Earthquake!

Age - Teens and older

Proficiency level - Low intermediate and above

Objective - To practice asking questions in the past continuous

Materials - slips with clues for students to mime

You will need to make slips with clues (subject/verb). The funnier, more unusual the verbs you choose, the more challenging and interesting the activity. Some examples: you/count your money; your parents/snore; your baby sister/play with the dog; you and I/fight; our teacher/take a nap in class;etc.

1) Pair students up.

2) Stick the slips to their backs. Students cannot see their slips.

3) Set the scenario. "Yesterday at around 6 p.m. there was a big earthquake in (your city). You were really scared and traumatized. As a result, you had a temporary memory loss and can't remember what was happening when the earthquake happened. Your friend, however, lost the ability to speak but not his/her memory, so he/she will try to help you by miming the activity you and others were involved in. As questions to find out what these activities were."

4) Model the questions on the board: "Was I.....?"; "Were my friends....?"; "Was my sister....?"; etc.

5) Students take turns miming the activity described on their peer's slip. They also have to indicate who was performing that activity. No words, just miming!!!!