CONTENTS

3-4 MUST READ: Let’s Go

‘Camping’: 5 Steps 26-27 IDEAS: 10 Twists
for Camp Planning on Bingo perfect
for the ESL classroom
5-6 ACTIVITIES: Eggs
at Risk: 3 Amazing 28-29 PLANNING: English
Race Style Activities Immersion Camp
Outline: 5 Days
7 ACTIVITIES: Who of Tourism
Dunnit: 4 Mystery
Camp Activities 30 GAMES: What You Can
Do with a Ball:
8-9 ACTIVITIES: English 7 Fun ESL Games
Through Science: 4
Science Camp Activities 31 GAMES AND
ACTIVITIES: What You
10-11 ACTIVITIES: What Can Do with a Whistle –
Would Superman Do?: 7 Fun ESL Games
4 Activities and Activities
for a Superhero Camp
32 ACTIVITIES: What You
12-13 ACTIVITIES: Can Do With Index
Explorers Camp: Cards: 10 Amazing
3 Exploration Camp Activities
Activities
33 ACTIVITIES: What You
14-15 PLANNING: Run Can Do With Photos:
Them Happy: 5 Days 10 Creative ESL
of Sports Camp Games/Activities
16-17 PLANNING: You’re 34 ACTIVITIES: What You
a Star!: 3 Approaches Can Do with Celebrity
to Movie Making Camp Photos – 7 Fun
ESL Activities
18-19 PLANNING: World
Culture Camp: 35 GAMES: What You Can
4 Periods of a Do with a Blindfold:
Multicultural Classroom 10 Fun ESL Games
42 ACTIVITIES AND
CRAFTS: What You
Can Do with Cardboard
Boxes: 6 Fun ESL
Activities and Crafts
43 ACTIVITIES: What You
Can Do with a Paper
Bag: 9 Splendid
ESL Activities
44 ACTIVITIES: What You
Can Do with an
Egg Timer: 8 Fabulous
ESL Activities
45 ACTIVITIES: What You
Can Do with Clothes:
8 Great ESL Activities
46 ICEBREAKERS: 7 Easy
Icebreakers You Can
Do With Post-It Notes
47 ACTIVITIES: Fun ESL
Activities You Can Do
With A Name
48-49 ACTIVITIES: What
You Can Do With
a Song: 5 Creative ESL
Listening Activities
50-51 IDEAS: What To Do
With Reading Texts:
10 Creative Ways

20-21 PLANNING: How 36-37 ACTIVITIES:What

to Plan a 2-Day ESL You Can Do With
Adventure Camp Newspapers:
in 9 Simple Steps 11 Surprisingly
Engaging Activities
22 PLANNING: Don’t Let
Them Forget! 8 Virtual 38 ACTIVITIES: What
Camp Ideas to Continue You Can Do With a
EFL/ESL Practice Magazine: 10 Creative
over the Summer ESL Speaking Activities

23-24 ACTIVITIES: Ready 39-40 IDEAS: 10 Things

In a Flash: 8 Activities You Can Do
You Can do with One With Game Pieces
or Two Sets
of Flash Cards 41 ACTIVITIES: What You
Can Do with Brochures
25 ACTIVITIES: Deal With and Flyers: 7 Creative
It: 5 Simple Language ESL Activities
Activities You Can Do
With a Deck of Cards
Let’s Go ‘Camping’: 5 Steps
for Camp Planning
CAMP PLANNING CAN BE A PAIN.
Expectations are usually vague: ‘do
something fun with the kids,’ ‘focus on
speaking and using English,’ and no-
body tells you how to go about actually
making that happen. Well, the trick is to
have a system. Here’s one that I have
found very effective.
DISCOVER
AN EFFECTIVE
METHOD FOR CAMP
PLANNING
1 • If necessary, can you take the stu-
CHOOSE A THEME
Now, not every camp needs to be
based around a theme. I have heard
of some great camps where the only
thing connecting the activities was the
fact that they needed English. However,
having a theme will make your life easi-
er. Having a theme also means you can
choose vocabulary and language that
builds throughout the camp. Knowing
that you can rely on all students having
been exposed to the same terminology
later in the camp can open up more time
for activities and speaking practice, in-
stead of vocabulary lessons.
When choosing a theme you should opt
for something that you love and that is
relevant to your students’ lives. By the
time camp rolls around you should have
a good idea of the sort of things your
students enjoy. Try to include some
of those things in your camp theme
to get the students excited about the
camp. A few ideas are: science camp,
sports camp, travel camp, global cul-
tures camp, movie camp (make your
own movie), animation camp, comput-
er camp, or leadership camp. Most of
these themes can contain a wide vari-
ety of activities that can be altered to fit
nearly any level.
2 ASSESS YOUR SITUATION
Before getting into the details of
your camp you need to get an idea of
what options you have available. If pos-
sible, find out what the English ability
of the students is going to be. Are they
practically fluent or can they barely re-
spond to ‘how are you?’ How many stu-
dents will be attending camp? These two
questions will largely determine what
activities are realistic. Once you have
an idea about your levels and numbers,
you need to determine what space and
resources are available to you. Some-
times the details of these questions
need to come after step three, but de-
termine the general parameters ahead
of selecting the activities.
• What kind of classroom space will
you have available?
• Can you use other areas of the
school and grounds?
dents off-campus?
• Do you have access to technology?
• If so, what kind and how many com-
puters/cameras/projectors?
• Is there a budget for prizes and/or
materials?
The answers to all of these questions
will shape your activity options even fur-
ther. Unfortunately, at the end of the day
you may have to ask yourself the ques-
tion: am I willing to pay for some of the
materials and prizes myself?
3 CHOOSE YOUR ACTIVITIES
Activities are the bones of your
camp: everything hangs off of them. The
best part is that you have lots of time,
at least compared to normal classes,
to do really cool activities. Now, you’ve
got your theme (which you are excited
about), you know a bit about your stu-
dents, and you’ve got an idea of the
resources at your disposal. When you
think of the theme and the materials,
what is the first thing that pops into your
head? For example, when I think ‘sports
camp,’ ultimate frisbee comes slamming
into the forefront of my brain. In this case
it works as a concept because the kids
enjoy it and it can be as easy or hard as
you want it to be. If I thought ‘American
football’ I may have to try again because
that is a pretty complex game to teach in
five days. Jot down your ideas and then
start working out how you would teach
them to the students. It’s possible you
will have a separate topic for each day,
or, that you will focus on one topic that
becomes increasingly complex as camp
progresses. Both are good. Decide
which activities you want to do each
day, list them, and move on to step four.
4
FLESH OUT
YOUR FRAMEWORK
Once you have an activity selected for
each day, you need to start filling in the
details. Camps usually run for half a day
and are broken into four periods (see
planning table at the end of the article).
This is helpful for planning, as you usu-
ally want the first period to be warm-up
activities and teaching time, the second
to be some sort of practice, and the third
and fourth to be activity time. Alterna-
tively, the second and third can be activ-
ity time and the fourth can be clean up
and wind down -- it will depend on the
complexity of the language and activity
you have selected. Identify the terminol-
ogy and language that will be needed for
each activity. Remember that this is an
English camp and the students need to
be learning and using English. Make a
materials list for each day. What will you
need? Where can you get it? Complete
the planning table using bullet points so
you have a constant reference for what
is coming next during camp. It’s easy to
forget things otherwise.
5 MAKE/COLLECT
YOUR MATERIALS
This is pretty self-explanatory. Once you
have determined what you will need, ac-
quire it all beforehand. Make your pre-
sentations and visual aids before camp
starts. You are going to be very busy
during camp, even if you will be having
fun, so this stuff needs to be done ahead
of time. Basically, once this step is com-
pleted you are ready for your camp.
CAMPS ARE A LOT OF WORK.
But they are also a lot of fun and let
teachers interact with their students in a
different setting. Because these groups
are usually smaller, the teacher has a
chance to build really strong relation-
ships with these students which will
continue throughout the year. Planning
the camp can seem daunting, but if you
follow these steps you should have a
solid structure to work with. Good luck
and have fun:
3
4
Eggs at Risk: 3 Amazing
Race Style Activities
MANY PEOPLE HAVE WATCHED,
OR HAVE AT LEAST HEARD OF THE
TRAVEL/ADVENTURE BASED SHOW
“THE AMAZING RACE.”
This particular concept is a perfect
model for an ESL summer or winter
camp. Of course, teachers can’t very
well have students taking on the cra-
zy and dangerous challenges that we
see on the show, but the idea of hav-
ing to pass through challenges as you
‘travel’ the world is a fantastic theme
to tie things together. It allows teach-
ers to give lessons on different coun-
tries/cultures and create some super
fun activities and challenges that the
students must complete for points.
But here is a twist. While friendly
group competition is a fantastic way
to keep camps interesting and the
students engaged, sometimes it’s fun
to put a little more at stake. Point sys-
tems allow everyone to measure their
progress and see where they stand
compared to the others, but even a
point system can be a bit intangible.
An egg, now, that’s something you
can hold and try to protect. Of course
your eggs will be tied to points. If your
team breaks an egg they lose half of
their points, or whatever the teacher
feels is appropriate, but the big loss
will be the fact that one of your eggs
is ‘dead’.
So, why not just leave your eggs safe-
ly in their cartons hidden away in the
back of the fridge? Because they are
your contestants, obviously. There-
fore, they must be with the group for
every one of the class activities and
challenges. One of the first activities
in this camp would be decorating and
naming the eggs. It’s also fun to let the
students design and make little egg
carriers in an effort to keep their eggs
safe. Note that the students must be
able to remove the eggs from this
protection to complete some of the
challenges. Once the eggs are deco-
rated, named, and loved, it’s time to
put them at risk. Here are some great
challenges that do just that.
TRY EGG RACING
AT YOUR ESL CAMP
1 EGG DROP
There are several versions of
this activity. One, involving building a
protective device and dropping eggs
from a high point, is described in a
science camp post elsewhere on this
site. The egg drop referred to here is
less complicated and time consum-
ing. All you need is a large glass of
water, the cardboard interior from a
toilet paper roll, a tray/pie plate, a golf
ball, and an egg.
Set the pie plate/tray on top of the
glass of water. The glass should be
nearly full and sitting somewhere that
will not be damaged in the event of
spills or splashing. Place the card-
board tube upright on the pie plate
directly above the water glass. On top
of the tube balance an egg. The golf
balls are for practice runs. If you strike
the edge of the pie plate perfectly
level and parallel with the floor, it will
shoot straight sideways, hook the bot-
tom of the cardboard tube, and drop
the egg safely into the glass of water.
Any deviation will result in omelettes.
It can be pretty tricky to get right, but
the teacher can control how hard by
having glasses with narrower or wider
mouths. It’s best if it is quite difficult
but manageable at least some of the
time.
To tie this into class have each group
set up their egg drop station and prac-
tice it with a golf ball several times. Be
sure every member of the group gets
a chance to try. Once the students
have realized that there is a pretty
good chance their eggs are going to
be decorating the top of the desk, set
up the English part. It can be almost
any Q&A style game focusing on the
material taught earlier in the camp. Af-
ter explaining the game, set a bench-
mark that groups must reach (ie. you
must get eight out of ten correct). If
they reach this benchmark then they
are not required to attempt the egg
drop. If they do not, then they must
play rock, scissors within their group
and the loser must attempt the egg
drop. Broken eggs result in a point
penalty.
2 M&M RACES
Many teachers are familiar with
the old fashioned egg-on-spoon race
where students must run a set dis-
tance holding an egg on a spoon. It
was a fixture at many of our Elemen-
tary School sports days. Well, here
is a more challenging variation. You
will need two spoon (one large, one
small), a relatively small container, a
large container, and a lot of M&Ms or
Smarties (anything small and round
works, but these double as a snack).
Set the containers at opposite ends of
the course and fill the large one with
M&Ms. Students must use one spoon
to transport M&Ms from the large
container to the small container while
holding the egg balanced on the other
spoon. They can choose if they want
to use the large spoon for M&Ms or
for the egg. Students from each group
must take turns, and the first group to
fill the small container wins. Broken
eggs are penalized.
3
THE GREAT BALLOON
OBSTACLE COURSE
This one takes some significant prep-
aration by the teacher. You will need
various colours of balloons, athletic
tape or straps, printed out words, and
various obstacles. Before class print
off a series of words, place them in-
side of the balloons and inflate the
balloons. Be sure that you colour code
them (ie. blue balloons contain nouns,
yellow contain adjectives, etc.). All
balloons will be herded into one cor-
ner of the classroom. Set up a rela-
tively easy obstacle course. Perhaps
some skipping, a little crawling under
desks, that sort of thing. Students will
be completing it three-legged style so
it can’t be overly complex.
Start the students at the far side of the
room from the balloons and pair them
off within their teams. Each team
5
 should have a single desk at the start
point. Explain to them which balloons
contain which categories of words
and that each team can have only one
pair in the obstacle course at any giv-
en time. When the teacher says go,
the first pairs start into the obstacle
course. Once they have completed all
the obstacles they grab a balloon and
take it back to their group’s desk, pop
it, and lay the word on the desk. As
soon as the first pair is back with the
balloon, the second pair can start into
the course. This goes on for whatever
set time limit the teacher has decided
on. To win, the students must use the
words to create the longest complete
sentence(s).

Oh, and they must do the entire ob-

stacle course carrying an egg. As one
pair returns with a balloon they hand
off the egg to the next pair heading
in. If teachers want to make it harder,
they can make them carry and egg on
a spoon. To make it easier remove the
three-legged element of the race.

IT SEEMS SELF-EVIDENT, BUT

EVERY ONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES
COMES WITH A VERY GOOD CHANCE
OF BROKEN EGGS.
Have cleanup materials on standby
and be aware that the students (and
you) may well end up wearing some
egg. Adding the eggs as something to
lose really adds to the competitive part
of camp. If a group gets to the point
where they have no eggs left, they
can ‘buy’ another egg by sacrificing
a set number of their points. Teach-
ers will have to decide how many is
an appropriate number based on their
points system. It’s essential that it
does not put that team completely out
of the running as they still need some
incentive to try their hardest during an
activity. Aside from that, come up with
as many great activities as possible
to put eggs at risk. Your students will
have a great time.

6
Who Dunnit:
4 Mystery Camp Activities
WHO DOESN’T LOVE A GOOD MYSTERY?
Adults devour murder mystery novels and
soak up crime shows by the millions. Kids
love a good mystery as well. Fortunately,
we teachers can grab ahold of pieces of
this mystery obsession, wrap some Eng-
lish around it, and the little tykes will eat
it up before they even notice the English.
You may well have guessed by now that
most of these activities are directed at el-
ementary school students.
Mystery camps are a ton of fun for both
the students and the teachers, but they
do take a fair bit of work on the part of the
teacher. Having an underlying mystery
that ties an entire week of camp together
makes it way more fun for the students,
but it takes a lot of preplanning by the
teacher. Clues have to be created, and
teachers must devise a way to keep the
final resolution secret until the last day,
feeding the class just the right amount
of information each day. But most of the
work is up front. Once all the planning
and preparation is finished, teachers can
settle in and enjoy the ride.
ENJOY
THESE INVOLVING
ACTIVITIES
FOR YOUR ESL CAMP
1 FINGERPRINTING
We have all watched the TV de-
tective carefully dusting for fingerprints,
lifting those condemning little circles off
the most unlikely places and slapping an-
other criminal behind bars. Students have
already heard of this. What they may not
know are the different kinds of fingerprints
(loop, whorl, etc.) and how the process
actually works. Of course, most teachers
can’t get ahold of a proper fingerprinting
kit complete with ink etc. But, all you re-
ally need are some soft lead pencils, a
few balloons, clear tape, some paper,
and printouts showing the different types
of fingerprints. There are couple different
approaches. The easiest is to have the
students draw a circle on a piece of paper
and then go over it again and again with a
soft lead pencil. Students then press their
finger into this spot and they can transfer
their fingerprint to many other surfaces.
Students can then use the clear tape to
pick up the print and preserve it. To show
the students the intricacies of an indi-
vidual fingerprint, put one on a deflated
balloon and then blow it up. The finger-
print will expand as the rubber stretches
and students will be able to better see the
small differences between fingerprints.
2
TEETH IMPRESSIONS
This one can be especially fun with
students who are young enough to still be
losing teeth. The gaps can result in some
good laughs. There are many different
ways to go about this activity. A popular
one uses two pieces from a Styrofoam
plate. The candidate bites the pieces (one
takes the top impression and one takes
the bottom) and the class can study the
impressions. Another fun method is using
play-dough or some other non-toxic im-
pressionable material. This can be tricky
because the wrong consistency will either
crush away from the teeth and not form
good impressions, or stick to the teeth
themselves, making it difficult to remove
it as a single piece. Less readily avail-
able and more expensive is using paraffin
wax, slightly softened by heat.
Regardless of which method you use
to gather the tooth impressions, have
the students study several different sets
and see if they can spot the differences
and what makes them unique. Point out
where some teeth are tipped at different
angles, missing, chipped, different sizes,
or different numbers of teeth.
3 FOOTPRINT ANALYSIS
There are many kinds of ways to do
footprint analysis. Some methods involve
using footprints to determine the height of
the perpetrator. Sadly, these can be a bit
inaccurate with kids. I don’t know all the
science behind it, and you can still run
through this method using your own foot-
prints, but it will be more useful to focus
on things that pertain to the students.
Likely, the best approach is to look at
shoe size and style. For this, shoes with
very distinctive treads are excellent as
they make some parts of the identification
very easy. There are a couple of ways to
gather samples. One is using water solu-
ble paint, applying it to the bottom of the
students’ shoes, and having them step
on a piece of paper. This can be a little
messy and is best done outside. Be sure
to wash the shoes immediately after the
impressions are made.
Another method is using a tray of damp
sand which the students step into leaving
an impression. This can be fun if you are
into making plaster molds, but that can be
a lot of work. Instead, you can just view
the impressions, measure them, take a
photo, then brush them out and use the
sand again.
Depending on the country you are teach-
ing in, there are various ways to measure
shoe size. Be sure that the method are
using is something the students will rec-
ognize. Regardless of the approach you
take and what you choose to focus on, be
sure that you explain that footprints alone,
especially in shoes, are not enough to
pin point the ‘criminal’ and that there are
many ways they can be altered to be of
little use in an investigation.
4
DECODING
Although this is not as hands-on
as some of the above activities, kids still
love a little bit of mystery involved in de-
coding hidden clues. There are many
ways to incorporate this into a camp.
It can be as simple as leaving a coded
message in which each letter of the al-
phabet is associated with a number or
making a decoder wheel and creating
a message in the appropriate code. My
favourite approach is two-fold. Create a
relatively easy coded message using let-
ter and number association and then tear
it into pieces. These pieces are part of the
‘evidence’ found at the crime scene. The
students must carefully reconstruct the
destroyed paper, then decode the mes-
sage, and finally decide what it tells them
about their case. The nice thing about this
method is that it requires very few materi-
als, little space, and limited supervision.
If there are two teachers, the puzzle can
direct the students to the next activity.
OBVIOUSLY, THESE ARE JUST A FEW
ACTIVITIES THAT KIDS CAN ENJOY
DURING A MYSTERY THEMED CAMP.
Others can include powder analysis, ink/
dye analysis, and a myriad of other op-
tions. The nice thing about fingerprints,
teeth, and feet is that most students al-
ready have a passing familiarity with
them. When teachers introduce the topic,
students will be able to say, yes, I know
what you are talking about, and that frame
of reference only serves to fuel their ex-
citement for the activity. Students enjoy
codes and working with words, especially
when it is time sensitive. Beyond that, the
sky is the limit and teachers have to de-
cide what will work for their class and the
space they have available. Good luck and
happy investigating.
7
 English Through Science:
4 Science Camp Activities
SCIENCE CAMPS ARE A TON OF FUN.
Students love working with their
hands, building things, blowing things
up, making a mess, and all the good
times that go with it. They can be a
lot of fun for teachers as well. Just
remember, the point is still to teach
English, not science. Pair each lesson
with some key phrases and vocabu-
lary and/or make sure the students
are only using English when they are
working on the project. Beyond that,
have a blast! Here are five great sci-
ence camp activities for you to try out.
Note: The language suggestions with
each camp are just that: suggestions.
Depending on the class level, the
teacher will have to determine what,
if any, new phrases they want to in-
troduce. For high level classes there
may not be any new language for
them. In this case, try giving them writ-
ten instructions about the project and
have one student read them aloud to
the rest of their team. This will prac-
tice listening skills, which is often the
weakest area for ESL students.
MAKE YOUR SCIENCE
CAMP A HUGE
SUCCESS
1 EGG DROP
What you need: Eggs, string,
glue, tape, paper, cardboard, pack-
ing peanuts, anything else they might
need/want to protect their egg, bal-
loons or bags
Language suggestions: Condition-
als (if you protect your egg/create a
parachute/ etc.), height words, speed
words, accelerations etc.
How it works: A short lesson on the
phrases and terminology. Explain the
goal to the students and show them
the location where the eggs will be
dropped so they can really under-
stand what they are trying to achieve.
For advanced classes show them
some of the science behind it. Mass,
acceleration, etc. Explain the different
theories behind having your egg sur-
8
vive the drop and show them the ma-
terials they have to work with. Have
the groups make a plan for their egg
drop device. Give them a set time limit
to build their egg device (30-60 min-
utes). Drop the devices from the pre-
determined location (sometimes this
may have to wait a full day for glue to
dry on some of the devices – decide
ahead of time if this will be allowed).
The egg that survives the most drops
is the winner.
2
SPAGHETTI BRIDGES
What you need: Tape, glue,
string, spaghetti, some kind of weight
that can be applied in increments, a
gap to span between two desks is
usually best
Language suggestions: talk about
comparatives and superlatives (stron-
ger/strongest), bridge, build/construct,
thick, thin, distance/measurements
How it works: Depending on the class
level, have a short lesson on the vo-
cabulary and phrases. Hand out the
instructions and specifications for
the bridge and have the students re-
view them in their groups. Have them
sketch out a plan for their bridge.
Emphasise that they are supposed
to use only English in this part of the
lesson. Once they have a plan, hand
out the materials (each group should
get the same amount of each material
measured in advance by the teacher).
This task must be completed within a
set time, so all groups need to start
at once. Usually give the students
15-30 minutes, depending on the
age group, to complete building their
bridge. Once all bridges are complete
the teacher will test them by placing
weights in the middle of the bridge un-
til it breaks. Whichever bridge holds
the most weight wins. As an extension
activity, students can write compara-
tive and superlative sentences about
the bridges.
Notes: Spaghetti creates less plastic
waste than the traditional straws. An-
other option is toothpicks and marsh-
mallows.
3 FLOAT OR SINK
What you need: Tub of wa-
ter, various objects that float or sink,
sheets of paper, glue, tape, staples,
small weights (large coins work great)
Language suggestions: Predictions
(eg. I think that... ) and conclusions,
past tense (eg. The boat sank.), future
tense (eg. The boat will float.)
How it works: At the beginning of
class, give each group a sheet of pa-
per and instruct them to create a pa-
per boat in a set amount of time. Don’t
give any further explanation. After the
time is up float each boat in the tub of
water. Slowly add weight to the boat
until it sinks (note: be sure the weight
is distributed evenly throughout the
boat or it will sink prematurely). Once
this is finished, have a short discus-
sion about what makes things sink or
float. Lay out a variety of objects and
have each group write predictive sen-
tences about whether they will sink or
float. Test each in the tub. Groups get
one point for each prediction they get
correct. Once this is complete, have
a further discussion about why some
things float and others sink. Finally,
have each group make a second pa-
per boat. You may want to give them
a longer time and allow them to use
more materials for this second at-
tempt. Have the students predict how
much weight each boat will take be-
fore it sinks. Repeat the testing pro-
cess with the boats. The boat that
takes the most weight before it sinks
wins, earning a set amount of points.
Groups get a point for each predic-
tion they get correct. Declare a winner
based on points.
4 HOMEMADE ICE CREAM
What you need: Large jars
or cans, large Ziploc bags (two for
each group), cream or half-and-half,
crushed ice or snow, rock salt (not
table salt), vanilla, sugar, gloves
Language suggestions: Cooking
measurement terminology, compara-
tives (hotter/colder)
How it works: Go through the lan-
guage with the class. Explain that to-
day we will be making ice cream with-
out using a freezer!! Tell the students
what materials they will have to work
with and have them speculate about
how/why the process might work.
Hand out a set of instructions to each
pair or group (there is a lot of shaking
in this activity so the students need to
be in pairs at the very least). Depend-
ing on the level, you can review them
with the students or simply leave
them to their own devices. For listen-
ing practice, have one student from
each group stand well away from the
workstation and read the instructions
aloud to the others. They must listen
carefully and follow the verbal direc-
tions to make their ice cream.

