miming the day

Activity type: this is a mime activity in which students and the teacher mime habitual actions in order to teach the present simple.

Level: Beginner

Teacher's notes:

Arrange the students so that they are sitting in a semi-circle around you. Begin by miming the morning activities i.e. getting up, getting out of bed, having a shower, brushing your teeth and eating breakfast.
Repeat the mimes. If the students are relaxed enough, prompt them to mime along with you.
Once you have done this a few times, begin to say the verbs along with the mimes i.e. mime getting up and say ‘get up’
Once you have repeated the verbs sufficiently, prompt the students to repeat the verbs also.
Repeat as many times as necessary and follow this with sufficient choral drilling.
Then point to the clock in the classroom or your watch; write on the board 7 am. Point to yourself and establish the meaning of ‘I’ and then say ‘I wake up at 7 am.’(Mime as you are doing this).
Prompt the students to repeat after you. Write in the board 7.15 am and say ‘I shower at 7.15.’ Repeat and drill chorally. Go through all of the times below.

7 am - I wake up
7.15 - I get up
7.15 - I shower
7.30 - I eat breakfast
7.45 - I brush my hair and I brush my teeth
8 am - I go to work
Once you have gone through all of these, put the students into pairs and demonstrate that they should mime to each other i.e. one partner will mime and the other will repeat the sentences.
Swap pairs and ask the students to repeat the above activity; monitor and correct as much as possible.
Once they have done this, draw the timeline on the board to establish the meaning of ‘every day’ or habitual.

++++++++++++++++NOW++++++++++++++++++>>>
Express through gestures, as much as possible, the meaning of ‘every day.’
Add to the sentences: ‘I get up at 7 am every day.’ Repeat the above procedure.
Then add the question form: ‘What time do you…?’ Begin by drawing a question mark on the board. Write a complete sentence on the board opposite the question mark to indicate that it is a response i.e.? I get up at 7 am.
Drill the question form sufficiently. In order to generate the various verbs, mime an activity which should prompt the students to add that verb into the question form.
Once you feel confident that the students are comfortable with the question form, put the students into pairs and make one student the person that asks questions and the other the student the one who answers.
After a few minutes swap the pairs over. Then ask the student to stand up and mingle asking and answering each other.
Follow up by asking the students to complete the gap-fill below; note that the first letters of the verbs are already written onto the sheet and so students should match the spelling of the verbs to the gaps and add the times.