OBJECTIVES:
To get students to discuss how they spend their time outside school hours
To increase students’ vocabulary related to time and revise what they already know.
To help students organise their time outside school hours.
STUDENT LINGUISTIC LEVEL: A2 – B2
TIMING: 20 minutes + 5 minutes for feedback (3 separate lessons or 50 minutes for all 3)
STEPS:
1) Bring in a clock to the classroom.
Ask the students to tell you the time.
Brainstorm words related to time. Example answers: second, minute, seasons, century, millennium, hour, a quarter, half past, …
Use the following worksheet to put the words into order according to how long each one lasts. (worksheet 1)
2) Brainstorm collocations of verbs that go with ‘time’. Worksheet 2 has the most common ones.
3) Ask your students how long they spend each day doing the following activities:
a)preparing themselves to come to school including dressing, having breakfast and travelling to school;
b) studying outside school hours;
c) doing activities for themselves, free time activities;
d) sleeping.
Put the information onto a pie chart.
Compare the information with each other. Then complete and discuss Worksheet 3.
Extras: There are several songs you can use that talk about using time and the passing of time such as The Birds “Turn, Turn, Turn” (Watch the video), Youssou n’Dour’s and Neneh Cherry’s “7 Seconds” (Watch the video), Bill Haley and His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” (Watch the video) and Pink Floyd’s “Time” (Watch the video). Use them as poems, gap-fills or just to pass time, as songs.
Give your students the poem “Leisure” by William Henry Davies. You will find it below. Discuss it together.
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
[W. H. Davies]
DOWNLOADABLE WORKSHEETS
ANSWERS
Worksheet 1
jiffy, shake, second, hectosecond, minute, moment, hour, day, weekend, week, fortnight, month, semester, year, leap year, decade, century, millennium, era, galactic year, eon, yottasecond.
Worksheet 2
1m, 2i, 3l, 4a, 5j, 6k, 7b, 8e, 9g, 10f, 11d, 12h, 15c