All hands on deck, kids

Introduction:

This is an activity to introduce and practise transport idioms. Students complete the idioms with the missing words, match the idioms to their definitions, do a few vocabulary games and later interview their classmates.

Level: B2+

Time: 60 minutes

Objectives:

To present students with transport idioms.
To complete the idioms in Exercise 1 with the missing transport words.
To match the idioms to their definitions.
To answer questions containing the target vocabulary in pairs or small groups.

Materials:

All hands on deck, kids Worksheet, one per student.

Procedure:

Ask students to briefly discuss their favourite/ least favourite means of transport.
Hand out a copy of All hands on deck, kids Worksheet and ask students to individually complete the idioms in Exercise 1 with the missing transport words. There are two extra words to make the activity slightly more challenging.
When the students have finished, ask them to compare in small groups and then check together as a class.
Next students match the idioms to their definitions on the right. When the students have finished, ask them to compare in small groups again and then check together as a class.
Clarify meaning if necessary.
Divide the students in small groups (2 or 3 students in each group).
One student from each group draws one of the expressions on the board and the players from the other teams try to guess what the expression is. Each team only has two opportunities to guess. Ensure ALL the students have had an opportunity to draw an idiom (you might have to do 2 or 3 rounds depending on the number of students on each team). Each team receives 1 point for a correctly identified expression.
Next, the students take it in turns to act out the expressions silently, with the players from other teams trying to guess the idiom.
Then, the students describe the expressions using THREE WORDS only (thank you Alex) but must not use any of the words that are in the expressions.
Finally, in their teams of two or three, ask the students to complete the idioms in Exercise 2. Tell them to fold the paper so they do the exercise from memory. I gave one point to the team who finished first and one point to the team who completed all the idioms correctly.
When the students have finished, ask them to discuss the questions 1-12, Exercise 2 in pairs.