101 ESL Activities: For Kids (6-13)
By Jackie Bolen
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About this ebook
Have better ESL/EFL classes with kids. It's time to find some fresh, new ideas for English lessons for children!
Whether you're a first-time ESL/EFL/TEFL teacher, an experienced but overwhelmed instructor, or an instructor without a textbook, you need more activities for your English classes. If you're tired of wasting your precious time wading through the junk on the Internet, then Jackie and Jennifer are here to help.
During their decades of experience teaching English around the world, authors Jackie Bolen and Jennifer Booker Smith have developed countless games and activities for their students. They're sharing their low-prep/no-prep ideas with ESL teachers throughout the world. These are the activities that they use in their own classes!
In 101 ESL Activities for Kids (6-13), you'll get a ton of creative and interesting ideas for speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and more to use in your own classroom. The highly-detailed descriptions will show you exactly how to use the activities during your lessons. The clearly and concisely explained activities will help you add instructional variety and put the focus back on your students.
Pick up a copy of the book if you want to...
- Have better English lessons with young learners
- Save a ton of time when planning lessons
- Help students improve their English skills in a big way
- See lots of happy, smiling faces in your classes
- Add some variety into English classes
If you're extremely busy or you're simply out of new ideas, this book makes it easy to try out new and exciting activities your students will love! This is the first book in the ESL Activities for Kids series by Jackie Bolen.
Buy 101 ESL Activities for Kids to get new lesson plans ready to go in minutes!
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101 ESL Activities - Jackie Bolen
About the Author: Jackie Bolen
I taught English in South Korea for a decade to every level and type of student, including every age from kindergarten kids to adults. These days, I'm living in Vancouver and teaching English to a variety of students. In my spare time, you can usually find me outside surfing, biking, hiking or on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi I can find.
In case you were wondering what my academic qualifications are, I hold a Master of Arts in Psychology. During my time in Korea, I completed both the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA certification programs. With the combination of years teaching ESL/EFL learners of all ages and levels, and the more formal teaching qualifications I've obtained, I have a solid foundation on which to offer teaching advice. I truly hope that you find this book useful and would love it if you sent me an email with any questions or feedback that you might have—I'll always take the time to personally respond ([email protected]).
Jackie Bolen around the Internet
ESL Speaking (www.eslspeaking.org)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/jackiebolen)
Instagram (www.instagram.com/jackie.bolen)
Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/eslspeaking)
4-Skills: Higher-level
Draw an Idiom
Skills: Listening/Speaking/Reading
Time: 5-10 minutes
Age: 10+
Materials: None
Optional Materials: Whiteboard
Give students an idiom and have them draw a picture of it. Then, have them share their drawings and elicit possible meanings. Finish by giving them the actual meaning and several example sentences to write in their notebooks.
Procedure:
Give students an idiom and 3 minutes to draw a representative picture.
When time is up, have students share their pictures and elicit guesses about what the idiom may mean before telling students the actual meaning.
Finish the activity by giving students several example sentences or scenarios using the idiom for them to write in their notebooks.
Human Logic Puzzle
Skills: Listening/Speaking/Writing
Time: 5-10 minutes
Age: 7-11
Materials: Flashcards, answer grids
You probably remember logic puzzles from when you were a kid. It begins with a short story followed by clues and a grid for keeping track of the information. In this activity, there are clues but no short story.
In advance, prepare a grid with the terms you want to review. The terms should be listed across the top while blanks for student names should be along the side. With lower-level students, you may want to use this for jobs, animals, actions or other terms the students will be able to provide clues for fairly easily. With higher-level students, you can use a broader variety of vocabulary and they can give synonyms, antonyms and/or definitions.
Before you begin, you need to select student helpers/clue providers to go to the front of the class. Give each two flashcards, and tell them not to show anyone. Give the rest of the students the answer grid and tell them to write the student helpers' names.
In turn, student helpers/clue providers should give one clue about one of their flashcards. For something like jobs, they can describe where the person works, what they do, etc. For animals or actions, they can act it out and/or make noises. Let the students give the first round of clues themselves while subsequent rounds will include audience participation. That is, the audience
asks questions. Continue until one student has correctly completed his/her grid.
