Insects unit for Elementary ESL

Very few books have units related to insects, so this could be a unit to include for those extra lessons that you want a quick unit to review basic grammar structures and add new words.
Here is the link to the resource.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bugs-or-Insects-Unit-Resources-for-Elementary-ESL-4136295

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The resource is also available here:    https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/bugs-unit-for-elementary-esl?variant=13633060667441

And yes, I always start with flashcards as my visual aids to avoid translation and stimulate speaking.

What color are the bugs? Place all the flashcards on the board and ask questions.

Teacher: What color is the butterfly?

Student: It’s pink and green.

Teacher: name two red bugs.

Student: ant and ladybug.

There’s a worksheet to review colors and prepositions.

 Teacher: What color is the ladybug?

Students: The ladybug is black and red.

Teacher: Where is the ladybug?

Students: The ladybug is on the tree.

Have the students write a paragraph about the picture.

Bugs are everywhere. I researched a little to make the flashcards to indicate where I can find the bug and their habitat. I also added the sun to imply that the bugs like warm weather. I made an example with a butterfly and a ladybug and created a mind map.

Teacher: Where can I find a butterfly?

Student 1:  On the rock.

Student 2:  On the leaf.

Student 3:  In the garden.

Student 4:  On the flower.

Place a habitat or place flashcard on the board and ask which bug is most likely to be found there. I suggest that you research about bugs and the students as well.(mind map)

Teacher: Here is the mountain. Which bug can I find there?

Students: spiders !

Teacher: yes! More examples!

Students: mosquito!

Teacher: NO!!

Place an insect and a habitat or place flashcard, one next to the other. (mind map)

Teacher: Is there a grasshopper on the plant?

Students: Yes, there is.

Teacher: Is there a scorpion in the farm?

Students: No, there isn’t.

And the cutouts are a good visual for prepositions.

Place the habitat or place and a bug. Ask questions and have them write the answers on their notebooks and they can even draw a picture.

Teacher: Where is the caterpillar?

Students: The caterpillar is on the leaf.

You can also give the printed bugs and habitat to the students. They can create a poster and a text. Do a show and tell. Have the students ask questions.

Student1: Is there a worm?

Show and tell student: No, there isn’t.

 Student1: Is there a fly?

Show and tell student: Yes, there is. It is in the house.

Hang the posters around the class.

Bugs feed themselves! Use the flashcards to show what a specific bug eats.(mind map)

Teacher: Look at the bee? What does it feed on ?

Student: watermelon, nectar from flower, soft drinks.

Or, use the flashcards to compare an item and which bugs eat them.(mind map)

Teacher: Which bug feeds on grass?

Student: worm and grasshopper!

Assign a bug to each student. They should investigate what does that specific bug eat or feed on. Then make a writing craft. I saw a similar one on Pinterest and I will recreate mine. Then have individual students come and show their bug.

A simple worksheet to review big and small. Have them sort the bugs and glue them. Model sentences.

Teacher: A big red ant.

Students: A small red ant.

Place the bugs flashcards on the board and have the students organize them by size. 

Teacher: The big red ant is small.

Students: The green grasshopper is big.

Teacher: The black fly is bigger than the ant.

Students: The black fly is smaller than the butterfly.

Ask questions.

Teacher: Which is bigger, the butterfly or the cockroach?

Students: The brown cockroach is bigger.

Bugs have a body. Use the flashcards to introduce the body parts. The students are familiar with eye, head, leg but the other words are new and are the same for all the bugs: thorax, abdomen. (LABELING)

Use the worksheets for the students to do the same to review body parts. Students can use the labels or write thier own words.

A game to wrap the unit up. Place all the flashcards on the board and start saying facts for the students to guess which bug is the one you are talking about.

 Teacher: It has two antennae. It has six legs. It is small. It doesn’t have ears. It never sleeps. It red or black. Some people can eat it. It can crawl. It lives in colonies. It eats sweets.

Students: The ant!

It is good that you research about the insect facts to play the game, or students can research and play as the teacher and the class has to guess.

Bugs have predators. Explain about predators. I placed as an example the ladybug which is eaten by spiders, dragonflies, birds and frogs using the flashcards. (mind map)

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Sea, ocean or Underwater Animals Unit for Elementary ESL

Get all the resources here for The Sea Animals Unit :   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sea-Ocean-or-Underwater-Animals-for-Elementary-ESL-4005250

71  Sea Life Flashcards. Place several flashcards on the board. Ask questions.

Teacher: What color is the shell ?

Students: It´s yellow.

Teacher: brown!

Students: sea lion and walrus!

Teacher: Is the sea turtle green ?

Students: Yes, it is.

Playing a game in class is an authentic taks that involve peer interaction. It is as easy as ordering alphabetically. I made craft stick puppets  with the sea animals pictures and then ordered them alpahabetically.

Place all the flashcards face down on the desk. Have a leader come to the front and grab a card and read it to the class. Students have to write the animal they hear. After the students have written the word the leader shows the flashcards and the class corrects any spelling mistake.

Use the Point finger to review this and that.

Teacher: This is an orca and that is a prawn.

Do the same by placing several flashcards of the same animal and practice These and Those.

Place more flashcards around the room and have the students say sentences using their own finger.

Numbers. Write the Numbers 10 to 100 in random order under each flashcard. Play!