Put the ice in a jar or can with 5-8 table-

spoons of rock salt, seal it and shake
for five to eight minutes. Then mix half
a cup of half & half, one tablespoon of
sugar, and half a tablespoon of vanilla
in one of the large Ziploc bags. Seal
this with as little air inside as possi-
ble and then double bag it inside the
other Ziploc (one bag is not enough!).
Place these two bags in with the salt
and ice and then shake for another 15
minutes or until the ingredients have
taken on the proper consistency for
ice cream. Remove the bags from the
ice mixture, rinse them with fresh wa-
ter, open them, and enjoy!

For extra language practice have the

students describe the process using
comparatives (ie. adding more salt
made the jar colder).

THESE FOUR IDEAS ARE ONLY A

SMALL SAMPLE OF THE MANY
SCIENCE ACTIVITIES THAT CAN BE,
AND HAVE BEEN, USED FOR ESL
CAMPS.
Many of them are best for younger
students, but at the end of the day
any experiment that allows students
to practice using English to complete
a task or discuss an outcome is suit-
able. When planning a science camp,
be sure you take the time to deter-
mine which language points will be
part of each activity. Going in without
a solid plan will leave you scrambling
for some sort of language outcome.
Finally, test the activities before you
take them to class. Ingredients and
results can vary region to region. Be-
yond that, let’s face it: science is fun
for us, too. Have a blast!

9
 What Would Superman Do?:
4 Activities for a Superhero Camp
Planning an English immersion camp
can be a very challenging undertaking,
especially if you are dealing with some
apathetic middle school students who
would like nothing more than to be
left alone for their vacation. Although
some teachers may be able to get
their students really stoked about a
week of grammar topics, I have nev-
er been one of them. Instead, I try to
meet them halfway, engage with their
interests, and spend camp working on
fluency as much as anything else. One
great way to do this is to design a su-
perhero themed camp.
What with Hollywood pumping out a
ton of superhero movies over the last
several years, middle school students
are really tuned into this particular top-
ic. There are a plethora of ways to ap-
proach a superhero themed camp de-
pending on the level of the students, the
depth of the teacher’s own experience
with superheroes, and the resources
available to him or her. Try showing
sections of the Avengers movie at the
beginning of each day (of course you
will show it in English). Avengers has
the advantage of featuring several dif-
ferent superheroes, broadening the
selection for the students to use as
models. There are many potential ac-
tivities centred on superheroes, but
here are a few good options.
TRY THESE 4
ACTIVITIES FOR A
SUPERHERO CAMP
1
NEW TWIST
ON AN OLD HERO
Just like the constant updating of the
Batman, Superman, or Hulk fran-
chises, why not give your students a
chance to remake an old superhero.
Depending on your location, it may
even be possible to locate a few older
copies of the appropriate comic for the
students to view. If not, most students
have a pretty good idea of the history
of their favourite superheroes. Ideally,
split the class into groups of three to
five. Try to ensure there is a high level
student in each group, and, if possible,
10
try to have an artistic/creative student
in each group. Each group selects their
superhero, preferably one that has not
been featured in a movie in the last
several years. They then write down
the characteristics of this superhero
based on the comics or movies. Once
this task is complete, the teacher will
explain to the students that they must
recreate this superhero. Students can
either add new physical and personal-
ity traits to the existing framework, or,
start with just the concept (ie. a man
associated with bats for batman) and
rebuild them from the ground up. They
must write sentences describing the
changes they have made and illustrate
the new superhero on a white sheet of
paper or a poster using markers etc.
For this activity you will need markers,
blank paper, and a sheet of lined pa-
per. Depending on the level of your stu-
dents, you may want to have prompts
for characteristics available.
2 HEROES AND VILLAINS
Break the students into groups.
Each group can choose if they want to
create a villain (monster) or a hero. If
there is an imbalance, have groups re-
solve it through drawing straws, play-
ing rock, paper, scissors, or playing
a warm-up game for points with first
place getting to choose first, second
place second and so on.
Groups must create a name for their
character, an illustration of him in his
full superhero outfit, a list of his gad-
gets, a list of his special power(s), a
description of his various character-
istics, and his secret identity. How
much detail each teacher requires will
depend on how much time they have
and the students’ levels. Ideally, break
the development up over several days.
Start with the name and special pow-
ers. This will allow them to build the
rest in a way that makes sense. For
higher level classes, it can be help-
ful to regularly ask the students ‘why’
throughout the project. Why does your
character have these powers? etc.
Students should develop the charac-
teristics list and secret identity around
the same time. Be sure to explain to
the students that there should be
some similarities between the hero/
villain and the person who is their se-
cret identity. Creating the gadgets can
be an ongoing process as new ideas
will certainly come to them through-
out the creative process. The very last
task should be to create an illustration
of the character. This does not mean
the teacher should discourage them
from doing concept sketches as they
will need some time to get a firm visual
of their character. Have them illustrate
the hero/villain on a large poster with
the secret identity as a smaller section
in the bottom corner.
This process can be done in several
class periods or spread out over many
days to meet the demands of the
teacher’s schedule. Having said that,
do not leave them too long with a sin-
gle task or they will get bored and rest-
less. Be sure to keep introducing new
elements on a regular basis so that the
students have new things to focus on.
As an extension, students can create
an origin story for their hero/villain, a
fictional world/city for them to inhabit,
and the ideal partner for their charac-
ter.
3 CREATE YOUR OWN
SUPER HERO COMIC
This can be a great follow up to the
above project because the students
will have already created the char-
acters they need in their comic. Al-
ternatively, teachers can encourage
students to use heroes/villains from
existing comics and just create a new
storyline.
Depending on the number of students
in a given camp, it is possible to devel-
op comic books either in groups or as
an entire class. There are several parts
to this. You can start with either char-
acter or plot development. Superhero
comics tend to have a pretty standard
story arc so the students really only
need to fill in the details. Set param-
eters for the story (it must have a hero
and a villain, it must have at least five
characters, etc.) and then explain that
general points of a good story plot (in-
troduction, rising action, climax, and
resolution). Lower level classes will
struggle with this in English, so teach-
ers can simply turn them loose and
see what results or make sure you
have time (and maybe translation) to
ensure that students fully understand
what they need to do. Teachers can
use a version of the above activity for
character development.

Supply them with papers that have

comic book style frames in different
configurations so they have some se-
lection. Beyond setting a rough page
goal, it’s probably best to leave as
much of the creative process up to the
students as possible. To get the cre-
ative juices flowing, show them some
clips from super hero movies, or have
a few comic books available for them
to browse. Once things are moving
along, teachers should be able to sit
back and watch the creative process
happen.

4 WHAT WOULD
SUPERMAN DO?
This is a great warm-up activity to get
the students thinking about superhe-
roes and what makes them great. Cre-
ate a set of situations. Some of these
should be fantastic and others related
to the students own interests and lives
(if possible). Divide the students into
groups and explain that a situation
will be presented and they must ask
themselves ‘what would Superman
do?’ to try and come up with the most
honourable and effective way to fix
the problem. Whichever group is best
able to balance these two things gets
a point for that situation.

WHEN YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT

SUPERHEROES, THERE ARE TONS
OF ACTIVITIES THAT STUDENTS WILL
ENJOY, ESPECIALLY IF YOU MIX IN
A LIBERAL SPRINKLING OF SUPER-
HERO MOVIE CLIPS. STUDENTS
REALLY JUST NEED SOMETHING
TO HOLD THEIR INTEREST, SO, AS
LONG AS YOU ARE GETTING THEM
INVOLVED IN SOMETHING OTHER
THAN ENDLESS GRAMMAR WORK-
SHEETS, YOU’RE OFF TO A GOOD
START. MIX IN A LITTLE HERO TIME
AND LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL.

11
 Explorers Camp:
3 Exploration Camp Activities
GROWING UP, WE ALL HAD THOSE
DREAMS OF SETTING OUT ON OUR
VERY OWN ADVENTURE INTO
UNCHARTED TERRITORY, BLAZING
A NEW TRAIL, OVERCOMING OBSTA-
CLES, AND BATTLING VARIOUS ‘BAD
GUYS’ ALONG THE WAY.
Part of this may be that most of us
were fed a pretty regular diet of tales
about early North American explorers
and the various things they did, but a
bigger part is the simple truth that kids
just love adventure and daring and all
the things that those entail. So, what
if you could help them blaze their very
own trail, create a map, and find the
treasure? Think they might be inter-
ested? I know my students would be.
So, how do we go about doing that?
Well, there are several approaches.
For obvious reasons this is primarily a
camp project. You need large, uninter-
rupted blocks of time and the focus is
quite narrow. Ideally, the students will
have already been exposed to direc-
tions-based dialogues and vocabu-
lary, allowing the camp to build off a
common starting point. If the students
have not been exposed to directions
material, this will likely have to be day
one, lesson one. Even if they have, a
little ten minute refresher of some de-
sign would not hurt. Be sure that you
create a good context. Maybe show
them the cartoon version of Treasure
Island or some other treasure hunt-
ing or exploring movie to get them in
the mood, then relate your camp to
that. Either way, you can’t just toss
your kids into the activities and expect
them to be excited: they must fit within
a larger camp framework and story.
A heads up before you dive too far
into this process, it takes a lot of prep-
aration on the teacher’s part, but it’s
really worth it to see the kids enjoying
themselves and using English to ac-
complish fun tasks.
12
TRY THESE
3 EXPLORATION
CAMP ACTIVITIES
1 A GOOD OLD FASHIONED
TREASURE MAP
This one is relatively flexible and can
be adapted for various levels. Ideally,
it takes the form of either a scavenger
hunt (where they must follow a map
to a set location where they receive
the next small map to carry on with
their quest) or a written set of direc-
tions that takes them to the final loca-
tion at in a roundabout manner. Both
of these ensure that they are not able
to just cut corners and go straight to
where ‘x marks the spot’. The first of
the two is my favourite, but it takes
more work on the teacher’s part. You
must first create the course and iden-
tify the various checkpoints where
students will receive the next section
of their treasure map. If at all possible,
have a teacher or some other English
speaking volunteer there to ensure
that the students are on track and that
the next section of the map does not
go missing. I prefer to have the dif-
ferent groups take different routes to
arrive at the final destination. To do
this you have use the same stopping
points but change the order for each
group. Obviously, teachers will have
to create and cut up all the different
treasure maps well before the begin-
ning of the activity.
To increase the difficulty of this ver-
sion, teachers can have a task/riddle/
puzzle that students must complete at
each station to get the next section of
their map.
2 MAKE YOUR OWN MAP
Once again, there are two pos-
sible versions of this activity. One is
quite simple and involves the students
creating a route along city streets with
an assigned number of stops. This is
a relatively common directions activity
and pretty self-explanatory. The meth-
od I will discuss here is much more
complex and, fair warning, works
best if the teacher has a solid grasp
of orienteering. It requires a relatively
detailed map complete with a scale
and compass lines, a compass, a
ruler or some other measuring device
that matches the scale, a large park
(preferably with unmapped trails), and
a measuring tape or marked-out 100
metre line.
To begin with, students must deter-
mine how much distance they cover
with each step. To do this use the tape
measure or marked out area to cre-
ate a set distance in metres. Students
then walk this distance counting their
steps. When they cover the entire
distance, they divide the distance by
the number of steps to come up with
how long their strides are. Be sure to
tell the students that it is best to walk
normally for this, as many will try and
step as far as they can and this makes
the measurement even less accurate.
Once this is done, show the students
how to accurately use a map and com-
pass. Rather than detail the methods
here, I will leave it to the teachers to
discover this for themselves, -- how-
ever, I will say that once you under-
stand the basic principles, the rest fol-
lows pretty quickly. Have the students
practice following a set of compass
bearings across the soccer pitch or
around the school to get them used to
using the compass and map.
One they have grasped this, show
them how it is possible to create a
route on the map. You do this as a
group. One person stands at the start
point with the compass. The second
person walks in a straight line, count-
ing their steps. Once they reach the
point where a turn is made they stop.
The first person shoots a compass
bearing from the start point to where
the person has stopped. They then
transfer that bearing to the map, stu-
dent two calls out the distance cov-
ered and they draw a line from the
start point, along that bearing for the
given distance. This is then the first
leg of the ‘trail’ being mapped. Of
course, maps, compasses, and paces
being what they are this is far from
a perfect system, but it will certainly
keep the students entertained and us-
ing direction based language as well
as teaching them the difficulty of cre-
ating maps before computers.

3 RIDDLE MAPS
These are very similar to the first
activity, but all directions are given in
riddles. Now, even though riddles can
be adapted for various levels, this ac-
tivity would likely be a bit difficult for
lower level students. Once again, the
teacher must create the initial route(s)
and then go the extra mile of coming
up with effective riddles or puzzles
that give groups the next step in their
journey. Complexity will have to vary
by level, but it is a good idea to tie the
riddles to concepts you have recent-
ly practiced with the students, or to
things that they will already be very fa-
miliar with. Most likely this activity will
be taking place in their own school/
neighbourhood so there should be no
shortage of common landmarks to use
as references. It can be as simple or
as complicated as the teacher wants
to make it. An example clue would
be ‘I am three colours and I help with
traffic control. If you look around you
will see me.’ This of course is a rela-
tively simple clue for a traffic light.
From there you could add references
to oddly shaped buildings, common
hangouts, or places that students love
to hate. Really, you are only limited by
your imagination and your students’
levels.

THESE ACTIVITIES ARE THE SORT

THAT GET STUDENTS MOVING AND
KEEP THEM ENGAGED.
They can work well on their own, but
they work best as part of a larger
framework or story line. Teachers can
create a theme camp based around
the idea of searching for a buried trea-
sure in an unexplored land with a map
that is entirely riddles. They could then
move on to creating a more accurate
map (through the mapping activity)
so that they can find their way back
to the treasure at a later date. Having
the activities strung together will help
keep the kids interested and lessen
the sense that they are just jumping
from one topic to another. Best of luck
with your explorations.

13
 Run Them Happy:
5 Days of Sports Camp
FOR THOSE TEACHERS WHO ARE
REQUIRED TO TEACH SUMMER
AND WINTER ENGLISH IMMER-
SION CAMPS, IT CAN BE DIFFICULT
TO COME UP WITH VIABLE IDEAS
THAT WILL HOLD THE ATTENTION OF
STUDENTS WHO ARE MORE LIKELY
THAN NOT ONLY SEMI-WILLING
PARTICIPANTS IN THIS INTERRUP-
TION OF THEIR VACATION TIME.
Depending on your school, chronic
tardiness, absence, and apathy can
take a significant toll on your camp.
The solution? Motivate those students
with sports time! A sports camp is a
great way to get your students moving
around and help them forget that they
are actually in school.
A quick disclaimer: this type of camp
can be adapted for any English lev-
el, but it is very difficult (especially
through a language barrier) to mo-
tivate students who hate sports to
participate. If you have several non-
athletic types in your camp group you
will have to be very careful to select
sports that they can be successful at
or, if necessary, avoid sports camp
completely.
Basically, there are two different ways
to approach this project. One is to
pick a great sport that you like and
know well (preferably one that the
students don’t know much about) and
spend the entire camp building their
skills, understanding, and vocabulary
around this single sport. That concept
is discussed elsewhere on this site
as an after school class idea, so I will
confine myself to the second method.
This method is one where they learn/
practice a different sport every day.
Most of the days will follow a simi-
lar format with the exceptions of the
last day so I will lay out what that for-
mat will look like (I assume that most
camps will consist of four, forty-five to
fifty minute periods).
14
PLAN YOUR SPORTS
CAMP
TO RUN YOUR
CAMPERS HAPPY
1 FIRST PERIOD: WARM-UP
AND VOCABULARY
By warm-up I mean English warm-
up, not jogging and stretching. That
comes later, as the focus of these
camps is, after all, English. These
warm-ups can be as simple as a
crossword or an English based quiz
game. Anything to get the students
back into thinking about and using
English.
Then you teach them the basic vocab-
ulary that they will need. This falls into
two categories. Most important is the
vocabulary that they will use for on-
field communication. This is the ma-
terial that they will be most interested
in. Second is the vocabulary that they
will need to understand the rules and
the playing area. As the camp pro-
gresses, much of the vocabulary will
be repeated, so this section can move
away from the teacher speaking and
towards scavenger hunt or crossword
games where the students discover
the necessary vocabulary.
2 SECOND PERIOD: RULES
AND REGULATIONS
Introducing the sport is really impor-
tant. Teachers need to show enthusi-
asm and get the students excited to
play. A great way to do this is to show
highlight clips for the sport if there are
any available. Then explain the rules.
Although this seems simple, teachers
should start thinking about this well
ahead of time and be sure that they
are using the simplest version of the
rules and the easiest language to ex-
plain them. A great thing about sports
camp is it can interest some students
who are usually apathetic towards
English, but this means that explana-
tions must be kept very simple to al-
low these students to follow them.
Once the basic explanation is com-
pleted in the classroom, it’s time to
take the students to the playing area
and start to demonstrate the rules.
It is important that this is very struc-
tured. Teachers will either have a vol-
unteer student work with them, or, if
possible, have the co-teacher model
the rules. Run through each rule and
give an example of fair-play and a
foul. After each example ask the stu-
dents whether it is fair or foul. If there
is time, have students pair off and
give examples of a foul based on a
rule that the teacher calls out.
It should also be pointed out that there
are only forty-five minutes in this pe-
riod and that will limit the complexity
of the rules that can be explained and,
by extension, the sports that can be
taught. American football, for exam-
ple, is far too complicated to be taught
at a sports camp.
3
THIRD PERIOD:
DRILL TIME
Because these sports are unfamiliar,
some of the students will need time to
practice some of the necessary skills.
Almost every sport has a relatively
small set of absolutely essential skills
and many practice drills for these can
be found online. Select two or three
basic skills. Model them one at a time
and have the students practice them
(if possible) by themselves or in pairs.
Once they have had a few minutes
of playing with these skills stop them
and introduce a larger drill to practice
these target skills. At this point teach-
ers should also be emphasising when
to use the on-field vocabulary that the
students learned in the first period.
For example, calling ‘Here, I’m open!’
when they are ready for a pass, ‘Look
deep!’ if they are free downfield, or
whatever vocabulary is necessary to
play the game. This should be a re-
quired part of each drill and make the
students stick to it! It’s easy for them
(and the teacher) to get caught up in
just practicing the sport, but everyone
needs to remember that this is Eng-
lish camp.
4 FOURTH PERIOD: PLAY IT!
The most important part of the
day: play the game! This is why the
students signed up for camp. It’s im-
portant that the teacher watches dur-
ing the drills to see where the differ-
ent skill levels are and creates teams
that are relatively even. A blow-out is
no fun for anyone. Before the game
starts, gather the students and have
them recap the rules and empha-
sise that communication on the field
should be in English. Depending on
the level of the class, the teacher may
want to introduce a card system simi-
lar to soccer. The first time a student
speaks their native language on the
field, they receive a yellow card and
their team loses a point. A second
offense results in expulsion from the
game. As a general rule there is no
point in trying to regulate the conver-
sation on the sideline: the students
are too excited to focus on English
when they are not actually playing. It
may be best to introduce this element
partway through the camp to allow
students time to get comfortable be-
fore adding more pressure.

