Good Weekend / Bad Weekend – Speaking & Writing Activity
A good weekend for me means sleeping in late (but not past 9), going to a coffee shop for a cappuccino, walking the dogs, eating cheeseburgers and going out for a beer before the sun goes down. A bad weekend usually starts with my neighbors waking me up because they are just now going to bed (at 6 A.M.), my dog getting sick because he ate something stupid the day before, it’s raining, so my original plans are cancelled, and somehow there’s no money left in my bank account…
How does it work?
This activity is broken up into two parts, the good weekend and the bad weekend. Page 1 of the PDF has the activities one might typically find on a good weekend whereas page 2 contains the activities or scenarios typical of a bad weekend.
Students work in pairs. Pass out a copy of page 1 to each student (or screen share it if you are online). Tell your students to choose 3 activities out of the ones they see on the poster that would be their ideal weekend. They should write this down somewhere else.
Next, tell your students they will be working in pairs trying to figure out their partner’s ideal weekend. Give them 3 minutes to write up to 10 questions they can ask their partner in order to make a better hypothesis.
For example,
“Are you a sociable person?” “Yes, I love hanging out with my friends.”
“How often do you exercise.” “I never exercise, but I do like to eat.”
etc.
Then, let your pairs ask each other their questions to better understand what might be their partner’s ideal weekend. If you are online, you can achieve this with the breakout room function on any teleconferencing service. Once students have asked their questions, bring everyone back to a big group. Students will take turns presenting to the class what they think their partner’s ideal weekend looks like and why. The other partner will then share what their truly ideal weekend looks like and why. Were they close?
Do the same thing with page 2, except this time they are looking for the worst weekend possible. Follow the same rules and patterns as page 1.
If your students aren’t into talking about themselves or are a little shy, you can have them create an ideal and horrible weekend for the little characters at the bottom of the page.
This is a good activity for your A1 students as it works relevant vocabulary such as daily routines and activities along with time expressions, but could also be used well with your A2’s as long as you expect more complex answers from them.
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Ian Kime
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