Warming Up

8 Great Warmers for Any ESL Level

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BY GRAHAM DIXON 36,277 views

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You walk into your classroom
and find your group sitting in
silence.
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BusyTeacher - DESK - Above Article

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Half are sleepily on their phones, and the other

half are snoozing at their desks. Bringing to
school the energy to revitalize such a group is
one of the first challenges of a teachers
working day.
Research recently showed that most of the
worlds teenaged students are dangerously
sleep deprived. They find it hard to get to
sleep before 11pm, due to a combination of
natural biology and the stimulating effects of
TV and cellphone screens, but are required to
be at school at 7.30 or 8am. Experiments with
later school start times have brought startling
results, including better attention and focus,
higher scores, and a much reduced rate of
traffic accidents caused by tiredness.
Most teachers arent in a position to change
their schools schedule, and so we are faced
with a room full of exhausted people for the
first class of the day.
Most teachers arent in a position to change
their schools schedule, and so we are faced
with a room full of exhausted people for the
first class of the day. Often, they have skipped
breakfast and are low on blood sugar, and
many have been up late on their computers.
Its more important than ever, therefore, to
begin class with a short activity designed to
wake students up. The rewards are many and
varied:
Warmers bring a surge of focus and energy
They also activate the brains language
circuitry; students traveling alone by public
transport often arrive at school without
having spoken a word to anyone!
Many warmers require social interactions,
obliging students to connect with each
other.
The activity represents a signpost, beyond
which L1 (the students first languages)
are no longer part of the environment; its
English only from here on in.
Warmers are also a fantastic method of
review.
Compounding the tiredness problem is that the
teacher is often exhausted, too! Demands on
our time, from family and work and the gym
and paying bills and a million other things,
often eat into sleep time.
6 Tips for Arriving in the
Classroom Feeling Fresh:
Fix a time by which you know you
should be heading in the direction of bed,
and stick to it. Mine is 11.15pm. If Im still
up by then, I simply begin navigating my
body through the bedtime routine. Its like
anything else: once youve done it 40
times, it becomes second nature.
Turn off the screen. Research is now
incontrovertible with regard to the wakeful
effects of cellphone and TV screens. It can
take an hour before the stimulated cells
calm down again. Consider having a book
by your bed, and read for a few minutes
before sleep, instead of using your phone.
Set up your morning the night before. I
arrive, groggy and complaining, in my
kitchen each morning to find my breakfast
bowl, spoon and tea mug already set out,
the kettle filled and ready to boil, and my
lunch packed and in the fridge. Doing
these things in the half-asleep moments
after waking takes much longer than at
other times.
Consider some morning exercise,
meditation or yoga. 15 minutes of quiet
sitting has brought huge benefits to my
whole day, both at school and after hours,
leaving me with more energy, a less
reactionary attitude to problems, and more
compassion for my fellow humans. I cant
recommend it enough.
 I use an application which provides
bus times; I leave the house at the right
moment, so that Im not uselessly waiting
at the bus stop.
Plan your classes in weekly arcs, so
that there are fewer uncertainties about
todays classes. Fewer decisions to be
made means reduced stress and anxiety.
6 Warmer Techniques Youll Be
Using Every Day
1 Vocab Circle Start with a
random student and ask for a word
beginning with A, then circle around the
room, proceeding through the alphabet.
Choose one part of speech (noun, verb,
adjective, adverb) or lexical group (sports,
countries, colors, animals) and change
this each time you play the game. With my
advanced students, I also ask for only
polysyllabic answers, and if the answer is
of an intermediate level, I ask for
something more sophisticated. For
example, I recorded this classroom
moment, a warmer using adjectives:

OK, whats next? G?

Tea
che
r:

Stu Great!
den
t 1:

Thats nice, but lets go up a level. Wha

Tea
about... Gratifying?
che
r:

Stu Or... Gargantuan

den
t 1:

Tea Beautiful! Now, H?

che
r:

Stu Happy!
den
t 2:

(Gestures with a raising, flat palm)

Tea
che
r:

Stu Hilarious!
den
t 2:

Tea Much better! Whos got I?

che
r:
If a student gets stuck, classmates
can help, or the teacher can make
suggestions, e.g.:

Tea Next is M, right?

che
r:

Stu M... erm...

den
t:

How about that awesome adjective for a

Tea really big, beautiful mountain... or an
che impressive building?
r:
M... Magnificent?
Stu
den
t:

Tea Great job! OK, what shall we have for N

che
r:

2 Catch-up Students quickly

interview the people around them (in pairs,
or groups of 3-4) and discover whats
happened in their lives since the class last
met. This is a mixed listening and
speaking exercise; encourage students to
take notes, so that they dont forget details
such as the name of the town they visited,
or the store at which they got a great
bargain. Summarizing information they
just heard is also an important skill, so
guide students away from a formulaic
answer such as, Last night he went home
from school, then had dinner, then sent an
email to his father, then made dinner with
his friend, then... Help the student to use
time expressions and perfect forms, rather
than repetitive structures, e.g. Hed
already finished his homework before
dinner, so afterwards, he played video
 games for an hour.

3 Finish The Thought Write

the beginning of a sentence on the
whiteboard and ask students to complete
it. My favorites are:
Today Im happy about...
Today will be awesome because...
Today I want to learn about...
By the time we finish today, I want to
have... (learned, done, found,
improved...)
Yesterday, I wish I had...

4 I Went to Market... A
classic, fun memory exercise, this circle
game begins with the simple statement, I
went to market and bought a (noun). The
second student adds a noun: I went to
market and bought a plant and a bag of
flour. The third adds another, and so on.
By the end of the circle, the student will be
required to have memorized a dozen or
more nouns. This is also a terrific way to
practice measure expressions, e.g. a bag
of flour, a kilo of rice, a bunch of flowers, a
bottle of coke.

5 Stand Up, Breathe and

 Stretch A singer friend from the Royal
Opera House in London recommended
that every day should begin with the
students standing up, stretching (reaching
for the ceiling, turn left and right, touch
your toes) and taking a sequence of three
slow, deep breaths. Oxygenating the
brain, shaking off morning lethargy and
performing a simple act all together seems
a great way to begin!

6 Off The Grid One more

thing I always do is to make sure the
students cellphones are silent, in airplane
mode, or simply switched off, depending
on the class. Bringing focus to the present,
to their classmates and the days work, is
much easier without this distraction.
I hope you find these tips
helpful, and that your morning
classes get off to an energetic
and positive start!