Archived from Englipedia.
Originally submitted by Raymond Corrigan on Feb 18, 2010.
Materials Needed
- For small classes only (12 or less), make 12 slips of paper with birthdays written on them, or for more fun make pictures of famous people with their birthdays written on the back of each picture.
Detailed Explanation
- After practicing "When is your birthday?" and "My birthday is (month) (day).", demonstrate the activity with the HRT.
- Once the students understand the rules, have the students interview each other about their birthdays and line up in order, from the earliest birthday (January 1st) to the latest (December 31st).
- After students seem happy with their positions have the whole class ask the first student in line, "When is your birthday?". After the first student answers move onto the second, third etc...
Variations
- In small class sizes, students may know everyone else's birthday. If this seems likely, print out pictures of famous people and write their birthdays on the back of the pictures. Students become these famous people for the activity.
- In big class sizes, divide the class into teams and give each team a wall to line up on.
Teaching Suggestions
An easy way to describe this activity in English is for the ALT/HRT to have the following conversation.
- ALT: "My birthday is January 1st, I stand here." (standing at the start of the line)
- JTE: "My birthday is December 31st, I stand here." (standing at the end of the line)
- ALT: "Please make a line from from January 1st to December 31st." (pointing)