Often at the beginning of the class, you and your students may feel a little groggy, sleepy or not quite ready for class time. Starters serve to help you and your students wake up, get in a great mood and have some fun before the class begins.
Fillers are just as important as starters, they are vital to prepare as it’s difficult to calculate how much of your lesson plan you will get done in your class. More often than not, you will usually finish and have only completed 2 thirds or even half of your lesson plan. However, on some days, your students are either powering through your activities or some of your activities just aren’t working well so you have to skip these activities. By doing this, you will power through your lesson plan and have ten or even twenty minutes left until the end of the class, with nothing prepared. What do you do in those ten minutes? If you haven’t prepared fillers than these moments can be incredibly awkward for yourself and your students. Some teachers can improvise on the spot, but I was never one of them.
Additionally, you may have finished two-thirds of your class and the next activity would take a good half an hour but you only have time minutes left. It´s not enough time to start your next activity, this is the perfect time to have a filler prepared. My suggestion to you is to always have two or three fillers prepared; if you don’t use them that class, you have them already prepared for your next class.
Below is a list of some starters and fillers, they are divided into two sections. The first section is to make the brain’s juices flow. These type of games are best used when students have energy but just can’t switch on their thinking caps. These activities do exactly that, they lower the students’ hyperactive levels and increase their thinking and sends more blood to their brain.
The second section lists starters and fillers that get the students up, moving and their blood flowing. These games are best used for those Monday mornings when the rain is pouring and all anyone wants to do is get back into bed.
Section 1: Making the brain think
Left or Right /counting/
This is a counting activity, the faster the game is, the better it is. It can be done in many different ways such as:
- counting up i.e. 1,2,3,4
- counting down i.e. 100,99,98 etc
- counting in multiples i.e. 5,10,15,20
Students stand in a circle and begin counting, each student saying the correct number as they go around in a circle. However each time a student says a number, they must immediately use their left or right hand to show which student will continue counting – the student on their left or the student on their right. If the student they chose hesitates or says the wrong number, they are out.
Scramble /spelling/
Write a list of words on the whiteboard (appropriate to your subject matter), scramble the letters within the words i.e. rpepa, grniaed, rtolhepeic (paper, reading, helicopter).
The students must race to figure out the correct word, the first student to write all the correct words win a point.
Odd One Out /vocab, thinking/
Write three or four words on the whiteboard, these words must have a connection or be part of the same category except for one random word. Students must circle the odd word out:
Horse Cake Bird
Five to ten of these examples will suffice for the students and give them a time limit to complete the task.
Make Words /spelling/
Allow the students to choose ten random letters (they must have at least one vowel) and write them on the whiteboard. Students have three to five minutes to make as many words as they can from those letters. Reward two students at the end – the one with the most words and the one with the longest word.
Last & First Letter /spelling, vocab/
Students sit or stand in a circle. The teacher starts by saying a word, the next student in the circle must make a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word e.g. bus, sand, dice. If a student cannot think of a word or takes too long, they must pay a penalty fee.
Associates /vocab/
Students sit or stand in a circle. The teacher starts by saying a word, the next student in the circle must think of a word that associates with the previous word e.g. pink, pig, bird, flying, superman, alien etc. If a student cannot think of a word or takes too long, they must pay a penalty fee.
Riddles /thinking/
Before class, write a riddle on the whiteboard so that when students enter the class they will clearly see the riddle and even before class begins, the students will begin talking amongst themselves about the riddle. The first student to get the answer to the riddle wins. I won’t list any riddles as the internet is overfilled with English riddles and you can easily find many just by searching online.
Air Writing /spelling, letters/
A student writes a word in the air, the other students must try to guess what the word is. The first student to guess correctly gets a point and comes to the front of the class and writes a new word in the air for the other students to guess. Make sure that the student who is writing has their back faced to the students, that way they will write left to right.
Mixed Sentences /syntax, writing/
Before class, write a few mixed-up sentences on the whiteboard, be sure to separate each word and punctuation mark with a slash.
For example: rainy/it’s/today/a/day/./
This becomes: It’s a rainy day today.
Do not allow students to see the words until they begin the task (so cover up the sentences on the whiteboard). Set the students the task of writing the sentences correctly under a time limit (three to five minutes). They must include proper capitalization and punctuation when writing the correct sentences. The first student to write all the sentences correctly wins.
