jueves, 20 de septiembre de 2018

Beach Unit for Elementary ESL Learners

As I have researched not all the book series that you work with have this unit, but I think it can be done at the end of the school year for those last days when the book is finished or it can be added when you are doing the Sea Animals.
Here’s the link to all the resources:
Beach Unit Flashcards. Vocabulary enriches the students’ language. Flashcards are a good strategy to start with. Display all the flashcards on the board. Point to each beach item and have the students name them.
Teacher: What is this?
Students: It's a beach ball.
Have the students sort the beach items and the nature items.
Beach Unit Flashcards.

Do Spelling with students. Start spelling a word and the students name it and point to that specific flashcard.
Teacher: s-h-o-v-e-l
Students: shovel !
Spelling beach unit

Then there are Beach Verbs Flashcards
Beach Verbs Flashcards.

Use them to make sentences.
Teacher: He can eat a popsicle.
Student: He can play with a beach ball. 

Beach prepositions. Draw a beach scene on the board. Place the cutouts in the scene.

Teacher: Where is the chair?
Students: It is under the umbrella.
Beach prepositions.

On the same beach scene, place the children on the beach and review Verbs.
Teacher: Where are the children?
Students: They are at the beach.
Teacher: What is he doing?
Students: He is playing with a beach ball.
Teacher: What are they doing?
Students: They are swimming.


Students will create their own scene and write a text to describe it. Children can use the objects and /or the children. The sentences will be on actions or on prepositions. Then have them show their work.



Have children work in pairs with their beach scene and ask questions without seeing each other paper.
Student 1: Is there a beach ball?
Student 2: No, there isn’t.
The student who can guess the most items wins.


Students can also do more writing on these templates and then create a classroom garland for all the students to read.

Beach and Numbers. Use the number cards to review numbers and plurals.

Teacher: What is behind Number 2?
Students: The sun!
Place several Number cards on the board and have the students draw the items.
Teacher: How many shells are there?
Students: There are 5 blue shells.

Beach and the alphabet. Same cards as the numbers to review the alphabet.
Teacher: What is behind letter A?
Students: a beach ball?
Teacher: Where is the crab?
Students: It is on letter B and W.

Book: The penguins are going on vacation. I happened to run into this book from when my kids were in Kindergarten. I thought it be a start for my blog post. If you want the book on pdf  request it : (ei98srl@gmail.com)

Here are all the cutouts to use on a flannel board. I made mine out of a floor cleaning cloth. Use it for retelling the story. I placed Velcro to all the pieces and it sticks perfectly.

I always wanted a flannel board but making one was a where do I start. I researched and saw this idea of using a mopping cloth. I went to the supermarket and bought this pink one. Yes, pink, the other one was gray. I have bought a yellow one and I am trying to catch a blue one. They are cheap where I live and they are good quality. I went to the tailor and had a border sewn on it and a little hanging hoop.  If you make one either for your classroom or home, it is easy to hang and easy to put ways since it is not very big. You don’t have to add the border.

Pick a cute book. I used this book that my kids had at home. I have the pdf for free by request (ei98srl@gmail.com)

I also made a similar book to review the grammar and vocabulary from the original book, instead of penguins going on vacation I used frogs. The black and white version has traceable sentences.


And koalas can also go on vacation. I made puppets to retell the story.
Teacher and students: The koalas are going on vacation. The koala is going to surf. The koala is going to play with a beach ball. The koala is going to make a sandcastle. The koala is going to scuba dive. The koala is going to drive. The kola is going to drink lemonade.


The mouse is going on vacation but on a worksheet.  Students complete the scene of all the things that the mouse is going to do on vacation.

Some Monsters are going on vacation but I made spinners. One spinner has numbers and the other one has the monsters. The number spinner stands for the amount of sentences to say or write and the monster is central character of the sentences.


A simple game: word and picture association.
                           And a free file! Go to the link and download it.    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Numbers-for-Elementary-EFL-4079286

Print the beach numbers cards and use them for speaking opportunities in the classroom.

