Presentation PDF of speech at IATEFL Budapest June 2015

Here are the slides of a recent presentation I gave at the IATEFL summer symposium in Budapest this year about Using project management team building activities in the ESL classroom: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwjtxjKj2vglMmtnVkZfQ1ZmQTQ/view?usp=sharing

Lego writing activity

I have been using Lego in the business English classroom for a number of years and am still unsure about where I first heard about the Lego precision writing activity. You will need around ten blocks for each group then have them each build a prototype, take it apart, write instructions on how to rebuild it then pass the Lego and the instructions on to another team while receiving Lego and instructions to follow themselves. More detailed instructions are available here: http://www.teachingvillage.org/2010/05/27/more-than-five-things-to-do-with-lego-in-the-efl-classroom-part-1-by-emma-herrod/

Babel Kapla Tower-building activity

Here are instructions in several languages for a team tower-building activity using the famous wooden blocks made by the firm Kapla. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1el324ylC7sm6Cdfzn0JwvTj9C8n9vgqoOiG0V-5VteI/pub Students are split into groups of three or four then given twenty blocks for each group. A timer shows a countdown ticking down from 9 minutes. Each group is given an instruction sheet and must only communicate in the language given for the entirety of the nine minutes. Have fun with this!

Top Trumps card game to practice numbers and dimensions

This is a student-created activity using Google Docs. The first page shows instructions about how to personalise your cards and includes about thirty cards on the theme of smartphones. Feel free to use the pre-existing cards and use the template in your class to have them create others. Click here to go to the document.

The original Top Trumps game was created in 1968 and was very popular in the 1980s in the United Kingdom among children. Here is an example of a steam trains set from the 1970s courtesy of Christian Stratham's nostalgic colourschool website