Saturday, 22 March 2014

What's good about teaching on your birthday?

This is what's good about teaching on your birthday.


A few of the students were late coming back from the mid-lesson break and I was ready to lecture them on timekeeping. Then they came back with this completely adorable personalised cake.


All is forgiven, late students.

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

British Royal Family Tree (free printable worksheet)

This is a printable standalone worksheet that contains all the information learners need to complete the British Royal Family tree.


Lead in with pictures of members of the British Royal Family, eliciting their names and relationships to one another, and then hand out the worksheet. Students can complete it individually or in pairs.

Follow up with a quiz to revise family words, for example: Who is Prince Harry's aunt? Who is Prince Philip's mother-in-law?

(Links open in Google docs, no sign-in required, you can then download, save, and print as required.)

Thursday, 6 March 2014

No, not, neither, none: revision for intermediate ESL students (free printable worksheet)

By special request from my students I made a revision sheet for no, not, neither, and none.


No, not, neither, none

No means “not any” and is used before nouns.

There is no water on the Moon.
I can’t write.  I have no pencil.
Snakes have no legs.


None means “not one” of a group of things, or “not one part” of a whole thing.

It is a pronoun which can be the subject or object of a sentence.

None of the mangoes looked good enough to eat.
None of the bread was eaten / We ate none of the bread.

It can also be used as a short answer.

Q. How many bananas are left?  A. None.


Neither means “not one” of two things.

I had two projects, but I completed neither of them.
Neither of my parents wear glasses.


Not makes a verb negative.

I do not like dogs.
I have not been to China.
There aren’t any students in the classroom.



My breakfast disaster
Fill the gaps with no, not, none, or neither

      One day I got out of bed and went into the kitchen to make breakfast.  I had (1) ____ slept very well, so I wanted to make coffee first.  But when I looked in the cupboard, there was (2) ____ coffee left!  Then I looked for tea, but there was (3) ____ of that either.  So I opened the fridge to look for something to drink, and guess what?  There was (4) _____ milk and (5) _____ juice.  There was (6) ____ even any water.  There were two bananas left, but (7) ______ of them looked good enough to eat.  Who had eaten everything in my fridge?  It was (8) _____ me!  Getting annoyed, I went to the shop near my house but (9) ____ of the staff were there.  Finally I went to a cafĂ© and ordered banana pancakes and coffee, with (10) ____ milk and (11) ____ sugar, just the way I like it.  Later I told my friends about my terrible morning but (12) ____ of them were interested.


Link opens in Google documents and you can then download, print or save as required