Birthday Unit Flashcards for Elementary ELLs

 This resource is included in The Birthday Unit: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Birthday-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-5279726

The birthday unit is important to introduce students to essential vocabulary related to birthdays. This vocabulary is used in everyday conversations. Wrtite the lesson plan presentation part for your english class.

Print the flashcards to help your students associate the vocabulary with visual images, making it easier for them to remember new vocabulary.

Have the students identify thebirthday  party objects using the birthday flashcards: hat, balloon, cake, presents, card, candle.

Ask students: What can you see?
Students: I see a present.

Reviewing colors helps reinforce the birthday party vocabulary. Place two flashcards and ask: What color is this balloon?

Students: It’s orange!

Focus on colors to encourage the students to observe the birthday party  flashcards and describe objects in greater detail: What color are the candles?
Students: blue, purple, green!

Show a single flashcard with one present and say, “This is a present. It is yellow.” Then, show a flashcard with several presents and say, “They are presents. They are green and blue.”

Sorting the birthday objects.

Create two columns on the board labeled “It is” and “They are”. Show a flashcard and ask students to decide if it goes under “It is” or “They are.” Place the card in the correct column and have students say the corresponding sentence: It’s a card.

Reinforce that "there is" is used with singular nouns (one object), while "there are" is used with plural nouns (more than one object).

Teacher: "There is one cake". "There are five balloons."

Incorporate the numbers 1 to 10 using the flashcards. Birthdays often involve talking about age, and students need to be comfortable with numbers to express how old they are or how old someone else is.

Birthdays often involve counting items like candles on a cake, balloons, or gifts. Have the students accurately count and talk about these items using the flashcards.

Teachers: How cupcakes are there?

Students: One, two, three, for, five! Five cupcakes.

Ask and answer about age, using question words: How.

Start by teaching the basic question structure: “How old are you?

Show a birthday flashcard with a picture of a boy or girl with a number corresponding to the age and ask students: How old is he?

Students: He’s eight!

Introduce new structures: Today is Anna’s Birthday. She’s nine years old.

Have the students say more sentences using the rest of the flashcards.

To express likes and dislikes.
Teacher: I like cake! I don’t like balloons!
Make an emphasis on the final s.
Ask your students about their preferences and place that flashcard on the board and you can even graph the party objects.

People do different actions in a party. Use any tense that you want.

Teacher: What is he doing?
Students: He is opening a present.

Teach the phrase “Whose birthday is it?” by modeling it several times. Place several flashcards on the board and ask, "Whose birthday is it?"

Students: "It's Ann's birthday."

Explain the ‘s to indicate possession. Make stick puppets ‘s to make it easier for the students to grasp the rule.

Talk about the location of objects.
Use the flashcards to demonstrate prepositions like "in front of," "behind," "next to," "on," and "under":
Prepare the cutouts to place the candle flashcard in different positions relative to the cupcake flashcard. Show each position flashcard and then the students will repeat the location using the cutouts.
Teacher: "The candle is on the cupcake."
Invite students to prepare their own cutouts using the template provided and move the cutouts themselves, using the correct prepositions in sentences.

This is a resource that keeps growing. Now it has Birthday vocabulary words and the face unit. Right here: https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/03/this-resource-is-included-in-birthday.html

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/birthday-numbers-1-to-20-for-elementary.html 

Visit my store today to find resources that are ready to use and perfect for supporting your elementary ELLs. Your feedback is always appreciated as I continue to develop materials that meet the needs of both teachers and students.

Here’s the link to my store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/holistic-english-resources-by-rosa-amelia

When is your birthday? How old are you-part 3

Here is the link to the product from the last three blog posts related to the Birthday unit/How old are you ?.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-old-are-you-Birthday-Unit-5197521

Watch the video of the product:

The resource is also available here: https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/birthday-unit-how-old-are-you-for-elementary-esl?variant=37622114222244

Review the months of the year using the cards. Review with your students: How many days in each month ?

 

I see that some book’s scope and sequence have the structure using only the birthday month. Have a student come to the front and pick the card of the month of their birthday.

Teacher: When’s your birthday?

Student: June.

Teacher: It’s in June. (Stress the word IN and write it on the board. Grab the month card of June and place it next to the word in)

Graph the birthday months of your class. Place the months of the year around your classroom. Have the students look for the Month of their Birthday and stand there.

