A Curious Visitor is a simple activity to practice relative clauses‏‎ with your class.

Preparation

Prepare some flashcards‏‎ with pictures of local objects, people or items specific to the country or region you are working in and the name of those items or people. For example, this could include:

• food
• drink
• celebrities
• events

If you were working in South Korea, for example, you might have pictures of:

• bibimbap (a kind of rice topped with vegetables)
• soju (like a sweet vodka)
• Joo Hi Hoon (actor/model)

Revising the Grammar

Explain to your class that your friend is coming to visit you and that they are very curious and will ask about many local things. Choose a card, for example a picture of a local film star, and write on the board a sentence‏‎ about that person which includes a relative clause.

In Greece‏‎, for example, you could show a picture of actor Giorgos Pyrpassopoulos with his name and give the question your curious visitor would ask.

Who is Giorgos Pyrpasopoulos?
Giorgos Pyrpasopoulos is an actor who played a reporter in the tv series, Wonderful Creatures.

Explain to the class how the relative clause gives more information about the main clause‏ and make sure they understand how the sentence is put together.

Running the Activity

Once the class understands what they need to do, you can get them to choose a card and then describe it using the format and template you have used on the board.

Grappa is strong drink which is drunk after a meal as a digestive.
Haggis is a meal which is made from sheep’s insides.
Zhang Yimou is a film director who directed the opening of the Olympics in 2008.

Encourage the class to be inventive!

Variations on a Theme

The activity can be adjusted to suit different scenarios. For example, you can have the class play in teams where they give the explanation without actually naming the item and the teams have to guess what is being described. You can award points for clever or inventive relative clauses and so on.