Categories
A1 A2 Crafts Materials Primary Secondary

Infinite Christmas Card

This Christmas card folds infinitely from a Christmas tree, to a present, which you open to reveal a photo of the child. It’s a really lovely and very different craft for any classroom, not just the ESL one.

I adapted the original idea from Tiktok creator, @creationsbylynzb79, and created this downloadable template to make life easier for any not-as-creative teachers that want to do something a little more interesting in class.

If you visit my own Tiktok profile, @islaidiomas, you will find videos explaining my materials, as and when I release new stuff. Please like and follow me if you’re on that social media platform, as I post new stuff on there when I upload it.

Many thanks, and enjoy!

Infinite Christmass Card Template download

Categories
A1 A2 Adult B1 Games Materials numbers Primary Reading Secondary Time Treasure Hunt

QR Code Time Treasure Hunt

qr code time treasure hunt

This is a fun activity to practice telling the time in English. You could translate it for other languages and vary the level depending on your students.

This is a fun and engaging way to motivate your students, giving them a real reason to tell the time! It’s based on reading and understanding skills, so even if students aren’t that good at writing and spelling, they can still take part.

How to use it

Just download and print out the document and cut out the QR codes. Stick them around your class or school, or any other safe area you can use, and give each student or team one of the answer sheets.

Each answer sheet has a start time and an end time. Students scan the QR codes using a mobile device and have to draw the correct time on the clocks. There is a penalty for each incorrect answer. You can decide how much you want the penalty to be, I tend to use 10 seconds. This encourages accuracy!

The winner has the shortest time after all penalties have been added.

Important stuff

The document is in DOCX format and has lots of extra QR Codes so that you can change the quiz if you like and adapt it to your students’ level before printing it out.

You will need a mobile device with a QR code reader for each student or team participating. Most phones these days have one in the camera, but if not, there are many free ones on the Apple and Google Play stores. Make sure you prepare this in advance though, if they need to have it downloaded.

Let me know if you use this activity in your class and how it goes!

Download it here : https://classroomgames.net/product/qr-code-time-treasure-hunt/

Categories
A1 Games Infant Primary Vocabulary

Hallowe’en Pumpkin Game

Here’s a game to practice face vocabulary with young learners using Hallowe’en-themed pumpkins. It’s a very simple game that you can use to support you other planning in the ESL/ESOL classroom.

I made this game last night, in preparation for Hallowe’en and it’s very easy to play. Just download the zip file at the bottom of this post. It contains 3 PDFs to print.

  • One is the Pumpkin boards. You will need one for each student. Print out single-sided and laminate.
  • The other 2 PDFs are the front and back of the playing cards. You need to print the cards double-sided. The Halloween pumpkin pattern for the reverse of the cards is designed to stop students being able to see through the cards if you print using paper. I find paper better to use and cut when laminating, as it’s less work. When I use card, I have to have a laminated border around each card, which is a lot more work to do and cut, plus the cards won’t fit on the board easily. Therefore I try to make the cards so I can use paper.
  • There are 8 possible faces for 8 possible students to play at once. You will need 8 pumpkin cards if you are going to use all the faces. If you have groups bigger than 8, you will need multiple copies of the faces and split the class into groups of up to 8 students.

How to play.

Give each student a pumpkin board and allocate them a face colour.

Put all the cards face down on the table and mix them up.

Students take it in turns to pick up a card and place it on their board. Ask them to say the name of the face part when they do so, to practise and repeat vocabulary in a controlled way.

Downloads.

Download the PDFs here : https://www.classroomgames.net/materials/Halloween-Pumpkin-Game.zip

Categories
A1 A2 Adult Games Present Continuous Primary Secondary Speaking

Present Continuous Conversation Game

What is it?

This is a fun game that you can use to practise the Present Continuous tense in positive, negative and question forms with either one-to-one classes or with groups of students.

It has been made in a pictorial form, so it is not necessarily just useful for English teachers, and can be adapted for any language classroom.

How to play

Print off one copy of the worksheet for each student playing.

Students take it in turns to select one of the names without letting anyone know whom they have chosen.

