Tag: a1

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A1 A2 Food Present Simple Primary Secondary Speaking writing

Food with likes and dislikes conversation activity

What’s it for?

This activity is to promote closed repetitive oral practice of food with likes and dislikes. Not just focusing on ‘like’ and ‘don’t like’, but also introducing degrees of preference with real, usable language so that students can then apply that to other subjects where they want to talk about their preferences.

This activity can take from 2 to 4 one-hour sessions to complete, depending on class ability and size.

How to use it

The first conversation worksheet allows for the students to survey up to 9 other classmates. In the first, left-hand column they write the names of all their classmates, or 9 of them, if the class is a lot bigger. In the other columns they ask their friends “Do you like (salad)?” for each of the food items, and then draw the corresponding emoji for the response. So, if their classmate replies with “I can’t stand salad” then they will draw the emoji that represents ‘can’t stand’.

As the teacher, you need to model the target language and activity with the best student first and carefully monitor the class interactions at this stage to make sure students are saying complete sentences and not just one word, nor using their L1, if it’s a same-L1 group. I tell my students that I am listening and I will give a point to them each time I hear an incorrect sentence or a word that’s not in English, with the person that gets least points winning a prize of some sort, whether that be a better mark, or an actual prize like a sweet or extra free time. This usually does the trick.

Once the conversation activity has finished, then you can either use the same worksheet and tell them to write sentences using the information gathered, about their friends’ preferences. I have included two other differentiated worksheets that you can use for lower-level learners or younger children that need scaffolding for writing.

 

Expansion activity

You can then talk in class about other preferences so that they can see how the language is transferrable. For example, as someone that plays football, then someone that you know doesn’t – “Do you like football?” to elicit responses such as “I love football” and “I can´t stand football”. Or ask about spiders and cats!

Download it here : https://classroomgames.net/product/food-with-likes-and-dislikes-conversation-activity/

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A1 A2 Adult Games Materials Present Continuous Primary Secondary Speaking

Present Continuous Conversation Game

What is it?

This is an engaging communicative game based on the concept of the popular children’s game, who’s who. It can be played in pairs or larger groups to practice the present continuous tense. It has been made in pictorial form, so theoretically it can be used for any language.

How to play

Just print off one copy of the game sheet for each student.

Start with the teacher picking a name. Students then have to asked closed questions (with yes or no answers) to discover who the teacher is thinking of.

Once students guess, then one of them can take a turn choosing the next name.

Play as many times as you like.

Example:
  • “Is it a girl?”
  • “No, it isn’t”
  • “Is he playing football?”
  • “No he isn’t”
  • “Is he listening to music?”
  • Yes, he is”
  • “Is he wearing a green shirt?”
  • “yes, he is.”
  • “Is it Simon?”
  • “Yes.”

Gender neutral names have been used in most cases, so it can be used in the inclusive classroom.

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

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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

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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/

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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/

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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/

 

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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!

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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/

Categories
A1 Adult colors colours Games Infant numbers Primary Secondary Speaking Uncategorised Vocabulary

Jenga game adapted for the ESL classroom

Here’s a classic game that you can adapt and use to teach colours and numbers in the ESL/ESOL classroom. It’s fun too!

What is it?… Jenga!

I bought a colour jenga set that came with a colour dice, though you can just paint the blocks of a normal jenga. I then wrote numbers on both ends, so that they would be visible when stacked.

As normal dice will be used, it’s important that you only use combinations of numbers that use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. It’s also a good idea to have more of the single numbers, as these come up more often… as will become apparent.

There are 60 blocks in total in my set. Here’s a full list of the numbers that it works best to use:

1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66.

If you have fewer blocks, then take out the doubles and triples.

How do you play it?

  • You will need 2 normal (1 to 6) dice.
  • Students throw both dice.
  • They can then remove a block from the tower, in the usual way that you play jenga, and place it on the top of the tower.
  • The difference is, they can only remove blocks that contain a combination of the numbers, or by adding or subtracting the numbers. For example, if they rolled a 4 and a 3, they could remove 4, 3, 43, 34, 4+3=7 or 4-3=1
  • As in the normal rules of Jenga, you cannot take a block from the top 3 rows at any point in the game and you can only use one hand (you can relax this rule if it’s smaller children playing).

If you get the students to say all the numbers they can use before they take a block, it works as a great way to practice double unit numbers in English. With smaller kids, it’s also a good way to practice simple maths.

That’s it! There are no downloads, but if you need a Jenga, you can get them off Amazon, Aliexpress, or pretty much any toy website. Here’s a 60-block one I found.

https://www.amazon.com/Mattys-Mix-Up-Colorful-Stacking-Storage/dp/B01MU0CYB7/

Here is a link to my TikTok video explaining how to play:

https://www.tiktok.com/@islaidiomas/video/7289537151707008289

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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…
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Present Continuous Conversation Game

What is it? This is an engaging communicative game based on the concept of the popular children's game, who's who.…