SPORTS CAMPS A GREAT TIME FOR

ALL INVOLVED AND IT DOESN’T
HURT FOR THE TEACHER TO GET IN
THERE AND PLAY.
Just remember that it is about the
students, not about you. Also re-
member that playing the games is
why most students signed up and
because of this, they are likely to be
excited, talkative, and squirmy during
the early part of the day. There is a
good chance that your classroom will
be noisier than usual and you should
plan accordingly. Most of all, remem-
ber that they are here to have fun as
much as learn English and you might
as well join in the laughter.

15
 You’re a Star!: 3 Approaches
to Movie Making Camp
KIDS THESE DAYS LOVE THEIR
TECHNOLOGY.
In my school we have to take away
their cell phones at the beginning of
the day or they will never listen to a
word we say. While you can debate
the merits and pitfalls of this technol-
ogy obsession, there is nothing stop-
ping you from using it to your advan-
tage. Enter movie camp. Given the
amount of time spent watching mov-
ies (either feature or YouTube) most
students will jump at the chance to
play a part in creating one.
There are many different ways to go
about creating movies with your class.
The teacher’s technological know-
how will be one major limiting factor,
along with students’ English levels
and confidence. To be clear, these ac-
tivities do not require any significant
expertise with video editing software
or advanced video equipment. Most
basic cameras (and many phones)
come with built in video capabili-
ties that are adequate to the task. Of
course, the higher quality the camera
the better the results will be, but it’s
best not to fixate on that. One com-
mon problem is sound quality. Some
cameras pick up sound very well, but
others tend to amplify background
noise. It is possible to purchase rela-
tively cheap microphones from tech-
nology shops that will help with this
problem. Compatibility and practical
use will vary camera to camera and
classroom to classroom, so be sure
that you have tested the equipment
before camp.
Beyond the camera and computer for
basic editing, the materials needed
vary based on the type of camp you
are going to teach. On that note, here
are a few concepts around which you
could build a camp.
TRY THESE
3 APPROACHES TO
MOVIE MAKING CAMP
1 RE-CREATE A MOVIE
Certain Hollywood movies are
16
popular almost anywhere in the world
and any of these can work as a re-
make for your class. There are a cou-
ple different ways to go about picking
a movie. The easiest is to select one
of the more recent blockbusters that
was in theatres sometime in the last
year. Odds are you will be able to fig-
ure out which of these the students
enjoyed just by asking around regard-
ing who has seen it. The other option
is to select one of the ‘timeless’ clas-
sics or a movie that speaks to your
particular country of origin and have
the students remake that film.
While this concept may seem like an
easy one, it takes quite a bit of up-
front work on the part of the teacher.
The storyline has to be distilled down
to something that can be filmed in
about ten minutes and there needs to
be the correct number of characters
so that each student has a speaking
role in the film. Essentially, the teach-
er needs to take the main plot points
from the movie and rewrite the story.
Dialogue needs to match the students’
levels and be in short enough pieces
that they can memorize it. More ad-
vanced classes can do much of this
work themselves with guidance from
the teacher, but even this method re-
quires a lot of discussion about story-
lines, the main plot points, characters,
and dialogue that takes a significant
amount of preparation by the teacher.
When actually doing this activity in
camp, teachers can involve students
in many different ways. Students can
help re-write the movie, create cos-
tumes, make sets, rehearse together,
practice scenes, etc. It is important
that every student has a designated
role and, ideally, they all have a part
that they must play in the film. How
that happens depends entirely on
the class levels, confidence, and the
teacher’s own preferences.
2 A SCENE FROM A PLAY
For more advanced classes,
it might be possible to take a scene
(or possibly an entire act) from a play
and film it with your students as the
cast. Depending on their level, age,
and interest this could be anything
from Hamlet to a more recent comedy
piece. It may even be possible to have
the students identify the play they
would like to re-create. Usually (espe-
cially in the case of Shakespeare) it
is necessary to simplify the dialogue
so that the students are able to under-
stand what the characters are actually
saying rather than just memorizing
words they don’t understand.
A fun alternative spin on this project
is to have the students select a play
from their own culture and translate
the dialogue from one of the scenes
into English. This provides the added
challenge of explaining to the English
teacher not only the dialogue, but the
setting and intent behind a scene. Ob-
viously, this will only work with really
advanced classes or with a lot of help
from a co-teacher.
3
STOP MOTION ANIMATION
This project is great for students
that are a bit shy or afraid to be seen
on camera. It does, however, take a
bit of technological knowhow on the
part of the teacher. There are vari-
ous stop motion editing programs that
can be downloaded online, some of
which are free. Depending on which
program you are using, the technique
for actual filming may vary, but basi-
cally you are going to take a single
frame picture, move the object, take
another picture, move the objects,
and so on. The camp would start with
the students coming up with a basic
story idea. It is usually best for the
teacher to supply a general topic and
let the students go from there. Once
a basic storyline is completed the
students then have to make the stop
motion characters and settings. Often
these are simply paper cut-outs that
can be laid on a table, photographed,
then moved as necessary. These can
be as decorated as the teacher and
students wish to make them and often
creating the characters can take most
of a camp day.
The easiest form of stop motion is
done without any dialogue, so the
English in this camp comes from the
process of creating the film rather
than acting in a film. Encourage the
students to coordinate using English
and have them write/draw English
subtitles to go with the stop motion
filming. One of the tricks with this
camp is what to do on the last day.
Because the students will want to see
the finished product that day, and be-
cause the editing can take a fair bit of
time on the part of the teacher, most
of the actual shooting has to be com-
pleted by the second to last day. The
final day could include a viewing, an
end of camp party, and various Eng-
lish games. Of course, this is less of
an issue if the students are able to do
the editing themselves.

IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE IDEAS,

MOVIE CAMPS CAN CENTRE ON THE
RE-CREATION OF PIXAR SHORTS,
FILMING A PUPPET SHOW, CREAT-
ING A FILM BASED ON A FAMOUS
CHILDREN’S STORY, OR JUST ABOUT
ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN DREAM
UP.
Regardless of which of these ap-
proaches you select, or if you choose
to take an entirely different route, re-
member that you will have to build
this project slowly. Day one will mostly
be vocabulary work and outlining the
project to make sure that all the stu-
dents fully understand what is expect-
ed of them.

17
 World Culture Camp: 4 Periods
of a Multicultural Classroom
MULTICULTURALISM IS BECOM-
ING A REALITY FOR ALMOST EVERY
COUNTRY IN THE WORLD AND
BUILDING AWARENESS AND SEN-
SITIVITY TO THIS REALITY IS A VERY
VALUABLE PART OF HAVING A
NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHER IN THE
CLASSROOM.
For several of my students, my class-
es are the first extended contact they
have had with another culture and,
let’s face it, there is only so much you
can convey in between teaching them
English. Having said that, many of my
students are most engaged when I
talk about my home country and the
cultural differences between Korea
and Canada. They love it. They ask
questions. Students that I thought
slept with their eyes open through all
English classes start stringing words
together to make inquiries. Given the
importance of multiculturalism and the
interest the students take in the topic,
it’s a great concept to build a camp
around.
Although the specifics will vary based
on the teacher’s personal preferenc-
es, the levels of their classes, and the
interests of the students, one solid for-
mat for a multicultural class is to se-
lect a different country/culture to focus
on for each day. For obvious reasons
you should avoid discussing the cul-
ture of the country you are teaching
in, but you should also be aware of
what other cultures the students are
knowledgeable about and avoid them
as well. Unless they are cultures into
which you have significant insight and
experience. The first day should prob-
ably be focussed on your own cul-
ture as the students will already have
some experience in that topic and
likely a vested interest in learning a bit
more about where you are from and
why you are so different. Beyond that,
choose cultures that you and your stu-
dents might be interested in. Egypt is
always a good one as there is a good
chance that the students have at least
heard of the pyramids and sphinx.
France and the Eiffel Tower are popu-
lar along with Mexico and Brazil. Aus-
tralia’s animals always draw a certain
18
amount of interest as well. So choose
your five cultures that will make up
your five days of camp and then start
preparing for each day. Most days can
follow a similar format. Laid out below
is an idea of what can be included in
each of four 45-50 minute periods that
make up a standard summer/winter
English camp.
SPLIT YOUR
MULTICULTURAL
CLASSROOM INTO
THE FOLLOWING
PERIODS
1
FIRST PERIOD: WARM UP/
INTRODUCTION
Warm-up activities are essential in
camps. Many of the students have
been up late with friends or are sim-
ply not that excited about having to
be in school during vacation. These
don’t have to be in any way related to
the topic of the day. In fact, in some
ways it is better if they are not. Things
like arts and crafts activities go well
here. Teachers might consider hav-
ing a week-long craft project (pinata,
or egg drop) and allocate fifteen or
twenty minutes at the beginning of
first period to working on that project.
It allows the students to get back into
the camp and does not start forcing
them to use a lot of English when they
are still half asleep. For the first day,
have a game that requires an esca-
lating amount of interaction to get the
students comfortable talking with one
another in the room.
The second part of this period is the
general presentation of the culture
that the students will be engaging with
that day. Hit up a few of the highlights
and the most popular things that cul-
ture is known for. Also, dig up a few
of the strangest things about that cul-
ture/country. Weird foods, unique ani-
mals, cool cultural practices, things it
ranks best/worst in the world, etc. are
all great things to insert into this pre-
sentation to help keep the students
interested.
2 SECOND PERIOD:
ACTIVITY TIME
It is important that the second period
involves some sort of activity to get
the students engaged in the material,
using English, and thinking about at
least one aspect of that day’s culture.
I am a personal fan of including food
as a very important part of a culture,
so in this period I like to have a recipe
event for one (or more) of the tradition-
al foods. These get more complicated
as the week goes on. On the first day,
they have to read a recipe, look up all
the ingredients and learn the meaning
of the measurements and instructions
in English. On the second day, they
have to pull all the ingredients/mea-
surements out of a wordsearch and
then compile the recipe. For the third
day, each step is given in the form of
a clue/riddle and the students must
solve them as a group. On the fourth
day, the class is given an activity
where each group gets only part of a
recipe and they must ask other groups
for their steps/ingredients to compile a
full recipe (this always results in some
interesting deal making happening).
Finally, on the fifth day, clue based
recipes are cut up and hidden all over
the school with scavenger hunt clues
telling the students where they are lo-
cated. They must find and solve the
clues to complete the recipe.
For those who are not foodies, this
period can serve to bolster the stu-
dents’ knowledge of the culture/coun-
try. Activities can range. Cut up a map
of the country and have them assem-
ble it. Teach the steps to a traditional
dance. Have a research and presen-
tation activity (requires either access
to computers or the teacher to supply
the material). Anything that gets the
kids actually engaging with the ma-
terial, and preferably something that
has them out of their seats for at least
part of the time.
3
THIRD PERIOD:
FOOD TIME
Based on space and material avail-
ability, this part can be tricky for some On top of that, most of these activities
teachers. However, most cultures are fun for the students and can give
have at least one or two dishes that the teachers a good laugh as they
don’t require heating or a lot of materi- watch them unfold.
als to make them work. Obviously, my
preference is to have access to the
school kitchen for this part of the day.
Select recipes that the students can
understand and complete in a reason-
able time. These are what they would
find in the second period. Each group
will make their own dish (sometimes
they are all the same, sometimes
each group has a different recipe) and
then the teacher will be the taste tes-
ter and declare a winner.

An alternative (if the teacher is up for a

bit of extra work) is to prepare the dish
at home and then have a quiz based
on the information that the students
learned in the first period. Samples of
the dish can be given out as a prize.
This activity also works independent
of any food and teachers can award
team-based points to keep the com-
petition interesting.

4 FOURTH PERIOD:
GAME TIME
This is where the students will really
get to start moving and trying parts of
another culture. Most countries/cul-
tures have certain traditional games
that are well known (at least within
that country). Many of these can be
adapted for the classroom. It’s up
to the teacher whether they want to
make a compilation of these games
and hold a mad-minute or relay style
race, or focus on one larger game for
the entire period. It will also be up to
the teacher how they want to incorpo-
rate English into this period. If noth-
ing else, the instructions should be in
English. If teachers really want to add
more English into the mix, they can
use a relay style format and students
must complete an English vocabulary
test, puzzle, etc. before moving on to
the next activity. To increase the com-
petitive edge, winning teams can be
awarded points based on how they
place in these games.

WHILE THESE ACTIVITIES DO NOT

EVEN BEGIN TO CAPTURE THE
COMPLEXITY OF MULTICULTURAL-
ISM, THEY DO SERVE TO AT LEAST
EXPOSE THE STUDENTS TO ELE-
MENTS OF OTHER CULTURES IN A
FUN, POSITIVE WAY.
These interactions can lead to an in-
terest and awareness down the line.

19
 How to Plan a 2-Day ESL Ad-
venture Camp in 9 Simple Steps
YOU KNOW YOUR STUDENTS
SHOULD PRACTICE THEIR ENGLISH
OVER THEIR VACATION OR BREAK
FROM CLASS, BUT YOU HAVE LITTLE
TIME TO COORDINATE VACATION
ACTIVITIES, AND STUDENTS SEEM
TO LACK INTEREST.
A 2-Day Adventure Camp that is sim-
ple and short – as well as unique and
fun – may work for you! With these
nine steps, you can plan a camp from
start to finish in a week, and maybe
even make some extra money when
your class schedule is vacant.
use his home. Pick a parent that cabulary from a list to pictures to
has a large house with a big patio gain a certain amount of distance
and preferably value-added ma- to the island. Each right answer
terial goods like trampolines. can be 2 miles toward 44 miles,
or whatever distance. The groups
• Ask a local public school if you
win points on a scale in order of
can use its facilities. Preferably
those that complete the activity
the school will have playing fields,
in less time. The group with the
activity gyms, an auditorium, a
most points after completing all of
pool, and other value-added ac-
the activities at the end of the two
tivity boosters.
days wins the treasure!
• Go somewhere interesting, like a
• For adults/advanced learners:
museum, that is free or requires
You can be more creative with
only a small day admission.
your advanced learners and

3
adults. Go to a nice park close by
FIGURE OUT A CATERER.
PLAN A PERFECT and supply value-added adven-
2-DAY ESL Students need lunch, 2 snacks,
ture activities, depending on your
ADVENTURE CAMP and drinks. You can eliminate this cost
group’s energy level and what
IN 9 SIMPLE STEPS by telling students to pack and bring
their polled interests were. For
example, you can choose a park
everything, or minimize the cost by

1
POLL STUDENTS TO
ESTABLISH INTEREST
AND PREFERRED THEMES.
Ask students 1) what they want to do
over vacation, 2) if they would partici-
pate in an activity, and 3) how much
money they would spend on an activ-
ity. You should be able to visualize a
budget and participation number from
a quick five minute conversation.
with a pool if they indicated they
asking them to bring lunch and only
wanted to swim, or with nice hik-
catering snacks. Have a water cool-
ing trails if they wanted to hike, or
er available to minimize drink costs.
with a baseball field if they want to
Food is a great way to entice students,
play. If the weather is poor where
however! Also eating time can be fun,
you are, split the camp into two
especially if you plan food games, like
Saturdays and plan to visit two
sandwich building contests where stu-
different interesting museums in
dents can only put the foods that they
the city, or some other indoors lo-
can name in English on their buns.
cal getaway.
4 DESIGN YOUR
ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES.
Adults will probably respond poorly to
a game, so disguise learning activities

2 PICK A VENUE
THAT IS FREE OR CHEAP
AND THAT CAN BE A PLATFORM
FOR ACTIVITIES.
One of the barriers to having any sort
of camp is cost. The greatest cost with
a camp is the venue. Here are some
ideas of places where you can host a
camp that will keep costs down and
also be adventure platforms for fun
activities!
• A local park: If you group is large,
you can ask parents or older
teens to accompany the group to
Based on your location and desired
budget, plan activities for students to
with an adult theme or a value-added
activity. If you are at a park hiking,
you can give each student five secret
vocabulary words and task her/him
practice depending on their learning
level and age. The keys are to dis- to work those words into conversa-
guise as much learning as possible tion as much as possible throughout
the morning. Also prepare conver-
as adventure games and to stick to
sation interview questions for them
review as opposed to learning new
and have them hike in pairs and talk
concepts. For example:
about a childhood event, or a work
• For children: For little kids, you
story. At lunch or at a hiking rest, ask
can use a pirate theme and plan
them to relay what they learned about
the whole two days as an adven-
their partners and see if students can
ture to discover a buried treasure
guess what the secret words of their
prize. Give groups, or individuals
colleagues mean!
depending on your camp size,

help. Pick a place that is close by
to keep your transportation costs
down. Make your camp a day
camp to keep costs down.
• If you do not have local parks, or
if your weather is poor, ask one of
the student´s parents if you can
game playing boards designed
as maps with 4-5 activity stations
each day. Activity stations should
incorporate basic grammar and
vocabulary, such as a sail to Skull
Island racing game where stu-
dents have to match the right col-
or parrots, animals, or other vo-
5
ESTABLISH A BUDGET.
Estimate a working budget so
you can establish price for your stu-
dents. Elements of your budget will
be:
• Cost of venue rental, if any.

20
• Your salary and salary of any in-
terns or additional staff for a big
group.
• Food and drinks.
• Transportation (if parents cannot
bring them).
• Activities/materials.
• Chair and table rentals and/or
transportation of them if a supply
is available.
• Museum or activity fees if appli-
cable.

6 SEEK SPONSORSHIP OR
FUNDING IF NECESSARY.
If your students are disadvantaged,
ask a local corporation to underwrite
the costs. Banks are great suspects:
you can send a one page letter outlin-
ing your cause and then call the man-
ager and visit her for a conversation a
few days later. You can also receive
food gift certificates or credits from a
number of grocery store chains, such
as Safeway.

7 DESIGN AN INVITATION.
Make a simple flyer highlight-
ing the fun/adventure aspects of the
camp, advertising costs, and provid-
ing details of place, location, dates,
and times. Invite all students person-
ally with a flyer.

8 ASK STUDENTS TO RSVP

AND LEAVE A DEPOSIT.
On the flyer and verbally, give an
RSVP and deposit date for the camp.
A deposit is necessary to ensure par-
ticipation, and probably to cover your
set up costs. Set the deadline before
your class ends.

9 RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS.
After you have an idea of how
many are coming, recruit volunteers
to help organize and plan the event.
These can be one or two parents or
a motivated student that wants a dis-
count on their camp fee!

ONCE YOU COMPLETE THESE NINE

STEPS, YOU WILL HAVE EASILY
PLANNED AN ADVENTURE CAMP
FOR YOUR ESL STUDENTS IN WHICH
BOTH THEY AND YOU WILL WANT
TO PARTICIPATE!

21
8 Virtual Camp Ideas to Continue
EFL/ESL Practice over the Summer
DON’T LET FUNDING ISSUES, TRANS-
PORTATION COSTS, OR BUSY SCHED-
ULES KEEP YOU FROM HAVING AN
EFL SUMMER CAMP!
Teachers know that language retention
over long breaks is one of the most im-
portant aspects of continued language
study, but it is difficult to engage stu-
dents in anything extracurricular. Don’t
give them an excuse to forget their Eng-
lish by making it easy and fun with these
8 virtual activities in which they can par-
ticipate from home! These can be used
throughout the year as well for extracur-
ricular practice.
CHECK OUT THESE
GREAT 8 VIRTUAL
CAMP IDEAS
from home. They can use whatever me-
dia they have at their disposal, but they
only get an hour. The student with the
most right answers wins points toward
an end of break prize!
4 PHOTO SHOW CONTEST.
Create a group Facebook or other
social media. Every week, ask students
to post a picture about a certain theme,
and ask them to encapsulate the theme
in three sentences. Recruit a volunteer
judge that does not know your class to
go through the portfolios at the end of
four weeks and select the best portfolio.
5 WORD OF THE DAY.
Send students a word every day
8 SKYPE PALS.
Alternatively, if it is better for stu-
dents to practice verbal skills as op-
posed to writing and reading compre-
hension, ask students to talk every
week using a set of questions, on Skype
(or on the phone or in person if possi-
ble) for 20 minutes. After a set amount
of time, ask them to record a video (or
call you personally depending on tech-
nology available) about their pal! Give a
prize to the best response based on cri-
teria such as grammar, pronunciation,
fluency, etc.
IT IS EASY TO FOCUS ON THE BARRI-
ERS TO PRACTICING ENGLISH OVER
BREAKS, BUT WITH SMART PHONES
AND COMPUTERS SO READILY AVAIL-

1
SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT.
Set up a Facebook page, Yahoo
Games group, etc. where students
participate in a Scrabble (or any word
game) tournament. Set a particular two
hour time slot every week to play and
include a prize for the ultimate winner.
During the sessions, post chat ques-
tions like “what have you done this
week” to encourage conversational
English practice, or other questions that
aim to review prior concepts.
to their communication of choice. Give ABLE, NO TEACHER HAS AN EXCUSE
those that respond with the word cor- TO AVOID PRACTICING WITH STU-
rectly used in a sentence a point toward DENTS! KEEP IT FUN, SIMPLE, MOBILE,
some sort of reward for the person that AND TIME SENSITIVE AND YOU CAN
has the most points after a given time- VIRTUALLY WORD CAMP WITH YOUR
frame, such as two weeks. ENGLISH LEARNERS ALL SUMMER
LONG.
6 CURRENT BIZARRE EVENTS.
Ask students to post the most bi-
zarre current events they can find on the
Internet or by word of mouth to a group
page once a week, such as “duck saves
dog’s life”. Request that participants

2
TEXT CHAIN.
Ask students to provide a cell
phone number, Facebook messenger
screen name, Whatsup screen name,
or whatever other contact information
for the newest popular App. Give them a
list of students and their App name/cell
phone number. Once or twice a week,
send a categories question to a stu-
dent. When he receives the question,
he should add a category answer and
text it to the next person on the list and
to you. Send the list with the original
category to everyone when it gets back
to you. This will end up being amusing
as they inevitably go off track, as they
practice thinking in English!
comment on at least two other articles
as well on the page. This is a great way
to get them to read and search for infor-
mation in English!
7 PEN PALS.
Pair students and ask them to be
pen pals and maintain correspondence
over the summer or break time. Every
week, send a list of one or two ques-
tions such as “explain a family event
that happened this past week” and ask
them to write to their pen pal about the
topic. At the end of the break, have a
pen pal competition where each stu-
dent is tasked to write a story about her
pal based on the information she has
learned over the break. Judge the sto-

3
TRIVIA COMPETITION.
Once a week, give students an
hour to answer a list of trivia questions
ries based on a set criteria (grammar,
creativity, flow, incorporation of vocabu-
lary principles) and give a prize to the
winner.

