Halloween Food Vocabulary Activities & Games for Elementary ELLs

 This resource is part of the Food Unit for Elementary English Language Starters.

LINK: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-unit-for-Elementary-English-Language-Learners-Starters-11035412

Review food vocabulary in a Halloween context to help elementary English language learners connect familiar words to a seasonal theme.

Putting the food words into Halloween flashcards makes it fun to connect with everyday food terms. Make puzzles out of the flashcards to reinforce vocabulary recognition. Encourage speaking practice as students say the food item they found.: “I have a hamburger.”

Arrange the Halloween food flashcards face-up on a desk or wall — this is the “Halloween Food Stand.” One student is the “shopkeeper,” the other is the “customer.” Print the sign to add make it fun.

The customer student looks at the flashcards and says:

“I want a hot dog, please.”

The shopkeeper student finds the card and says:
“Here you are.”

The customer student replies:
“Thank you.”

Students can make even more short dialogues.

 

Give a small group of students a set of small cards. Each one picks a card and writes a sentence starting with:

o    I like… (e.g., I like ice cream and soda.)

o    I want… (e.g., I want a hot dog.)

Have them share their sentences with the group. Turn it into a group survey: students ask each other “Do you like…?” or “Do you want…?” and record answers.

Character Favorites. Students pick one Halloween character card and one food card. They make a sentence:

“Frankenstein likes pancakes.”

Find two vocabulary worksheets: Crossword Puzzle: Students use picture clues to fill in the words for different Halloween food items. Word-to-Picture Match: Students draw a line from each food word to its matching picture. It will reinforce Spelling. Then, Use the words in a mini spelling contest.

You can send the worksheets home for extra vocabulary practice.

There are grammar practice worksheets as “What do you want and “Do you like?

More grammar worksheets to build Sentence Structure.

Cut-and-fold matching worksheet to review vocabulary. Students name each food item on the worksheet. They cut out each food item and its word, fold them in half, and place them on a table. Cards can be used for matching games, speaking activities, or sorting tasks.

Print the Bingo game to review food vocabulary. It comes with a Teacher’s Mat with all the Halloween food picture cards for calling out items, and Bingo Strips with has 5 different Halloween food items.

Students listen, find the matching food on their strip, and mark it. The first to complete their strip shouts “Bingo!”. It encourages Focus and Attention.

There are games that I have for Kindergarten ELL, such as letter tiles, board game and feed me boxes, which can be adapted to older students. Check the blog post and the link to the resource:

https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/2024/09/halloween-food-for-kindergarten-ells.html

Come join me on my Facebook fan page. Get ideas, tips, and free resources for teaching English to kindergarten and Elementary learners. Click: https://www.facebook.com/ESLPreschoolTeachers/

 

I used the alphabel clip art to make the sign using Creative Fabrica, here is my affliate link: https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/halloween-alphabet-letters-sublimation-27/ref/2670802/?sharedfrom=pdp

Community Helpers, Jobs and Occupations Games

Link to the complete resource:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Community-Helpers-Jobs-and-Occupations-2549710

Play remains essential in the classroom because it creates an engaging, low-stress environment where students can practice language naturally and meaningfully. Through games, learners build communication skills, reinforce vocabulary, and develop confidence while having fun and staying motivated.

In this post, I’m sharing a 3P model lesson plan. This is the Production part of this approach.

Playing this community helper board game helps students reinforce vocabulary related to community helpers.  When a student lands on a space, they must name the worker (e.g., “This is a firefighter”).

This matching activity card game helps students build vocabulary by connecting words to visuals. It also promotes critical thinking and peer interaction. They can also play Memory Game by turning the cards face down and take turns flipping two to find a match.

This spelling game supports letter recognition, phonics, and vocabulary development by helping students connect letters to meaningful words.  Play Race to Spell: Give students a picture and see who spells the word first.

Bingo helps reinforce vocabulary through listening and word recognition in a fun, low-pressure setting. It also encourages focus, comprehension from all students.  Have the students write the community helper word on each space. Then, call out the job name and students cover the matching picture. Use the flashcards as calling cards.

Visit Holistic English Resources by Rosa Amelia on Teachers Pay Teachers. My  store is filled with engaging, hands-on activities that support language development through fun themes, including prepositions, vocabulary games, and more. Perfect for elementary and kindergarten classrooms, these resources are designed to make English learning accessible and enjoyable for students. Check it out and find something new to inspire your lessons!

Most of the graphics for the covers come from Creative Fabrica. Check my affliate link: 

https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/firefighter-digital-paper-patterns-2/ref/2670802/?sharedby=user-3080428

Beach Unit Games

  This resource is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

Print the beach-themed board game and play with a twist. Each time they land on an item, they "collect" it in an imaginary beach template that has been assigned to each player.
At the end, they list or draw the things in their beach and describe them: “I have a towel and sunglasses.”

Spelling Activities Matter: Learners internalize the correct spelling of new beach-related words (e.g., bucket, mask) by physically constructing them.

Develop early reading and vocabulary skills with this matching card game. Students will match beach-themed word cards (e.g., sandcastle) with corresponding picture cards to build vocabulary recognition, strengthen spelling awareness, and support reading fluency.