Other students ask present continuous questions to guess the person.

You can practice using He, She and They pronouns as many names are gender neutral for inclusivity.

“Are they wearing a shirt?”
“No, they’re not.”
“are they wearing a skirt?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Are they reading?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Are they wearing glasses?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Are they wearing socks?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Is it Blake?”
“Yes. It is.”

Where can I get it?

Download the game from the shop for free for the next 6 months using this link:

https://classroomgames.net/product/present-continuous-conversation-game/

Categories
A2 Adult B1 B2 Escape Games Family Games Materials Primary Secondary Speaking Vocabulary

Family Escape Game

Written to practice vocabulary relating to family and family relationships, you can play this Escape Game with students from about 11 years old upwards, depending on their level.

It utilises in-laws, so you will have to make sure the required vocabulary is pre-taught. Students solve a series of puzzles. After each puzzle they enter their answer into a google docs form. After entering each answer, they receive a part of the final puzzle.

There are 5 puzzles in total, they need to solve the puzzles in order. You will need access to a device connected to the internet for each team in order to input the answers and also for puzzle 3, which utilises the website, what3words.com.

The PDF is free for personal classroom use and download for 6 months from the posting date, so go and get it today and don’t forget to subscribe to my TikTok and Instagram to receive updates when I upload new materials.

Download

https://classroomgames.net/product/family-escape-game/

Categories
A2 Adult B1 Games Past Simple Present Perfect Present Simple Secondary Uncategorised Vocabulary

Tessellation Station!

This is a triangle game, based on Big Potato’s ‘P for Pizza’, which is also a great game for English classes, but students need a reasonable level to play it, so this version is good to get them towards that level, and have a little fun during the long and laborious process of learning irregular verbs.

The cards are double-sided. I have designed the pages so that if you have a printer that does double-sided printing, you can just press go and print all the cards fairly easily. They should line up perfectly, then you can laminate and cut them out. Otherwise, if you print them out single-sided, you can glue the two pieces of paper back-to-back, laminate and cut out as mentioned previously.

You will have 40 cards in total. My cards have Spanish verbs on, but you can change them to the native language of your students. For example, if you are an EAL/EFL teacher in France, you might put the verbs in French for your classes. If you are teaching Arabic students, put the verbs in Arabic etc. The verb side of the cards is editable, so you can change them easily.

 

How to play

Lay out the cards as in the photo.

The card in the centre represents the entire pack, with one card from the top placed on each side.

The idea is that you have to say the verb in the tense stated. For example, in this illustration, players would have to say the past participle of verb 2, the past simple of verb 4 or the present simple of verb 7.

The player who says the correct verb tense any of the 3 verbs first, takes the corresponding card and another card is taken from the top of the deck to replace it.

The winner has more cards at the end of the game.

If you want to encourage students to use all tenses, you can allocate points instead… 1 point for present simple, 2 for past simple and 3 for past participle. Or you could add a rule that you can’t use the same verb tense consecutively. This will stop student that only know present tense meanings cleaning up!

I have included a verb list that you can make available to scaffold students in the earlier stages, or give them to take home and learn the verbs, as being in a position to win might motivate them for self-study!

Downloads

Download the editable word document here : https://classroomgames.net/product/tessellation-station/

Categories
A1 A2 Animals Games Materials Primary Reading Review Secondary Treasure Hunt writing

Animal Treasure Hunt

Our third treasure hunt is an animal-themed one. It pretty much follows the same sort of idea as the other 2 I’ve posted, but all the clues describe animals.

You can use it to review animal vocabulary, as part of an animal unit, CLIL science lesson, etc.

What to do

Download the PDF at the end of this post.

Print and cut out the clues and stick them up around your space. It can be a classroom, playground, wherever.

Each animal has it’s corresponding clue in the text underneath, so you can easily stick them back-to-back and laminate them if you want to reuse them.

There are 2 different circular treasure hunts. The left column is one hunt, the right column is the other. So you can have two teams if you wish, or even several staggared teams. You can start with ANY animal. When you arrive back at the same animal you started with, you have finished.

How to play

Give each player/team an answer sheet. They write their name and start time at the top.

