You asked for interesting class activities. I have one that might be especially appropriate for the holiday season. I go to a store like K-Mart, Sears or Target and take a bunch of small weekly catalogues, the ones that are often inserted in Sunday newspapers.

The students work in pairs so they have to speak English to each other; each pair gets a catalogue. Their task is to look through their catalogue and answer questions which I post:

*What is the most expensive item in the catalogue?
What is the cheapest?
*What is one thing you don't have in your country?
*What is one thing you would like to receive as a gift?
*You and your partner have $500 to spend. What will you buy? Make a list.

This activity gets the students talking in order to complete a task. It also helps them learn some vocabulary--the catalogues have the name of each item along with the picture. And students are usually interested in the items themselves.

Hope you can use this.

Submitted by David Papier
dpapier@rocketmail.com