22
Ready In a Flash: 8 Activities You
Can do with a Set of Flash Cards
FOR TEACHERS, FLEXIBILITY IS
ESSENTIAL. IN FACT, YOU COULD
ALMOST SAY TEACHERS NEED TO
BE GOOD AT EDUCATIONAL IMPROV
– NOT ONLY HAVING ANSWERS
READY FOR A QUESTION AT ANY
MOMENT, BUT ALSO BEING READY
WITH ACTIVITIES TO FILL ANY FREE
MINUTES IN CLASS.
When these activities are educational
and require no preparation, they are
even better. That’s where flashcards
come in. They are useful, educational,
take up little space, and can be used in
all manner of activities with your ESL
students. Here are some activities you
can do by simply keeping some flash-
cards on hand!
PICTURES
ON ONE SIDE, WORD
ON THE OTHER
1 LEARNING VOCABULARY
It may be too obvious to mention,
but flashcards are perfect for learn-
ing new vocabulary. A picture on one
side and the word on the other, your
students have a visual image to go
with the words they are learning and
memorizing. If you keep a running col-
lection of new vocabulary flashcards
throughout the year, you students will
also have a physical reminder of how
much they have learned. The stack
will get higher and higher, and that is
sure to encourage them.
2 TEST REVIEW
OF VOCABULARY
If you add flash cards to your set
whenever you teach new vocabulary,
the cards are great for reviewing vo-
cabulary when a test is coming up.
When test time is near, you have all
of your vocabulary cards at the ready.
When you review, just choose a card
from the pile one at a time. You will
be clear on which words you have re-
viewed and which you still need to go
over. You can also use them in review
activities with your students when you
need to pick one word at a time (Pic-
tionary, charades, etc.). Use them for
review or to fill a few moments at the
end of class.
3
SPELLING TESTS
Just like pulling cards for a re-
view, flashcards are handy when it’s
time to give a spelling test. As you
work your way through the pile of
cards, you know you have called each
word for the test. Flashcards can go
beyond that, too. By showing the pic-
ture to your students and keeping the
written word to yourself, you test their
ability to write (the English alphabet)
and spell while avoiding any confusion
that might come from lack of listening
skills.
4 VOCABULARY
LEARNING CENTER
If you are lucky, you will have some
ESL students in your class who are
motivated to learn on their own on top
of what you cover in class. Having a
set of flashcards in your classroom
can be an easy way for them to learn
new vocabulary that you may not plan
on covering in class or haven’t covered
yet. Set up a learning center where
they can review and practice new vo-
cabulary by looking at the picture on
the card and the word associated with
it. You can make the center available
for free learning periods or when fast-
er students are waiting for the rest of
the class to finish an activity.
5
LISTENING
COMPREHENSION
If you are getting ready to test listen-
ing comprehension, particularly with
beginning students, a set of flashcards
may be just what you need. Place
three cards on the desk in front of your
student, picture side up. Then say one
of the words and ask your student to
choose the card with the word they
heard. This is particularly useful when
testing listening skills with minimal
pairs (cot/cat) or for language specific
listening errors (rice/lice for Japanese
speakers, bit/beet for Spanish speak-
ers).
6 BINGO
You may need more than one set
of vocabulary cards to use them in a
game of Bingo, but if you have your
students make their own flashcards
throughout the year, you will be ready
at any time. When you want to play
Bingo, have students use their flash-
cards to fill in the spaces on a blank
board. Students can tape their flash-
cards in place to get a class’ worth of
Bingo boards as unique as your stu-
dents!
PICTURES
AND WORDS
ON THE SAME SIDE
7 GO FISH
This simple card game is fun
and great for practicing pronuncia-
tion and listening skills. The goal is to
make as many pairs as possible by
asking for cards that match the ones
in your hands. You will need two sets
of flashcards to make the matches, so
you may want to have students play
with their personal flashcard sets if
they have them. Students start with
seven cards (adjust this number as
needed for the number of vocabulary
cards you are playing with) and take
turns asking for another of the cards
in their hand. If they get a match, they
go again. If not, they draw a card from
the pile. The winner is the one with the
most cards at the end of the game. Go
fish is a simple game that offers great
vocabulary, listening and speaking
practice for students in the ESL class-
room.
8
VOCABULARY WEB
The best language learning hap-
pens when students can make con-
nections with new vocabulary. Some-
times those connections are with
experiences in the student’s life. Other
times those connections are between
words themselves. You can use flash-
cards to help encourage and develop
these connections by arranging them
in a vocabulary web for your students.
23
 Physically grouping or connecting the
cards will help your students make
similar connections in their minds. For
example, if you were teaching a unit
on animals and were using the song
There Was an Old Lady Who Swal-
lowed a Fly, you might use flashcards
to show the “food chain” the old wom-
an follows as she swallows one ani-
mal after the next. Arrange them on
a desk or the front board (use tape
or magnets) within concentric circles
with the woman in the biggest circle
(containing all the smaller circles to
show that she swallowed all of the
items) and the fly in the smallest cir-
cle. (The second circle would be the
bird that would also contain the fly’s
circle.) You can also group flashcards
based on meaning or physical quali-
ties.

ONCE YOU START TO THINK ABOUT

IT, A SIMPLE SET OF FLASHCARDS
CAN BE USED FOR ALL KINDS OF
ACTIVITIES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM.
The ideas listed here are only a start of
how these simple cards can be used
to develop and test language skills. To
get your students to make their own
flashcards for new vocabulary, use a
set of blank index cards (no lines on
either side), and have students write
the words and draw a picture or paste
one from a magazine or online source.
These flashcards will go to good use
throughout the school year.

24
Deal With It: 5 Language Activities
You Can Do With a Deck of Cards
HANDS ON ACTIVITIES ARE ALWAYS
GREAT FOR THE ESL CLASSROOM.
The more your students use their bod-
ies when they use English, the better
they will remember what they are learn-
ing. And nothing is simpler than having
students handle playing cards while they
learn. They are small, simple and can be
used in a variety of ways in ESL classes.
Plus they are easy to find and inexpen-
sive. The following activities are ones you
can use in your classroom that need little
to nothing more than a standard deck of
cards.
DISCOVER SOME
SIMPLE AND BRILLIANT
GAMES FOR
YOUR CLASSROOM
1 GO FISH (YES/NO
QUESTIONS, NUMBERS)
Go fish is a simple card game that will
give your students a chance to prac-
tice simple question formation as well
as numbers in English. Group students
by fours, and give each group a deck of
cards. Have groups shuffle the cards and
then deal seven cards to each player. On
his turn, a student asks another student
in his group for a card that matches one
in his hand. To do this, he should form
a simple yes/no question. “Do you have
any eights?” If the student has a card with
that number, she gives it to the person
who asked and the first student takes an-
other turn. If she does not have that card,
she says, “Go fish!” and the first student
must draw a card from the discard pile.
The game ends when all the cards have
been matched. The student with the most
pairs wins.
2 GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE
(CONTENT VOCABULARY
GENERATION/REVIEW)
You can use a deck of cards to challenge
your students’ vocabulary recall. Divide
your class into four groups. Each group
will work together to generate lists of ex-
amples/vocabulary words. Ask your class
a question that elicits the target vocabu-
lary. For example, you might ask, “What
do Americans eat for lunch?” Then draw a
card from a standard deck and announce
the number to your class. (Jacks are
worth 11, Queens 12, Kings 13 and Aces
1.) Groups work together to be the first to
come up with that number of examples to
answer your question. In this example, if
you drew a five a group of students might
list these words: sandwich, French fries,
hot dogs, salad, and pizza. When a group
has enough words, one person races to
the front of the room so you can check
their vocabulary. Continue playing until
you run out of time or cards in your deck.
3 PREPOSITIONS REVIEW
(PREPOSITIONS
OF LOCATION)
Reviewing prepositions of location can
be fun when you use a deck of cards.
Have students lay cards out on a table in
a grid, face up. Your grid should be five by
four (20 cards) and two cards deep. (Two
piles will be three cards deep.) Lay the
top cards slightly to the side of the bottom
card so players can see both numbers.
Also give students several prepositions
of location written on index cards. (You
should include beside, next to, adjacent
to, under, on top of, below, above, and
across.) These cards will serve as the
draw pile. On each person’s turn, he
draws a preposition card and then uses
that preposition to describe the relation-
ship between two cards in the grid. For
example, a student might say the two is
above the jack, the queen is next to the
ten, or the five is on top of the six. If a
student uses the adjective correctly, he
takes the two playing cards and then dis-
cards his preposition card in a discard
pile. Play continues around the circle until
all the playing cards are taken or all the
preposition cards are used. At the end of
the game, the person who has collected
the most cards wins the game.
4 CLASSROOM MARKET PLACE
(INTRODUCTIONS,
NEGOTIATION, NUMBER REVIEW)
Though you won’t find an eight dol-
lar bill in circulation in the U.S., playing
cards make a good substitute for money
in the ESL classroom. Whether you are
role playing an interaction that requires
money or you are setting up an imaginary
classroom market place, playing cards
are a good stand in for cold hard cash. To
set up a classroom market place, have
each student think of a skill they possess
that is marketable or imagine an inven-
tion that would be useful to others. Then
set up half of your students’ desks in a
circle to serve as vendor’s booths. Each
person gets the same number of cards.
(Giving each student Ace to King of one
suit works well.) Half the class acts as
vendors trying to sell their services or
products. The other half of the class goes
around and spends their money. Each
conversation between buyer and vendor
should start with introductions and an ex-
planation of the product or service. Each
buyer then decides if he or she wants
the product and negotiates how much
they will pay for each item. The buyers
circulate the “market” until all their cash
is used up. At the end of the interaction,
the vendor with the most money is the
winner. Then, students switch roles and
repeat the interaction.
5 PRESIDENT NO ONE
(ASKING QUESTIONS,
CREATIVE USE OF LANGUAGE)
This card game that uses a standard
deck of cards is fun for the whole class,
and it will challenge your students to use
English in a creative way. Deal one card
to each person in your class. They should
hold that card facing out on their forehead
without looking to see what number it is
but so the rest of the class can see. On
your word, students have sixty seconds
to ask their classmates yes/no questions
about the number on their head. The
classmates can answer any question as
long as they do not tell the person the
number on their card. After sixty seconds,
you call time and students try to arrange
themselves in order from King (president)
to Ace (no one) without speaking. You
should then go down the line and see if
all students are in the correct order. If any
person is out of order, give the class an-
other sixty seconds to ask questions and
determine where they should stand in the
line. Students only get three sixty sec-
ond segments to determine their correct
order and win the round. Students may
only ask yes/no questions and answer
the questions their classmates ask to de-
termine the number on their card.
TO GET YOUR STUDENTS MOVING
WHILE THEY LEARN ENGLISH, TRY
USING A SIMPLE DECK OF CARDS.
These are just a few of the possible ways
to use playing cards in your ESL class
and just a glimpse of the fun your stu-
dents will have when they do.
25
 10 Twists on Bingo perfect
for the ESL classroom
BINGO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE
GAMES TO PLAY IN ESL CLASSES.
It is versatile, simple, and fun. I have
played many different versions of
Bingo depending on what I happen
to be teaching, and Bingo is flexible
enough that I can tailor it to just about
anything. Here are ten twists on the
classic game that you can include in
your ESL class, too.
USE A VARIETY
OF BINGO IDEAS
FOR A CHANGE IN
YOUR CLASSROOM
ROUTINE
1 LISTENING
COMPREHENSION BINGO
This version of the game tests your
students’ ability to listen to a word and
choose the correct picture on their
bingo board. It works best with vo-
cabulary that is easily illustrated. Start
by having students create their bingo
boards using pictures of the vocabu-
lary you will use during the game. At
the start of play, choose a word and
read it to your students. Do not let
them see the word or a picture of it.
Your students will have to use their lis-
tening skills to identify the correct pic-
ture on their boards. As always, five in
a row wins.
2 READING COMPRESSION
BINGO
Similar to Listening Comprehension
Bingo, Reading Comprehension Bin-
go starts with students selecting pic-
tures to fill the squares on their Bingo
boards. During play, you choose one
word at a time and this time show the
written word to your students. The
class reads the word and marks the
correct picture on their Bingo boards.
3 SYNONYM BINGO
I love teaching vocabulary words
in groups, that is, teaching three or
four words with similar meanings at
the same time rather than teaching
26
a list of unrelated words. If you teach
this way, and even if you don’t, syn-
onym Bingo is a good way to review
related vocabulary words. Students
fill in their Bingo boards with various
vocabulary words in random order.
You choose synonyms for each of
the words. To play, announce one of
the words you have selected to your
students. If a student has a synonym
of the word you have chosen, she
can mark it on her board. She cannot
mark the actual words you show the
class. Once she gets five synonyms
in a row, she calls out Bingo.
4 ANTONYM BINGO
Antonym Bingo plays in much
the same way as synonym Bingo ex-
cept that you choose antonyms rather
than synonyms for the words on your
students’ cards. To check after a stu-
dent calls Bingo, have them read the
words they marked along with the ant-
onyms you called out to the class.
5 PROBLEM AND ADVICE
BINGO
When I am teaching conditionals, I like
to play problem and advice Bingo with
my students. It not only challenges
them to put together conditional sen-
tences, it makes them think logically
about what to do in a given situation.
To play, students fill their boards with
advice they might give a friend. These
advice phrases should start with “I
would ...” (Hint: the more general the
advice, the more likely your students
will be able to match them to a prob-
lem.) Your part is to call out problems
that a person could have. They can
be realistic or ridiculous, depending
on the personality of your class. To
play, you read the problem and your
students choose the advice on their
board that best addresses the situa-
tion. Once someone calls Bingo, post
the problems that you have called on
the board so your students can see
them. Then, when the winner reads
off his winning answers, he must put
them into a complete sentence using
the conditional form. For example, if
you called the problem “I lost my dog”
a student might choose to cover “I
would call the police.” His sentence
would be, “If I lost my dog, I would call
the police.” Let the class decide if the
winning player has chosen legitimate
advice for each problem.
6
COLOR BINGO
Beginning level students will
enjoy this game that reviews colors.
Have students write the names of col-
ors to fill in their Bingo boards. (Note:
Depending on how many colors your
students are reviewing, you might
want to use a three by three or four by
four board rather than the traditional
five by five.) Either show students a
picture of the color and have them
mark the color on their board or call
out an object that is usually associat-
ed with a particular color (e.g. sky for
blue, grass for green), and have stu-
dents mark the correct color on their
board.
7 VERB TENSE BINGO
This is a challenging review
of the verb tenses in English for ad-
vanced students. Have students
choose two or three verbs and write
the conjugation for those verbs in all
twelve English verb tenses in random
order on their boards. Tell students
they must include at least one conju-
gation in each of the twelve tenses.
You should have ready sentences
that clearly call for each of the twelve
conjugations of each verb. Read them
in random order leaving out the verb.
If students have the correct verb form
on their Bingo board to complete your
sentence, they mark it off. Remind stu-
dents not to clear their boards when
someone calls Bingo until that per-
son’s answers have been checked.
8 HOLIDAY BINGO
No matter what holiday is com-
ing up, you can probably find a set
of Bingo cards online. Review the
holiday specific vocabulary with your
students and then either play listen-
ing comprehension or reading com-
prehension Bingo with the seasonal
words. This is a good way to bring
vocabulary into your classroom that
you might not cover in traditional ESL
units.

9 FIELD TRIP BINGO

If you want your students to be
on the lookout for vocabulary they
learned for a specific field trip, you
might want to try field trip Bingo. Stu-
dents prepare their boards by filling
in spaces with vocabulary they learn
specifically for the trip. Students bring
their cards with them on the field trip
and mark off words as they encounter
them. Rather than calling out when
they have five in a row, students bring
their boards over to you secretly. You
check to see if their marks are correct.
Students should continue to mark
words throughout the field trip. When
you return to school, award points
for each Bingo a student was able to
make (traditional, four corners, cross,
X, outline the board, etc.) The student
with the most points wins a prize –
perhaps something you purchased on
the field trip.

10 TRADITIONAL BINGO
While variations on the
game are great, don’t forget the value
that traditional Bingo has to offer. It is
great for reviewing numbers with your
students, and ESL students can al-
ways use practice with numbers.

IF YOU ARE LIKE ME AND USE BINGO

IN THE CLASSROOM ON A REGULAR
BASIS, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CREATE
REUSABLE BINGO BOARDS FOR
YOUR STUDENTS.
To do this, print a blank Bingo board
and laminate it. Students can then use
dry erase markers to fill in the boxes.
You can also make boards from card-
board or cardstock (slip them in plastic
sleeves if you like) and put Velcro dots
on each square. When students make
their own boards, they select from pic-
tures and words that have Velcro on
the back and simply stick them on the
Velcro areas on the blank board.

