Discussion topics
1. I like pair or group games where the students have to discuss and reach an agreement together. For example, I ask them to imagine that they have a certain amount of money to travel with their group and give them - if necessary - information about different places. They can practise first and second conditionals, among other things, while they try to convince their partners of the advantages of their favourite place. A nice activity to practice past tenses is Inventing stories: one person starts with one sentence, the next person has to continue , and so on... everybody in the group has to listen and the results are often funny.
2. Especially in the case of young learners, making the students the centre of the action is always motivating. A very typical example is asking a student to mime an activity when we want to practise the present continuous so that the others have to guess. If we want to work with the imperative they can give orders to each other. Anything that involves moving is normally good, especially if they are tired of sitting the whole day. They love games and they love competition too, both can be very positive for learning if used in a controlled way.