Match Making; a warm up for kids, teens & adults

Whether you teach kids, teens, or adults, a warm up (or warmer) is an essential activity to set the class for an English lesson and get the best out of ESL students. A warm up activity must not be difficult or includes lots of new vocabularies, but mostly focuses on the ones that students are familiar with. That’s why in this post we will explain one of the simple but fun warmer to play with any age or level.

How to WARM UP?

There are different ways to do today’s ESL warm up which we need to prepare differently. Basically, we prepare two sets of flashcards one set could be pictures or words and the other set could be their pair picture or word, synonyms, acronym or antonym.

During the class, give out cards from both sets randomly. Then have students stand at the same time and look for their pair. Make sure what they must look into when they are finding the other one. It could be the synonyms, another similar picture or etc.

Usually for kids teachers can use simple cards or synonyms. Even some easy antonym would be fun such as “happy, sad”. But for teens and adults make sure it is challenging enough so that they look around a bit longer.

Class size

Match Making is suitable for every class size. However, more students mean more flashcards are required to be prepared.

Student’s age

I love this ESL warmer not only because of simplicity but also it is possible to play with everyone no matter they are kids, teens or adults.

Don’t forget there are more games in our ESL Warm Up archive not only for kids but also adults and teens