21 /counting/
Students stand in a circle and begin counting up from 1 in a circle. Each student can say up to three numbers on each turn. When a student is forced to say 21, they lose and must sit out. Continue the game until only one student is left standing.
So…But /story/
The class sits in a circle and the teacher begins by saying the first sentence of a story, the teacher ends the sentence by exaggerating the word ‘so…’. The next student says another sentence that continues the story, but they must start the sentence with an exaggerated ‘so…’, and they must finish their sentence with an exaggerated ‘but…’. The next student says a sentence that continues the story, however, they will start the sentence with an exaggerated ‘but…’, and end their sentence with an exaggerated ‘so…’.
Continue the activity until it comes to a natural end or after a period of time (no more than five-ten minutes) you can tell the next student to create a sentence that finishes the story.
It should resemble something along the lines of:
Teacher: A dragon was flying in the air when he saw another dragon so….
Student 1: so he wanted to say hi, but…
Student 3: but the other dragon was very angry and wanted to eat him so….
Student 4: so the dragon flew down to the ground but…
When Suddenly /stories/
This game is played in the exact same way as the previous game ‘So…but’. The only difference is that instead of students saying ‘so’ and ‘but’, replace these two words with ‘when suddenly’ i.e.
Teacher: A dragon was flying in the air when he saw another dragon when suddenly….
Student 1: when suddenly the dragon flew towards him, when suddenly…
Student 3: when suddenly the other dragon was very angry and wanted to eat him when suddenly….
Student 4: when suddenly the dragon flew down to the ground when suddenly…
No Yes No /questions/
Students sit in a circle and one by one they ask each other questions; but no one can reply with a yes or no, or any other sound or word that resembles yes or no, such as ‘yeah’. If a student answers with a yes or no, that student is out or must pay a penalty fee. To motivate students to think of really good questions, offer a point to the student who asks a question and manages to get a yes or no response.
You’re Fired /instructions, verbs/
One student stands at the front of the class. Whilst being timed, he or she gives all the other students a series of commands, e.g. sit down, clap your hands, spin around etc. The other students must do the actions. The moment the student giving commands pauses to think of a command for more than five seconds, the other students shout “You’re fired!” and the timer comes to a stop.
The student who was able to give commands for the longest before pausing for more than five seconds is the winner.
Chinese Feeling /spelling, letters/
I call it Chinese feeling because it’s very similar to Chinese whispers, but instead of whispering a word, the students write the word on each other’s backs.
Firstly, divide the class into two teams and have them sit or stand in lines facing forward so that, apart from the first student, each student should see the next student’s back. The two last students in both teams are given a word that they must then write on the back of the next student in their team´s line. Those two students then try to figure out the word and write it on the back of the student in front of them. This continues until the students standing at the front have had the word written on their back; they must then run to the whiteboard and write the word they think was written on their backs. The first team to write the correct word on the whiteboard wins a point. Continue until everyone has had a chance to be at the front and back of the line.
Clap On Multiples Of /counting/
Firstly choose your desired multiple such as multiples of five.
Students stand or sit in a circle and begin counting up from 1, each time a student gets to a number that is a multiple of five, they should not say the number but instead, clap. If a student doesn’t clap or claps on the wrong number, the whole class must start again from 1.
Set a goal such as 50, if the students can successfully go around the circle and count up to 50 without making any mistakes than everyone gets point.
Semi-English /maths, numbers/
Students stand in a circle and begin counting up from 1. However, one student will say the number in English, the next student will say the number in their native tongue.
If you are teaching Spanish children, then it should be like this:
One, dos, three, quatro, five, seis, seven, ocho, nine, dias etc.
If a student says the number in the wrong language, the whole class must start again from 1. Set a goal for the students to reach such as 50, if they can get to 50 without making any mistakes, everyone gets point.
This game must be played as quickly as possible.
Section 2: Making the blood flow
Pass the Ball Lexis /vocab review/
This game can work for any type of vocab, let’s use jobs as an example.
Students sit in a circle, one student has a ball. The moment he gives the ball to the next student, he has until the ball returns to him to say 10 different jobs (depending on the level of the students, vary the amount of vocab they must say). If the student can say 10 jobs before the ball goes around once in the circle, he or she gets a point. If they can’t say 10 jobs before the ball returns to them, they don’t get a point.
