Song activity: Modal Verbs (Warning, Green Day)

Escrito por Carina Fragozo

Hello everybody!

Here’s an idea to practice the modals CAN/CAN’T, SHOULD/SHOULDN’T, MUST/MUSTN’T for suggestions and prohibitions with the song Warning, by Green Day.

After grammar explanations, introduce the topic of the song by presenting the following notices. Ask students what they mean and where we can find them.

Then, tell students that the character in the video does everything we shouldn’t/musn’t do, like eating raw meat, for example. Tell sts to take notes while they watch the video and then write sentences with the modals presented.
Ex:
Meat: We shouldn’t eat raw meat.

You can play the video twice and discuss the message of the song (live without warning). I’m sure teenagers will love it!

I’ve created and tested this activity and it worked really well. The video is funny and sts will come up with lots of ideas.