Ideas for using the ‘places around town’ pictures

To practise specific areas of language

Present continuous
To drill ‘Where are you going?’
This is a mingling activity where each learner has a picture and walks around the classroom asking each other ‘where are you going?’ Follow up with learners in pairs trying to remember where everyone else is going. Could use as a lead in to past cont: ‘I met Halimo. She was going to Pond’s Forge.’

Present simple / daily or weekly routines
To elicit daily / weekly routines
Under the general question of ‘a typical week’ show the pictures in turn and elicit sentences from the learners like ‘I never go to the bus station / I go to the bus station every day / I go to the bus station every Saturday / Sometimes I go to the bus station…’ which are true for their own lives. With multiple pictures, learners can take and hold in front of them the pictures that are relevant to their lives, and in pairs describe the day-to-day life of the other learners in the group, from looking at the pictures. This can be a nice lead-in to a more sustained conversation about daily lives.

Past simple
To elicit sentences in the past simple
Show the pictures in turn, to individual learners, or the whole class and ask ‘where did you go?’ and ‘what did you do there?’ Deal with any errors and ask for repetition in the usual way.

To build up a story
Small groups of learners could be given a selection of the pictures and asked to create a story of what someone did yesterda. Potential for learners to present their story standing in a line each holding a picture and delivering the section of story associated with it, or hanging pictures on a washing line, or sticking to the wall in order…

To build up a story (2)
Small groups are given a starting place and an ending place and need to compose a story explaining how the main character got started somewhere but ended somewhere else.

Past continuous
As an accompaniment to standard ‘where did you meet?’ activity. Groups of 4 learners have cards which tell them what they did at what time yesterday, e.g ‘9.00 got up, 9-10, had a shower, 11-12 in the bank arranging overdraft etc’ but they are cleverly arranged so that at some point they met each of the other learners in the group and have to find when and where and what they were doing by asking: ‘Where were you at 11.30?’ ‘I was in the bank. I was arranging an overdraft. How about you?’ ‘I was in the bank too. I was paying in a cheque!’ The pictures add a context, make a link with reality and help learners imagine that they really were doing these things in what is otherwise quite a contrived yet challenging, potentially fun and useful activity. (adapted from Penny Ur’s Grammar Practice Activities)

Past perfect
To present practise past perfect sentences, build up a timeline of events using the pictures and sticking them to the board in the order they happened: ‘First I went to the bank, then at 11.00 I did some shopping in Primark, then at 12.00 I had lunch in a café…’. Concept check, ‘Is this talking about the past, present or future?’, ‘Is there any relation to now?’, ‘did I do some shopping before or after lunch?’ etc. then elicit past perfect sentences: ‘By 12, I’d gone to the bank and done some shopping but hadn’t had lunch yet’ etc. Or dinner, if we want to be more local.

Giving directions
Listening.
Pictures could be arranged in the classroom similar to in town, or stuck to a wall / whiteboard. Learners are given a card with the destination they want to get to, they need to ask the teacher / another learner and then follow the directions correctly to reach their destination, either walking through the classroom or tracing the route with a finger on the board. I’ve heard of teachers using toilet paper to represent roads on the floor.

Speaking.
As above but learners / try reverse roles.


Planning an event
Learners are given the task in small groups to plan an event – a party or a trip or something. The idea is they practise making offers, suggestions and use language of discussion and debate. The pictures can be a nice prop, something to hold and touch and give ideas plus confidence to shy learners that the others will understand what they mean from looking at the picture they are holding if nothing else. e.g. ‘I’ll go to the market and pick up some fruit’, ‘I’ll book the restaurant’, ‘I’ll see what time the swimming pool is open’

Writing
A list
Learners can use the pictures as a prompt for writing a list of things they need to do.
e.g.: go to bank
post letter
buy food
sign at Job Centre


or just of the places they need to go to:
bank
post office
market
Job Centre

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