Giraffe Family for Elementary EFL

 This resource is included in the Zoo Animals for EFL. Click here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zoo-Animals-Flashcards-for-EFL-3611842

By linking the family unit with zoo animals like giraffes, learners can apply that vocabulary in a new context. This reinforces word meaning and helps them generalize language.

Using the giraffe family flashcards offers a neutral, inclusive way to talk about family structure, which may vary from student to student.

Plan to use a grid with the flashcards or small cards to get an active response for the family language in review. Students will grid the information read out by you: This giraffe has a dress. It is red.

Students: C1!! It’s the sister giraffe.

Written work on their notebooks where they will write several sentences from the grid on the board.

To add a hands-on, tactile element to your giraffe family unit, I included an engaging activity where students build family vocabulary words using fun foam letters. The small giraffe family cards serve as visual prompts and guides. Each student selects a card—mother, father, baby, sister, or brother—and then uses fun foam letters to spell out the corresponding word.

This activity reinforces letter recognition, word formation, and vocabulary recall in a playful, multi-sensory way.

Pocket Chart Sentence Builder. Students use the blank sentence templates and write like “This is brother giraffe.” to build simple family sentences.

Create pairs with the printable puzzle.  Place all the pieces face down and students flip cards to find matching pairs.

This simple path board game featuring giraffe family members allows students to practice vocabulary while having fun. Students roll a die, move their token, and say the word on the space they land on (e.g., “This is the mother giraffe”).

In the giraffe family unit, worksheets offer a calm and independent way for students to review, practice spelling, match images to words, and even build sentences using the target vocabulary.

A worksheet for labeling each member using the vocabulary words.

More worksheets!

Finger puppets connect emotionally with new vocabulary bringing characters to life. Use these for Role-Play Conversations.

This resource is available individually here:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Giraffe-Family-ESL-Resource-13478626

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/04/zoo-animals-have-body.html 

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https://linktr.ee/HolisticEnglishResources

"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/

Turkey Family for Thanksgiving Teaching -Elementary ELLs

 This resource is included in The Family Unit for Elementary ELLs. Link To the resource:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Family-Unit-for-Elementary-ELL-Starters-1804475

This Turkey Family resource is perfect for engaging elementary English language learners with family vocabulary. It introduces students to Thanksgiving themes, building cultural awareness. All to prepare your lesson plan for your english class.

The turkey family can be used to review the family-related words, helping students practice terms like “mother,” “father,” “brother,” and “sister” in a fun, memorable way using the printable flashcards.

Teachers can create interactive activities around the turkeys, like naming family members, describing them, or using simple sentences, boosting speaking confidence by creating small cards on the templates provided.

The Turkey Family worksheets in the resource offer a great way to support both vocabulary building and holiday-themed learning. There are color words and then bind together and create a book.

By engaging with written tasks, students build reading comprehension and writing skills, which are crucial for language development. There are: color by number, complete the family words, answer the yes/no questions.

Games provide a playful way for students to repeatedly use family-related vocabulary in context. As students play, they need to speak and listen to each other, promoting language production as they move along the board: It’s a blue feather. If the students say the correct word, that feather card is available for that player to take.

The goal is that players get as many feathers. They will color the feathers on their worksheet if they have the cards. They will continue playing until they get as many cards possible. The winner is the one with the most feathers to color.

They will complete their turkey on their worksheet, either mother, father, brother, sister or baby, just one. They will make a craft with their turkey member by adding the feathers and the person. Make a display in class.

Read the blog post about what is included in the resource:

 https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2023/10/family-unit-books-for-elementary-efl.html

You're invited to visit my other blog for Kindergarten English Language Teachers! It’s packed with fun, engaging resources, activities, and ideas specifically designed for teaching young English language learners. Check it out and discover new ways to enhance your preschool ESL classroom!

LINK: https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/

Family & Halloween-Themed Learning Experience 🎃for Elementary ELLs

 This resource is included in the Family Unit resource:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Family-Activities-for-Elementary-ELL-1804475

Have fun teaching elementary English language learners with a unique blend  of culture, creativity, and language learning of Family and Halloween themes! 🎃👻 The kids are not only expanding their English vocabulary but also embracing cultural traditions. Write a complete  lesson plan for  your ell students.

I do have the Family Flashcards to use as Vocabulary Introduction. I am not adding them to this resource, but you can get them here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Family-Unit-for-Kindergarten-Holistic-English-Series-8-6126315

Let’s jump into the Posters for each Family and introduce them using the words, Vampire, Frankenstein, Ghost as their last name: This is Brother Ghost.

And introduce more family members: That’s Sister Ghost.

Teach or review Halloween words like "house," "ghost," "tree," "bat," and more.

Have the students describe the family members using the Halloween Family posters. Example: 

Family Small Cards.  Sort them by family members and even make a Family Tree.

Play Go-fish with the small cards. Print the set of small cards. Ensure each family member is repeated at least 2-4 times, depending on the number of players.
 Deal 5cards to each player and the remaining cards go in a draw pile in the center.
The goal is to collect a complete Halloween family.
The first player starts by asking another player for a specific card they need to make a complete family. For example, "Do you have 'Father Vampire'?"
If the player being asked has the card, they must give it to the player who asked.
If the player does not have the card, they say, "Go Fish!" and the asking player must draw a card from the draw pile.
If a player makes a family, they place the cards face up in front of them and ends the game as a winner.

Playing the game video: 

Use the finger puppets for Role-Playing where students practice conversations.

 

Print the template and have the students color and cut the Halloween Family members. Tape for securing the puppets to fingers

You can use the puppets for speaking like this.

Worksheets are a good practice.

 If you want to do a writing activity, just have the learners describe the posters.

Check this other resource using the same clipart to complement this resource at my other blog for Kindergarten English Language Learners: https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/2020/10/family-theme-for-kindergarten-holistic_19.html

Feel free to reach out if you're interested in more creative teaching ideas for English language learners or want to exchange thoughts on effective teaching strategies. See you at Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosa-amelia-oropeza-81657829/