engage students at the start of a lesson or to add a fun element to the end of a lesson.

Rules and list of words are provided.

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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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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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Evaluate another's work

A plenary activity.

Students assess one another and write comments for how to improve next time

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Word chains

Plenary task. 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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answers

Theory notes task

Students read the theory notes on the mini website and then answer the questions on the task sheet.

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Mind Map

Students are given the basic structure of a mind map for this topic. They are asked to complete the mind map by adding extra branches.

Mind maps are a useful tool to use as a revision aid.

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100 words

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

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PNI

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

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Pros and cons

Students are asked to identify the pros and cons for the main factors related 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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Word cloud

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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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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Agony aunt

Students are put into the role of an agony aunt who has to answer a set of letters about technology related problems.

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Booklet

Students are 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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Construct an answer

Students are given an exam style question to answer. They are also given a set of key words to incorporate into their answer.

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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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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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QR codes

A good kinaesthetic activity.

Students have to find, decode and answer questions stored in the form of QR codes

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answers

Poster

Students are given a passage of text about this topic. They 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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A to Z

Students are asked to write down key words relating to this topic

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