Lesson Share: Mingle activities: Talk when the music stops

This is a great activity to:

a) wake students up in the first lesson in the morning,
b) make students move e.g. during a double lesson, when concentration decreases or after
    sitting for hours,
c) make students talk to somebody in the class they would not necessarily address,
d) encourage lazier or shyer students to speak.

Procedure:

• Find an audio of lively music.
• Students divide into two groups which are the same size (with odd numbers the teacher joins one group).
• Students form two concentric circles.
• When the music starts, the outer circle moves clockwise, the inner circle anti-clockwise.
• When the teacher stops the music after some time, students have to stop too and everybody faces a partner in the other circle.
• The teacher calls out a topic which students have to discuss until the music starts again. The topic depends on the level of the class e.g. Elementary/pre-intermediate: weather, hobby, family, pets, holidays, school.  Intermediate: neighbours, favourite invention, future ambitions, going out. Upper-intermediate/advanced: pollution, generation gap, beauty craze, alienation, politics.
• When the teacher starts the music, students move on until it stops again (make sure new pairs are formed)

My students have always enjoyed this activity (really eager discussions develop) as a welcome break to the usual routine.