Students may find it difficult to pronounce dates easily and clearly. Try this milling activity to get everyone confident and fluent at saying dates.
Aim
To practise saying dates correctly and fluently.
You need
Nothing.
Procedure
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First, revise the months of year and ordinal numbers, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. You can do this by drawing a calendar of the month on the board. Drilling helps to distinguish between confusing or difficult to say numbers like fifth, eighth etc. |
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Make sure students can ask the question 'When's your birthday?' Tell students to go around the class and find out when other students' birthdays are. Students must arrange themselves in a line in order of their birthdays from January to December.
In order for the class to successfully complete the activity, each student must ask and answer the question many times before everyone is in the correct position in the line. So they should be having conversations like this:
A: 'When's your birthday?'
B: 'The sixth of June.'
A: 'Well you go here, after Maria, because hers is the 26th of May.'
B: 'But mine is the 30th of May, so I go in front of you.' |
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When students have finished, check they have got it right by asking each student in the line to say their name and birthday. |
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The sentences can be as long or as short as the students choose. If a student cannot remember what was said, or gets it wrong, he or she is 'out'. (It is generally quite a good idea to be strict about accuracy - otherwise the game can take too long.) |
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The winner is the last remaining student. |
Extension
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Teach the American way of saying dates, with the month first, e.g. 'July fourth'. |
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| 2. |
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Ask students to name some national holidays in their country. What dates are they? Ask them to find out which national holidays are the same in other countries. |
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Ask students to write down two important dates in their life. Then ask them to tell another student or the class why they are special. |
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Talking about dates