Warmers, Fillers and Coolers
Warmers, fillers and coolers are short ESL activities that help an English class run more smoothly. They can also provide interesting practice for students.
A warmer is simply a short activity at the beginning of class to help warm up or relax students. They’re also useful for giving a quick review of the language you’ve taught. And if you have students arriving late, it means they don’t miss any new language you’re teaching.
Many of these are useful in the first week of term when you’re getting to know your students’ names.
Fillers are short activities you may want to add between other activities. Not essential, but they can give a change of pace.
Finally, coolers are short activities to end the class with. I find them useful in three ways.
- They give you flexibility. If you have four or five minutes left, they give you something interesting to do
- They’re a good way to review language items
- They allow students to leave the class feeling motivated to continue learning
Here are some ideas.
Name Chains
A simple way of remembering the students’ names in a new class (of up to around 12 students). I would begin: "I'm Mark." The first student would then say "Mark, I'm Nora." The student next to her says: "Mark, Nora. I'm Albert."This continues in a circle around the class. Higher level students could say: “I'm Vicky. I'm from Hong Kong. Or they could add an adjective beginning with the same sound as their name. "Able Albert, valuable Vicky, I'm intelligent Isabel.."
Finding Things in Common
This is good for classes where the students don't yet know each other very well. Put the students in pairs and ask them to find 5 things in common. Exclude obvious facts, like being in the same English class or from the same city. After a few minutes, they can report back to the rest of the class. It's best to have the students introduce their partner. This can bring the class together more and helps shy students feel less self-conscious.
Find someone who...
You can do this with a photocopied sheet with a list of experiences: eaten a frog, been abroad, speaks 3 or more languages, and more. Check the students can form the necessary questions. If the class is at a more elementary level, you could write the questions out.
Then have the students stand up and mingle, asking the questions, and writing the names of students who answer positively. After most students have finished the activity, ask for feedback.
“Who found someone who can make a pizza?” for example.
Guess the city (town, country)
A student in the class describes their city (or any city). The other students have to guess using yes/no questions. This filler can help students from different areas/countries get to know each other better.
Lies
A good beginning of the term warmer where students introduce themselves to the class, but their introduction must include 3 lies. The other students must guess the lies.
Word association
The first student says a word, then go around the class—each student must add a word they associate with the previous one.
Mini role-plays
A useful warmer or filler. Adapt the roles to the language points you are teaching, review functional language, or just have fun.
Find the connections between words
Give the students a set of words, e.g. river, Mars, cat. In pairs, the students find connections.
Train Compartment
Tell the students to imagine that they are traveling in a train compartment together. They are to begin a conversation together. Give each student a sentence. They must use it without the others noticing. At the end, they can try to guess the other students’ sentences.
This activity can be used as a filler (once the class is familiar with it), but it's also great as a discussion activity. It can be done fairly quickly if simple sentences are used, but it can also lead to around 20 minutes of fluency work in a conversation class.
Meal Mime
A student stands at the front of the class and mimes what they ate for dinner, lunch or breakfast. The other students have to guess what they ate.
Super Hangman
Like ordinary hangman, except that words are used instead of letters. You can tell the students if they are 'warm' if you wish, or if the word they choose is close in length to the correct word. Hangman can make a good end of class cooler.
One of the Best Tips I Received As a New Teacher
Plan two or three fillers to keep in reserve in case you get through your materials faster than you think, which is quite common for new teachers.
ESL/ELT/MYP/ CELTA ,TESOL , TOT , CTBE , IGCSE
3yThank you for such a great article; it’s very helpful.