Variations:
To make it more challenging:
Limit students to two turns, i.e. one turn per flash card. If no one has correctly completed his/her grid, students could then work in pairs or small groups.
Have two columns on the answer sheet, rather than a grid, so students will write the names of the students and the vocabulary they are describing.
To make it less challenging:
Have students continue giving more clues until everyone has completed their grid.
Have students work in small groups or pairs. Give them 15-20 seconds between clues to discuss.
Procedure:
Prepare a grid with the terms you want to review.
Select student helpers/clue providers to go to the front of the class and give each of them two flashcards.
Give the rest of the class the answer grid and tell them to write the student helpers' names.
Have student helpers/clue providers give one clue about one of their flashcards in turn. After they have given one clue about each flashcard, the clues should be responses to student questions. (You may want to make rules about the questions they can ask.)
Give the class time to think and write between each clue.
Students continue giving clues until one student has correctly filled out their grid.
Interesting Story and Questions
Skills: Writing/Reading/Speaking/Listening
Time: 15-30 minutes
Age: 10+
Materials: None
Have students write something interesting. Some examples you can use are: most embarrassing moment, scariest thing you’ve ever done, your dream for the future, etc. Base it on whatever you are teaching in class. Then, distribute the stories to other people in the class. They have to go around the class, finding the person whose story they have by asking questions. Once they find that person, they have to ask three interesting questions about the story.
Procedure:
Have students write an interesting story based on a certain topic. Adjust for length and difficultly depending on your students.
Collect stories and redistribute them—one per student, making sure a student does not get their own story.
Students go around the class asking people if they have their story. For example, Did you get in a car accident when you were little?
When they find the person, they must ask them three interesting follow-up questions about it.
Picture Prompt
Skills: Speaking/Listening/Writing
Time: 5 minutes
Age: All
Materials: Picture/PowerPoint image
Show students an image and have them generate questions or speculate about the picture. For lower level students, this can be purely descriptive:
Q: What do you see?
A: I see a house, a car, and some people.
Q: What color is the car?
A: It is blue.
For high beginner/low intermediate students, have an image which can generate questions such as:
− What is happening in this picture?
− How does that person feel?
− Why do you think so?
For more advanced students, have an unusual image. Encourage them to create a narrative to explain the story. This activity can also be done as a Quick Write.
Procedure:
In advance, prepare an image, either PowerPoint or a picture large enough for the class to easily see.
Divide students into pairs or small groups.
Depending on the level of the students:
− Elicit descriptive sentences about the image. Encourage them to make their own questions to ask a partner.
− Have them discuss what they think is happening in the picture, how the person/ people feel and why they think so, etc.
− Have them create a narrative about the image.
Quick Read
Skills: Reading/Writing/Speaking
Time: 10 minutes
Age: All
Materials: Worksheet
Give students a short passage, slightly below their level, and 3-5 comprehension questions. It should be short enough to be completed in 7-8 minutes.
Procedure:
Prepare a short passage using language slightly below the class level.
Include 3-5 comprehension questions and an example question demonstrating how to answer.
Give students 7-8 minutes to read and answer the questions.
Reported Speech
Skills: Writing/Reading/Speaking
Time:
Age: 8+
Materials: None
Optional Materials: Sentence cards, or worksheet/whiteboard/PowerPoint
Reported speech can be difficult for students, so a little regular practice can help make it more automatic.
No materials version: Ask student A a question. Ask student B to report
student A’s answer. Model the activity first by simply asking a student a question and then reporting the answer to the class. Example:
T: What day is it today?
A: Today is Tuesday.
T: A said today is Tuesday.
Procedure:
No materials: Prepare sentences for the students to change to reported speech. Ask one student a question, then ask another to report the answer to the class.
Other variations: Prepare cards/worksheet/PowerPoint or write five sentences on the whiteboard. If using PowerPoint or the whiteboard, have students write their answers in their notebook.
4-Skills: Lower-level
Ball Toss
Skills: Reading/Writing/Speaking/Listening
Time: 5-10 minutes
Age: All
Materials: Lightweight ball (such as a beach ball) with questions written on it
This game has many variations. One variation I have used with great success is writing questions on a beach ball. I use a whiteboard marker to write on the ball, but let it dry thoroughly before class, so it doesn’t smudge but it can be washed clean and