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 giraffe worksheet for labeling each member using the vocabulary words.

More worksheets giraffe 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 

Tap below to access my top links and resources! 👇
Let’s inspire, engage, and make learning magical together! 🌟
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/

Cat Family for Elementary ELL

 This resource for ESOL teachers is included at this LINK: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pets-Unit-for-Elementary-ELL-Starters-10780015

This is an engaging way to teach family vocabulary within the pet unit!

Introduce the Cat Family. Students take turns picking a cat family member flashcard and describing them using simple sentences. (e.g., This is the father. He is big and gray.) If students already know the clothes vocabulary, expand on that: He is wearing a purple tie, a white shirt, blue pants and purple shoes.

Use the speech bubble for the students to introduce their character.

Instead of one-word answers, students learn to communicate using complete thoughts to introduce family members.

Help students talk about family members and possessions clearly (e.g., This is Jane’s grandmother).

Give students the small cards and a whiteboard with colored markers to write the names of the family members.

Pets animals Worksheets incorporate reading, writing, speaking, and listening, making them effective for different learning styles.

Students write the correct family member word under each cat picture.

This is a reading comprehension worksheet where students will write the name of each cat. Then, they color the family members and on their notebooks write simple sentences (e.g., The mother cat is pink.).

More worksheets to expand the lesson plan.

Help students listen, read, and comprehend simple instructions in English by coloring within a path ending on a yarn. Teachers can give extra listening practice by asking questions: Who has the orange yarn?

Students: The baby sister cat.

A puzzle for labeling the Cats – Give several students the word part and have them match to the correct family member that other students are holding.

Speaking like this:

Cat Family Finger Puppets help students create simple dialogues and stories.

Students use the puppets to act out a conversation between family members. (Hello, I am the father cat!)
Students introduce each puppet in simple sentences. (This is the baby brother cat.)

Take a look!

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/01/pets-unit-small-cards-for-elementary-ell.html

Follow me on Instagram for teaching tips, freebies, and more!  Find fun, thematic ESL resources. Let’s connect and make language learning exciting and interactive for our students! 🚀 Click here: https://www.instagram.com/rosamelia_eslteacher/

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/