And print the Sentence association game for the Beach unit Numbers review.


or use as a notebook activity.

                       There is a bundle with this resource included.                                                     Here is the link to check it out.

viernes, 7 de septiembre de 2018

Transportation Theme for Elementary ESL

Link to all the resources for the Transportation Unit:


Sort the  55 flashcards by land, sea, sky.

Transportation and adjectives: big, small, long, short, old, new, cheap, expensive. Review the adjective words using your arms and hands. Stretch your arms for long and hold your hands closer for short.
Write the opposite words on the board. Hand in all the flashcards and have them place the vehicle where it belongs. Students must identify the vehicle, the size, length, old or new and price.
Student: This is a school bus. It is big and long.


There is a worksheet to review the adjectives. Have the students listen to the instructions and color the cars.
Teacher: Point to the small car. Color it blue. Continue in the same manner. When the students have finished, have them place the adjectives that identify each vehicle.(LABELING)


Or have the students paste a vehicle on a sheet of paper and write adjectives to describe it.

Explain that you use the preposition by to express ways to travel.
Teacher: I am going to the library.
Students: How are you going?
Teacher: By subway.
Continue asking and answering questions. Have the students write sentences.
I am going to the island by ship.


Place the number flashcards around the room. Tell the students that each number is a garage or parking place for some vehicles.
Hand in the flashcards and give instructions.
Teacher: bus, go to garage number seven.

Transportation and verbs.
Tell the students that we use these three main verbs for the vehicles. Place them on the board and create a mind map.
Teacher: I can ride an elephant.
Students: I can ride a bike.
I can ride a motorcycle.

Give more examples using drive and fly using all the flashcards.

A worksheet to wrap this up.
Have the students sort the pictures into ride, drive and fly. Then using the bubbles provided, the students write sentences. ( I can drive a blue car.)


There are more flashcards to review “ How do you get to work ?” “ How do you get to school ?”

Community Helpers drive vehicles.
Have the students sort the flashcards in drive, ride or fly.
Model a sentence.  Teacher: The fire fighter drives a fire truck.
Students make more sentences.


And worksheets for writing. Students write in the bubbles sentences such as: I am driving a school bus.


 I made several worksheets for different skills. 


Listening. Students color as indicated by the teacher.
 Teacher: It is a pink blimp.
Speaking. Students point and say a sentence.
Student: It is a yellow submarine.
Have the students cut the cards and grab their favorite. At your signal have them get together in groups of the same favorite vehicle.
Teacher: These are trucks. (pointing close to you)
                Those are cars. (pointing far from you)
Students give more examples.

Write the words on your notebook. Providing multiple exposure to the vocabulary words help with learning and meaning.


Road game. I was looking for a game and found an interesting one on Pinterest, I adapted it for ESL. Simply print out as many roads you need and write the vocabulary words on each side of each road piece as in dominos, there must be 2 or more of the same word. Print the people in their vehicles and the signs. Have the students play as in Domino but the pieces will be the road items.


Prepositions cards. Use them for writing purpose or to play sentence association game.

More ideas,activities and printables at my other blog post.

Please follow me! Leave your comments or special requests.




miércoles, 29 de agosto de 2018

More Clothes Theme Resources and Ideas for ESL learners

The resource contains a wealth of printable material.Link to the complete Clothes Unit resource:

or here at this other store:   https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/clothes-theme-resources-for-elementary-ell?variant=14606610169905

Watch the video of the complete resource:


I am adding even more ideas and activities for the clothes theme from a previous post. Link to check: http://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2017/01/clothes-resources-for-elementary-ell.html

Starting with flashcards for the clothes unit to promote the use of spontaneous language.
Have two students stand in front of the class with two flashcards.
Teacher: Look at the skirt. It´s Karen´s skirt. (Point to the skirt and the girl)
Teacher: Look at the shirt. It´s  Henry´s shirt. (Point to the shirt and the boy)
Name a piece of clothing and the students say who they belong.
Teacher: dress!
Students: It´s Karen´s dress!
Teacher: Whose sweater is this?
Ask Henry and Karen questions.
Teacher: Henry, What clothes do you have?
Henry: I have a white shirt and a brown sweater.

