Sports Small Cards for ESL | Vocabulary and Grammar Activities

 This resource ( Sports Small Cards for Elementary ESL – Vocabulary & Grammar Activity Pack) is included here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sports-for-ESL-Vocabulary-and-Grammar-Activities-14663481

The printable sports vocabulary small cards for elementary ESL support grammar practice. They are ideal for teaching I like + sports, He is playing + sport, and He plays + sport in a fun, meaningful way. These are ready-to-use visuals that work for whole-class lessons, centers, pair work, or individual practice.

Activity 1 for centres or pairs, . Find Someone Who: Use small cards to ask and answer questions like Do you like volleyball?

Activity 2 to challenge students to write  or say sentences. Match the Sport and Equipment: Students match the sport flashcard with its equipment card and say a sentence: She has skates for skating.

Activity 3  . Sorting Game: Sort sports by ball category.

team sports / individual sports or indoor sports categories.

Sort with the outdoor sports. Have students make up more categories to sort.

Activity 4. Use small sports cards to create sentences: He is playing football.

Activity 5 for the integration of vocabulary & grammar . Writing Sports Sentences (Past Tense Activity).
Students choose a small sports card and write a sentence using the simple past tense to describe the action. For example: She played baseball yesterday. This activity helps learners practice writing complete sentences, review past tense verbs for sports, and connect visuals with grammar in a meaningful way.

Activity 6. Students pick any small sports card and write a sentence to describe it using different grammar structures.

Activity 7 to adapt for stronger/weaker learners . Sports and Facilities Matching Activity
Students match each sport to the place where it is played. After matching, they can say or write simple sentences like You play baseball at a baseball stadium. This activity helps learners connect vocabulary for sports and facilities, practice prepositions of place, and use complete sentences in context.

Here are the most common prepositions of place related to sports and their facilities that your students can practice:

• on – for open flat surfaces
• 🏈 You play soccer on a field.
• 🎾 You play tennis on a court.
• 🏒 You play hockey on the ice.
• in – for enclosed or indoor spaces
• 🏊 You swim in a pool.
• 🏀 You play basketball in a gym.
• 🏋️ You exercise in a gym.
• at – for general places or specific venues
• ⚾ You play baseball at the stadium.
• ⛳ You play golf at the golf course.

 

Activity 8.  Famous Sports Facilities Match.
Students investigate the names of famous sports facilities around the world, such as Wimbledon for tennis or Yankee Stadium for baseball. They write the name of each facility on a small piece of paper and match it to the correct sports flashcard or picture. This activity helps students connect real-world examples to the vocabulary while practicing writing and reading skills.

There are  Ready-to-print worksheets to go along this resource. Here is the blog post: 

https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/11/sports-worksheets-for-esl-vocabulary.html

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