This is an English language exercise helping students learn language used to discuss movies. Teaching language with movies as the subject matter is always fun and cool. It creates an immediate buzz in the classroom. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then ask their classmates the questions at the bottom of the page. Click on the image below or the link to download the PDF file.
This is a challenging exercise that can be used to review and assess students’ knowledge of the language and vocabulary for talking about food and eating. Students use the pictures as cues and complete the speech bubbles.
This page focuses on essential terminology related to fears and phobias. It consists of a variety of vocabulary activities and speaking tasks that will help students practice expressing thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to fears and phobias.
This a great way to introduce the vocabulary of fears and phobias. This helps students understand fears and phobias through visuals and multiple choice.
The activity consists of two parts:
1. Picture/Vocabulary Activity: In this section, students will be presented with a series of images depicting various fears and phobias. Their task is to identify the fear or phobia represented in each image and learn the associated vocabulary. This will enable students to better express their thoughts and feelings on the topic and expand their understanding of different fears and phobias people may experience.
2. Multiple Choice Exercise: This part of the activity will test students’ comprehension of the new vocabulary and concepts they’ve learned in the picture/vocabulary activity. They will be presented with multiple-choice questions related to fears and phobias, where they will need to select the correct answer based on the information provided.
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This is similar to the above but focuses more on language use. The vocabulary section is for more advanced students (the grammar of fears and phobias is quite difficult).
Ranking and collocations exercises help explore the topic further. The ranking exercise will help you students recognize the differences between various fears and phobias. The collocations exercise will help improve vocabulary, fluency, and overall communication skills.
This exercise helps students understand the rather complicated grammar related to fears and phobias.
This is an ESL speaking exercise for talking about fears and phobias. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then interview a classmate about their fears and phobias.
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First, draw a suggestive picture on the board and write the question template below.
Then elicit first the questions and then answers imagining the students were entering a competition to create a scenario for a movie . The only guideline is that the picture is central to the movie. This is a fun and class warming exercise.
Next, you need some pictures, one per group of three. Select some pictures which might be suggestive of stories for movies. It’s a good idea to try and select:
one action picture
one romantic picture
one comedy picture
one horror picture etc
to match as many film genres as possible. Try to choose larger pictures- poster size- because they will be put up on the walls around the classroom. Distribute the pictures and and tell the students to answer the above questions about their pictures in note form.
Finally, put the “movie posters” up around the walls of the classroom. Ask one student from each group of three students to remain with his or her picture with the “movie notes”. The other two students walk around the room asking the questions above and choose the best movie story. At the end of the activity count up the votes to find a winner.
Food Restaurant Game
News story lesson plan (Pilgrims)
Car get in or get on ??
Bus get in or get on…..?
Road (look at the map..)
elicit vocabulary…
go along, up, down, cross, go past, turn right…etc.
eg. “I want to go from ….to………..so first I………”
Building elicit vocab such as “take a lift”
……………”go upstairs”…….escalator…… “in front of” etc. ..
through a mini role pay….you as ignorant customer in department store and a student as information assistant.
Choose yourself as “First” and 4 other capable students to be:
Next, Then, After that, Finally
1. Model a situation
“First, go to the bus stop opposite….” (some place everyone knows)….the “Next” student picks up the story……. they can go anywhere
2. Model another situation
“First go into…”( a building ie. airport, hotel , department store)
3. Finally, put the students in groups to do the above……..
First,…….
Next,……..
Then,……..
After that,…..
Finally,….…
This is an ESL speaking and writing lesson for practicing basic language for talking about celebrations and festivals. First, students complete the sentences with the vocabulary at the bottom of the page. Then they ask and answer questions about the different celebrations and festivals.
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25th April 2025
Family is at the center of how we understand ourselves and our place in the world. Whether you have a large extended family spread across continents or a small nuclear family under one roof, having the right words to describe these relationships matters. This resource builds essential vocabulary for discussing modern family structures—from traditional arrangements to adoptive families, single-parent households, and multigenerational living situations. Students gain practical language they’ll use in immigration forms, job interviews, casual conversations, and when explaining their family backgrounds to new acquaintances in English-speaking environments.
