- Time
- 5 min
- Level
- A1-A2
- Grouping
- Whole class or pairs
- Materials
- Any image
Show any image — a slide, a magazine photo, or the illustration from the worksheet you're about to use anyway — for 15 seconds, then have students describe everything they remember. It doubles as a natural bridge into the main lesson when the image comes from that day's worksheet.
What it practices
The short viewing window forces fast, simple description language:
- Present continuous ("A man is walking", "Two children are playing") — the default tense for describing a scene, good for A2.
- There is / there are + adjectives ("There’s a red car", "There are three people") — simpler entry point for A1.
How to run it
- Choose an image tied to the day's lesson the worksheet's own illustration works well and saves prep.
- Show it for exactly 15 seconds then hide it — the time pressure is what makes students describe rather than just look.
- Give 30 seconds of silent writing or thinking before anyone speaks, so weaker students aren't competing live against faster ones.
- Elicit sentences round-robin one detail per student, no repeats allowed.
- Reveal the image again to check what the class missed — this naturally previews vocabulary from the lesson.
- Bridge straight into the worksheet if the image came from it: “Now let's read what's actually happening in this picture.”
Classroom management tip: pick an image with 6-10 clear, nameable details — busier images produce vague guessing, and emptier ones run out of things to say in under a minute.
Level variations
- A1Accept “There is / There are” sentences with a color or number adjective — no verb tense pressure yet.
- A1-A2Require present continuous for any action in the image (“A man is running”).
- A2Ban repeating the same sentence pattern twice, pushing students toward varied structures and vocabulary.
Free worksheets for follow-up practice
Pair this warm-up with a full present continuous lesson:
- Present Continuous – Grammar Focus (A2) — form and spelling rules for describing actions in progress.
- Present Continuous – Writing Practice (A2) — freer written description practice, same skill as the sprint.
- Adjectives – Describe People, Places and Things (A1) — adjective vocabulary for lower-level picture description.
Browse the full set of grammar worksheets or see the guide on how to teach present continuous for a complete lesson plan.