Alphabet Game /spelling/
Students stand in line. Give the student at the front a marker to write on the whiteboard. Then, to the student standing at the back of the line, draw a letter of the alphabet on their back. They must do the same with the student in front of them and so on until the student at the front has felt the letter on their back. That student then runs to the whiteboard and writes any word beginning with that letter. Each letter in that word equals a point for the student. Of course, if they got the first letter wrong, they have no points, but if they got the first letter right, then everyone gets a point.
Divide the class into teams for a more competitive atmosphere.
ABC Words /alphabet, vocab/
Students stand in a large circle, one student starts with a ball. He or she must say a word beginning with A i.e. astronaut, then they must say the name of a student and throw the ball to the student (they must throw the ball well if they throw the ball badly everyone must start again from A). The student must first catch the ball, say a word beginning with B, call out another student’s name and throw the ball to them. This should be done quickly without too much hesitation. If the student fails in any of these stages, the whole class must start again at A. The aim of the game is to be able to get to the letter Z, if this is achieved, everyone gets a point. If the students find it easy to get to z, then you can time them and challenge them to complete the game as fast as they can.
Spot the Difference /thinking/
Ask a volunteer to go out of the classroom. While the student is out of the room, the other students change something about themselves and/or the classroom i.e. they change their sweaters, shoes, coats, move a chair, draw something on the whiteboard and so on. The students should not change more than two or three things. Once the class is ready, bring the student who went out of the classroom back inside. He or she has 1 minute to guess what the differences are. For each difference the students manage to pinpoint, they receive a point.
How Many Steps? /numbers, thinking, sentences/
The students all come to the middle of the class; one student will shout “run!” All the students must run (sensibly) around the classroom. After a few seconds, the same student shouts “stop!” All the students must immediately freeze. The student who shouted the commands then asks student A “How many steps are there to student B?” Student A must then guess how many steps it will take them to get to student B. Once student A has guessed, they walk to Student B whilst the rest of the class counts how many steps it takes. If the student is correct they get a point, if not then the student who asked them the question gets the point.
After a few rounds, get the children to run around the classroom again to change places and repeat the previous steps.
Number Groups /numbers/
Students walk/jog around the classroom chanting the key lexis or vocab. A student will randomly shout out a number i.e. three;+. The students walking around must quickly get into groups of three. The first students to get into a group of three each win a point.
Do as I say, Not as I do /body/
One student comes to the front of the class and begins to show and tell students to touch areas of their body i.e. touch your nose (the student also touches their nose). The other students must repeat the command and also touch their noses. However, if the student in the front says ‘touch your ears’ but actually touches their mouth, the other students must repeat the command ‘touch your ears’ but must also correctly touch their ears. If everyone in the class touches the correct part of their body, everyone gets a point. But if only one student doesn’t, then the student standing gets a point.
Please… /verbs/
One student stands at the front of the class and begins to say please (followed by a verb). For example, the student could say, “Please stand up, please jump, please dance, please shout”. The other students must do the actions. If however, the student at the front doesn’t say please, the students shouldn´t do the action. If everyone in the class refrains from doing the action when they were not asked please, everyone gets a point. But if only one student does the action, then the student standing gets a point.
Connect Body Parts /body parts/
Students run (sensibly) around the classroom. One student will shout a random body part, such as elbow. The running students must immediately stop, get into pairs and connect their bodies using their elbows. The first pair to do this each get a point.
Shuffle Chairs
Students sit in a very small circle with one student sitting in the middle. The circle should be so small that the other students are practically on top of the student in the middle. There should be one more chair in the circle than there are students.
When the teacher shouts go, the students quickly shuffle to their right very quickly, trying to always sit down in the next seat. The student in the middle’s aim is to sit down in the empty chair. The other students´ aim is to stop the student in the middle from sitting down by quickly by moving from the next seat to the next seat. If the students can withstand the invasion for 30 seconds they all get a point, if however the student in the middle manages to find a gap in the chair and sits down, he or she gets a point.
Don’t Touch
Students stand in a circle holding hands, in the middle, there is a chair. When the teacher says go, students (sensibly) try to make each other touch the chair, the first student to touch the chair is out. Continue until there are about three to five students left standing, these students each get a point.
