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Starters

Ten Questions

A lesson starter activity. A volunteer (either a student or class teacher) is given a slip of paper so they know 'what they are'. The rest of the class can ask up to a maximum of 10 questions to guess what they are. The volunteer can only answer 'yes' or 'no'

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Instructions

30 seconds

Lesson starter. Students are shown a number of terms for exactly 30 seconds. They need to memorise as many as possible. After 30 seconds, the terms are hidden and they need to write down as many terms as they can remember along with at least one fact about that term.

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3-2-1

Lesson starter. Display this on the whiteboard as students are walking through the door. They can work individually or in pairs to come up with the answers. Good for differentiation as all students should be able to get at least one of the six points.

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Compare and contrast

A starter activity in which students are given two items and asked to consider the differences and similarities between them

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Memorise this

Lesson starter. Students work in pairs or small groups to remember words which have been shown to them.

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Odd one out

Lesson starter. Students are shown a number of key terms.   They have to decide which of the terms is the ‘odd one out’ and give a reason for their choice

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What? Why? How?

Starter or plenary task. Students are asked three questions framed as “What?” “Why” and “How?”

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Draw me a picture

Starter or plenary. Students are given a selection of key terms and are asked to illustrate one of them in a diagram.

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Give me ten

A starter or plenary task. Students work in pairs before joining up with another pair to expand their list.

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Just a minute

Can be used either as a starter or a plenary task. Students are given a sheet to complete firstly on their own, then with a partner and then joining up with another pair

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One, two, three

Can be used either as a starter or a plenary task. Students are given a sheet to complete firstly on their own, then with a partner and then joining up with another pair

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Pass the buck

An excellent starter or plenary for involving all students and getting them to identify a large number of facts about the current topic

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Pick me

This provides a differentiated starter or plenary activity. Students are given a question and work in groups to come up with an answer.

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Post-it key terms

Starter or plenary. A good activity to encourage teamwork. Students compete in groups to identify as many key terms as possible.

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Teacher talkabout

Starter or plenary task. The class 'test' the teacher on their knowledge of key words related to this topic

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Three facts

A starter or plenary task in which students are asked to write down three facts that they can remember off the top of their heads about the topic.

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Pictionary

A starter or plenary task based on the popular game Pictionary

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Plenaries

Taboo

A plenary activity. This task follows the traditional Taboo game. Students work in teams with one student from each team having their back to the board. A word is displayed on the board and teams take it in turns to describe the word to the student without actually mentioning the word itself.

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Talk about

A plenary task. Students work in pairs with one student talking about the topic and the other monitoring how many of the displayed key words they mention.

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Call My Bluff

A plenary activity based on the popular game show, ‘Call My Bluff’

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Mastermind

A plenary activity which is loosely based on the game show 'Mastermind'

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One word

A plenary task. Students have to sum up today's lesson in just one sentence. They must include a given word within that sentence.

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Teach me about

Lesson plenary. Students become the teacher! One student is tasked with preparing a five minute revision starter about this topic for the beginning of the following lesson.

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Word building

Plenary task. Students work in groups to construct a sentence about today’s lesson

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4-4-2

A plenary activity where students are asked to summarise the lesson and pick out the main key words related to the topic.

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Lucky dip questions

Starter or plenary task. Every student is given a number at the start of the activity. This is used to help pick who will ask and answer questions about what has been learned during the lesson.

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