Purpose: To practice vocabulary and past tense forms; both the simple past tense and the continuous past tense are naturally contextualized by this activity.

Preparation Time:  10 minutes or more, depending on how elaborate you want the activity to be

Materials:  taped sounds, if desired; items that make sounds (coins, keys, markers, erasers, spray, etc.), a list of

sounds that you can make yourself; visuals or realia to review vocabulary

Preparation: get the students ready to do the activity by reviewing vocabulary they will need and by reviewing the past tense forms; model several examples of the activity before you begin

Procedure:

1. The students close their eyes and rest their heads on their arms.
2. They then listen and try to recognize all the sounds they hear.  If some students contribute to the noises to be identified, that can be fun, but don’t let in get out of hand!
3. After a few minutes, students open their eyes and describe and discuss what they heard, first with a partner and then with the class as a whole. 

For example:  There was a car.  It was going fast.  Somebody dropped something.  I think it was a pencil.  The teacher laughed.  Then he opened a book and coughed.  A bird was singing outside, etc.

Variations:  Students can take turns making sounds while everyone else closes their eyes.  After each sound, ask the question: “What was Faduma doing?” or “What did Juan do?”