27
 English Immersion Camp
Outline: 5 Days of Tourism
MANY ESL TEACHERS ARE REQUIRED
TO RUN ENGLISH IMMERSION
CAMPS DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAY
PERIODS.
Although requirements vary based on
the school and the students involved,
the general idea is usually to provide
students with opportunities to practice
using English while doing something
fun and educational. Most ESL stu-
dents that I have encountered have
a certain fascination for their foreign
teacher and their country of origin.
So why not give them a window into
that world? This is an outline for a five
day camp based around allowing the
students to learn about the teacher’s
home and a bit about the teacher him-
self or herself. Students will create a
presentation and a travel article about
a given city/region in the teacher’s
home country. Their goal is to make
their assigned region sound the most
appealing for prospective travellers.
Information about the area will come
from materials supplied by the teach-
er, internet research, and an interview
with one of the teacher’s friends/fam-
ily/acquaintances who has lived in
that area. These interviews will be
conducted over Skype.
Before we get into the details, a few
notes. This is a class for high level
students. They need to have a really
good grasp of English in all forms, es-
pecially writing, speaking, and read-
ing. Research is often something that
students do not have a lot of experi-
ence with and almost none of them
have ever done an interview before so
the teacher must be sure to lay out a
process for both of these endeavours.
Ideally, the teacher will bring in a vid-
eo clip of someone doing an interview,
or, better yet, do a sample interview
with a colleague in front of the class.
PRE-PLANNING
(THERE IS A LOT OF IT)
The vast majority of the work for this
camp project happens well before the
camp ever gets started. First, check
with your school and make sure you
have access to all of the technology
28
you will need. This is a technology
heavy project and without access to
computers and internet the most in-
teresting part (the interviews) is out of
the question.
Scheduling interviews across multiple
time zones can be extremely difficult,
so that is the next thing a teacher
should do. Create a list of people you
know form home who have lived in dif-
ferent regions of your country. Contact
them and see if they would be willing
to be interviewed by your students
about their time in a specific area.
Their availability will partially dictate
the schedule in the second and third
days of your camp. Set the interview
times well in advance allowing for the
time difference and work schedules.
Decide if your students are capable
of conducting satisfactory online re-
search into the different destinations.
If they are, then the teacher does not
need to supply much in the way of ma-
terial. If not, teachers need to prepare
a material package (travel highlights,
places to stay, things to do, getting
there and away) information about
each destination for the students to
sift through. This will be a very time
consuming process.
Even if the students are able to do
their own research, collect several
travel magazines and guidebooks to
show them as examples of the type of
thing you are looking for. If you chose
to have students make posters of their
destinations, the magazines can dou-
ble as collage/poster material.
Create an introductory presentation
for the camp. This should include
an overview of the project, an expla-
nation of the rewards/point system
(should you choose to have one), the
schedule for the week, a clear set
of expectations for the presentation
and articles laid out in bullet points,
an introductory slide for each of the
locations that will be assigned, and
instructions for conducting interviews
and research.
MATERIALS
Here are a few things you will need.
• Internet connection
• Craft materials (if you decide on
posters)
• Projector
• Skype enabled computer(s)
• Computer lab access
• Printer
• Sample magazine articles/travel
brochures
• Sample interview questions
• Note paper and envelopes
USE THIS PLAN
FOR A SUCCESSFUL
ENGLISH CAMP
D AY 1:
Open the day with some sort
of warm-up activity. Tongue twisters,
human tangle exercises, anything that
has the kids interacting and speaking
in front of one another will work. Ide-
ally, the teacher will have some idea
of the student levels before the camp
starts and have created relatively
even groups. If not, the warm-up will
be important in helping to gauge this
and to group students effectively.
Follow this with the introductory pre-
sentation. I strongly recommend that
you have some sort of point system
for the entire camp. Good behaviour
and winning introductory activities
gain points, while bad behaviour, be-
ing late, etc. lose points. Before the
final part of the presentation, divide
the class into their groups. Have a
short activity/game where the groups
compete to determine a ranking. Go
through the introductions of the differ-
ent places and then the winning group
chooses first and so on down through
the rankings. At this point hand out
any information you have on the dif-
ferent locales, tell the groups which
of the teacher’s friends they will be
interviewing and when, and give them
sample travel articles that you want
them to emulate.
Follow up with a presentation about
how to go about internet research and
how to ask good questions during an
interview. How this presentation looks
will largely depend on the class level
and how comfortable they are around
foreigners.
The remainder of the day will be given
over to internet research and develop-
ing interview questions.
D AY 2:
Start the day with a fun warm-
up activity. Once that is complete, the
students will have time to conduct
more research and for the first inter-
viewers to put finishing touches on
their interview questions.
The second part of this class will go
to the first set of skype interviews.
Letting the other students watch is
beneficial as they all get more com-
fortable the more interviews they see.
To keep all the students interested
and involved, I always left five or ten
minutes at the end of each interview
where any student in the class could
come and ask questions about the
area or about myself as the teacher
(what I was like when I was young,
did I get into trouble, etc). Some of
the best English I have seen from my
students came out when they really
wanted ask one of my friends if I had
ever been in trouble at school.
D AY 3:
Start the day with a fun warm-
up activity.
Day three is largely a repeat of day
two with skype interviews and time at
the end to start outlining their presen-
tations and articles.
D
AY 4:
Start the day with a fun warm-
up activity. From here, this day is
dedicated to finalising the group travel
articles and presentations. If at all
possible, have a separate room where
groups can go to practice their pre-
sentations if they so desire. All travel
articles must be finished and handed
in by the end of the day. Reading
and evaluating them is the teacher’s
homework. It’s also a nice idea to
create a booklet of the final travel ar-
ticles and give a copy to each student
in the camp. Depending on your lo-
cale, many countries have cheap print
shops that will create a spiral bound
booklet for very reasonable prices.
D AY 5:
Start the day with a fun warm-
up activity.
The rest of the day is dedicated to
travel presentations. Using a game
to decide the group order is always
great. It can be complicated or as sim-
ple as rock, paper, scissors. Anything
random or that gives the students
agency will minimize the complaints.
In this vein, it’s always great if you can
have a guest judge to decide which
destination is most appealing after the
presentations. Even a head teacher
is great. It takes the pressure off you
and makes the students really put
their all into preparing and presenting
their material.
Once all the presentations are com-
plete, each group will sit down and
write a thank you letter to the person
they interviewed. The teacher reviews
them to make sure they are accept-
able and then mails them after the
camp is finished. (This can be done in
the morning as well, but it seems to go
better once the pressure is off.)
Finally, declare the winners in each
category, hand out booklets and priz-
es, and have your end-of-camp party.
WHAT THE STUDENTS REALLY
LOVED ABOUT THIS CAMP WAS
TALKING TO OTHER FOREIGNERS
AND GETTING ‘THE DIRT’ ON THEIR
ENGLISH TEACHER FROM HIS
FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.
Some of them cheered each time a
new face came on the screen. Having
said that, they were nervous as well
and the only reason it worked was be-
cause they were all high level middle
school students. This camp lets the
students practice English in a more
natural way through the interviews
and through creating their own pre-
sentations. As a result, many students
gained a great deal of confidence
over the course of this project.
29
 What You Can Do with a Ball:
7 Fun ESL Games
ESL STUDENTS HAVE TO MAKE
THE EFFORT TO COMPLETE TASKS,
DO HOMEWORK AND STUDY. BUT
WHEN IT COMES TO PROVIDING
FUN, CHALLENGING ACTIVITIES
THAT WILL MOTIVATE THEM TO
LEARN, THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.
And while we’re on the subject... here
are some great activities for your ESL
class that will only require a ball.
HOW TO USE
A BALL IN YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM
4 FREEZE!
This game is ideal for little ones!
Practice vocabulary with flashcards.
First, teach students the meaning of
“Freeze!” as stop. Students sit in a
wide circle with a set of flashcards
in the center. Students pass the ball
around the circle. Tell them they can’t
hold the ball for more than a sec-
ond. Cover your eyes while they do
this and say, “Freeze!” The student
who has the ball must stop and take
a flashcard from the pile. Depending
on your students’ ages and level, ask
7 BASKETBALL DARE
Practice giving commands. Set
up a “basket” far enough away for it
to be a challenge, but not impossible
for students to score. Students line up
and shoot for the basket. If students
score, they get to give you a com-
mand you must follow: “Walk like a
monkey”, “Say something in Chinese”,
“Stand on one foot for 30 seconds”,
etc. Make sure you establish some
ground rules, for example, students
can’t give you commands that involve
shouting, leaving the classroom, etc.

1 SPELLING BALL
This game is as simple as ABC.
Have your students stand in a big
circle. Say a word and toss the ball
to one of your students. Student says
the first letter of the word and tosses
the ball to a classmate, who has to say
the second letter, and then tosses the
ball to another. Students who make a
mistake must sit down and play starts
again with the teacher. The last stu-
dent standing is the winner!
them to either say the word or use it
in a sentence.
5 IT’S A BOMB!
This is a great way for students
to introduce themselves and learn
their classmates’ names in a first
lesson. Also a fun way to practice or
review possessive pronouns! Have
students sit in a circle. Give one of
them the ball, and say, “It’s a bomb!
The timer is ticking (use an egg tim-
er!)” Tell them they have to say their
SO, SOMETIMES LOW TECH IS
BETTER, RIGHT? WITH THIS ARTICLE,
WE’VE PROVEN TO YOU THAT EVEN
THE MOST FINANCIALLY LACKING
CLA SSROOM S OR S C H O O L S
CAN STILL PROVIDE FUN, CRE-
ATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR THEIR ESL
STUDENTS.
And for more great teaching tips and
ideas, be sure to check out our ESL
Essentials, a section that is sim-
ply jam-packed with articles that will
make your busy life a little less hectic.

2 SHOOT FOR POINTS

Set up a trash can, bin, or any
container that will serve as your “bas-
ket”. Students line up. Choose a topic
or grammar point, for example Past
Simple. Ask each student a question:
Where did you go last weekend? If
student uses the verb in simple past
correctly, they may shoot for points:
10 points if they score, 5 if they miss,
but answered the question correctly.
name, pass the ball, and say their
classmate’s name: My name is Juan.
Your name is Maria. The student who
has the “bomb” when the timer goes
off, leaves the circle. Have students
re-arrange themselves in the circle
so they’re sitting next to different stu-
dents, and start again.
6 DESCRIPTION DODGEBALL
Use a very light, soft ball for this
game, as students will be trying to

3 CHOOSE YOUR VICTIM

This is a great way to make a
Q &A session more “active”. Students
stand in a circle. Give them a gram-
mar point to practice through ques-
tions, for example, tell them to ask
questions with “ever” so they practice
Present Perfect. First student asks a
question with “ever” (Have you ever
been to London?) and tosses the ball
to a classmate who must answer cor-
rectly to stay in the game and earn
the right to ask a question. Those who
make a mistake must leave the circle.
hit each other! Have students line up
on one side of the classroom (if you
can play this in the schoolyard, bet-
ter!) One student stands in the front
next to you holding the ball. Describe
one of the students in your class: This
student is the tallest in the class. The
student you are describing has to run
to avoid being hit by the student with
the ball. If the student is hit, he/she
becomes the next thrower. You may
also have students wear tags with
names of cities, animals, or places for
you to describe.

30
What You Can Do with a Whistle
– 7 Fun ESL Games and Activities
LONG GONE ARE THE DAYS IN WHICH
AN ESL CLASSROOM HAD TO BE
ABSOLUTELY STILL, WITH ALL STU-
DENTS SITTING QUIETLY AT THEIR
DESKS. KIDS ARE NOISY BY NATURE,
3 FILL IN THE BLANKS
Try using a whistle the next time
tivities and not for the duration of the
class. Make sure you tell your “verb
cop” when they have to be on the alert
for “infractions” and tell them if they did
you give your students a dictation:
dictations will never be boring again! a good job at the end of class.
Give them some gaps to fill and use

AND THEY LOVE TO MAKE NOISE…
ESPECIALLY WITH WHISTLES!
Use this great little instrument for some
fun learning activities and games.
7 FUN ESL GAMES
AND ACTIVITIES
WITH A WHISTLE
the whistle to indicate where each
gap goes: “Last weekend, I (whistle)
to the park. It (whistle) a beautiful day.
I (whistle) my bicycle for a while and
then (whistle) some football with my
friends.”
4 PASS THE BUCK
7
HOW HIGH CAN YOU GO?
Divide students into two teams
and have them line up across from the
board. One student from each team
must run to the board and write down a
word that fits into the category you will
give them, for example, “weather”. Af-
ter they write the word, they must run

1 IF YOU KNOW IT…

BLOW YOUR WHISTLE!
Get your students in a TV game show
type of mood. Divide them into two
teams and have each team line up be-
hind a desk with a whistle in the center.
The students at the front must stand
with their hands behind their backs.
Show them a flashcard. The student
who can name the object tries to grab
Instruct a student to start writing
a story on a sheet of paper. Tell him/
her that when you blow your whistle,
he/she must pass the sheet to another
student. Once you blow the whistle
they must stop writing: they can only
finish a word, but not the sentence.
After everyone has had the chance to
contribute to the story, read it out loud
to the class.
back and pass the marker to a class-
mate. They must start at the bottom of
the whiteboard, and work their way up.
The team that has reached the high-
est (written the most words) when you
blow your whistle will be the winner.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE SOME
NOISE IN CLASS! AS LONG AS IT’S
NOT DISRUPTIVE TO OTHER CLASSES

the whistle first and blow it. If they do
so correctly, they get a point for their
team. Then, both students at the front
go to the back of the line. You may ask
them to use the word in a complete
sentence or ask a question with it. This
is also a great way to practice gram-
mar points, for example, give them a
verb and they must say it in past.
5
WORD SCAVENGER HUNT
This is a wonderful game for
young learners. Place different flash-
cards throughout the classroom on or
under desks and chairs, or on shelves.
Tell students they must roam around
the classroom looking for “animals”.
When they find one they must bring it
to you and tell you what it is. At some
IN YOUR SCHOOL, YOUR STUDENTS
WILL REALLY ENJOY SOME ACTIVI-
TIES WITH A WHISTLE.
Keep in mind there’s no better way to
signal the start or end of a game, or
to let your students know when they
must transition into another segment
of an activity.
If you need more ideas for ESL fun in

2 BLOW THE WHISTLE

ON YOUR CLASSMATE
Students need to learn to recognize
mistakes in order to learn, whether
they are their own or others’. Have a
Q &A or drilling session, during which
students take turns blowing a whistle
each time a classmate makes a mis-
take. For example, drill your students
on the First Conditional. The student
with the whistle must blow it every
time they think someone has made a
mistake, and then correct it. When a
student has correctly identified three
mistakes, they must pass the whistle
to another student.
point during the game, blow your
whistle and shout out, “jobs”. Now,
students must look for flashcards with
the classroom, head to our ESL Es-
sentials section. There you’ll find loads
of tips, advice and how to articles that
will make your job a lot easier!
these items. Then, blow your whistle
and say “colors”. To make it more chal-
lenging, blow your whistle every min-
ute or so, going from one category to
the next.
6 VERB COP
Each day, make one of your stu-
dents responsible for looking out for
one verb. Give the student a whistle
and a verb, for example, “go”. Each
time this verb is used in any tense the
student must blow the whistle and say
whether it was used correctly in the
sentence. You may choose to limit this
to only specific drilling sessions or ac-

