A calendar with lots of activities (4 seasons) to practise speaking/writing

Here are some ideas on how to use this calendar:

1. As you can see, each month has three identical weeks and one different, which can be used for practising Present Simple/Continuous (e.g. I usually go to the swimming pool on Friday, but today I'm going to the skating rink.), Present Perfect (e.g. I have been to the cinema three times this month.), Past Simple/Continuous ( e.g. I called you yesterday but you weren't at home. - Oh yes, I was having a karate lesson then.)
2. Practise saying the date, review days of the week
3. Learn/review lots of action verbs/places
4. Practise using "going to", "have to", "must"
5. Revise the prepositions of place and time (in February, in winter, on Monday, on the 1st of August, at the weekend, at the beginning/end/in the middle of the month/week, at the cinema, to the theatre)
   

The calendar is editable, so you can change anything you want once you download it.

Day Chart and Past Simple Practice

   I give this chart to my students and they have to fill it in every (other) day. There is an example in the first row.  In each lesson we talk about the  days we haven't seen each other. It's a good way to practise the Past Simple tense. 
  First they make affirmative sentences about each item in their chart. Then I make some false statements and they have to correct them (using negative sentences). Then they check how well I remember the information just provided by asking me questions.
    They can do this in pairs. The chart can be used for practising the Present Simple tense as well. For example, On Mondays we usually have six lessons, but yesterday we had only four.

Just Me And My Dad - Part 1 - video,activities and transcript

You can show your students this funny video and use the worksheet  as a follow-up (matching, true/false, completing sentences with the new words, present/past simple, asking questions and making negatives in Past Simple). My students liked the video a lot and I'm sure yours will, too :-)

Muzzy Comes Back 6

The worksheet is available here.

There was/There were - Speaking Practice

I'd like to share with you how I teach the past form of the verb to be to my elementary students. I have decided to call the game for practising there was/were "The Thief and the Detective". It's been made for my private students but you can adapt it for a big class, too.
    The Positive Form 
Put 7-10 different items onto the table. There should be single (e.g. 1 car) and grouped items (e.g. 2-3 dolls) in order to practise the singular and the plural forms. The detective turns away/goes out and the thief "steals" some of the items from the table. The detective comes back and says what is missing (e.g. There were 2 cups, and now there is only one"). If he's right the thief puts that item back.
   The Negative Form
Put the same items onto the table, but this time the thief has a bag with "his own" stuff, too. He steals some things from the table and puts some of his instead. The detective must say what there was on the table and what there wasn't (e.g. There wasn't a red car here, but there was a yellow cup.)
   Questions and Short Answers
Write down the names of any 5 items that are on the table and keep your list a secret. Ask your partner questions to find out what there was in his room (e.g. Was there a doll in your room? - Yes, there was.) The first one to guess all the items from his partner's list is the winner.

   Prepositions of Place
You can practise the prepositions of place with this game. While your partner isn't looking, change the location of the things on the table/ in the room. He must say where everything was.