Teacher: This is January. How many students have their birthday in January?

Students: one!

Continue with all the months.

Depending on the level of your students and the scope and sequence of your book, continue introducing the birthday date. But first, review all the ordinal numbers using the cards.

I prepared a worksheet for the students to notice the difference in writing the ordinal numbers.

Have the students match the ordinal number cards and the words cards as a review.

Then, let’s move on to the birthday date. Place the month and date of your birthday on the board and model for the class. Write the word ON.

Teacher: My birthday is on August 29^th.

Have the students find their birthday month cards and say their sentence to the class.

Have the students write their birthdate on a piece of paper.

As you place the month cards around the classroom. At your signal have the students stand up and look for their birth month and stand there.  Hand them their birthday ordinal number.

Calendar. I am adding a perpetual calendar template . I  can customize the headings to adjust to the country you are at, send me an email: ei98srl@gmail.com)

Students can help create the calendar, just glue the proper heading and have the students research the days and complete the template.

Ask questions:

Teacher: When is Sara’s birthday?

Students: It on October 20^th.

 Students write their name in the birthday date box.

More flashcards. I thought that extra practice is required for this structure. I made some children flashcards with birthdates.

Teacher: When is his birthday?

Students: It’s on June 28^th.

Here is the complete set.

Worksheets!

Worksheet 1 Questionnaire. Students walk around the classroom asking the questions and writing the answers.

Then, they cut and glue the worksheet on their notebooks and write sentences about the results of the questionnaire.

Worksheet 2. Dictate how to color each month as a listening exercise.

Teacher: Color June pink!

Have the students trace the date you say.

Teacher: April 11^th!

Students complete their worksheet. Then, have the students cut each box and write a sentence.

Worksheet 3. Make a calendar. Each worksheet has an empty space for the month. Students cut the month of their birthday and glue onto the empty space. They also write the days of the month and their name on their birthdate. Finally, complete the sentences. You can do a show and tell to the class.

Worksheet 4. The same as the other worksheet, dictate the color of each month or even better, have an individual student dictate the color of each month. Then, students write sentences using his or her birthday.

Worksheet 5. There are Birthdays in the family!Students cut out and glue all the family members and write their corresponding birthdays on their notebooks.

I made an extra set of Family Birthday flashcards to review.

Worksheet 6. Ordinal Numbers Bingo. Students write any of the 31 ordinal numbers on the 9 squares. Use the Ordinal numbers cards to call BINGO!

Worksheet 7. More Family review. Students draw or cut out pictures of their family members and complete the worksheet.

The resource continues here: https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2020/01/how-old-are-you-2nd-part.html

                                                    

Go to my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/rosamelia_eslteacher

How old are you? Numbers 1 to 10 review

I am reediting the whole Birthday unit from 2015. And let's talk about age.

LINK: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-old-are-you-Birthday-Unit-5197521

Watch the video of the product:

First, review the numbers 1 to 10 or more numbers depending on the grade level. The big flashcards are easy to play with. I also made a smaller size set of cards for smaller groups of students.

Place all the flashcards on the board. Each flashcard has a different color. Ask questions.

Teacher: What color is number five?

Students: purple!

Teacher: What number is brown?

Students: seven!

Bring 10 students to the front of the class. Hand in the number flashcards in order. Stand behind the student with the number three flashcard.

Teacher: What number is this?

Students: three

Teacher: What number is before 3? (stand behind flashcard number 2)

Students: two!

Teacher: What number is after 3? (stand behind flashcard number 2)

Students: four!

Make spelling fun using the bottle caps. The template is free. Link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Bottle-Caps-2155938

The numbers worksheet is for extra practice.

 Idea 1. Dictate a color for each number.

Teacher: Color number three purple!

After they are done coloring and cutting all the cards,play show me!

Teacher: Show me Number eight! What color is it?

Students: brown!

Idea 2. Have the students color each number as they wish but using all 10 colors. The students must have colored  the 10 numbers in each one of the 10 colors. Have them cut the numbers as cards before playing. Say a color and a number and the students who have them stand up or make a small group.

Teacher: red number 6! 

                                            Another worksheet!

When the worksheet is done, have the students cut all the questions and the number pictures and glue them on their notebook.

More resources and ideas on how to teach Numbers, check my other blog post: https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2018/02/teaching-numbers-1-to-20-to-esl-ellsefl.html