31
 What You Can Do With Index
Cards: 10 Amazing Activities
CAN A SIMPLE INDEX CARD HOLD
THE KEY TO A CREATIVE LANGUAGE
ACTIVITY FOR YOUR ESL STUDENTS?
Read the following 10 ideas before
you give your final answer.
10 THINGS
YOU CAN DO
WITH INDEX CARDS
1 NEW PERSPECTIVE
How you look at life all depends
on your perspective, right? If that is
the case, why not force a perspective
change with this observational activ-
ity? Give each of your students an in-
dex card, and tell him to poke a hole
in the card using a pen or pencil. It
should only be big enough for him to
see through it a little. Then have each
of your students look around the room
and write a description of something he
sees through the hole (without naming
the object). When finished, the rest of
the class should listen to the descrip-
tion and try to identify the object.
2 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
When it is time for your students
to learn some new vocabulary or just
practice what they already know, look
to the newspaper for some inspiration.
Cut out interesting individual words
from the headlines and tape each
on to its own index card. Then have
your students each select two to three
cards randomly. They should then try
to combine the words into a coherent
sentence or original newspaper head-
line. If you like, have your students
write the article that follows the head-
line.
3 WHY-BECAUSE
For a little index card fun, give
two cards to each student. On one
card, have each student write a ques-
tion that begins with the word “why”.
Then on the second card, he or she
should write the answer beginning
with “because”. Collect all the ‘why
cards’ in one pile and shuffle and do
the same with the ‘because cards’.
Then pull one card from each pile and
32
read them together. You should end up
with some funny combinations. After
reading all of them, you can challenge
your students to match up each ques-
tion with an answer that makes sense.
4 WHO AM I?
Index cards have their place in
speaking class, too. Collect one card
for each student and put the name of
a famous person that your students
would know on it. Then tape one
name to each student’s back, and he
“is” that person. Give your students
enough time to walk around the room
and ask each other yes/no questions
about who they are. (One question per
person and then he must move on to
another student.) If a person guesses
his identity correctly, he may sit down.
Keep playing until everyone has
guessed who he is.
5
STORY STARTERS
If you give your students any
free writing time in class, they may
sometimes need a nudge in the right
direction. When that is the case, have
available a stack of story starters (one
on each index card) that they can pull
and use when they are looking for in-
spiration. When she is finished writing,
have your student turn in her story with
her card paper clipped to the top for
your review or designate an area of
the classroom to post original stories.
6
MEMORY GAME
Memory is another simple game
you can play with index cards. This is
especially useful when reviewing vo-
cabulary. Simply write each vocabu-
lary word on one card and its defini-
tion on another. Shuffle the cards and
place them face down on a table. Each
person can turn over two cards on his
turn. If he is able to match the word to
its definition, he may keep the set and
go again.
7
ANTONYMS
When you want to make the
memory game a little more challeng-
ing, instead of matching words to
their definitions, match words to their
antonyms. Your students will still get
practice using their vocabulary words
as well as challenging their memories.
8
ORDER, PLEASE!
If you want to cast a wider net
than isolated vocabulary, write one
sentence of a narrative on each card.
Then challenge groups of students
to use transitional words and signal
words to put the sentences in the cor-
rect order.
9
TAKE 5 NOTES!
Anytime your students are doing
research, index cards are a functional
and flexible place to take notes. You
can find information on how to take
notes on Busy Teacher or teach your
students your preferred method for
taking notes. Challenge them to read
a magazine article and take at least
five notes on index cards, and then
have them use those cards as part of a
larger research assignment. They will
have the flexibility to rearrange notes
as they like without losing valuable in-
formation in a cumbersome notebook.
10
OH, HOW PRACTICAL!
Index cards do not have to
be relegated to the world of fun and
games. They have practical uses as
well. They are a concise place to keep
emergency contact and allergy infor-
mation about your students. It is espe-
cially helpful to have this information
in one place should you ever need a
substitute teacher.
WHEN YOU CAN GET ONE HUNDRED
INDEX CARDS FOR ONLY A DOLLAR,
THE POSSIBILITIES FOR YOUR ESL
CLASS CAN BE ENDLESS AS WELL AS
INEXPENSIVE. THE NEXT TIME YOU
ARE LOOKING FOR SOME INSPIRA-
TION, SHUFFLE ON DOWN TO YOUR
LOCAL STORE AND GET A BACK OF
THE 3X5 WONDERS.
With a little creativity and some blank
cards, your ESL class can do more
than you might think.
What You Can Do With Photos:
10 Creative ESL Games/Activities
Most ESL students have taken
enough courses and classes to be-
come accustomed to pictures, flash-
cards and illustrations. So accus-
tomed, in fact, that they may not be
fully engaged in some activities. After
all, why should they care about “Mr.
Thompson” or “Susan”, or “Betty”?
They do care, however, about their fam-
ily and friends. Which is why using pho-
tos in your ESL classroom will breathe
some fresh air into any activity.
10 ESL ACTIVITIES
USING PHOTOS
1 MAGNETIC PHOTOS
If you happen to have a magnetic
whiteboard, get your hands on some Av-
ery Magnet Sheets or similar magnetic
printable paper, and print one head shot
for each of your students. You will have
personalized magnets that your kids will
absolutely love, and which are great
for any number of games or activities.
Leave the corner of your whiteboard for
the Student of the Week and simply
stick the student’s photo there. Or use
them to spark some friendly competi-
tion! Ask students to take out a sheet
of paper, imagine they had to interview
their favorite sports or movie star, and
tell them to write as many questions as
they can. Walk around the classroom
and see how many each has written.
On your whiteboard, place their photos
from top to bottom to show who’s written
more so far.
2
WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
Why use only magnetic photos of
your students when you print any type
of photo out of magnetic paper? It may
be more expensive than regular paper,
but oh, so worth it! In this case, take a
few days to get some snapshots of real
meals, anything from a plate of spaghetti
to a burger with fries. Print the photos on
magnetic paper and presto! They will be
ready to create their own menus. Small-
er boards are ideal for them to create a
menu and practice restaurant role plays.
3 COMPARATIVES
AND SUPERLATIVES
Ask students to bring in some family
photos, particularly where you can see
people standing as a group. Have stu-
dents compare them by saying who is
taller than who, who’s the shortest, etc..
but don’t stop at physical descriptions.
Have them share with the class who’s
the most musical, most artistic, better at
sports, etc.
4
PHOTO ALBUM
Try this great worksheet where
students use the possessive case to
talk about their families, but replace the
black and white illustrations with photos
of real people, members of your family.
Ask students to guess or imagine details
about them, who they are, what they do,
etc.You may choose to correct them in
the end and supply the real facts, or not.
5
PHOTO NOVEL
This is a wonderful extended class
project. The first thing you have to do is
get your hands on a Polaroid camera, or
simply use a regular digital camera and
print the shots later. Have your students
come up with an idea for a short story
plot. Take a sequence of photos of your
students acting different scenes of the
plot. Once you have all of the photos
printed out, students assemble them into
a book or magazine format and write the
captions below each one.
6
INQUISITIVE MINDS
Ask students to bring 4 or 5 photos
from home, any type of photo as long as
the student does not appear in it: trips,
vacations, family members, objects,
pets, etc.Tells students not to show
them to their classmates. Mix them up
and stick them onto the board. Students
ask each other questions (using Present
Perfect, for example) to find out which
photo belongs to whom: Diego, have
you ever been to Rome?
7 CHILDREN LOVE LOOKING AT PHOTOS,
A SEQUENCE OF STEPS
At home, take photos of something
being done in steps, for example some-
one baking a cake. First, you get a shot
of the eggs in the bowl, then the flour
being added, everything mixed, then
poured into a cake tin, etc. Bring the
photos to class and ask your students to
put them in the right order. Finally, have
them write step by step instructions us-
ing vocabulary for sequences: first, sec-
ond, then, next, etc.
8
WHAT’S WRONG
WITH THIS PICTURE?
You can have a lot of fun with this one!
This is a great way to practice modals
like should, shouldn’t, must, or mustn’t.
Take a few pictures of objects or things
around the house in places where you
wouldn’t ordinarily find them. For exam-
ple, shoes in the fridge, a pizza on a pil-
low, a stack of magazines in the bathtub.
First ask students what is wrong with
each picture and then to tell you where
this item should be: The shoes shouldn’t
be in the fridge. They should be in the
closet. You mustn’t eat pizza in the bed-
room. You should eat it at the table.
9
WHAT’S THE STORY?
Bring photos that show something
interesting or that could spark a conver-
sation, for example, a photo of someone
reading a book, building something, or
carrying out any type of activity. Hand
them out and ask students to write a
paragraph imagining the story behind
the photo. Encourage them to get as
creative as they can be, and tell them
there are no right or wrong answers.
10
A PICTURE SAYS
A THOUSAND WORDS
Bring photos of different types of land-
scapes. Give one to each of your stu-
dents and ask them to write a descrip-
tion of what they see. Stick the photos
vertically on one side of the board/wall
and the descriptions on the other side.
Students take turns matching the right
description to each photo.
THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS IN WHICH
YOU CAN USE PHOTOS TO ENHANCE
ACTIVITIES AND ENGAGE STUDENTS.
AND IT’S A LOT EASIER SOMETIMES
FOR THEM TO CONNECT TO REAL
PEOPLE RATHER THAN CARTOONS OR
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Also, bear in mind that if you want to
save on paper, you can always prepare
Power Point slides for some of these
activities. Remember that a photo op is
also a great learning op!
33
 What You Can Do with Celebrity
Photos – 7 Fun ESL Activities
WHETHER YOU’RE STUMPED AS TO
HOW TO GET YOUR STUDENTS MORE
ENGAGED, TEACHING WITH A REALLY
BORING COURSEBOOK, OR DEALING
WITH A ROOMFUL OF UNMOTIVATED
TEENS, CELEBRITY PHOTOS MIGHT
JUST BE YOUR SALVATION.
Now I’m not talking about real, glossy
photos, but rather the pics and images
you can cut out from any ol’ magazine
or newspaper. They are tremendously
versatile, and if you have a set of pho-
tos, you can whip them out at any mo-
ment during your class for an on-the-
spot, fun-filled activity!
GATHERING
YOUR PHOTOS:
• Go through different types of ma-
terials: magazines, newspapers,
TV guides, etc.
• Once you’ve cut out enough pho-
tos, glue them onto some poster-
board or cardboard, and try to
laminate them, if you can. They’ll
be better suited to survive the usu-
al classroom wear and tear.
• Try to get pics in different sizes,
and don’t forget to get full-body
and group shots.
• Get pics of celebrities doing dif-
ferent things: playing instruments,
walking on the beach, in full period
costume, performing on stage,
etc.
• Remember to include different
types of celebrities: sports stars,
politicians, and writers, as well
as actors, singers and musicians.
Don’t forget to add some celebri-
ties who are not as well known.
Once you’ve collected enough celeb-
rity pics, you’ll be ready to use them in
your ESL class for some fun activities:
TRY THESE 7 FUN
ESL ACTIVITIES WITH
CELEBRITY PHOTOS
1 SHALL I COMPARE THEE
TO…ANOTHER CELEBRITY?
When it comes time to practice com-
paratives, superlatives and make all
34
types of comparisons, celebrity photos
are much more fun than whatever your
coursebook might set forth. Show two
celebrity pics and ask your class to tell
you who is more talented or a better
actor. Show one pic of two or more ce-
lebrities together and talk about who’s
taller, shorter, younger or older.
2
WHAT DOES HE/SHE DO?
Celebrity pics are also ideal
when you’re talking about professions:
what does he/she do for a living? The
more variety of professions you’ve got,
the better – they don’t have to be in-
credibly famous celebrities, nor must
students be able to recognize them
from the photo -- sometimes simply
naming them as you show the photo
is enough.
3 CELEBRITY BIO
No matter how self-involved they
may be, students often get tired of
talking about and writing about them-
selves all the time. For a fun writing
assignment with a twist, ask each stu-
dent to pick a photo. Their task will be
to write as much as they know about
this celebrity. You may also have them
draw the pic from a bag and ask them
to research the celebrity for home-
work.
4
BEFORE AND AFTER
For this activity, you’ll need be-
fore and after pics of several celebri-
ties, perhaps an older celebrity’s cur-
rent photo and one from when they
were younger. Comparisons are very
easy to make, but you may also prac-
tice verb tenses like the Simple Past
or a structure like “used to”: She had/
used to have blond/short hair. Now
she has red/long hair.
5 HOBBIES
Quite often magazines print
photos of celebrities enjoying some
of their hobbies and leisure activities.
These photos are great for introducing
the topic of what you like to do in your
free time.
6 CARTOON CHARACTERS
Young learners may not be into
major celebrities as teens or adults
are, so it is best to replace them with
pictures of their favorite cartoon char-
acters or comic book heroes. Is Bart
Simpson younger or older than Lisa?
Who’s smarter? What about comic
book heroes? Superman is stronger,
but Flash is faster.
7
SECRET IDENTITY
Sometimes getting your students
to ask each other questions is like pull-
ing teeth. This is a fun way to get your
class to practice asking questions.
Give each of your students a celebrity,
but tell them not to show their photo
or reveal who they are. Students must
ask each other questions to find out
who the others are. You can go about
this in a number of ways:
• You can have them all ask each
other questions and whoever is
the first to guess one identity wins.
• You can give each a limited num-
ber of questions, say 20, to ask in
total, after which they must guess
someone’s identity by using the
facts they’ve gathered.
• You can divide them into pairs and
have them interview each other till
one student guesses the other’s
identity.
• You can have them ask only yes/
no questions.
ESL TEACHERS OFTEN COMPLAIN
ABOUT UNRESPONSIVE, UNMO-
TIVATED STUDENTS. CELEBRITY
PHOTOS ARE THE PERFECT ANSWER
TO THIS.
No matter how old (or young!) your
students are you can always find the
perfect set of celebrities to get the con-
versation going.
What You Can Do with
a Blindfold: 10 Fun ESL Games
BORED OF ALWAYS USING THE
SAME OLD GAMES WITH YOUR
ESL STUDENTS? CHANCES ARE,
THEY ARE JUST AS BORED AS YOU.
SOMETIMES, THE INTRODUCTION OF
ONE ELEMENT, JUST ONE ITEM, WILL
COMPLETELY TAKE YOUR CLASS BY
SURPRISE AND INSTANTLY LEAVE
THEM GUESSING WHAT’S TO COME
NEXT.
Enter a simple blindfold – the kind
they give away in airlines or a simple
scarf. Your class will be giddy with
anticipation about the game that is to
come next!
10 BLINDFOLD
ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM
1 MYSTERY OBJECT
It’s very simple to play, but oh,
so much fun for students, plus a fan-
tastic way to review any type of vo-
cabulary. Place several items inside
a bag, like classroom objects. Divide
the class into two teams and students
take turns wearing the blindfold. They
must take an item from the bag and
feel it to say what it is. There are plen-
ty of ways to make this game more
challenging, like using items that have
a similar texture, like a bag of clothes.
2 TRUST ME
Re-arrange the furniture in the
classroom so it resembles an ob-
stacle course or maze. Divide stu-
dents into pairs and give each pair
a blindfold. Students have to guide
their partners, without touching them,
through the maze by giving direc-
tions. You may choose to add more
obstacles like an overturned trash bin,
or a “puddle” made out of cardboard.
Once students have successfully
passed through the maze, they switch
roles with their partners.
3 STRIKE A POSE
Students are divided into groups
of threes. One student wears a blind-
fold, another strikes a pose, and the
third student must guide the one
wearing the blindfold till he or she is
imitating the pose.
4
HOW TALL ARE YOU?
Give several students blindfolds
and tell them to stand one next to
the other. Next, tell them they must
arrange themselves according to
height. Students must collaborate
and ask each other, “How tall are
you?” till they achieve the desired ar-
rangement. You may also ask them
to arrange themselves in alphabetical
order, or any type of order, in fact, like
age.
5 FOLLOW THE PATTERN
This one is similar to the previ-
ous, but in this case one student is
blindfolded and must arrange ob-
jects according to a pattern set forth
by the teacher. For example, objects
from smaller to bigger, longer to short-
er, in alphabetical order, etc.
6
GUESS WHO?
Students stand in a circle with
one blindfolded student in the center.
The teacher spins the student wear-
ing the blindfold. Each student they
face asks them a question, and they
must guess who it is. Tell students
they must use a particular tense, like
the simple past, and encourage them
to mask their voices, so it’s not so
easy to guess. Students who guess
correctly are given points or stickers.
7 BLINDFOLD, BUT THEY’LL SOON
FOOD TASTING
Similar to Mystery Object, this
is a fabulous way to review foods and
drinks. Students must guess what
food or drink they are tasting. A great
game for special Holiday lessons, like
Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christ-
mas.
8 PIN THE TAIL
ON THE GLOBE
Students take turns wearing a blind-
fold and mark a location in a world
map with either a marker or push pin.
They must then tell the class what the
weather’s like there. And there are
so many variations to this game! Ask
students what language they speak
there, or have them choose two plac-
es and practice comparatives and su-
perlatives. For example, the student
first lands in France and then in the
US. The student must make compari-
sons between the two countries.
9
MAKE A FACE
To practice the parts of the face
(or body) use a cardboard circle for
the face and make eyes, ears, nose,
mouth and hair, with either magnets
or tape on the back. Make two sets if
you wish to divide your students into
two teams and compete. The blind-
folded students must take the parts
and assemble them into a face with
guidance from their classmates.
10
HIT THE TARGET
Draw a large bull’s-eye in
the center of the board. Divide stu-
dents into two teams. One student
from each team is blindfolded. Spin
both of the students a bit to disori-
ent them. Each team has to guide its
blindfolded student to the bull’s-eye
and the one who makes it there first
wins. Rearrange the classroom furni-
ture to make it more challenging.
BEAR IN MIND THAT SOME STU-
DENTS, LIKE TEENS, MAY BE SELF-
CONSCIOUS ABOUT WEARING A
LEARN IT DEFINITELY PUTS A NEW
SPIN ON A LESSON THAT WOULD
OTHERWISE BE JUST LIKE ANY
OTHER.
It also helps develop listening skills
as students are blindfolded, and they
can’t rely on their sight. Use blindfolds
in class, and use them often. Your stu-
dents won’t be blinded to the learning
opportunities.
35
 What You Can Do With News-
papers: 11 Engaging Activities
ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS
DISCOVER A WHOLE NEW WORLD
THROUGH NEWSPAPERS, NEW
WORDS, NEW PHRASES, NEW IDEAS
AND EVEN NEW FACES!
They may have read the news in their
own language but reading it in Eng-
lish is so much more exciting and puts
the English language in to context for
them.
Students love being able to under-
stand and read current news in Eng-
lish and there is something to interest
everyone in a newspaper.
The average reading age for most
newspapers is approximately 11-13
years old, just perfect for those learn-
ing English as a foreign language.
Newspapers are also a handy re-
source for English language teachers.
If you are teaching in an English
speaking country look out for the
free press newspapers. Try to collect
enough newspapers so that you have
one copy between two students. You
can get heaps of activities from just
one edition of a newspaper so don’t
throw them away after just one ses-
sion, share them with other teachers
in your school.
If you are not in an English speaking
country you could print articles from
news websites such as the BBC or
CNN.
Here are a number of ways you can
use a newspaper in your English
language lessons. You can even
do some of these lessons without a
newspaper if you can’t get your hands
on one. You can adapt the activities
to work in pairs, small groups or even
as a whole class. Suggestions have
been made for how these lessons will
work but do think about your students
and what would suit their level of lan-
guage best.
36
HOW TO USE
NEWSPAPERS IN YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM
1
THE ROLE OF NEWS-
PAPERS IN OUR LIVES
Talk about the role of newspapers in
daily life as a whole class, in pairs or
in small groups. Do you read news-
papers? Why do you read them?
Which newspapers do you prefer
and why? How often are newspapers
published, daily, weekly? How much
do they cost? Where can you buy
them? Are they expensive or cheap?
Do you believe everything you read in
the newspaper? Why? Why not? Has
the role of newspapers changed over
the years? Do you think newspapers
will die out with news on the internet?
Why or why not? Talk about the news-
papers in your student’s country. How
do they vary? What news do they re-
port on? Which newspapers do you
read and why? If your students don’t
read newspapers then talk about why
they don’t.
2 DIFFERENT SECTIONS
OF A NEWSPAPER
Give students two minutes to list as
many sections of the newspaper that
they can – then ask them to compare
their lists to the person sitting next to
them. Discuss the different sections
of a newspaper: news, classifieds,
cartoons, horoscope, weather, opin-
ion piece, letters to the editor, travel,
advertisements, editorial, sport. What
would you expect to read about in
each section? Which sections usually
appear where in the newspaper? For
example, news at the front, classi-
fieds at the back. Ask students to find
an example of each in a newspaper.
Students could also write a piece to
illustrate one or more sections of a
newspaper.
3 WORKING
FOR A NEWSPAPER
Explore the idea of working for a
newspaper. Who writes for the news-
paper? What is the role of the editor,
journalist, photo journalist, photogra-
pher and advertising sales? How do
you get a story into the newspaper?
What would you like about working in
one of these roles and what wouldn’t
you like? How do newspapers make
money? Discuss in pairs and report
back to the class for further discus-
sion.
4
JOB SECTION
Look at the jobs that are ad-
vertised in the careers section of the
newspaper. Ask students to choose a
job that they would like to apply for.
Get them to write or discuss what
skills they would need for this job.
They can then discuss this in pairs.
Talking about jobs and how to find
one is particularly relevant if you are
teaching foreign adult students in an
English speaking country. If this is the
case, you can expand this lesson to
include CV writing and role play inter-
viewing each other for a job. How and
where do you look for a job? Students
can exchange tips to help each other
find a work in their new country. What
jobs are your students currently work-
ing in? Do they like this job? Why or
why not?
5
HEADLINES
Write the headline of an article
on the board or just read it out – ask
students to guess what the article
might be about. Then read the match-
ing article. Were they right? How dif-
ferent was the real story from what
they thought? Why is the headline
often misleading? You can also cut
up a number of articles and head-
lines. Hand them out to students and
ask them to guess the story from the
headline. Then give them the match-
ing articles to read to see if they were
close.
6 NEWSPAPER TREASURE
HUNT (20 QUESTIONS
OR JUST 10 - MAKE IT A FULL
LESSON OR JUST A FILL IN!)
Collect enough newspapers to share
one between two – free press papers
are really good as articles are not long
and are usually easy to read. Prior to
the lesson go through the newspaper
and come up with a list of questions
that relate to the articles and adver-
tisements that appear throughout the
newspaper.
For example:
• What is the temperature in Lon-
don?
• Who won £ 100,000?
• How many people were hurt in the
Manchester fire?
• What is the name of the police-
man who rescued Josie?
• Where can I buy a washing ma-
chine? How much will it cost me
to buy?
You can make these as hard or as
easy as you like depending on the
language levels of your students.
Students can work in pairs to read
through the newspaper and come up
with the answers. When everyone
has finished go through the answers
together. Don’t forget to ask them to
write down which page they found the
article on.
7 ARTICLES
Ask students to work in pairs to
read and summarise an article that
interests them. Each pair of students
can then work with another pair to talk
about their article. Each pair then re-
ports back to the class about the ar-
ticle they read. List words or phrases
that students did not know on the
board and explain as needed.
8 WORK THROUGH
AN ARTICLE AS A CLASS
Pick an article and ask individual
students to read a paragraph or sen-
tence each. Discuss as they read,
explain grammar and meaning of
unknown words. This can be a very
intense session depending on the
language level of your students. You
might be surprised at how hard it can
actually be to go through a whole ar-
ticle together. It does allow for lots of
discussion, particularly around what
the writer really meant by the words
that they used.
9
CLASSIFIEDS
Turn to the classifieds section.
Ask students to find a builder, plumb-
er, caterer etc. Talk about each of
these professions. What type of work
do they do? Discuss the for sale ads.
What are people selling? Discuss
the other types of advertisements in
this section. What are they advertis-
ing? What does the advertisement tell
you? Students can write a short ad-
vertisement and share with a partner.
Would you ring this person/company
based on this ad? Does the ad work?
Why or why not?
10 PHOTO ARTICLES
Ask students to find a
photo in the newspaper. Ask them to
write their own headline and/or short
article to match the picture. Students
can read their articles to the class or
work in pairs to share their work. This
is also a good homework exercise.
11 PRODUCE YOUR OWN
CLASS NEWSPAPER/S
Ask students to take on different roles
to produce a newspaper. Students
could work in groups of two to four to
produce different sections of a news-
paper or produce a short newspaper
as a whole class. They could produce
any type of newspaper and have as
many different sections in it as they
liked. Making decisions about what
the newspaper should be and how to
do it could be part of the lesson. This
would take some time for them to do
so you could do it in class over a num-
ber of sessions, (perhaps dedicate the
last half hour) and include some home
work as well. Photocopy the finished
product for each student to read. Dis-
cuss the contents of the newspaper
and the whole process of producing it.
AND FINALLY FOR A BIT OF FUN
ASK EACH STUDENT TO MAKE A
HAT OUT OF A SHEET OR TWO OF
NEWSPAPER!
37
 What You Can Do With a Maga-
zine: 10 ESL Speaking Activities
IN AN ESL CLASSROOM, A PILE
OF OLD MAGAZINES CAN BE A
GODSEND. MAGAZINES ARE HIGHLY
VERSATILE RESOURCES AND OFFER
AMAZING POTENTIAL NOT ONLY FOR
CLASSIC CLIPPING, COLLAGE AND
ART PROJECTS, BUT ALSO SPEAK-
ING ACTIVITIES.
And to prove it to you, here we pres-
ent 10 creative ESL speaking activi-
ties that only require the use of a few
magazines and great deal of your
imagination:
HOW TO USE
MAGAZINES IN YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM
1
CURRENT EVENTS
READING AND SPEAKING
Particularly with advanced adult stu-
dents, magazine articles from maga-
zines like Time and Newsweek spark
discussion and debate. Choose an
article that suits your students’ level,
make enough copies for all, introduce
vocabulary, present the topic through
an engaging warm up activity, then
read. End the lesson with a debate or
discussion on the topic: try to present
specific thought-provoking questions,
rather than a simple, “Discuss!”
2
CELEBRITY COMPARISONS
This is a great activity for teens
or beginners who are into celebrities.
Magazines like People will work best
in this case: the more celebrity pics, the
better! Use celebrity photos to spark
comparisons: Arnold Swatznegger
is taller than Tom Cruise. He’s also
bigger. But Tom is a better actor.
Who’s the most talented actor of them
all? Or songwriter? See what your stu-
dents have to say!
3 TISING STRATEGIES. THERE ARE AS
A SEARCH FOR WORDS
Little ones LOVE cutting up
magazines. Ask them to look through
a pile of magazines and cut out all of
the fruits and vegetables they can find,
or people playing sports, or clothes -
you choose the set of vocabulary you
want them to practice. Once you have
38
all of their cutouts, prompt them to say
whatever comes to mind about each:
Apples are red. I love apples. I
don’t like tomatoes. I hate lettuce.
I eat bananas every day for break-
fast, etc...
4 WHAT’S HAPPENING?
This a wonderful way to practice
tenses like the present continuous
and not have to resort to the same il-
lustrations your students have already
seen countless times before. Choose
a photo from a magazine - make sure
it’s a scene where there’s a lot going
on, like an airport, restaurant, a fam-
ily doing things outdoors. Simply show
them the picture and ask: What’s
happening in this picture? What’s
the father doing? What’s the moth-
er doing? etc.
5 ON THE COVER
Magazines are also excellent au-
thentic materials that provide a great
deal of information about more cul-
tural aspects. Choose magazines that
cater to specific audiences or shed
some light into the American culture.
Show your students the cover and ask
them what they think this magazine is
about: is it an entertainment, fashion,
or news magazine? Who or what is on
the cover and why? Ask them to guess
what each story is about based on the
headline.
6 FOCUSING ON HEADLINES
The headlines themselves may
spark great speaking activities, as well
as a glimpse into newspaper and mag-
azine headline language. Before ask-
ing students to open the magazine, list
some of the headlines featured in the
magazine and ask them to say what
they think each article is about. Write
a list of topics that correspond to those
headlines. Ask students to match the
right topic to the right headline.
7 WHERE WOULD YOU FIND
INFORMATION ON…?
Bring several different types of maga-
zines to class, the greater the variety,
the better. Give your students a few
minutes to browse through each and
get a feel for the content. Then ask
them: where would you find informa-
tion on the latest iPhone apps? Where
would you find information on dog
breeds? What kind of person would
buy Rolling Stone? What kind of per-
son would buy Car and Driver? What
interests do they have?
8
TOPIC OF INTEREST
Ask students to browse several
magazines and choose one article or
topic that interests them. Tell them that
they can read the article, but they must
be prepared to tell the class about it in
their own words.
9
WHAT WAS THAT
QUESTION AGAIN?
Choose a magazine article that fea-
tures an interview or information on a
celebrity. Ask students to think of what
questions the interviewer asked to get
this information. Ask students to sup-
ply any other questions they may want
to ask.
10
FIND
THE DIFFERENCES
Show students two magazine pictures
that present a similar situation: people
in an office, people playing sports,
people showing different emotions.
Show students each set and ask them
to tell the class what these pictures
have in common and how they differ.
CHOOSE UNUSUAL, ABSTRACT
MAGAZINE PHOTOS AND LET YOUR
STUDENTS’ IMAGINATION RUN
WILD. CHOOSE MAGAZINE ADS
FOR A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS AND
DISCUSS MARKETING OR ADVER-
MANY WAYS TO USE MAGAZINES
IN AN ESL CLASSROOM AS THERE
ARE MAGAZINES IN A NEWSSTAND.
BUT NO MATTER WHICH ACTIV-
ITY YOU CHOOSE, MAKE SURE YOU
GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A CHANCE TO
SPEAK UP!
10 Things You Can Do
With Game Pieces
WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
DO NOT THROW THOSE RANDOM
PIECES OF BOARD GAMES AWAY!
YOU CAN REPURPOSE THEM FOR
YOUR ESL CLASS WITH ALMOST NO
WORK!
Here are some ideas to get that junk
out of your closet and into the class-
room for some fun and creativity.
10 GREAT THINGS
YOU CAN DO
WITH GAME PIECES
1 DICE
Everyone has dice laying in the
bottom of a closet or drawer some-
where at home just getting in the way.
Dice in the classroom, however, make
for a lively and fun idea generating ac-
tivity. Come to class with a list of cat-
egories you may want your students
to brainstorm. You can tie these topics
in to an area you are already studying
(types of food, types of travel, colors,
clothing, etc.) or list some not related
to class. Before telling your class what
the topic is for the round, have each
student roll two dice and write their
number at the top of the page. Then
tell them the topic, and explain that
whatever number they rolled is how
many examples they must list. After
students complete their lists, have
them share their creativity with the en-
tire class or with a small group. Keep
playing until you run out of categories
or until you run out of time. Your stu-
dents will have fun thinking up new
ideas and trying to roll low or maybe
high numbers.
2 TWISTER SPINNER
You say you have a Twister
spinner but no game board? Well,
you would not want to ask your stu-
dents to roll around on the classroom
floor anyway. Instead, use the color-
coded spinner as a spark for an I-spy
style game! Have each student take
a turn spinning: he must then think of
something that is the color he spun.
For example, if he spun the color red,
he might think of an apple, lips or a
fire engine. (You may want to specify
that items that can be any of the col-
ors be excluded, a sweater or book,
for example.) Give his classmates a
set amount of time (between one and
five minutes depending on the level of
your students) to ask as many yes/no
questions about the item as possible.
At the end of the time, allow each stu-
dent to guess and award points to any
student who gets the answer right. If
no one can guess the item, the stu-
dent who spun gets the points (as
long as it was a fair item).
3 GAME BOARD
What can you do with a game
board if you have no other pieces from
the game? There’s an activity for that
as well. You may decide to run this ac-
tivity for one class period or longer, up
to a week. Have your students choose
items to use as markers – coins, but-
tons, or other small, heavy items work
well. Then set the rule for moving
along the game board. Do you want
your students to use current vocabu-
lary words in the appropriate context?
Are you looking to hear a particular
grammatical structure? As you go
about your daily activities, every time
one of your students uses the goal
word or structure appropriately, allow
him to move his marker one space.
You can use any game board that
has spaces that players travel along
– anything from Candyland to Balder-
dash. The game you use will deter-
mine how quickly students can reach
the end of the board. When someone
does, acknowledge his accomplish-
ment and set a new language usage
goal for the next week.
4 CARDS
You do not need to play with
a full deck to benefit from this cross
breed between a number review and
a math game. With aces counting as
one point and face cards counting as
ten points each, divide as many cards
as you have among four students. On
the word go, each student flips over
the card on the top of his pile. The four
students must then determine how to
reach the answer twenty-four with the
numbers on the cards. They may use
addition, subtraction, multiplication or
division. When using this as a num-
ber review (always a challenge to
students of a second language) make
sure the explanation is stated cor-
rectly before awarding a point to the
player with the answer.
5 SCRABBLE
Is your Scrabble or Upwords
game not as complete as it once was?
Letter tiles make a useful item to keep
in the ESL classroom. Just throw
them all together in a bag for this ac-
tivity. Have one student select eight to
ten tiles and put them where every-
one can see them or write the letters
on the board. Give your students five
minutes to make a list of all the words
they can think of that are spelled with
just the letters on the board. When
time is up, have your students com-
pare their lists and eliminate any re-
peated words. Whoever has the most
words remaining wins the round.
6
LETTER TILES
Another activity you can do with
letter tiles is a Scattergories style ac-
tivity. Give your students between five
and ten categories of items such as
sports, boys’ names, world leaders,
food or colors. Then have a student
pull one letter from the bag. The chal-
lenge is to list a word that fits each cat-
egory that begins with the letter your
student pulled from the bag. Give your
students a certain time limit, three min-
utes is a good length of time. Depend-
ing on the letter, this activity can be
very challenging. Your students may
want to use dictionaries, but discour-
age that until after the round is over.
You may want to compile a running list
of the words students used in a class
book or have your students copy them
into their vocabulary notebooks.
7
INSTRUCTIONAL CARDS
Many games come with instruc-
tional cards. They may be the Com-
munity Chest cards from Monopoly
39
 or the direction cards from the game
of Life. When you do not know what
to do with all your loose cards that no
longer make up a complete game,
put them all together as a bank of
story starters. With intermediate and
advanced students, you can instruct
each student to select one card from
the bunch. (More advanced students
should select their card without read-
ing what is printed on the card before
hand.) The writing homework is to
write a story in which the directions
on the card can be quoted and make
sense in context. This activity will
challenge your students’ creativity as
well as their language skills. Most of-
ten, the quotations will most easily fit
as dialogue, but encourage other cre-
ative uses as well. If you like, you can
display your students’ stories in your
classroom with the game cards hang-
ing next to them.
of four students. The task those stu-
dents now have is to create a game
using at least two of the pieces the
group has selected. They can make
additional items for use with the
game. After giving the groups time
to work together, have your students
practice giving instructions by explain-
ing the game their group created. You
may want to try to play the game and
see how well your students communi-
cated their instructions to the rest of
the class.
WITH A LITTLE CREATIVITY AND
INGENUITY, EVEN SEEMING USELESS
ITEMS CAN FIND A PURPOSE IN THE
ESL CLASSROOM.
If you do not have pieces of your
childhood games laying around, do
not despair. The next time you drive
by a garage sale check to see what
games they have (they will be very

