I’m not sure if 5-minute activities really exist. They always seem to take 10-15 minutes. But that’s okay. What’s important for teachers is to have a lot of short EASY activities that they can do at any time and without preparation.

So here are 2 short filler activities:

1. First-Letter/Last-Letter Word Game
(from Albina Krasnova, International Marketing Institute, Samara, Russia)

STEPS:
1. Think of a word, give the first letter, and discribe the word
2. Other students guess the word.

Example: “Starts with letter E. This is something that hens give.” (Egg)

3. Whoever guesses the word thinks of a word that starts with the LAST letter.

Example: “Starts with G. This is an animal with a long neck.” (Giraffe)

Very simple. As Albina writes, “We play this during long journeys. Our daughter Katia (she is 9) has improved her speaking skills tremendously through this
game.”

2. Quick Song Translation and Guessing Game (from I.M. Poosheesty, Editor)

STEPS:
1. Ask students to translate into English the first 2 lines of a well-known song from THEIR OWN country. That is, they take the first two lines of a song in their
own language, and WRITE those lines in English.

2. Each student reads out loud his/her translation. The rest of the class identifies the song, probably in the native language. (They might often burst into singing too).

Again, a simple activity, but students use a variety of skills.

Note that this will not work in multinational classrooms, since there won’t be a common archive of songs.

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Word Origins: “Freshman” and “Sophomore”
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A FRESHMAN is a first-year student, either in an American high
school or an American university. You can guess the origin: a first-year student
is “fresh” to the institution.

A SOPHOMORE [SAHF-more] is a second-year student. This comes from two Greek words, “sophos” meaning “wise,” and “moros” meaning “foolish.” Well, a second-year student has a bit of experience, but not enough–thus, he’s a “wise fool.”

The adjective “sophomoric” [sahf-MOR-ick] means “immature.”

By the way, a third-year student is a JUNIOR, and a fourth-year is a SENIOR.

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What’s Happening
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This is the last “ETs in Russia” edition to be posted from the USA. The next issue will come from Vladivostok, Russia.

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In the next issue (@September 21, 2003)
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More 5-minute activities from around the world!