Angelika and Asia, our EVS volunteers, who take part in Erasmus+ project in organization Young Women’s Christian Association-Beirut in Lebanon prepared their final publication

1. European
Voluntary
Service
Lebanon
2017
Non-formal
activities
Angelika Marzec
Joanna Dołoszycka

2. European Voluntary Service
March-September 2017
Beirut-Jal el Dib-Tripoli
Project “Join in” at Young Women Christian
Organisation Beirut
Summer Session at Albert Nassar Foundation
Text: Joanna Dołoszycka
Photographs: Angelika Marzec
Storytelling
All participants form a circle around a table or a desk.
They are given 9 cubes; each cube portrays 6 different
pictures/ideas.Thefirstpersonrollsthediceandbegins
their story with “Once upon a time…” and continues
the story using the pictures on the dice. When every
picture has been covered in the story, the next person
rolls the dice and continues the previous story.
The game proves useful as a speaking activity since
the participants have to work with the pictures they
obtained and at the same time are not limited by
the interpretation, they create the story. It is also
a wonderful ice-breaker because it encourages the
students to help each other when one of them gets
stuck and doesn’t know how to continue their story.
Activities
Objectives
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Boosting
students’
creativity
Team-building
the activity engages
every participant
and
promotes teamwork
Activating
speaking
skills

3. I would however advise you to work
with 3rd person questions only unless
your group is really mature as some
adjectivesusedwithpeoplemightbea
sourceofjokesandmayruintheactivity
It’s a great tool to revise vocabulary. The teacher
puts words he/she wants to revise on a small piece
of paper. One volunteer is needed at the beginning
(if there’s none, the teacher chooses one person).
The volunteer comes to the board and the teacher
gives him/her one piece of paper and the student
should act out or draw or mime what’s on the paper.
The only rule is that the one at the board must
not speak (nodding and shaking head is allowed).
Debates
The students are asked to prepare Agree/Disagree
cards before the activity begins. The participants, one
byone,pickapaperslipwithdiscussiontopicsonthem.
The person reads the topic out loud and the students
hold cards in the air to show their opinions on given
topic. From there the teacher moderates the debate.
The dating game
The game requires at least 4 participants. One of them
becomes the suitor and the remaining three are the
dates. The dates need to finish short statements about
themselves and at the end the suitor and the audience
(the rest of the class) vote on the answers. The game is
a great tool to practise speaking in general and talking
about oneself. The students participated in the game
even though we made it a little less conventional
and we didn’t put any gender restrictions to it.
Charades
Gaining confidence and
overcoming stage-fright
Boosting creativity
Developing non-verbal
communication skills
Practicing vocabulary
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Post-its
This activity works great with either
children or teenagers as a revision
tool,butcanbeusedwhileintroducing
new vocabulary, too. It also works as
grammar practice, as the students
form questions on their own.
The student with the post-it doesn’t
know what’s written on the paper so
he/she has to ask yes/no questions
in order to find out. The questions
could be formed in 1st or 3rd person
depending on what the teacher
wants to practice. E.g. Is it yellow/
Am I yellow? Does it bark/Do I bark?
One student sits in front of the class,
facing other students. The teacher
sticks a post-it to the student’s
forehead (alternatively, you can
use a headband and slip the piece
of paper under it so that it holds).

4. Students sit in a circle; one person starts the
game by whispering a sentence into another
person’s ear and the person passes it on. The
last person says out loud what they heard.
Outcome: We prepared tongue twisters and used them
in the game. Students participated but felt a tiny bit
awkward when they didn’t hear something; however,
after the first round everyone laughed at the result
and they were more relaxed during following rounds.
Objectives: Practicing listening skills
Practicing pronunciation
Using overall grammar knowledge to understand
statements
This activity is good for ice-breaking, especially with
intermediate groups. Every student is given a sheet
of paper with a bingo table on it. On the top of the
table it says “Find someone who…” and every box
contains a statement, e.g. doesn’t like pizza, doesn’t
like going to the beach, doesn’t like chocolate, is
good at maths, etc. The first one who ticks one row
wins. (If it gets too easy the one who gets a full
house wins). The teacher can use a ready template
or prepare one, so that it matches the level of
English and stage of development of the students.
Objectives: Getting to know one another
Practicing forming questions
Improving social skills
Chinese whispers
(Téléphone sans fil)
Pawns and dice are needed. The students are
divided into groups of up to 4 people and given the
board game. On the paper, there is a table with
pictures of activities in every box, on another paper
there are pieces of collocations the students need
to organize. They look at the pictures and connect
them with collocation that corresponds. After they’ve
finished, the teacher corrects and/or explains them
to the students. The students go on to play the
game: one throws the die, and when they stand
on a picture, they use the collocation to describe it.
The teacher may ask the students to write down
the collocations that came up during the game and
at the end of the class every group has to prepare
sentences with their collocations and present them.
Brainstormers
Thestudentsaredividedintogroupsof3-5people,each
group chooses a name for themselves and appoints a
runner. The runner is a messenger who delivers papers
from the teacher to their group. The game is made up
of rounds, every round is one question. The teacher
stands in front of the students and holds the papers
with questions, the runners approach the teacher and
after they are given the questions, they rush back to
their groups and pass them the questions. The group
needs to provide answers; the group that finishes first
wins the round. (The teachers may apply other rules
like awarding additional points for correct spelling,
etc.). Here follow some of the questions we included:
7 excuses for being late to class
6 things to do on a rainy day
The game was also used for less advanced students
and the questions we included were more general and
not too creative, they aimed at checking their English
vocabulary: 5 green vegetables, 4 four-legged animals.
Collocation board game
People bingo
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5. Angelika Marzec
Joanna Dołoszycka