Birthday Unit Invitations and Cards for Elementary ELLs

  This resource ( Birthday Unit Invitations and Cards for Elementary ELL) is included in The Birthday Unit:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Birthday-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-5279726

These ESL/EFL printable activities are for learning how to write birthday invitations and cards. It ties together language learning, writing, and social-emotional skills. Writing birthday invitations and cards encourages empathy and consideration for others. 

Writing birthday invitations is a real-world task. It encourages the use of common phrases such as "You are invited”, which enhances their vocabulary and sentence structure.

Students fill in invitations with key details: Who: Who is invited?, What: What is the celebration?, When: Date and time, Where: Place of the party

 This helps students practice question words, dates, and simple sentences!

Students have the chance to practice writing in a structured yet creative way. They learn how to format an invitation, including addressing the recipient, adding the time and location—skills that build their overall writing abilities.

Writing Birthday cards is common in many cultures. It provides an opportunity to compare and contrast birthday customs from different cultures, fostering cultural understanding. Students can decorate their cards and invitations and hand them in to friends and family.

These support writing, creative expression, and social language skills. 

Why This Matters in ELL Classrooms

Invitations and cards give students a purpose for writing — something to make, share, and talk about!

✔ Encourages real-life language use
✔ Practices vocabulary: party, friends, date, time, place
✔ Supports simple sentence writing
✔ Builds confidence with functional writing tasks

These are perfect for writing stations, small groups, or homework practice.

Whether you’re teaching vocabulary review, speaking fluency, or collaborative skills, adding games to your lessons turns learning into a fun classroom experience!  Go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/09/birthday-unit-games-for-elementary-ells.html 

I wanted to personally invite you to follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Holistic English Resources by Rosa Amelia, where I create engaging and effective resources for teaching English language learners.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Holistic-English-Resources-By-Rosa-Amelia

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 Halloween 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 Members 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.

Family Halloween 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/

Furniture in the House printable games for Elementary ESL

 Use the 3P model of teaching and learning with this resource that  is part of the House Furniture for Elementary ESL, at my store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/House-Furniture-unit-for-Elementary-ESL-3420723

Printable games make learning enjoyable. All the games include attractive images that capture students' attention. Tailor the games to different skill levels and learning styles to ensure that all students can participate. Printable games are a cost-effective resource that can be easily distributed and reused. Write your lesson plans for english language learners including these materials.

Printable games provide repeated exposure to the furniture vocabulary in a new context such as a puzzle, helping to reinforce memory. This kind of games can develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Matching games help teachers assess students' understanding and progress.

Development of writing Skill.  This dice game involves writing sentences in affirmative or negative to what is present in the house, which help improve literacy skills. There is a number dice that refers to quantity of items in the house. The others are furniture to consider that you have or not in that quantity in your house.

Students can work on printable games independently or in small groups, allowing teachers to provide individualized support as needed. This is a simple spelling activity to use with the dice, the small cards or any other.

Board games are inherently interactive, encouraging active participation from all students. This helps maintain high levels of engagement. It comes with cards in each color of the board path and the point coin as well. Players will land on a color and say a sentence and get the coin of that color if they say it right: The table isn’t in the bathroom!

Games provide a context for using new vocabulary, helping students understand how words are used.

Dominos require players to work together, take turns, and communicate effectively, promoting teamwork and social interaction.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/07/furniture-in-house-small-cards-for.html 

Find more of furniture in the house in my other blog.

https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-house-unit-resource.html

Can as an Ability Games

  This resource is part of Can as an Ability for Elementary ESL at this link:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Can-as-an-Ability-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4299251

Students are more likely to participate actively when they are enjoying the activity. Games turn learning into a dynamic and interactive experience, making it more enjoyable and engaging for students, boosting their confidence in using English.lnclude the games into the lesson plan for english ESL.

Domino game. Matching pictures to words requires critical thinking and problem-solving, which aids cognitive development. Each card has two halves—one half with a picture of an action (e.g., swimming) and the other half with a corresponding verb (e.g., " ride"). Print and cut out the domino cards. Shuffle them and distribute an equal number of cards to each student. The first student looks for a card in their hand that matches either the picture or the verb on the starting piece. If a student cannot make a match, they pass their turn. The game continues until all dominoes have been placed or no more matches can be made. The student with the fewest remaining cards wins.

This board Game involves repeated use of "can" for expressing ability. Students roll the dice and move their marker pieces around the board as they answer the questions written on the circle cards of the color they land on. Prepare the markers by folding the items. Players have the opportunity to practice speaking and listening in a natural context.

Take a look!

The puzzle game will have students work in pairs or groups, promoting collaboration and teamwork. Pictures provide context, aiding in comprehension and retention. It can be played in pairs or small groups, promoting teamwork. Players can practise talking about the abilities as they put the puzzles together.

The dice and writing game will help reinforce this skill in the context of using "can." Students will throw two dice that you will previously have ready. There are 5 dice to choose from. The players will write sentence using and/but to write about their abilities. Example: I can sing, but I can’t play football. This kind of game helps students practice sentence structure, conjunctions and creative thinking.

Matching Mat Games can be easily adapted to suit different learning styles and proficiency levels, ensuring that all students can participate and benefit. This is a verb and picture matching mat. Students can also say a correct sentence when matching the cards. This can be played as a memory matching game if you cut the cards from the mat.

There is an other set of matching mats  featuring a frog. Check the blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/06/frog-and-can-as-ability.html

I love to include letters to make crosswords or spelling activities.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/06/can-as-ability-worksheets.html 

Follow my TPT store for updates on new resources.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Holistic-English-Resources-By-Rosa-Amelia

Clothes unit Small Cards for Elementary ESL

 This resource is part of Clothes Theme for Elementary ESL. It can also be used by the School Support English teacher. Click here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Clothes-Theme-for-Elementary-ESL-2987481

Printing these small cards to teach clothes units to elementary ESL (English as a Second Language) students can be an engaging and educational tool. Check this guide to making these cards effective and interactive.

If your learning objective is vocabulary acquisition as having the students name the clothing items. Here are some ideas using the small cards in the resource.

Use the set of small cards to create this easy activity for identifying clothing. Cut the words out of each card and have them match to the corresponding clothing item. Each card included a clear picture of the clothing item and the English name of the item.

If you just want to review the vocabulary, use the check list provided.

Labeling is another good exercise practice the new words to describe clothing. This can aid in vocabulary building and sentence construction.

Another activity is to show cards to students and ask them to name the items the person is wearing.

Students will write a description using the present continuous for any small card that you choose from more than any of the 600 cards that are in the resource. Start with the sentence structure: is wearing.

Have the students write short descriptive texts using the possessive 's to talk about the who owns a clothing item. Learning to write improves their ability to communicate effectively in everyday situations. This kind of activity helps students learn and remember the names of various clothing items. They can add colors, patterns, and sizes words.

 Here is another example to write personal identification description texts for what others are wearing.

Speaking: Students will say what the person on the card is wearing.

This resource has more to check, go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2024/06/clothes-unit-book-for-elementary-esl.html 

Go to my Pinterest board and find even more ideas and resource: https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl/esl-clothes-unit/teaching-esl-clothes-unit/