Limericks Worksheet

This worksheet is full-sized, and is meant to help students write their own limericks in English. Besides giving examples at the top, the bottom half of the worksheet gives lists of rhyming words for students to use in their own poems. Students do not actually write on this worksheet, and two to three students can [...]

Irregular Past Tense Worksheet

This worksheet is half-sized, and includes a word search grid. Students must take the present-tense verbs at the bottom of the sheet and find their past tense counterparts within the grid. On the blank back of the worksheet, students should write a sentence with each of the past tense verbs.
irr-past-tense-word-search
-Abeth S.

Cognates Worksheet

This worksheet is half-sized. Students must put the words into the correct sentences, but all the words are similar to, or the same as, their Bulgarian translations. (Like “doctor” or “marker.”) Good for more beginning classes.
cognates
-Abeth S.

“Find Someone Who…” Worksheet

This worksheet is half-sized, and is a good ice-breaker for early in the year. Students must (in English, of course) ask their classmates which of the squares on the sheet apply to them, and write their names. Then, as a class, you can review the “answers.”
find-someone-who
-Abeth S.

Food Proverbs Worksheet

This worksheet is half-sheet sized, and gives students the opportunity to try their hand at matching two halves of famous food proverbs. Sometimes, the incorrect answers are just as interesting as the right ones!
food-proverbs
-Abeth S.

Reverse Team Pictionary

Materials: whiteboard and markers, pictures
Description: Create or find pictures to use. This game is best if there are several things in each picture. As an example, I’ll use teaching prepositions of place. The pictures can be unrealistic and fun, as long as the students know all the words. In one picture, show a big elephant [...]

Learning Numbers Using Cards

Materials: one deck of cards for each group
Description: This works best in small groups, no more than 3. Aces count as 1 and all face cards start out as 10. You can change this when practicing bigger numbers. When learning numbers 1-10, students place deck of cards in the middle. One student flips the top [...]

Greatest Bad Ideas

Materials: about 30 index cards, or cut up pieces of paper about the same size.
Description: First take the cards or pieces of paper and write hypothetical “problems” on them (eg. “My winter coat is not warm enough”, “I can’t afford to pay my rent”, “My cat makes me sneeze”, or something more absurd like “My [...]

Matching Cards

Materials: premade cards on slips of paper or index card halves (see below for ideas)
Description: This is an easy way to work on almost any concept, and the cards can be easily stored for future classes and years. All you need to do is make sets of cards that illustrate the concept you’re trying to [...]

Bean Jars

Materials: two jars or containers for each class participating, one filled with small beans or dried corn
Description: So, my counterpart and I were tired of the kids saying simple things in Bulgarian that they certainly knew the English for (like, “Can I go to the bathroom?”, which I think is the first phrase everybody learns!) [...]

Basketball

Materials: a small ball and a basket – either a (clean!) wastebasket or a large water jug cut in half – whatever you can find, really
Description: Students line up in a single file line in front of the basket. To start with, the front of the line is pretty close to the basket, but I [...]

How Many Words?

Materials: paper and a pen for each team/individual
Description: This is a fun competition game I play between different parallels (7A vs. 7B, etc), but it can also be a competition within a class. Give the participants a phrase of at least two words, and they have to try and create as many new words as [...]

Disappearing Vocabulary

Materials: White board and markers/blackboard and chalk
Description: I read this activity in a book, and didn’t believe it would work until I actually tried it! Write new vocabulary words on the board – no more than about ten at a time. Go down the list, pointing to each word as the students repeat it after [...]

Cell Phone Scavenger Hunt

Materials: One cell phone camera for each group of kids (I usually tell the kids their groups can be anywhere from two to five people – as long as one person in the group has a camera).
Description: This has to be done as a homework assignment (unless you want to let your little dears run [...]

Team Scattegories

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Materials: None

Description: Yes, it’s Scattegories, the party game that we all remember! If you have a smaller group of students, adapting this game to the classroom is easy. A round of Scattegories works like this: You have the students take out a sheet of [...]