Light-hearted Game in Teaching Narrative

This is an idea to help students with their writing of narratives. It gives all the students some essential (and some superfluous) vocabulary.
ProcedureBefore giving the students the title (or first line) of the story, play a game of word association.

• The teacher gives one word and the student on the left must say the first word s/he can think of which is associated with it.
• Then the student on her/his left says the first word which s/he can think of which is associated with the previous word.
• This can be repeated around the class a few times.
• The teacher writes all the words on the board as they appear.
• Eventually you should have 20 or 30 words on the board, the latter ones bearing no relation to the original.
• Here is a typical collection: tree, forest, countryside, city, buildings, offices, work, leisure, holidays, beach, sun, moon, night, dark, black, reggae, music, piano, jazz, etc.
• The teacher then gives the students the first line of the story using some of the vocabulary on the board (e.g., I'll never forget the night I went to my first reggae club while I was on holiday in a strange city).
• The students (individually or in pairs) continue the story, drawing on the vocabulary on the board for ideas.   

Source :  http://www.britishcouncil.org/id/indonesia-education-elt-teaching-activity.htm?mtklink=indonesia-education-elt-teaching-activity

One Way Teaching Pronounciation

This game is a natural follow on from the Homophone dictation and can be used to help the students practise and remember homophones.
Procedure

• Ask 3 volunteers to sit in a chair facing the board ( about 2 to 3 meters away is fine). Each should have a piece of chalk or marker.
• Then tell learners they are going to run up to the board and write two versions of the homophone from the word you read out. The one who is the slowest stays seated and the other two can sit back in their original places.
• Read out any homophone you feel will be easy for the first 3 participants, for example 'one / won'.
• The students should run up and write 'one' and 'won'. The slowest sits back down and the quickest go back to their places. Now 2 other people should come up and the game is repeated.

Note: The game is a competition and should be played in a light-hearted spirit. You don't really want one person losing all of the time so I like to cheat and show the student who is always losing the word so they have a chance of winning.
This game also helps to highlight some sounds which may be particularly difficult for students to hear and write, for example my learners have difficulty when I say the homophone 'heel/heal' / hi:l/ and tend to write 'hill' /hil/ or I may say 'there' and they write 'dare'
Apart from the homophones mentioned in the dictation activity. Here is a further list of homophones I have found particularly useful with my intermediate students.

read / red	steel / steal	tour / tore	rose / rows
weather / whether	mist / missed	hi / high	cereal / serial
scent / cent / sent	bread / bred	dye / die	Board / bored
not / knot	site / sight	higher / hire	mind / mined
sawed / sword	would / wood	break / brake	tire / tyre
heard / herd	some / sum	air / heir	groan / grown
piece / peace	none / nun	allowed / aloud	road / rowed
be / B / bee	root / route	whale / wail	so / sew / sow
he'll / heal / heel	flower / flour	toes / tows	soul / sole
which / witch	bear / bare	deer / dear	bite / byte
here / hear

My Holiday_Great Wall of Koto Gadang

Needless Indonesian people go to China to see the Great Wall. In Bukittinggi, there is Janjang Koto Gadang which is similar to the Chinese Great wall and Sianok canyon scenery is clearly visible too.
Bukittinggi and Agam district, West Sumatra has a new tourist area. The name is something like the wall of China, but Koto Gadang may be prettier because of Sianok canyon scenery and greenery unfolds.
My wife and I had the opportunity to explore the Koto Gadang on Sunday (04/22/2013), along with thousands of residents. New tourist attraction was inaugurated by the Minister of Communication and Information Tifatul Sembiring.
'Great Wall' which is also called the Koto Gadang, connecting Bukittinggi and Agam. When from Bukittinggi, located not far from the tourism spot " Lobang Jepang"
Entering this area, visitors will go through the descent. Then met with panoramic canyon Sianok, rice with beautiful cliffs. Total distance covered to complete the Great Wall is about 1 Km. But impassable terrain is quite challenging, suitable for tracking.
In addition, there is also a suspension bridge and a high rung. Several points were put up posts, for a place to rest while enjoying the view of the river, rice fields, and cliffs. Indeed, strong stamina necessary to explore this place.
"This is expected to boost the region's economy. Hopefully people can also take advantage of these attractions," said Tifatul Sembiring, who is also the son of Bukittinggi.

My Holiday_Cangar Hot Spring

This Photo shot at the gate before entering Cangar Thermal Bath, this is a natural hot spring famous in Malang area. Every day Thermal Baths Cangar not deserted visiting by domestic and foreign tourist. Cangar itself is a village named as well as a hot water bath is located in the village Tulungrejo, Bumiaji, tourist city Batu.

The Tourists who come will actually be made at home linger on the pond tour this Cangar Thermal Baths. Travelers can soak for hours in the warm water pool with views of the forest and the chirping of the birds that make the atmosphere around you feel comfortable and memorable.  

The ticket alone cost around 6000 rupiahs or about 0.6 $ it is very cheap, isn't it?

Armed only with a cheap ticket, you can enjoy all the tourism potential in the region. Especially its Thermal Baths famous Cangar can cure skin disease, where there is nature and heritage tourism history for Travelers who do not want to soak. During their stay in the region Cangar Batu, you should not be surprised when forest creatures like monkeys, langurs, as well as a wide range of free-living birds around. Action of the monkeys that are around you just to be traveled complement your entertainment while at the Thermal Baths Cangar.