Place 4 Flashcards on the board and write a name for each one.
Teacher: Who has a blue jacket?
Students: Carlos! Carlos has a blue jacket.
Teacher: Who has a green skirt?
Students: Ellen! Ellen has a green skirt.

Make sentences.
Teacher: Ellen has a green coat. She has a yellow blouse. She has a green skirt and green shoes. She has a pink purse.

Play a guessing game.
Put up 10 flashcards on the board.  Write a number under each one. I used counting by 10s.
Have the students guess which card is the selected one by you.
Students:  Is the person wearing a dress ?
Teacher:  No!
Students:  Is the person wearing pants ?
Teacher:  No!
Students:  Is the person wearing a skirt ?
Teacher: YES!
Students:  Is the person wearing a long skirt ?
Teacher:  YES!
Students:  Is the person wearing a hat ?
Teacher:  YES!
Students:  It´s number 40 !
Teacher: YES!

Numbers. Place several flashcards on the board and write a number word under each clothing item. Hand in the Number Flashcards 1 to 20 and have them look for their number word and place the flashcard where it belongs.
Student: The blouse is number 20.

Sort by season! Place the 4 Seasons flashcards on the board. Hand in all the clothing flashcards and designate a group for each Season. Students have to sort the flashcards and place them in the Season where they belong as in a mind map.
Students: It´s Spring. We can wear a cap and jeans.

Moving on to activities and worksheets.

Magazine pictures. Have the children choose pictures from magazines. Have them write 5 sentences for each pictures on a separate paper.  You choose more pictures to add interest and difficulty. Place the pictures on the board and hand in the texts with the sentences to random students. At your signal they all stand with their assigned text and find the picture that matches their text.
Create your sweater. Have the students color the sweater they chose. They can add as many details they want. Then, cut out the sweater and be ready to compare with other students. Have them add a price tag. Perfect for adjectives.
Teacher: My sweater is the biggest.
Student 1: My sweater is the smallest.
Student 2: My sweater is more expensive than Pedro´s.
Ask questions.
Teacher:  How much is the green sweater?
Student: It´s 10 $.
Teacher: Tomas, is this sweater yours?
Student: Yes, it is.
I added the frog and clothes worksheets from my weather blog post. Have the students dress the frog according to a Season.

Clothes and family. Display all the family flashcards on the board.  Have the students identify all the family members. Then have them describe what the family members are wearing. Repeat with all the family members.
Teacher: Who is this?
Students: Mother!
Teacher: What is Mother wearing?
Students: She is wearing a brown dress.
Teacher: Who is wearing a purple skirt?
Students: Grandmother!

Give the students the clothes labels and the family pictures. Have them color the clothes as you dictate, good for listening activity.
Teacher: Mother 's dress is red.
Then, the students glue the label next to the corresponding item of clothing.
Clothes cutouts. Students can cut clothing items out of several magazines and place them in an envelope for many speaking activities between pairs.
Student1: What is this? (Showing the cutout)
Student 2: It Is a green sweater.
Clothes Worksheets. Sort the clothes into like and don´t like. Have the students cut out clothing items that they like and the ones that you don´t like and glue them in the corresponding box. Then, have a show and tell or they can write sentences.
Student: I like this jacket. I do not like that dress.
I am wearing worksheet. Have the students complete the sentences with the correct piece of clothing. Then have them either show and tell or write sentences to contrast singular and plural.     I am wearing a sweater. I am wearing shoes.
This is my favorite worksheet. Students can draw or cut outs clothes they love.
and a last worksheet....writing sentences!
This resource is part of the Clothes Unit BUNDLE. Check it out!