Hi everybody,

This is my first lesson post as I feel it is about time since this website is awesome for materials. This was one of my best lessons last semester and it is a eclectic mix of lessons I've seen on here and those in Open Classes so thanks for the inspiration! I work in three middle schools, two are mixed and really small (6-16 in each class) and one is a large all boys school (35 in each class). I've adapted the lesson in terms of ability and class size and it worked well and the students seemed to get a lot out of it.

It's a sports lesson but it is actually a disguise for learning to use comparatives and superlatives.

I've attached the lesson plan, the worksheet and the word-search. You will need to prepare the following:

• A target
• A blindfold
• A coin
• Some chopsticks, some bowls and some sweets (the chocolate covered nuts are great)

Firstly, whilst your co-teacher is doing the register or settling the class, go onto http://www.barryfunenglish.com/enter/toolsRandomStudent.swf and add your class to the random student selector. To do this, obtain a copy of your register and make it into a list in notepad and copy and paste it into the selector. You'll need it later! NOTE: Only need to do this for the 35 student classes!

Secondly, go through the Winter and Summer Olympic sports and get the students to call out different sports which aren't on the PPT after they've had a chance to think of some. Put on the Funny Olympics video in the PPT whilst you prepare for your own 'Funny Olympics'.

Small Classes: All students take part in the games. The arm wrestle, coin toss and gymnastics events can be done on their own. You go around with the chopstick challenge and your co-teacher can do the blindfold one. Keep checking that the students are writing their names on the worksheets. For higher ability level, make sure they write full sentences and change the worksheet accordingly.

Large Classes: Use the random student selector to choose the students at random. You will have at least half the class participating in the events and because it is by luck there is no chance of students feeling left out. Students fill in the results after each event and change the level accordingly on the worksheet.

It's really important to get the students to read out the results at the end so that they are speaking as much as possible. You will be surprised at how much English they actually use during the lesson, even if it is just to ask you how to do the event or to help them understand the worksheet.

At the end, give yourself a rest and calm the class down with the word-search. It's pretty difficult and I guarantee that your class will be SILENT for the last two minutes of the class. I also give a reward for the first five that are finished as a motivator.

Hope it works as well for you as it did for me!

Yeh I'm planning to do it for my high school too at some point. I will probably make them write the full sentences instead of just the names although the main aim is for them to be speaking out loud the sentences. The students loved it and were always cheering when somebody's name appears on the screen from the random student selector. The events were really easy and everybody wanted to crowd around to see the action. It doesn't get out of control though because once the event is finished and the selector starts rolling again then everybody sits back down.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

this is great! thanks!

Thanks for the comments! I hope it goes well!

Great idea. I'm really excited to try this with my kids. Has anyone tried this with a co-ed middle school or high school class? they sometimes feel too embarrassed to do physical things in class.