ESL greetings warm up is quite helpful not only to discipline a class, also to help any ESL and EFL student’s mind to be set for an English class. The warm ups could be quick and as simple as just greetings. But let’s see how we can make common “Hello” into a funny ESL greetings warm up.
An easy way to do is to sing a hello song. One example of such song is Hello Hello How Are You. It is simple and easy to understand for kids. The list below is other popular hello songs suitable for ESL greetings warm up:
Or create your own rhyme and melody for saying “good morning” “good afternoon ” goodnight” or any other ESL greetings vocabulary.
Apart from singing, try varying the greetings with a substitution (saying “Good morning cow” etc instead of “Good morning teacher” to flashcard cues).
Also try the greetings with specific adjective. Instruct the ESL kids how to give the greetings (“Good! Now one more time, but slower/ faster/ louder/ quieter/ sadly/ angrily/ deeper/ higher/ three times in a row quickly”), Also try to catch them out with the cue to start the greeting (“Wait. Wait. Wait. Now!” or “Reeeeeady. Steeeeady. Steeeeeady. Go!”),
Kids love correcting the teacher so give them such opportunity by saying the greetings wrong (“Happy Birthday!” “No!” “Good night!” “No!” “Good morning class” “Yes! Good morning class, good morning teacher”).
ESL greetings warm up is suitable for kids under 12 years old. Teachers do not necessarily need to follow exact routines every day. It would be more effective if being creative in movements and the words and change the routines time to time.
No matter large or small, the whole class is engaged during any ESL greetings warm up
For more warm ups and ice breakers have look at our recent activities on Warm ups/Ice breaker page