Building upon the foundational family terminology covered in our first worksheet, this comprehensive resource delves deeper into the nuanced vocabulary of contemporary family structures. While the previous material covered basic relationships, this expanded version explores complex modern dynamics—from “trophy wife” relationships to “generation gaps” and the delicate dynamics of “divorced parents.” With over twice as many terms and vivid visual examples, students develop sophisticated language skills to discuss family relationships as they actually exist in the 2020s. This extensive vocabulary equips learners to navigate everything from casual conversations and streaming media to legal documentation and cross-cultural exchanges about family life.
This survey moves beyond simply naming family relationships to actually talking about them in meaningful ways. After learning family vocabulary in the previous worksheets, students now put that knowledge to work in conversations that mirror real-world interactions. By asking classmates about their relatives’ jobs, homes, and weekend activities, learners practice the everyday grammar patterns used when discussing family. The questions follow the natural flow of getting-to-know-you conversations that happen in workplaces, at social gatherings, and during online interactions. The writing section helps students connect these conversation fragments into proper descriptions—a skill needed for everything from work emails to social media posts about family members.
This is an introductory warm-up for the exercises above. Family structures have changed dramatically in recent years, making it important to establish basic vocabulary first. This mind map helps you explore essential terms beyond just “mother” and “father” to include step-parents, civil partnerships, and guardians—relationships that are common in many countries today. Once you complete this preliminary exercise, you’ll have the vocabulary foundation needed for the more detailed conversations and exercises coming next. Think of this as building your vocabulary toolkit before we use these words in real-world situations throughout the unit.
Talking about the families is another easy topic for dialogue/conversation writing for elementary English learners. This exercise includes 3 example conversations and one conversation (audio file) that can be used as a listening activity.
Write a conversation: family (PDF)
These worksheets aim to help students understand the different tenses using timelines, particularly the past, perfect and continuous tenses.
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INTRO This is a communicative story creation activity that can be adapted to
any holiday or festival in the year.
STEP 1 Draw a brainstorm template on the board. (see Below).
STEP 2 Brainstorm sets of words or write up pre-prepared sets of words. Actually, I like to mix the two together as it enables me to use target vocabulary and the brainstorm can be funny and spontaneous, warming the students to the activity.
SET A
reindeer Santa Claus shepherd 3 wise men angel
SET B
lost hamburger Year 2030 elephant broken heart
SET C
Bangkok sunrise Xmas Eve Thai dancing carol
SET D
earthquake broke confused complain disagree
etc……………………………………………………………….
STEP 3 You need a set of words per 3 students. Also, remember a good story needs at a minimum 2 characters and a dilemma or bizarre situation.
STEP 4 To elicit the vocab I often ask questions like…
“What’s the name of a person in this class?”
(putting students into the stories adds a lot more fun to the activity)
“Give me a number”
or ” Give me a negative adjective”
Supposing you wanted to do a Christmas lesson you might select or elicit the words as in the sets above.
STEP 5 Once you have sets of about 6-8 words form the students into groups of three and tell them to write a short story. I always model a crazy story to get them
in the mood. Supposing they had the words below:
MIDNIGHT, CARDS, DECORATE, GHOST, FRED FLINSTONE, CHRISTMAS EVE
you might tell the story;
“At midnight on Christmas Eve Fred
Flintstone couldn’t sleep. He remembered he had
forgotten to put his cards with his presents
under the tree. So he went downstairs and suddenly
he was wide awake. There was something white
decorating the tree ……..”etc
STEP 6 After the stories are finished stick the word sets to the walls around the classroom . One of the authors of the stories will stay to field questions while the other two will walk around the room to ask questions. To make this fun and a
game give play money to the people answering questions. The questioners can
only ask Yes and No questions and if they receive a “Yes” they will receive
some money. It’s a good idea to elicit or drill Yes and No questions first. For example questions that could be asked for the story above might include:
Did Fred Flintstone decorate a Christmas tree?
Was Fred Flintstone at home?
Did this story take place on Christmas Eve? etc.
The questioners walk around the class trying to make as much money as possible. Don’t let the answerers reveal the details of their stories. Keep this as a “finale” to
the class. Get everyone to sit down and the teacher or a student will read the
stories. This is fun because a great deal of suspense should have been generated
by the questioning.
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