Are you looking for a fun, yet educational, game to play with your English learners on Valentine’s Day? Here’s a Valentine’s-inspired activity for practicing gerunds!
How to Play “Love, Like, Live Without, Loathe”
1) Review
Review the differences between “love” and “like” and review how to use these before a gerund:
- I like eating chocolate.
- I like eating peanut butter.
- I love mixing chocolate and peanut butter.
2) Introduce Vocabulary
Teach your students two more words and expressions: to be able to “live without” (to not need or to not like a lot), and to “loathe” (to really dislike).
- I can live without vegetables.
- I loathe broccoli.
3) Create
Have students create four heart-shaped signs. They should write one of the following sentences on each heart: I love it. I like it. I can live without it. I loathe it. You can print out this PDF model and make copies. Or just print one copy and hold it up as an example for how students should make their own.
4) Brainstorm
Ask your class to brainstorm a large list of gerunds. Write the suggestions on the board. Here is a pre-made list you can use if you want to skip this step.
Sample List of Gerunds
- skiing
- snowboarding
- skating
- watching TV
- playing video games
- shopping
- fishing
- swimming
- singing
- dancing
- playing soccer
- making jewelry
- sleeping
- running
- cooking
- cleaning
- biking
- sewing
5) Play
Invite a student to come up to the front of the class to shout out one gerund at a time. The other students must listen carefully as the gerund is shouted. Then, they must hold up the sign that shows their feeling towards this activity.
Example
Ella is up at the front of the class shouting out the gerunds. The first gerund she shouts is “Singing”.
Lisa holds up “I like it.”
Owen holds up “I loathe it.”
Mia holds up “I love it.”
For each gerund, the teacher or student at the front can call on one or more students (or the first student who holds up a sign) to verbalize a response by changing “it” to the gerund:
Teacher: Mia, how do you feel about singing?
Mia: I love singing.
Teacher: Ellen, how does Lisa feel about singing?
Ellen: Lisa likes singing.
This activity can be done as a class, in small groups, or even in pairs. You can make it easier by just using signs that say “like” and “love” or “dislike” and “like”.
Check out Sprout English’s lesson plan on Valentine’s Day in the Word Bank. You might also want to try Valentine’s Day – Spelling, Capitalization & Punctuation and our Love Idioms poster. Sprout English also has lesson plans and activities for reviewing gerunds. Type “Gerunds” into the Sprout English search box when you are logged in. If you’re not a member yet, join today!
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thanks for your help I would like to have more material like that for my students.
Thanks, Alex! We will share some more ideas like this on our blog. Stay tuned.
It’s really helpful. I will try to follow this in my English Classroom, Thanks a lot for sharing this such a wonderful technic. Thanks a lot.
Shabeen
Hi Shabeen,
Let us know how the activity works out in your class. I hope your students love it! ~ Cheers, Tara
I love it. It’s really a nice game not only for Young Learners, this game can be played with elder students too. Thanks for it.
You’re right, Kate! This game can be used with any students who are learning or reviewing gerunds. It could also be adapted to review other noun groups, such as “food”, “colours”, or “clothing”.