Running out of material?

"I keep running out of things to do. I can't finish the class early but I don't know how to fill the time."

Generally it's best to have an 'extra' task planned that relates to the language or topic of your lesson. But you also need to learn a selection of short activities or 'fillers' that you can use at the end of any lesson. Keep a notebook in which you write down activity ideas that you come across. You can then quickly flick through your book if you need to! Here are some to start with….

Vocabulary
 It's easy to use the time to recycle vocabulary that you've taught. Keep a list of words (maybe in a small book) for every class that you teach. Add to it every lesson and make sure that you always take it to class with you. Then if you have a spare ten minutes you can recycle vocabulary using games like 'Backs to the Board', 'Miming', 'Pictionary', 'Hangman' or Bingo. See our activities page for details.

http://pe8119.wix.com/ttv-teaching-blog#!Vocabulary/c11zy

Another easy activity is 'Brainstorming words'. Give students a topic that you studied a week or more before. Put them in small groups. Allow a few minutes to think of as many words as they can remember that they learned on that topic. Elicit the words from the team that listed the most. Do this on a regular basis and give points to winning teams.


Speaking
If you have taught a topic-based lesson (i.e. about sport, hobbies, the environment, music, animals etc) then have 3-5 questions that students can discuss at the end if you have time. You can write the questions on the board and ask students to talk in pairs or groups. For the topic 'sport' you could ask:
'What sports do you play?', 'Can you swim?,  'Do you like soccer?'.

You can also write these questions on to small cards and keep them in a 'speaking box' in class. With a big class you can make multiple copies of the same question. After a few lessons you will have lots of questions on different topics. If you have some time you can ask students to dip into the box and pull out a question to talk to a partner /or the teacher about.