discuss whether they needed to take the items or not. When everyone has finished, there is a
class feedback session to discuss the students' answers.
Necessity
ESL EFL Matching and Speaking Activity - Pre-intermediate - 30 minutes
This rewarding teaching activity helps students to practice making sentences with the modal
verbs of necessity: must, mustn't, need to and needn't. The students are divided into pairs. Each
pair is given a set of modal verb cards and a set of action cards. Students shuffle the two sets of
cards separately and spread them out face down on the desk in two sets. The students then take
it in turns to turn over a modal verb of necessity card and an action card. If the two cards can be
combined to make a meaningful sentence, e.g. 'mustn't' and 'drive fast', the student reads out the
sentence and adds a justification, e.g. 'You mustn't drive fast because you might have an
accident'. If the student does this successfully, he or she keeps the cards and has another turn. If
the cards don't match or the student can't justify the sentence, the cards are turned back over.
The other student then turns over two cards and tries to make a sentence and so on. The game
continues until all the cards have been matched. The student with the most cards at the end of
the game wins.
Bare Necessity
ESL EFL Listening and Speaking Activity - Intermediate - 30 minutes
In this fun class activity, students play a game where they guess activities from statements
expressing necessity. The class is divided into two teams. One player from each team comes to
the front of the class. An activity card is shown to both players. Players then take it in turns to
make a statement about the activity to their team using modal verbs and expressions of
necessity. Players can make statements talking about what a person needs to do in the activity
or by stating what materials, equipment, or tools someone needs for the activity, e.g. 'You have
to...' 'You need a...', etc. After a player has made a statement, their team is allowed one guess. If
a team guesses correctly on their first try, they get five points. On the second try, they get four
points, and so on. When the activity has been guessed, a new round starts with two new players
and a new card. This continues until all the cards have been used. If both teams fail to guess the
activity after five tries, a new round is started with two new players. The team with the most
points at the end of the game wins.