
This activity is designed for the first lesson back after Summer Vacation, but can easily be adapted for other holidays or breaks. It's a slightly more specific version of the "Find Someone Who" game where students have to stand up and interview other people looking for people who have done the exercises in question.


Start with a warm-up where the class discuss what they did during their Summer vacations in pairs or small groups. This activates schemata and gets the class thinking about speaking in past-tense in English.


When the class are sufficiently warmed-up, give them the handout and tell them to write some "Find Someone Who" statements in the first column. Remind them they should be using third person subjects (his/ her/ their) and to write in past simple tense. These statements can be general (-returned to their hometown) or specific (-went to the London History museum with a friend from their home country). Remind the class that since they're going around trying to fill out their sheet, more general questions are easier to get answers for.


Next give the class a few minutes to write in some follow-up questions. I'd remind students that follow-up questions need to be related to the question they've asked. I'd also  recommend encouraging students to use a different question word  for each follow-up question to ensure they revise a wider range of question types and don't fall into just having "Who did you go with?". If your class are REALLY tired, you can let them use the same question word.


Before you have them play the game, I would revise the basics of Find Someone Who. The basic rules are that they need to find someone who has done each of the things in the far left column. Go over the question structure; they shouldn't be saying "Went to Kumamoto" they should be asking "Did you go to Kumamoto,". Also make sure that they should only write down a name if the person says "yes". They can't add someone's name if they say "no" and must find another person. It's recommended that you make a rule that they can't have the same name twice to encourage them to go around and talk more people.


Once you've done that, set them loose! The class should stand up and move around the question asking and answering questions. The exercise is designed to take about 30 minutes, and act as a longer, slower lead-in to classes after a Summer holiday. I'd recommend monitoring the class to make sure their grammar is correct.

find-someone-who-summer-vacation-edition-activate-schemata-for-that-first-day-after-summer-holidays_164721.docx

Find Someone Who (Summer Vacation Edition!) - Activate Schemata for that first day after Summer Holidays

find-someone-who-summer-vacation-edition-activate-schemata-for-that-first-day-after-summer-holidays

Let's do English ESL sentence transformation, rephrasing. 
This activity is designed for the first lesson back after Summer Vacation, but can easily be adapted…