A grid of prompts, and a room full of children asking each other questions. Every child forms their own questions, speaks to a dozen classmates and writes down what they find. Print the sheet, model one exchange, and let them go.
Find Someone Who gives every child a grid of prompts — find someone who has a pet, find someone who can swim — and sends them round the room asking classmates until they can write a different name in each box. It is a mingle: everyone is speaking at once.
In a normal lesson a child might speak twice. In ten minutes of this they will ask and answer twenty questions, and they have to form the question themselves, because a prompt written as has a pet only works if they turn it into do you have a pet? That turn is the whole exercise.
Model one exchange first with a child at the front, including the question form. Set the rule that a name can only be used once, or confident children will fill the grid from their friend in four questions. Twelve boxes and ten minutes suits a class of thirty.
Year 2 to Year 6 (US grades 2–6), and it is just as useful with secondary language learners. Younger classes need fewer boxes — nine is plenty — and a question form on the board to point at while they work.
The reporting back is where the grammar lands. Ask children to tell you what they found in the third person: Amira has a pet. That means changing the verb from the form they have just been hearing all lesson, and doing it about a real person in the room, which they remember.
From the classroom
This is the activity most likely to go wrong on the first run, and it is always the same thing: children write their own name, or one friend's, in every box. The one-name-once rule fixes it, but only if you make it visible — hold up a grid and show that thirty boxes need thirty different people. Expect it to be loud, and expect a few children to stand still. Give those children the first prompt and a specific person to ask, and they usually go. Keep the classroom door shut and warn the class next door; that part is not a joke.
Generate them on any topic you type — holidays, food, this summer, the class book — so the mingle practises the language you are actually teaching. There is a ready-made set of general prompts if you want it running immediately.
Yes, and this one is really a printable activity — the board shows the grid so you can model it, but every child needs the sheet in their hand to walk around with. Print A4 with a name line under each prompt.
Give each child a small number of names they are allowed to collect from any one person — one is usual — and it stops confident pairs working through the grid together. It also helps to walk the quiet edge of the room rather than the middle, because that is where the children who have stopped are.
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| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| First week of term | Ready-made prompts, get children talking | 15 minutes |
| Question forms | Model the question, then mingle | 10 minutes |
| Topic language | Generate prompts on your unit | 10 minutes |
| Third-person verbs | Report back after the mingle | 10 minutes |
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Would You Rather · the describing game · Consequences — or see all nine in ESL & Oracy.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.