Activities on the lesson

I took this beautiful and sad season as an idea for several activities. There are certain things to discuss about autumn: weather, wardrobe, changes in our routines, activities to do in bad weather and, at last, fruits and vegetables which make this season not only colourful but delicious as well.

1. AUTUMN WEATHER.

For children. When I was a child I was a hideous painter, so art lessons were obviously not my favourite. But one day I suddenly became the best, outshining those students who could really paint. The success came to me with a collage called "Autumn leaves" (leaves cut out from coloured paper and glued to a sheet of paper).

Why not make such a collage with your students? It will help to train vocabulary on colours and numbers, and to learn There is/There are (e.g. There are 2 red leaves in my picture. There is one brown leaf in it.)

For teens. Work on word order and revise numbers and names of countries by handing out a map, where, near each country, there is the temperature for today given, and asking them to report the weather. It may be done as a number dictation (e.g. In Italy it's plus fifteen.) 

For adults. Ask your adult students to complete the weather forecast for Fall 2013. They will revisePast Simple (talking about September), Present Continuous (talking about the current period of time) and be going to/will (talking about November).

2. AUTUMN WARDROBE.

For children. Pre-teach the clothes-vocabulary and ask students to dress a paper doll. At the end of October you may tell them about Halloween and dress their dolls in more unusual outfits :-)

For teens. Fashion-fashion-fashion. Instagram and Facebook have become the ways to choose what you like and find fashionable clothes independently, street fashion is probably the biggest interest for young people, so suggest them to complete an autumn look for each other while revising ways of giving recommendations and possessive nouns. (e.g. Why don't you wear Angelina's shoes? You should try on Vanessa's sweatshirt.)

 For adults. Write the following categories on the board: Clothes. Shoes. Accessories. Colours. Fabrics. Let them prepare a questionnaire for each other of 8-12 questions on Autumn Wardrobe. After interviewing each other they may write a short article for a fashion blog (or bulletin board).

3. AUTUMN ROUTINES. 

For children. Daily life changes greatly when the summer is over, doesn't it? Suggest students to prepare two timetables: What I usually do in summer vs What I usually do in autumn. Practise vocabulary and Present Simple. (e.g. In summer I get up at 10, but in autumn I get up at 7.) You may use any cartoon characters to describe their routines to make the activity more fun.

For teens. Let your students analyze what things people in their country stop and start doing when autumn begins while practising the use of gerunds (e.g. People stop going to the river bank and start swimming in the pool). 

For adults. Autumn is always connected with moods, depressions and the vitality issue. Practise should and shouldn't and imperative mood while sharing advice on how to feel cheerful and energetic in autumn (you may as well discuss such methods as colour or music therapy).

4.  WHERE TO GO IN SUCH NASTY WEATHER?

For children. Pre-teach or revise verbs of activity, games and others connected with leisure. Ask students what they can and cannot do outside in autumn. Or could do only in summer, and can do now, in autumn(I can play football in the gym, I cannot play it in the yard).

For teens. Revise be going to and be planning to and ask students to plan a day/night out. Give them a plan (what to buy, who to invite, what to do, how to decorate). It may be whatever they like (a sports event or a Halloween party, going to the cinema or cooking sushi together at home). Ask them to make presentations of their activities.

For adults. Ask them how they spend free time in autumn when, compared to summer, you do not get a lot of pleasure from just going for a long walk,  and suggest creating a chart of 10 most interesting places in your town to go out (ask them to include a short description, atmosphere, possible activities). At a lower stage you can just ask them to name the address and working hours.

5. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

For children. Autumn is a bright and beautiful season. There is no way you forget to speak about its harvest, especially with children. Pre-teach any unknown vocabulary. Cut out baskets and different fruits and vegetables (not only autumn) out of coloured paper and let them "fill in" the baskets with only autumn items. You may organise it as the very first activity from this post, or as a going-shopping role play (revising numders and questions with How much)

For teens. Revise/ pre-teach the names of fruits and vegetables. And ask them to create a recipe of a vitamin smoothie. Let them invent something unusual or add there any ingredients they like (if possible, it would be cool to make these smoothies together).

For adults. Ratatouille! The most autumn dish. Write its name on the board and show them a photo of this dish (or cook it beforehand and give them to taste) and ask to try and reproduce the recipe. Check the ideas and tell the real recipe or show the video of cookingDisney's Ratatouille(ask students to add steps and missed ingredients into their variant).

Those were my activities for autumn. Hope you will use them. And thanks for reading this.