Students follow the clues, writing the names of the animals in order on their sheets.

When they finish, write the finish time and calculate their total time. Fastest wins.

There are penalty points for misspelled answers, wrong answers and if the animals aren’t in order, you know they have cheated, or made a mistake.

You can decide how much time you want to add for each penalty, but I tend to give 5 seconds for a misspelling, 20 seconds for an incerrect answer and a minute if the answers aren’t in order. I explain this at the start to discourage cheating.

Download

Download the PDF of the Treasure Hunt here : https://classroomgames.net/product/animal-treasure-hunt/

 

Categories
A2 Back to School Games Primary Review Secondary Vocabulary writing

QR Treasure hunt for teens

Another treasure hunt, but this time for older primary and teen learners that have a A2 level minimum and can read English reasonably well.

What you need

Print off the PDF at the end of this post and then cut up the QR codes. You can stick them around your class, school, playground… wherever you choose.

Each player or group will need a mobile phone that can scan QR codes. The codes are in text form, so an internet connection isn’t needed. I would do a test first though, to make sure your device works. If not, there are plenty of free QR reader apps that you can download.

How to play

Give each player, whether that be an individual student or group, one of the answer sheets and get them to put their name, or teamname on the sheet.

Write the start time on the sheet. This enables you to have staggered start times, if you wish.

Students can complete the questions in ANY order. They just scan a code and answer the question. Writing the answer on their sheet in the corresponding numbered space.

When they finish and return their sheet to you, write the finish time.

The winner completes all questions the quickest.

You can add time penalties of your choosing for spelling, wrong answers, etc. For example, I add 5 seconds for each misspelled word and if an answer is incorrect, I will add 20 seconds. This encourages players to put what they think are correct answers, rather than just filling in anything.

Download

Download a PDF of the QR Treasure hunt here : https://www.classroomgames.net/materials/treasure-hunt-2-qr.pdf

Categories
A1 A2 Games Materials Review Uncategorised Vocabulary

Treasure hunt for reviewing vocabulary

I often do treasure hunts around my classes and sometimes in the open air, either on a playground or open safe space with my younger learners.

I thought I’d share this one I made a couple of years ago that I use now and again as it’s easy to print, cut up and use.

How to use it

Simply stick all the clues around your chosen area not in any order.

You can have 2 diffent groups, or use it twice, as there are two versions.

Both versions have the same number of clues.

You could tell students to write down the answers, if you want to have multiple groups playing.

Download

The PDF can be downloaded here : https://classroomgames.net/product/treasure-hunt-fo…ewing-vocabulary/

Please support my page by checking out my TikTok videos and giving them a like, or follow… or comment telling me how you have used my resources. I love to see them being used!

Categories
A1 A2 Adult B1 Games Materials Past Simple Present Perfect Primary Reading Secondary Speaking Uncategorised Vocabulary writing

Verbo! An irregular verbs card game based on Uno.

I developed this game to practise irregular verbs and help students learn which verbs go with which.

What to do

Download the printable PDF at the end of the page. Print it off and laminate it. There is a card reverse included in the PDF to print the cards double-sided.

How to play

Students are dealt 7 cards each to start, the rest are left in the centre of the table.

Just as with uno, a student must follow the top card with either a card from the same verb, or a card of the same colour. You could make it more challenging by getting students to define the verb, or use it in a sentence…

If a student can’t put a card down, they must pick one up.

If a student puts down a card from the wrong verb group, they must take it back and pick up two extra cards.

The +2, +4, change direction, change colour and miss-a-turn cards are all the same as the original version.

When the student has 1 card left, they have to shout ‘verbo!’ if they don’t before the next person takes a turn, they must pick up 4 cards.

Pick-up cards can accumulate, just as with Uno.

Download

Download the printable PDF here : https://classroomgames.net/product/verbo-an-irregular-verbs-card-game/

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Treasure hunt for reviewing vocabulary

I often do treasure hunts around my classes and sometimes in the open air, either on a playground or open…
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Tessellation Station!

This is a triangle game, based on Big Potato’s ‘P for Pizza’, which is also a great game for English…