Are your students tired of grammar gap-fills? Mine too. So I created a dramatic survival activity to practise the second conditional in a way they’ll never forget… unless they get eaten by a tiger first.

The Setup

The topic was “Survival” and the target grammar was the second conditional. I prepared six short, horrible anecdotes about things that can go terribly wrong while travelling or doing sport. Think: shark attacks, getting lost in the desert, and parachute failures!

Each story ends with a key question:
“What would you do if…?”
Perfect for drilling second conditional structures in context.

💡 Lesson Flow

1. Image First
   I projected a dramatic image related to the survival situation and asked students:
   • What do you think is happening?
   • Where is this person?
   • Is it dangerous? What would you do?
2. Reveal the Scenario
   After students guessed, I revealed the short survival story and asked the big question.
3. Team Challenge
   In groups, students:
   • Discussed what they would do in that situation
   • Suggested or searched for real survival tips
   • Used second conditional structures as much as possible
4. Survival Tips Key
   I then showed real expert advice for each situation. Teams who gave similar advice or clever solutions got a point!

🧠 Language Focus

After the activity, we reviewed the second conditional structure and looked at how it’s used in real communication. I also encouraged students to transform the survival advice into second conditionals using:

• If I were you…
• If I were in that situation…

Want to Try It?

You can find all five survival scenarios and questions below. I’ve also included the version I projected, with image-first slides and follow-up questions.

Optional Follow-Up Ideas

• Have students write their own survival scenarios (real or invented).
• Ask teams to vote on the most creative or terrifying story.
• Give a list of real survival tips and have students rewrite them using second conditionals.

Sometimes all it takes to revive a grammar point is a little adrenaline and imagination. This activity had my students laughing, arguing, thinking—and most importantly—speaking.

Let me know in the comments if you give it a try or adapt it!

Serena