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.

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/

Board games for Elementary English Language Learners

 Find a themed game board in each unit for teaching elementary English language learners. This kind of games are very engaging and interactive for your students. You can adapt all the games to suit your players to encourage participation, right here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Board-games-for-Elementary-English-Language-Learners-11333780

Is this something that you would include in your lesson plan? Maybe not? Would like to? Well, read and see if you are up for it.

Use the board games as a review of the new vocabulary of the unit. It is a fun repetition of the words. The markers are also included with each board game. So, just grab the dice. Each space has a color. Players have to move along the path. When they land on a space, they have to say the name of that color and show an item in that color.

Create a motivated and positive classroom atmosphere, where students know that there will be an enjoyable learning game to wrap up the class. Players will describe the colors of the space they landed on besides the number: It’s an orange twelve.

Games help with memory skills that are crucial for English language retention. That’s another reason for printing and having the games ready to play. The objective of the game is to navigate through the various spaces on the game board, learning and practicing vocabulary related to different facial features.

Board games are a very informal way of assessing your student’s language proficiency in communicating. Are they using the language enough? Are they struggling to move along the board?

Players will navigate through the various spaces on the game board, answering questions related to family members with the cards in the game, light or dark green.

Another House unit activiti with a board game.Players will move their family members game pieces by correctly identifying the rooms of the house. The first player to reach the finish line wins.

Add a twist to the pet unit board game, but it works with any other theme. Players have to describe the pet they landed on in order to take that pet into their pet shop.

Students can do more than just identifying the word but saying a phrase or complete sentence in order to get the food card. The more food cards a player has, he/she is the winner.

Players move their game pieces around the Toyland game board, by completing challenges such as miming how to play with the toys they land on.

All the board games are included in each unit and in the Bundle, right here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Elementary-English-Language-learners-teaching-Units-Starters-BUNDLE-11215540

Tic Tac Toe Game for Elementary English Language Learners

 Love this simple and interactive game that can be used with 2nd and 3er grade,5th graders ELLs.  Use it to help reinforce the new vocabulary, as in my example, the school unit words. A game that total beginners or students with English form pre-school can play with no problem.

Print all the small cards from the unit and the templates for the tic tac toe, all X and O for playing noughts and crosses as some know it.

Cut all the small cards.

Create your own grid. Draw a grid on a piece of cardboard of 9 spaces arranged in 3x3.

All the units from the Bundle to teach Elementary English Language Learners have the same small cards to implement the game. So, it is just preparing it once and play it throughout the teaching of any unit.

Here is the link to the bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Elementary-English-Language-learners-teaching-Units-Starters-BUNDLE-11215540

 Once students know how to play, they can do it alone in groups of two or more.

Place the small cards that you have used for the unit with the vocabulary, in this case the school unit.

Explain that one student (or two) will be team X and the other team O. They will place their mark on the grid by correctly naming the school item small card or using it in a sentence, etc. that is in chosen space. If the answer is correct that student or team will place the marker on that space covering the word.

Play continues until one student or team gets three marks in a row wither horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Students can play multiple rounds by changing the small cards with the school items to new words.

Here is the same game with the numbers 1 to 20 small cards. Find more here: https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2023/08/numbers-1-to-20-small-cards-for.html

 

The family unit tic tac toe. Check the blog post: https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2023/09/family-unit-teaching-tips-for-small.html

So, hope you will make you own game! I would love to see it. Here’s my email: ei98srl@gmail.com

Please follow my TPT Store!          https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Holistic-English-Resources-By-Rosa-Amelia

Toys Unit Worksheets for the Elementary English Language Learners-Starters

 This resource is included in Toys Unit for Elementary English Language learners-Starters found at this  LINK: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Toys-unit-for-Elementary-English-Language-Learners-Starters-1865563

A resource for any English Teacher in the Primary Classroom.

Worksheets can be used for differentiationand provide extra practice. Tailor to meet the needs of each student in class with this variety of worksheets. The worksheets can challenge and support all your learners during your practice part of the lesson plan. 

There is a set of toys unit vocabulary words that will allow your students to practice and reinforce the new content. Here is one with words for the students to draw around them to give meaning. Drawing help to deepen the understanding of the new words. It requires critical thinking as to how to represent it visually.

More repetition as students write all the words into the letter shapes that the words start with. This process enhances comprehension and reinforcement of vocabulary retention. Send it for homework.

Read and match worksheet. Basically, a reading comprehension worksheet to exercise critical thinking to analyze the incomplete words and make a connection.

Have the students write the names of toys to help them remember the vocabulary they’ve learned.

Use this set of worksheets to establish a connection between the spoken and written Language.

Use the word search worksheet for the practice of recognizing toy names in a sea of letters, which reinforces visual recognition of vocabulary words. Learners will scan for the toys words as a way to enhance the students’ focus and attention to detail.

Worksheets for the students to complete sentences by filling in the blanks with the correct toy name. Find worksheets to practice forming and answering questions about toys.

Read-and-color worksheets often use simple sentences, which help ELLs practice reading comprehension. They need to understand what they read in order to color the correct items.  These will promote higher thinking skills in your learners. 

Expand the worksheet to other themes. Have the students cut the teddy bear and glue onto their notebooks or paper and label the parts of the face.

Reviewing a robot family allows students to simultaneously reinforce toy-related vocabulary and introduce or review family-related terms (mother, brother, etc).

Check this blog post with more on the robot family: https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/2020/10/family-theme-for-kindergarten-holistic_19.html

By relating toys to a house setting, students can see how vocabulary and language structures are used in everyday contexts, as they draw the toys in the rooms of the house.

The face and toys worksheets include activities like matching, answering, and coloring to cater to kinesthetic learners who benefit from hands-on activities.

Review the numbers 1 to 10 and the teen numbers with the robots.

More worksheets to Revisit the numbers 1 to 20 across multiple worksheets to reinforce through repetition.

Associating the colors written word with an image can serve as a memory aid.

Puzzle people worksheets are fun!

There are several worksheets for answering questions using grammar knowledge.

Choose from more grammar worksheets!

The favorite toy worksheet can lead to a speaking activity. When all the worksheets are done, have the children walk around and find another student or group of students with the same favorite toy. Then, graph the results.

Teacher: How many trains are the favorite ?

Students: five!

The favorite toy worksheet can lead to a speaking activity. They will draw their favorite toy and write a short text. When all the worksheets are done, have the children walk around and find another student or group of students with the same favorite toy. Stand together. Then, graph the results.

Teacher: How many trains are the favorite?
Students: two!

Do you love graphing? Get more worksheets for other themes: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graphing-Worksheets-for-Elementary-English-Language-Learners-11309998

Questionnaires are a very effective instructional tools to have your students communicate. Encourage them to survey classmates even the shy ones.

Find more activities and resources for the toys unit at my other blog.

www.eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com

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