8
inexpensive, especially if they are
MORE CARDS missing pieces) and use the items
you find. One of the best parts of be-
Other games contain similar
ing a teacher is using your creativity,
cards with pictures of people or items
and students will like that challenge
on them (think Clue). You can present
as well!
a similar challenge to your students
with these cards by asking them to
write a story in which this character
appears. Using the picture, students
can also write a character description.
For lower level students, you may
simply want to provide a list of ques-
tions about the person and have your
students answer them.

9 STACKING BLOCKS
You can encourage conversa-
tion among your students with stack-
ing blocks like those from the game
Jenga. Write one icebreaker question
on each of the blocks before bringing
them to class. Then, as you play, have
each student answer the question she
pulls from the stack. Your students will
learn about one another as they learn
new vocabulary. It does not matter
when the stack falls or if all the pieces
to the game are there since the main
purpose is to get your students talking
to one another.

10 CREATE
YOUR OWN GAME
Finally, collect all your pieces, cards,
spinners, dice and anything else you
can find and put them all in a box for
your students. Have each student se-
lect one item from the box and then
divide your class randomly into teams

40
What You Can Do with Bro-
chures and Flyers: 7 Activities
MOST OF US HATE THE JUNK MAIL
THAT CLUTTERS UP OUR MAILBOXES
– ALL OF THOSE PAMPHLETS, BRO-
CHURES AND FLYERS FOR COMPA-
NIES AND SERVICES WE ARE NOT
INTERESTED IN.
But wait! Don’t throw them away! Put
them to good use in your ESL class.
Brochures, flyers and all forms of ad-
vertisement offer great, real informa-
tion that your students can practice
with. Here are 7 fabulous activities
you can try with your class:
7 CREATIVE
ESL ACTIVITIES
WITH BROCHURES
AND FLYERS
1
WHAT ARE YOUR HOURS?
Gather plenty of library, bank,
car rental agency, museum, travel
agency, etc. brochures. Use any bro-
chure where the hours of business
are clearly visible. Give a student a
museum brochure, for example, and
tell them they work in the museum.
Another student calls the museum
and asks about hours. You can have
several role plays with as many plac-
es/brochures as you like. This is also
great way to review the days of the
week.
2
FOOD SORTING
Supermarket flyers are awe-
some materials for an ESL class. They
come filled with pictures. Give your
students several of these and have
them cut out all of the foods. When
they’re done, all of the pictures are
placed in one big pile. Give your stu-
dents a large sheet of poster board.
Tell them they must first sort the foods
into different groups: dairy, meats,
fruits, vegetables, cereals, etc.Then
they must glue the different groups
onto the poster board. You may also
teach them about the food pyramid
and have them illustrate it with their
pictures.
3 MY DREAM DESTINATION
Present your students with a va-
riety of travel brochures. Talk about
each of the destinations. What’s it
like there? What activities can you do
there? What’s the weather like this
time of year? Is it expensive to travel
there? Is it far? Have each student
choose one of the destinations and
write about why they would like to
travel there.
4
A MEDICAL CONDITION
Try to get several copies of the
same brochure from a doctor’s of-
fice. The brochure can be about any
medical condition or health issue.
Some really good ones are the “How
to Prevent ...” type. Say you have a
brochure for “How to Prevent Tooth
Decay”. Introduce the topic with warm
up questions: How often do you brush
your teeth? Do you brush your teeth
after every meal? Then have students
read the brochures individually or in
pairs. Give them some comprehen-
sion questions to answer. End the ac-
tivity by asking what they’ve learned
about tooth decay.
Keep in mind that although medical
topics may be hard for some ESL
students to understand, medical bro-
chures are written in a very simple,
clear language that anyone can under-
stand. They are much better sources
of information for ESL students and
make better reading material than
medical books or encyclopedias.
5
HOW DO I GET THERE?
Gather different types of bro-
chures that include a map. Students
study the maps and take turns asking
for and giving directions.
6
WHICH BROCHURE
SHOULD I READ?
Present your students with different
types of brochures for a variety of
businesses. Give them enough time
to peruse each and get a general idea
of what each company does. Present
them with a situation: I need to open a
bank account. Which brochure should
I read? A student chooses the bank
brochure for you and scans the in-
formation to answer some questions
from you: Where is the bank located?
What are its hours? You may eas-
ily target your questions to your stu-
dents’ level.
7
PLANNING
A SOCIAL ACTIVITY
Try to get some flyers for cultural activ-
ities that may include theater, movies
and concerts. Students make plans to
go out. First, they must agree on what
they will see or do. Then they must ar-
range the date and time, say who else
is coming, and whether they’ll be do-
ing anything afterwards like going out
to dinner.
For those ESL teachers who may
not be living in an English-speaking
country and may not have access to
brochures in English, some websites
have printable brochures (Google
“printable brochure” and you’ll find
some). Also, most travel agencies or
tourist information offices have bro-
chures in English. Pool resources!
Ask colleagues who travel abroad to
bring you some!
BROCHURES AND FLYERS OFFER A
TREMENDOUS WEALTH OF INFOR-
MATION: RATES, PRICES, CONTACT
INFO, HOURS, CULTURAL FACTS, ETC.
Some brochures may not be appro-
priate for all levels but you can al-
ways target the information you need
like addresses and phone numbers,
hours, etc. There are also great bro-
chures and flyers for children. The va-
riety available is astounding! They’re
everywhere! Once you start using
them in class, you’ll never throw away
another flyer again! There is a saying
that goes, “When life gives you lem-
ons, make lemonade”. Here at Busy-
Teacher.org, we say, “When people
give you flyers, use them in your ESL
class!” You will also be making a posi-
tive contribution to the environment by
keeping more paper out of the trash.
41
What You Can Do with Cardboard
Boxes: 6 Fun ESL Activities&Crafts
LET’S TAKE A TRIP DOWN MEMORY
LANE… WHEN WE WERE CHIL-
DREN WHAT WAS THE BEST THING
ABOUT BUYING LARGE, HOUSEHOLD
APPLIANCES?
Were we even remotely interested in the
new refrigerator or TV set? Not really!
We wanted to play with the box! There
are great ways to use cardboard boxes
in the ESL classroom and here are just
a few to get you started:
6 FUN ESL ACTIVITIES
AND CRAFTS WITH
CARDBOARD BOXES
town instead of an old, boring, flat map?
Use small cardboard boxes of different
sizes, like small cereal or cookie boxes.
Have your students create a building out
of each: movie theater, bank, school, etc.
-- all of the essential places in a town.
Next, you’ll need a large piece of card-
board to build your town. Arrange and
glue all of the buildings to form streets
your students will travel around. Your
class can make the town as detailed as
they want by adding fire hydrants, stops
signs, and bus stops! Use toy cars to
drive around and ask for directions.
5 MAIL CALL!
Surely you’ll have your class prac-
tice plenty of letter writing, but it’s so
much more fun to have a mailbox to put
their letters into! Have each of your stu-
dents write a letter to a classmate, put it
in an envelope and address it. Students
put their letter into the mailbox. Then
you can be the postman/woman and de-
liver them or have another student act
as postman/woman. You can also use
the mailbox for homework assignments
or special occasions such as Valentine’s
Day or Christmas, where students will

1 CARDBOARD BOX CASTLE 4 BOXED WORDS

Fairy tales are all the rage right
now, with girls and boys, and you can
have fun with fairy tales in your ESL
class. But first, why not make this easy
cardboard box castle with your class?
Watch the video, follow the simple step-
by-step instructions and help your stu-
dents decorate your castle. With the
help of some small dolls or action fig-
ures, act out scenes from a fairy tale
you’ve read for role plays with a twist!
It is essential to help your students
acquire more vocabulary, but why not
capitalize on their innate curiosity? How
many times has a student asked you
about the meaning of a word? Count-
less times, most likely. What if you had a
card for every vocabulary-related ques-
tion a student asked? Set up a Vocabu-
lary Box in a corner of the room! It can
have a slit on the front or the top, like a
ballot box. Wrap it up in pretty paper and
leave the slit as the only opening. Each
time a student asks about a word he or
get the chance to write to Santa. Watch
this tutorial to make your mailbox and
decorate it with your class: http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=CPGWAbYBJu4
6 ROBOT HEADS
What would a robot family talk
about at the dinner table? “Pass the nuts
and bolts, please”, one of them could
say. For a fun family role play activity,
first have your students create a robot
head out of a cardboard box for each
of the family members. When they’re
all done, students take turns acting out

2
DIORAMAS TO DIE FOR!
Dioramas are perfect for capturing
a scene from a story – and cardboard
boxes are the ideal material for your
class diorama. Simply cut out a rectan-
gle from one of the sides of the box, like
a window. Then have your class assist
you in recreating a scene from a story
or book you’ve read. They can use a
variety of materials, from modeling clay
to cardboard cutouts. Dioramas are also
great for re-creating typical animal habi-
tats, like rainforest or jungle, or even a
room in a house. Divide your students
into groups and assign each room in
the house for them to re-create in their
own diorama. And don’t forget holiday
dioramas: from the first Thanksgiving to
a spooky graveyard filled with monsters
for Halloween, the possibilities are end-
less!
she does not understand, go through different role plays, but as robots! In
the following steps: the shopping role play, what would the
• Use the word in a sentence and see momma-bot buy at the store? What
if anyone can guess the meaning about household chores? You can have
from the context. Supply as many any role play you like, but the robots will
as necessary. Try not to give them certainly make them more interesting!
a definition first.
WHEN IT COMES TO FUN ESL ACTIV-
• Once they’ve figured it out, try to
ITIES, WHY NOT THINK OUTSIDE THE
come up with a good definition as
BOX, OR RATHER IN THIS CASE INSIDE
a class.
IT?
• Write the word at the top of an index Why not capitalize on our innate fasci-
card, the definition below that and nation with boxes and the opportunities
finally an example of the word used they hold?
in a sentence.
• Put the card in the Vocabulary Box.
• At the end of the month (or school
year) depending on the number of
words accumulated, you can open
the box in a grand ceremony and
see how many of the words they still
remember, how many they’ve for-

3 WE BUILT THIS CITY!

ON CARDBOARD BOXES!
Want to practice asking for and giving
directions? How about using a miniature
gotten or not used at all since that
day in class. This will also give them
an idea as to how useful a new word
is.

42
What You Can Do with a Paper
Bag: 9 Splendid ESL Activities
“Paper or plastic?” is the question
supermarket shoppers have been
asked for years, and though there is
still much debate on which is the most
environmentally friendly choice, ESL
teachers should definitely go for pa-
per bags – they can be reused in the
classroom for lots of fun, creative ac-
tivities. Like these, for example:
10 ESL ACTIVITIES
WITH PAPER BAGS
1 SCRAMBLED EGGS
Take egg-shaped pieces of pa-
per and write one word in a sentence in
each piece of paper. Place the words
in a paper bag. Prepare one bag for
each team of 2-3 students. Give each
of your teams one bag. Students take
out the “eggs” and try to form a sen-
tence with the words. The first team
to complete theirs wins. This is a fun
activity for Easter, but you can adapt it
to any holiday or special lesson – use
pumpkins for Halloween or Thanks-
giving, and stars for Christmas.
2 PUPPET PETS
Your class can make puppets of
virtually any animal they like out of pa-
per lunch bags – lions, zebras, cats,
dogs, or even birds. All you have to
do is instruct them to use the bottom,
folded part of the bag for the face –
this is where their hand will go. For
example, try octopus, turtle, or fish
templates for puppets!
3 BACK TO SCHOOL
BACKPACKS
One of the activities suggested in
this wonderful Back to School Arts
and Crafts worksheet (http://bit.
ly/1m1U8QN) is making a backpack
out of a paper bag. Give each of
your students a large paper bag and
have them follow the instructions on
the worksheet to create and decorate
their backpacks. Students take them
home and fill them with things they
want to share with the class: photos,
small toys, books, a card collection,
etc. -- they bring their backpacks to
class and take turns sharing.
4 MONSTER MASKS
This works particularly well for
Halloween, but you can make masks
for any holiday or special lesson. Stu-
dents take large paper bags and cut
out holes for the eyes and mouth.
They can then decorate the bags to
create their own monster: Franken-
stein, Dracula, an alien, even a one-
eyed Cyclops. No need to bring a
costume for the class Halloween party
– they’ll have their masks!
5
KINGS AND QUEENS
OF ESL LAND
Wouldn’t your students love to be
queen or king for the day? Take a large
paper bag and draw zigzags about 2
½ inches from the top of the bag. Cut
it out and you’ll have a crown for your
students to decorate. You can make
several from one paper bag. These go
great with a fairy tale lesson.
6 WHAT’S IN THE BAG?
How about a different way for
your students to practice describ-
ing things? Put an object inside a
large paper bag. A student puts his/
her hand inside the bag and feels
the object. He/she must describe it:
It’s large/small, rough/soft, made of
metal/plastic, etc. Take the object out
of the bag and confirm if your student
was right.
7 PLAY BALL!
What happens if you want to use
a ball in your ESL class, but you for-
got the ball? Make one out of a paper
bag! All you have to do is stuff the bag
with newspaper or any scrap pieces
of paper, then either close the top with
a rubber band or tape it closed with
packing tape. It’s not exactly the same
as a real ball, but it’ll get you out of
a bind. Make small balls with lunch
bags or large ones with grocery bags.
8 MAIL CALL!
Have your students write letters
– and have a postman deliver them!
There is a very simple way to make
a postman’s bag out of a large paper
bag. Just punch one hole one either
side – reinforce the holes by sticking
some masking tape over them before
you punch through so they won’t tear.
Tie a long ribbon or string from one
side to the other, and the bag’s ready
to be filled with letters.
Students must write a letter to an-
other classmate about what they did
over the weekend or a special holi-
day – Student A writes to B, B to C
and so on, so everyone gets a letter.
They place their letters in an envelope
and address them. The student who
finishes his/her letter first gets to be
the postman, collects the letters in the
bag and delivers them.
9
BROWN PAPER CARDS
Students cut out cards out of a
large paper bag with pinking shears.
They may choose to cut out simple
rectangles, heart-shaped cards, or
stars depending on the holiday or cel-
ebration you’ll be making the cards
for. Students punch holes around the
edges of the card and then thread rib-
bon, string, or yarn around it. They
tie the ends into a ribbon and deco-
rate the card. Mother’s Day, Father’s
Day or Christmas – these make great
cards for any holiday.
IF YOU TAKE YOUR GROCERIES
HOME IN PAPER BAGS, MAKE GOOD
USE OF THEM. BY USING THEM FOR
CRAFTS, YOU WILL SAVE ON OTHER
FORMS OF PAPER, LIKE POSTER
BOARD OR CONSTRUCTION PAPER.
And that’s not only great for the envi-
ronment. It’s great for your students,
as you’ll be teaching them the value
of reusing materials.
43
 What You Can Do with an Egg
Timer: 8 Fabulous ESL Activities
TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE HAVING
FUN AND ISN’T IT GREAT WHEN
YOUR ESL STUDENTS ARE SUR-
PRISED TO SEE IT’S TIME TO GO
HOME? SOME MAY NOT EVEN WANT
TO GO HOME!
One great way to put some fun into
plete the task. One relay race that
works well like this involves word or-
der. Team members must take a word
from a pile on one desk and run to
7 TIME TO GET ORGANIZED
Give your class or a team of
students one minute to arrange them-
another desk, where they must place selves according to age, birthdays,
them in the right order one at a time. alphabetical order, etc.They can only
The team that completes a sentence speak English for this challenge.
first and within the 2-minute limit gets

your ESL class is to introduce some
timed activities – it’s amazing how
fired up and competitive students get
when they’re on the clock.
8 ESL ACTIVITIES
YOU CAN DO
WITH AN EGG TIMER
the point.
4
TICKING TIME BOMB
Choose a vocabulary category
you’d like to practice. Set your timer
to one or two minutes, say an item
that falls into this category, for ex-
ample “fox” for “animals” and pass
8
WHAT’S DIFFERENT
THIS TIME?
Arrange a set of objects on a table.
Be sure to include plenty of classroom
objects. Take a picture, if you can, with
a camera that has a display on the
back. Ask a student to look carefully at

1
TIME TO WRITE!
For this writing activity, your stu-
dents will write a story as a group.
First, you’ll need an idea or prompt to
get them started: you can give them
the timer to a student. Students must
each name an item in the category
and pass the timer to a classmate.
The student who has the timer when it
goes off loses a life.
the arrangement and try to memorize
it. Ask student to leave the classroom.
Move some of the objects around, but
no more than three. When student
comes back into the classroom, he/
she has 60 seconds to tell you what’s
different. They must use prepositions

the title of the story or the first line/
words. Set your timer to one minute
(or 30 seconds depending on your
students’ level, and ask them to con-
tinue the story. When their time is up
they must pass the sheet of paper
to a classmate – it doesn’t matter if
they have to stop midsentence. The
next student has to pick up where the
previous left off. When all of your stu-
dents have had the chance to contrib-
ute to the story, you can go on for a bit
longer but ask them to wrap it up.
5
TIMED READING
This is a really useful way to get
students focused on a reading task.
Simply give them a text, story, or arti-
cle to read, together with a set of com-
prehension questions to answer. Set
your timer. Students must complete
the task before the timer goes off. This
is also a great way to prepare them for
international examinations with timed
reading sections, like the Cambridge
examinations.
of place: “The blue pen was next to
the teacher’s book, but now it’s under
it.” Confirm with the photo you took.
Keep in mind that you can also use
a cell phone, in case you don’t have
an egg timer – plenty of phones come
with a timer.
THE CLOCK’S TICKING! NO TIME TO
WASTE! TRY SOME OF THESE ACTIV-
ITIES IN YOUR ESL CLASS, AND YOUR
STUDENTS WILL HAVE THE TIME OF

