Unit 3

Grammar

If this is the answer,

whats the question?
Activity: Class team game: identifying
questions from the answers
Language: Past simple, present perfect
simple, present perfect continuous
(question forms)
Preparation: Make one copy of the
worksheet. Cut into two sets of cards,
A and B.

Procedure
Divide your class into two teams, A and B, on
separate sides of the class.
Distribute the cards from each set to students
in the appropriate team. They must not show
their cards to one another. (If there are fewer
than eight students in a team, some students
will get more than one card; if there are more
than eight students in a team, some students
will need to work with a partner.) Explain that
their cards contain a question (Q) and an
answer (A).
Ask Team A to choose a student from their
team to come to the front of the class with
their card. On the board, they should draw a
series of lines, one line for each word in the
question on their card, and end this with
a question mark. Each line should be big
enough to write a word on, in such a way
that the whole class can see it easily.
The student points at the lines on the board
and says This is the question. Here is the answer,
and reads out the answer on the card.
Team A must then try to guess what the
question is, by calling out individual words.
The student at the front writes any correct
words in the appropriate space on the
board. The team has 90 seconds to guess the
sentence. At the end of this time, Team A gets
a point for each word they correctly guessed.
If there are any words that they have not
guessed, these can be passed to Team B, who
can earn bonus points (you might like to set
a time limit of 30 seconds for this).
It is then Team Bs turn to repeat the above
procedure. The winning team is the team
with the most points when all the cards have
been used up.

Notes
You could award teams an extra bonus point
if they manage to guess the whole question
in the time allowed.

Communication

How long?

Activity: Whole-class mingling

Language: Asking questions with
How long ... ? + present perfect
simple and continuous, answering
with for and since
Preparation: Make one copy of the
worksheet for each group of
twelve students. Cut the cards out
as indicated.

Procedure
If there are more than 12 students in the
class, divide them into groups. Give one
card to each student in the class.
Tell the students that they are going to
find out the answer to the question on
their card by asking everybody in the
class or group. Make sure each student
knows the form of the question they
should ask. All the questions begin with
How long ... but make sure that students
know whether to use the present perfect
continuous, or the present perfect simple.
Now ask the students to go round the
class or group asking and answering
questions. Tell them that they can make
notes about the answers people give.
Encourage them to find out as much
information as possible in answer to the
question.
When they have finished, they should sit
down and take it in turns to tell the class
or group three things that they found
out.

Extension
Ask the students to write up the
information they have gathered as a poster
to be displayed in the classroom. e.g.
Enrique has known his friend Jose the longest.
Hes known Jose since they were born. Sara
has been living in the same house the longest.
Shes been living there for fifteen years. etc.

CLIL (Technology)

Bridge design

Activity: Designing and building a

bridge in groups of four.
Language: Past simple, construction
Preparation: Make one copy of the
worksheet for each student.

Procedure
Divide the class into groups of four and
give each student a copy of the worksheet
(they will need one each to write up their
experiment).
Ask students what bridges they know of
in their town or area. Point out that even
if there are no rivers, there are likely to be
bridges over roads or railways, or pedestrian
bridges. Ask students in their groups to read
the questions and discuss them.
Ask students if they have heard of the
Millennium Bridge, or any other bridges
in London. Ask them to read the text and
answer the question, then discuss in their
groups what they think about the bridge.
Tell the students they are going to have a
competition to design and build a paper
bridge. They will then test it to see how
many coins can be placed in the middle,
and the winning bridge will be the one that
holds the most coins.
Elicit ideas for what students can do to make
the paper stronger (e.g. rolling into tubes or
folding will make paper more rigid and able
to carry more weight).
Provide the students with scissors, A4 sheets
of paper and scrap paper, and sticky tape,
and explain the competition rules.

Rules
1 Your bridge will have to span a
40-centimetre distance between two
desks and can only use the materials
provided.
2 You only have one lesson to design, build
and test your bridge.
3 Sticky tape can only be used at the joints.
4 The bridge cannot be stuck to the
supporting desks.

Notes
Allow time at the end of the lesson for each
bridge to be tested and scored.
Get students to write up their experiment
individually and hand in their reports.

Key
2 The bridge swayed when a lot of people
walked across it. It even made people feel
sick.