Icebreakers

Snowball Fight

a Write three facts about yourself on a sticky note or a small piece of paper.

b Crumble up the note so it looks like a small snowball. Have a “snowball fight” with your classmates for about one minute. After the minute has passed, everyone grabs a “snowball” from the floor and tries to find out who has written the facts on that sticky note. Walk around the classroom and ask questions to find out who the snowball belongs to.

Example: If the snowball says: I play football, you will ask: Do you play football? If the person answers “No” to the first question, you find a new person to ask. If the person answers “Yes”, you ask about the next fact on the snowball.

c When you have found your partner, join him or her and help find the person on their snowball. Continue until everyone in the class has been matched with their “snowball”.

Guess The Celebrity

This game is played in groups of three or four.

a Each player in the group writes the names of two or three famous people on sticky notes without showing what they write to anyone. (If you do not have sticky notes, you can use small pieces of paper and tape.)

b Then, each player gets a sticky note stuck to their forehead with the name of a famous person. The player must guess the name of the person on their own forehead by asking their group members “yes” or “no” questions. It can be questions such as: Am I a female? Am I a historical figure? Am I currently alive? If the answer to your question is “Yes”, you get to ask another question. If the answer is “No”, it is the next person’s turn to ask questions and try to guess the name on their own forehead.

The first player to guess the identity of their mystery person is the winner! Everyone else can keep playing for second and third place, or you can start a whole new round with completely different mystery people.

Three Truths And A Lie

In groups of four, you are going to take turns playing detectives and suspects. (For help on speaking strategies, see p. 10.)

a First, each of you must come up with four statements about yourself; they can be experiences, likes/dislikes, skills, interests, wishes, etc. Three must be true statements, and one must be a lie. Do not make your lie too obviously impossible nor your truths too easy to guess.

b In each round, three of you will be detectives and one of you the suspect. The detectives must interrogate the suspect and the suspec t must defend the statements. For example: “You say you are left-handed –can you write a sentence with your left hand to prove it?” or “When did you go on holiday to Timbuktu?”

– “It was at Christmas last year.” c Each detective then chooses which statement they think is the lie. Those detectives who guess the correct statement get a point. The suspect gets one point for each detective that guesses wrongly. Then change roles.

Get To Know The Website

In addition to this book, the website at citizens.cdu.no will be a valuable learning tool for you this school year. In pairs or small groups, see who can be the quickest to find: vocabulary tasks for the text “Communication Skills at Work” the audio file for the text “Discussing the Future” an EXPLORE learning path about small talk a GRAMMAR lesson on prepositions three Norwegian translations of the English word waffle three English translations of the Norwegian word magasin

Football players like Erling Braut Haaland and Julian Alvarez of Manchester City often use English regardless of first language. This is an example of English being used as a lingua franca.

Instructions are often written in English.

Warning signs and texts are often in English.

Reflect

a Do you have a clear idea of what kind of job you want? If so, what job is it?

b What options are open to you after this year at school?

c Do you think English will be important for you in the future? Why, or why not?