Students will review and reinforce their beach vocabulary by writing words on their own Bingo boards and listening carefully during a picture-word calling game using the cards from the previous activity.

The blank Bingo boards provided are for students to write in 8 beach-themed words. Prepare a master list of the words you want to use. As each word is called, students check their boards. If they have the word, they cover it with a token. The first student to cover all 8 words and call out “BINGO!” wins. You can keep playing any other day, they just save the board that is already prepared.

 Matching Words. Lay out the picture cards on one side of the table and the word cards on the other. Students take turns matching the correct word to each image.

Animals on the Beach – Sentence Building Game. Students will use a variety of animal-on-the-beach picture cards to create complete and meaningful sentences using a variety of word cards (nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and more).

Students will write their sentences on their notebooks and share to the class or a partner. The teacher or peers can help check for grammar and sentence structure.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/beach-unit-printable-book.html 

All my interactive games, worksheets, and creative ideas to make learning English exciting! 📌 Follow my Pinterest boards and save time and bring fun learning into your classroom! https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl

"Interactive Learning with Small Cards: Engaging Farm Animal Activities for ELLs"

 This resource is included here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Farm-Unit-for-Elementary-EFL-3790548

Print the farm unit small cards to offer even more flexibility for interactive learning. Find in this post engaging activities to help students build farm vocabulary, speaking skills, and sentence structures! Small cards allow students to manipulate and interact with the vocabulary rather than just observing.

Small Card Writing Activity. Have learners select 4 small cards and write a short text on their notebooks. By selecting four cards, students must think critically about how to connect the words into a meaningful sentence or short text.

 Encourage Pair and Group Work as students sort the cards into 2 or 4 legs farm animals. Students can also categorize the animals into Big or Small. Grouping words into meaningful categories helps students remember and recall vocabulary more easily.

Small cards are great for students to work independently or with a partner to sort the animals into mommy and baby. As students discuss their choices, they practice explaining, reasoning, and using key phrases (e.g., "The horse is the mommy." "The foal is the baby.")

Sorting farm animals by products introduces basic classification skills that support early science learning. Review the farm-to-table connections (e.g., cows → milk). Model sentences: "A cow gives us milk." Students will make more sentences as they match the cards.

Use the small cards as a Bingo caller deck. Have students write 6 or 8 words on their notebooks from all the small cards that are displayed on the board or table. They will mark their matching words as they are called.

Students write on the speech bubbles (available on the resource) what Sound the animal makes (Moo, Baa, Cluck). This helps linking phonetic awareness with written words. Students can practice reading their speech bubbles aloud, reinforcing pronunciation and speaking confidence.

A video!!

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/04/fun-on-farm-engaging-esl-learners-with.html 

Visit EFL Preschool Teachers for creative ideas, engaging resources, and inspiration for teaching English to young learners. Explore a variety of activities that make learning fun and meaningful! Click here: https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/

Backpack-School Unit activities for elementary ESL

 This resource, for any 2nd grade Elementary School learner, is found at this link at the TPT store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/School-Theme-for-Elementary-ESL-1707072

This material helps students reinforce common classroom object names (e.g., pencil, eraser, notebook) in the context of a backpack.

All your students learn in different ways, but most of them are visual learners. Use these classroom objects flashcards for any class level. Practice speaking in complete sentences. Place the flashcards in a real backpack. Model a sentence and the have a student pick a card and describe it: "I have an eraser in my backpack."

Use the manipulatives like the small cards included to make vocabulary learning more concrete. Cut the word out of each card to play match to each picture.

Reinforce Vocabulary with worksheets for recognizing classroom objects. Students match classroom object pictures to their correct word labels in the backpack mind map worksheet

Develop Writing Skills to encourage students to write simple sentences on the worksheets, and practice spelling.

Reinforce basic grammar by helping students understand and correctly use "Yes, I do." and "No, I don’t."

Worksheets allow students to practice at their own pace as in this reading comprehension activity.

Spelling Bingo is a fun and interactive way to help students practice spelling classroom object names. Give your students a bingo board worksheet. There are two boards. You can use one just for writing a classroom object word. Place your calling cards into the backpack container that you can make using the templates. Students will cross out the words they hear, the first one to do so wins.

Another version is to print the blank template into different colored sheets and have the stduents complete the bingo board writing a color and a word. Place all the cards into the calling cards backpack container and start playing. The first player to cross off all the correct items on their bingo card shouts “Bingo!”

Make sure to pick the games that are right for the students that you are planning with. Make sure that you understand the games and that you know the rules to use with them.

Here is a 28-tile word-picture domino set for your School Unit Game using the words: notebook, pencil case, eraser, crayon box, glue, book, scissors. Each tile has a word on one side and a picture on the other. The goal is to match the word to the corresponding picture.

Students make crosswords using the letters tiles. Play in teams.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post: 

https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2023/07/school-unit-flashcards-for-elementary.html

I invite you find tools to enhance your classroom experience and support your students' language development.

Visit my Linktree here: https://linktr.ee/HolisticEnglishResources