Random Lesson Planner

This page should give you a random starter, main and plenary idea for a lesson. Most of the activities require minimal preparation, and whilst the examples I give are usually science related, the majority can be used in all subjects.
  • Starter: What’s This Lesson About?

    A simple starter to prepare – just search for an image (maybe topical) and display it on the board, with the question: “What’s this lesson about?” It’s up to you how obvious/cryptic you make the image, but whatever you do … Continue reading →

  • Main: Concept Map

    A concept map is a set of linked keywords, as shown in the example below (which is a concept map about concept maps), with the subject in the middle. I usually do concept maps in three stages. For the first … Continue reading →

  • Plenary: Charades

    Another simple activity – prepare a list of cards with key words on. Students come up one at a time and try to act them out without talking. The first student to guess correctly comes up to do the next … Continue reading →

To get a new set of ideas just refresh the page, or you can browse through all the starters, mains and plenaries individually. I'd be very grateful for more activity suggestions - if you have an idea you'd like to share please email it to random@mrgravell.com and I'll put it in the database.