2 BEAT YOUR OWN RECORD

This is a great activity for one- 6 THINK FAST!
Give each of your students 60
THEIR LIVES!

on-one classes. When a student seconds to name as many items in

takes classes alone, he/she doesn’t
have the chance to compete with oth-
er students. So give them a chance
to compete against themselves! Ask
your student to write as many new
words from a recent lesson as they
can. Give them one or two minutes to
do this. Count the number of words.
Next time, encourage your student to
beat their own record.
a category as they can. First, divide
them into two teams. Then, one team
picks a card with a category out of
a bag, say “professions”. The clock
starts ticking and the first team mem-
ber starts naming professions. If they
get stuck, they may say “pass” and the
next team member continues naming,
but they can’t repeat a profession that
has already been named. When the
60 seconds are up, you tell the team

3 RACE AGAINST TIME

Make your relay races extra
how many words they named correct-
ly with no repetition. The other team
picks a category and does the same.
competitive and super charged by giv-
ing your teams two minutes to com-

44
What You Can Do with Clothes:
8 Great ESL Activities
WHEN YOU HAVE TO TEACH
CLOTHES VOCABULARY, DO YOU
ALWAYS USE FLASHCARDS AND
ILLUSTRATIONS? WHY NOT GIVE
4 FASHION SENSE
Lay several items of clothing
dents and one further away. Say, “This
scarf is blue and that scarf is red”. Do
the same with pairs of socks for these
and those.
and accessories on a table. Give your
students commands like, “Put on the

YOUR STUDENTS THE REAL DEAL?
CLOTHING ITEMS SUPPLY PLENTY
OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR KINES-
THETIC ACTIVITIES WITH YOUNG
LEARNERS, AND IF YOU USE THEM
WITH ADULT LEARNERS – THEY’LL
CERTAINLY BE SURPRISED!
Try to have a bag with an assort-
ment of clothes ready for lessons in
red scarf”. Make it more challenging
and test their listening skills by hav-
ing similar items of different colors:
“Put on the scarf with green and blue
stripes”. Ask one student to put on
several items at the same time for a
fun, ridiculous look that will make your
students laugh.
8
SEASONAL ITEMS
Place a suitcase full of clothes
in front of your students. You can do
two things. You can either have them
sort them into what is more appropri-
ate for each season, or you may also
describe some weather conditions
and have students choose what they

5
which you’ll talk about clothes. For
little ones, a trunk full of clothes in the
THERE’S BEEN A ROBBERY
corner of the classroom guarantees Practice prepositions of place.
instant fun. Arrange several clothing items around
the classroom which will be your
8 GREAT “shop”. Drape a sweater over a chair.
ESL ACTIVITIES Put a scarf under a desk, and so on.
WITH CLOTHES Ask your students, your “shop clerks”
to take a long hard look at the class-
should wear: “It’s cloudy and windy.
It’s about 75 degrees.” Students
should choose items that are appro-
priate for rainy weather.
If you want to give your students
clothes worksheets to continue prac-
ticing, you’ll find over 150 worksheets
you need in our clothes section: http://

1 FASHION SHOW
This is the perfect way to prac-
room and try to remember where ev-
erything is. Ask a student to step out
of the classroom. Take two or three
bit.ly/1beZxCM

tice, “I’m wearing...”. Students choose items and hide them. Ask the student REAL ITEMS AND PROPS ALLOW
three items to wear from your trunk or to come back and say there has been STUDENTS TO USE SEVERAL OF
bag and take turns modeling them. a robbery. They must report what was THEIR SENSES AT ONCE.
stolen from the “shop”: There was a Moreover, all students can easily re-

2 CLEARANCE SALE!
Why practice clothes shopping
green sweater on the chair and a red
scarf under the desk.
late to clothes. Because it may result
bulky, to bring in piles of clothes to the
classroom, try bringing a few at a time

role plays with imaginary clothes,
when it’s so much better to use real
ones? First, prepare the items by giv-
ing each a price tag – you can have
this ready beforehand, or ask your
students to help you. Students take
turns buying and selling items. For ex-
tended practice, expand the role play
to include the fitting room conversa-
tion: The jacket fits/doesn’t fit. It’s too
long/short. Could I have a smaller/big-
ger size?
6
and store them in your classroom. Be-
WHOSE SHIRT IS THIS?
fore you know it, you’ll have a great
This is a fun way to practice collection of clothes for your students
possessive pronouns. Ask each stu- to play with!
dent to bring an item of clothing to the
class. It can be anything they want
to bring. Before class they must give
you their items without showing them
to any of their classmates. Place all
items in a bag or box and have each
student take one. Each student has
to guess whose it is. The student has
three chances to say whose it is, and

3 STORY TIME
Young learners can be very dra-
if they can’t guess correctly they get to
ask, “Whose belt is this?”

matic, and they love to dress up! Have
your own little class play and provide
them with the clothes to wear. You
can put on a play or show for another
class or your students’ parents.
7
THESE OR THOSE?
Clothes are great items with
which to practice demonstrative pro-
nouns. You’ll need several similar
items like several pairs of socks and
shoes, plus scarves, belts, shirts,
skirts, etc. Place a scarf close to stu-

45
 7 Easy Icebreakers You Can Do
With Post-It Notes
TRY THESE 7 EASY
ICEBREAKERS
YOU CAN DO
6 A MATCHED SET
Have your students write five
fun facts about themselves and turn
WITH POST-IT NOTES the paper in to you. Then, write each

1
fact on a post-it along with a matching
HIDDEN TREASURE one with that students name. When
your students are not in the room, put
Write several icebreaker ques-
the post-its all around your classroom.
tions on the sticky side of post-it notes
Students must then race to match the
and stick them to the board. Have
names with the correct facts (they
each student take turns choosing one
cannot match their own name). The
sticky note and answering the ques-
person with the most matches at the
tion on the back. He can then choose
end of the game wins.
another student in the class to answer

7
the same question.
ALL-STAR CLASS

2 TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

Give each student three post-it
Once your students are begin-
ning to get to know each other, have
each person draw a self portrait and
notes. On two notes, she writes some-
display them on a bulletin board in
thing true about herself. On the third,
class. Each person writes a positive
she writes something false about her-
adjective describing each of his class-
self. Students share in groups of four
mates on a star shaped sticky note
to five and try to guess which state-
and sticks it to the self portrait. Do this
ment is each player’s lie.
activity in one day or over a period of

3
time, and then let students take their
QUESTION MIXER portraits home.
Write the name of one well
known person on a sticky note, and
write enough so everyone in class
has one. Stick a note to each persons
back. Students ask classmates one
yes/no question at a time until they
have figured out who is on their back.

4 WHERE ARE YOU FROM

For a class of internationals,
give each person a post-it note flag to
place on their home country on your
classroom world map. After everyone
has placed their post-it, students try to
guess whose note is whose.

5 GET TO KNOW YOU

Have each person write five
facts about himself or herself on a
post-it note, and then put the notes on
the board. Make sure you write one,
too. Then, choose one post-it and
read it aloud. Try to guess which stu-
dent wrote it. When you get the right
student, that person takes a turn with
the remaining notes. Continue until all
the notes are gone.

46
Fun ESL Activities You Can Do
With A Name
“Jimmy... I mean Johnny... I mean
Jason get over here.” Did you ever
hear a similar sentence from a par-
ent, grandparent or teacher as she
ran down a list of all your siblings’
names before getting to yours?
Everyone has a name, even if parents
cannot remember them at times, and
what better place to start your ESL
class than with some fun activities
that use their names?
FUN ESL ACTIVITIES
YOU CAN DO
WITH A NAME
1 ACROSTIC ORIGINS
Acrostics are a fun place to start
when doing a lesson using names.
Before introducing what an acrostic
is, write your name vertically on the
white board. Then challenge your stu-
dents to think of an adjective which
describes you that starts with each of
the letters you have written. For ex-
ample, for the name Sue you might
say sweet, understanding and ener-
getic. Once your class has complet-
ed the acrostic, write another name
on the board and repeat the activity.
You can also use short phrases in the
acrostic instead of single words to de-
scribe a person if you or your class is
struggling with a particular letter. This
activity is also a good time to put the
English dictionary to use by checking
for entries that begin with a specific
letter. Round out the activity by hav-
ing your students write acrostics of
their own full names, and then post
them in your classroom to give stu-
dents a chance to get to know each
other a little better. You may also want
to have your students write acrostics
for other names, perhaps for a pet or
family member or for a famous person
or celebrity.
2 ORIGIN OF NAMES
Many people have a story of
how they got their name. For some,
the name has been handed down
through generations in the family.
For others, children are named af-
ter a family friend or important per-
son in the parents’ lives. For some,
their names are chosen because of
the meaning behind the name or the
hopes the parents have for their child.
Discussing names is a natural place
to get in some conversation practice
as your students share their stories
and ask questions of their class-
mates. In groups, have your students
discuss how their parents chose their
name and the story behind it. If your
students do not know the story of their
name, have them discuss what names
they have either given pets or want to
give to their future children. Students
should explain why they chose a par-
ticular name and what their hopes
were for the recipient of that name.
You can also use this opportunity to
discuss the English names your stu-
dents may have chosen to use. Ask
them how they came about using
these names and what their thoughts
were behind the selection. Just make
sure that none of your students feels
criticized about his choice of a name
for either himself or someone else.
Each student should be able to share
about at least one type of name, and
some may be able to share about
several. Encourage your students to
practice their speaking as much as
they can, and give groups enough
time so that everyone has a chance
to share.
3
PARTY NAMES
Not all activities about names
have to be serious. This game com-
bines general knowledge with speak-
ing practice, particularly practice ask-
ing and answering questions. Prepare
for the game before class by writing
names of well-known people on slips
of paper. Make sure your students will
know who these people are. To start
the game, tape one of the names to
each person in your class. After ev-
eryone has a name, your students
are free to move about the classroom
asking yes/no questions of their class-
mates to try to figure out who they are
supposed to be. Once a student has
determined his or her correct identity,
he can sit down. Continue until the
whole class is sitting. You can tailor
this game to the goals of your class.
You can play a serious game by giving
historical names to your students, or
you can play a lighthearted game by
giving very unlikely names to unlikely
students (for example, placing the
name Lady Gaga on a male student’s
back). Either way, your class will be
actively participating and practicing
their language skills as they play the
game.
4 A ROSE
BY ANY OTHER NAME
Perhaps one of the most famous
quotes about names is Shake-
speare’s “a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet” spoken by
Romeo. Give this quotation to your
students and ask if they agree. Then
have a class discussion about the
following topic: does your name de-
termine your character, or does your
name have no influence on the per-
son that you become. Students are
sure to have varying opinions on the
idea of a name determining who you
are. Encourage open communication
among your students, and ask each
one to explain his thoughts behind
his answer. Then have your students
spend some time writing a paragraph
that either agrees or disagrees with
Shakespeare’s statement. Make sure
they give examples or evidence to
support their opinions.
EVERYONE HAS A NAME, AND
SOME PEOPLE HAVE MORE THAN
ONE. USE THESE ACTIVITIES ABOUT
NAMES TO HELP YOUR STUDENTS
GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER AND
THEMSELVES A LITTLE MORE AND
PRACTICE THEIR ENGLISH IN THE
PROCESS.
47
What You Can Do With a Song:
5 Creative ESL Listening Activities
Practicing listening skills in class
can be a real drag to a student,
marking the correct answer in their
workbook, while listening to repeti-
tive dialogues voiced by the same
people, over and over again. This
is where the student’s mind begins
to shut down and take a five-minute
breather, and whatever happening
outside captures their wandering
attention.
Listening involves a great deal of con-
centration, and so when the brain has
switched off and gone for lunch, the lis-
tening skills follow suit.
How can teachers avoid this
from happening, you ask?
Well, the answer is simple. Why not
try something a little different. Think
outside of the box and provide the stu-
dents with something that you may not
have tried before.
Songs provide a great alternative to
listening tasks, as they are effectively
the same dull listening exercises, but
dressed in disguise as something
that’s entertaining and fun.
Another reason why songs are great in
the classroom is that they can be used
as part of an entertaining and amusing,
yet thoroughly educational warmer that
will set right tone for the remainder of
the lesson.
You don’t have to do a song and dance
about it? Just a song on its own would
be fine, thank you.
Adding the occasional song along with
an accompanied activity to your class
every once in a while, you’re giving
the students more variety in the
class. This keeps their attention to-
wards you, their brain’s switched on
and a stronger ability to listen for detail
in the long run.
Here’s some creative activities that are
aimed to not only entertain students,
but to inspire and educate as well.
48
5 CREATIVE ESL SONG
ACTIVITIES
1 AN OPENER
FOR CLASSROOM
DISCUSSIONS AND DEBATES
Before getting started on a debate, a
song could be played to give an idea of
the situation. So for example, a class-
room discussion on crime and punish-
ment is on the cards, an oldie but a
goodie like The Clash and Bobby Full-
er Four’s ‘I Fought The Law’ provides
a great little opener while getting the
students thinking about the concept of
“Fighting the law” and the law win-
ning. This can also lead to some inter-
esting topics such as why people turn
to crime, justice, as well as the conse-
quences of crime.
2
TENSE EXPLANATIONS
As English grammar is heavily re-
liant on whether an action is completed
or unfinished, songs can help paint
a clear picture of the timing implica-
tions tense. A great song that provides
a good example is Stevie Nicks and
Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide.’
A much simpler explanation, for ex-
ample between present tense and past
tense is ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles. An
easy lesson plan for pre-intermediate
level students is to print out the lyrics,
play the song numerous times, and get
the students to underline the present
and past tenses in different colours. An
adaption to this activity give the choice
between the present and past tenses,
with the students required to underline
the correct form of the verb. Boring ex-
ercise made fun with the simple intro-
duction of a song.
3
CONDITIONALS
There are literally hundreds of
sounds out there that involve condi-
tionals. Using a song like Beyonce’s ‘If
I Were A Boy’ will not provide a clear
image to the concept of conditionals,
but also bring you to new levels of
“cool” in the eyes of your students.
The entire song details some of the
things she would do if she was just a
boy for one day. Getting your students
to put their thinking caps on and be a
little creative, get them to talk about if
they could do something for just one
day. The whole class will surely have
a laugh at some of the hilarious re-
sponses.
4
NEW VOCABULARY
BUILDER
Songs can also be used as an aid to
build the vocabulary of students. With
songs on practically every topic on the
planet, it’s incredibly simple to find
a song relating to a specific topic
and using examples from the song
to teach the students. One example
of this is a note taking activity using the
song ‘New York’ by U2. If, for example,
the topic of the class is cities, the stu-
dents would be instructed to take notes
about specific details in the song relat-
ing to one of the most famous cities in
the world, New York. Note taking is an
important skill for students as many will
one day be faced with that challenge in
their professional lives, while the song
adds an element of depth to the class.
5
WORKING OUT
THE CONTEXT
One of the great things about some
of the more lyrical songs is that they
don’t serve the answers up to the
student on a silver platter. They in-
volve the student to think about what is
really going on, based on not just the
words but also the feelings, emotions
and other variables. One example of a
song that really gets students thinking
is the song ‘Father and Son’ by Cat
Stevens. What makes this song quite
a brain bender is Stevens’ singing both
the parts of the father and the son. If
students can work out the context of
what is being said, the answers be-
come blindingly obvious. An exercise
like this works out great with a conver-
sation class as the students can put
forward their ideas about what is hap-
pening in the song.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT, A FEW
SIMPLE ACTIVITIES THAT WILL
ACCLAIM FROM YOUR STUDENTS
AND ADD THE ALL-IMPORTANT
VARIETY INTO YOUR CLASS.
All it takes is a little bit of adaption and
some creative thought. A few final
points of advice for using songs in
the classroom:

• If you use a cassette tape to play

the song, anyone in the class
born after 1995 will look at you in
total confusion and puzzlement.

• Don’t play songs like Bob Dylan

– Subterranean Homesick Blues,
not even we know what he’s talk-
ing about there.

• Listen to the CD before you play it

in class. The last thing your four-
year old kindergarten students
need is to hear your mix tape of
death metal or happy hardcore.

49
 What To Do With Reading Texts:
10 Creative Ways
THIS LIST OF 10 CREATIVE WAYS TO
WORK WITH READING TEXTS WAS
KINDLY SHARED BY CHURCHILL
HOUSE, AND IS AVAILABLE FOR
PUBLIC DOWNLOAD ON THEIR
WEBSITE WWW.CHURCHILLHOUSE.
CO.UK.
The web is a great source of textual
information, but if you are like us, you
won’t have the time or inclination to
spend hours turning pages from the
web into complete lesson plans with
worksheets, handouts etc. So here
are our top ten ideas for taking ANY
text and using it in class with the
least amount of preparation time
on your part. Enjoy!
TRY THESE 10
CREATIVE WAYS TO
USE READING TEXTS
IN YOUR CLASSROOM
1 EXPAND THE TEXT
With short, simple texts, get stu-
dents to add an adjective in front of
every noun / an adverb to every verb
etc.
For slightly longer texts - before class
write (10) extra clauses or sentenc-
es that can be inserted into the text.
Write these up in jumbled order on the
board and get students to add them in
the most appropriate places.
2 REDUCE THE TEXT
Get students to reduce the text
to EXACTLY (100) words OR reduce
the total number of sentences by
(50%).
3 RECONSTRUCT THE TEXT
Before class, write a list of key
words from the text in jumbled order
on a sheet of paper. Make one copy
for each group of students.
In class, give out the text to all the
students. Get them to read it through.
Now ask them to turn over the text.
Hand out the jumbled keywords. Ask
students to put the keywords back
50
into the correct order WITHOUT
LOOKING AT THE TEXT. When they
get stuck, allow them to reread to the
text (but first get them to cover up the
jumbled words again.)
When all the students have got the
words in the correct order, take the
text away. Get students to reconstruct
the text (orally or in writing) from the
key words.
4
MATCHING
Before class, get a heavy black
pen and cross out the first sentence of
each paragraph. (If you downloaded
the page off the web, use your word
processor to delete the sentences be-
fore printing.)
In class, write the missing sentences
up in jumbled order on the board and
get students to add them back into the
text in the correct place.
Note: choosing the first sentence of
a paragraph is particularly useful as
these often summarise the main idea
of the paragraph. Students can use
these sentences to help them under-
stand and structure the text.
5
TRANSFORM THE TEXT
Students must transform the
text in some way, for example:
• Retell a story in the first person
not the third person
• Retell a story from the perspec-
tive of a different character in the
story (e.g. from the wolf’s per-
spective, not from Little Red Rid-
•
ing Hood’s.)
Present a news story as a TV
news item instead of a newspa-
per item.
6 DEDUCTION
Copy the text onto a piece of
A4 paper. Tear off a column (say 4cm
wide) down the left hand side of the
copy and a similar sized column off
the right hand side. Photocopy and
hand out the remaining “middle” part
of the story. Students must work to-
gether to deduce the whole story from
the bits they have. Hand out the origi-
nal story for comparison at the end.
7
TEXT QUIZ
Hand out the chosen text to the
class. Give them time to read it, check
new words etc.
Now get the students in groups to
prepare (15) questions about the text
which another group will have to an-
swer from memory. Questions should
be factual.
When the groups are ready, cover up
all copies of the text, then get groups
to swap their question sheets and
answer each other’s questions. The
group that answers the most ques-
tions correctly wins.
8
WORD PARTNERSHIPS
Before class, find (15) use-
ful word partnerships in your cho-
sen text. Write the first word of
each partnership down the left-
hand side of a piece of paper. E.g.
Solve....
(Don’t forget that word partnerships
can consist of two or three words, and
also that sometimes a word is part-
nered with another one in a complete-
ly different part of the text. E.g. “The
puzzle, which had baffled experts for
well over 20 years, was finally solved
by a 12-year-old girl from Ramsgate.”)
In class, hand out the text. Allow stu-
dents time to read and ask questions.
Now get the students to complete the
sheet that you prepared by finding the
partners for each word.
As a follow-up, students can test each
other by covering up one of the col-
umns on their sheets and trying to
remember the missing word partners.
9 REACTIONS
Before class, prepare a list of
sentences along the following lines:

What I found most interesting

about this text was...

boring
shocking
amusing
irritating
baffling
incredible
etc.

In class, allow students time to read

the text and check out any problems.
Then ask them to complete all / some
of the sentences from your list.

When they have finished, put them in

groups to discuss their reactions.

10 TALK
ABOUT THE TEXT
One of the things we often do in real
life is tell someone else about a story
/ news item / magazine article etc that
we read.

To do this in class, all you need is

a text and a group of students. Get
the students to read the text. Now
ask them to describe the text and
their reactions to it to their part-
ner. Get them to start like this:
“I was reading this (story) the other
day and it was really interesting.
What it said was...”

Variation: have two or more texts and

get different students to read and talk
about different texts.

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