What’s Your Favorite? ESL Activity
One of my biggest pieces of advice for new teachers is to have a few simple activities to fill up the last few minutes of class time. All throughout my first year of teaching, I struggled with the timing of my lessons. Somehow, I always ended up with five minutes left before the bell rang, with nothing to do.
Now, I have a collection of activities I can pull out of my hat if I need to fill the last few minutes of class. You can also use this for a warm-up too!
The idea is simple:
Divide students up into groups of about four.
Have one student ask, “What’s your favorite _______?” and fill in the blank with a category of their choosing.
Each of the other students in the group will answer the question one by one.
Have another student ask, “What’s your favorite______?” and choose another category.
You could do this for two minutes or five minutes, but you might be surprised with how creative students could get with this question. For lower-level students, they usually get excited to talk about so many different topics in such a short amount of time.
Tips:
You might have to give students a few examples, to help get them started.
Or, instead of having students choose their own categories, you could supply the categories for them.
If you want, this could be a fun warm-up activity at the beginning of each class as well. Students could easily get into a routine, knowing that you are going to ask them a “What’s your favorite?” question at the beginning of each class. Not only will students start each class speaking English, but it’s also an easy activity for you to think of each class!
Example Questions:
What’s your favorite movie?
What’s your favorite song?
What’s your favorite color?
What’s your favorite food?
What’s your favorite smell?
What’s your favorite thing to drink?
What’s your favorite time of day?
What’s your favorite restaurant?
What’s your favorite hairstyle?
What’s your favorite season?
What’s your favorite class?
What’s your favorite TV show?
What’s your favorite sport?
What’s your favorite animal?
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
What’s your favorite cartoon?
What’s your favorite candy?
Who’s your favorite actor?
What’s your favorite pizza topping?
Who’s your favorite superhero?
What’s your favorite type of dog?
What’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
What’s your favorite video game?
What’s your favorite age?
What’s your favorite clothing brand?
What’s your favorite hair color?
Who’s your favorite person to watch online?
What’s your favorite place to go to at school?
What’s your favorite way to relax?