Teacher: 50!

Students: shark!

Teacher: sea lion!

Students: one hundred!

                            Adjectives: long-short, big-little

Game: Guess the animal.

Play the game with the whole class as an example:

Students: What color is it ?

Teacher: black and white.

Students: Is it big or small ?

Teacher: It´s big!

Students: Orca!

Teacher: YES!!!

Students can play with the small cards. Separate the printable into cards and select the ones that you are working on. Divide the class into pairs. Hand in at least 8 cards to each group. Have Student A write on piece of paper the name of a Sea Animal. Student B has to guess which is that animal.

Student B: What color is it ?

Student A: brown!

Student B: Is it big or small ?

Student A: big!

Student B: walrus!

Student A: YES!! 

Feelings Sea animals Flashcards. I wanted to add some flashcards regarding feelings to recycle the vocabulary words.

Place all the flashcards on the board. Have students come up with a fly swatter and swat the correct flashcard. Practice listening skills as you say the sentence.

Teacher: It is an angry starfish.

Prepositions of place. Draw a beach scene on the board and place the Sea Animals in random order.

Teacher: The crab is at the beach. The crab is next to the starfish.

Have students come up with similar sentences.

You can also hand in all the Sea animals and have the students place them as you say.

Teacher: Lenny, the shark is in the Ocean. The shark  is behind the blue fish.

Or introduce more positional words such as left and right.

Teacher: The crab is on the right.

Practice more positional words with this worksheet. Have the students glue their Sea Animals in any way that they want and then have them write sentences to show to the rest of the class.

As a listening activity, dictate how to  glue the Sea Animals.

Teacher: The octopus is between the crab and the seahorse. 

Practice prepositions using puppets made out of toilet paper tubes.

Build words using bottle caps. I made this template. It´s free at the link.

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

Parts of the body. Place a flashcard on the board and ask questions about that specific animal body parts. Have them name the body parts they already know the word and help them with the new vocabulary.(LABELING)

And extra practice is always necessary. Hand in all the worksheets and have them work in groups completing the Sea Animals body parts. Have them research the unknown words.

Sea animals habitat.  Sea or Ocean animals live in the same place or in some other. Place a flashcard of the habitat and ask the students which animals they think live in that particular habitat to create a mind map. I have ocean, sea, beach, river and lake. Ask the students to draw the habitat and the animals that live there. They can investigate and make their own diorama or picture. Have them do a show and tell to the class.

Sea Animals also eat.Create another mind map with the flashcards on the board.

 Make a Sea Life Table. Have the students make a similar table as the one you are making on the board. Ask them questions. Students usually know details of Sea Animals, if not have them investigate before completing the table.

File folder game. I made them the size of a circle puncher.

Snapshots templates where children can draw the animals and write a sentence for each one.

Sea animals writing or reading. Have the children write sentences using the template or have them write their own sentences to complete a book. 

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Recycle old ESL Elementary Textbooks

As a teacher, I have had so many teacher´s book, student´s book, workbook and from different grade, levels and so on. I saw how the children threw them away at the end of the school year. I used to give them away for paper recycling but those places are not around anymore. Old textbooks are not good for donations, since the Publishing Companies come out with different series every year.

I still have several from my teaching days and decided to invent something. This is how it went with my Early Childhood and Elementary Series Textbooks.

Sorting. For the family theme there lots of pictures of family members, I just cut them out .I made a word card for each family member and had the students sort out all the pictures.

The pocket chart is another way to sort out all the pictures.

I found this old pocket folder. I grabbed clear pocket sheets, one for each family member. Students glued the word and the corresponding pictures. I used butterfly clips and made a book. Students can write each word using whiteboard markers and then erase it.

Sorting spoons in nouns, verbs, adjectives. Another sorting activity involving cups and spoons. I wrote Verbs, Adjectives and Nouns on each cup. Give the students the plastic spoons and sharpie markers. Have them write a word from the text on each spoon and have the group partners place it where it belongs.

Make a book. Many textbooks come with short stories that are  read like once in the classroom. Have the students make an accordion book.

Play Spelling Bingo. Give each child the short reading recycled page. After reading the story  using your preferred technique. Have the students select 15 words from the reading and write them down. Make your own list and cut out each word, place them in a bag. Start calling the words and the students tick them if they have that word written on their paper. The first student to tick them all off calls out BINGO!

Sort Noun and Verbs. Give the reading recycled page to each student and have them sort the words in two columns, one for verbs and another for nouns.

Write sentences. After reading the recycled story, students can write sentences in a grammar structure that you want to practice.

Match paragraph. I cut the story in pictures and paragraphs and placed them in a Cd sleeve. Students had to match each paragraph with the corresponding picture.

Sentence Association. There was this review page. I cut the picture and sentence and make a sentence association game. I glued all the cutouts onto fun foam.

Egg carton Alphabet Sort. I placed a small craft stick behind each cutout. I also glued a fun foam letter to each egg hole. Students sort all the pictures by the beginning letter of each picture.

Make a crown for each letter. With so many pictures from the book. I made a crown for each letter. Students have to find pictures that begin with the letter in the crown given and glue them accordingly.  Have the students show their crown to the class and the words that they found.

Write vocabulary words. Have the students glue each picture and write as many vocabulary words they know. The winner is the student that writes more words.

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