Blog

This post looks at 3 ESL Valentine’s Day Activities for teens and adults. These simple no-prep activities are a great way to get students talking and discussing their opinions on St. Valentine’s day.
The first activity explains the origins of St. Valentine’s Day while practicing students listening skills with a short video.
The second activity makes use of infographics to practice reading. Students read facts about Valentine’s Day and discuss what they read with the class.
Lastly, you will find a number of speaking questions to extend the conversation with students.
 

Valentine’s Day Explained

Activity Time:  10 mins + Materials required: Each student needs a piece of paper and a pen. Skills practiced: Listening, writing and speaking. Level: Teens and adults. Lower Intermediate +
Method
1. Show the class the video below and stop the video at around 0:51 seconds. Ask the students to answer the following question in pairs. Ask them to write their answer. (Show the video a second time if required.)
How did Valentines day start?
2. Ask the students the write down the following numbers. Tell them they are going to watch the video again. This time they must write down the significance of the numbers.
 
270 AD
496 AD
1415 AD
Late 1800’s
35 Million
189 Million
3. After you have checked their answers, ask them which facts they found most interesting and why.
On the board write “Love is …” In their pairs, ask the students to finish the statement.Here are some quotes to give them some inspiration:“Love is like a friendship caught on fire”  Bruce Lee “Love is only a little foolishness with a lot of curiosity” George Bernard Shaw “Love is an irresistible desire to irresistibly desired” Robert Frost “Love is the flower you’ve got yo let grow” John Lennon  “Love is like a red red rose” Robert BurnsPlease contribute Please send on your classes “love is..” creations to me either on twitter @eslkidgames, #eslloveis or via email where they will be featured with my classes’ quotes to spread the love this Valentine’s day. 

 

Valentine’s Day Facts

Activity Time:  10 mins + Materials required: Printed infographic for each set of students Skills practiced: Listening, writing and speaking. Level: Teens and adults. Lower Intermediate
Method
1. Print the following infographics. One between two or three students. (Click the images to view the full infographic)
  2. Give each group their own infographic.  Ask them to read the infographic and create a mini presentation on the top five most interesting facts they read on their infographic. 3. Each group tells the other groups the information that have read and the class discuss the information. 4. The whole class then picks the top five pieces of information discussed. If you have time you could encourage the class to develop their own infographic based on their top five facts.

  

Valentine’s Day ESL Questions

Activity Time:  10 mins + Materials required: a copy of the printable Level: Teens and Adults all levels. Printable: Download Get the class talking with over 15 Valentine’s Day questions.
 
Did you find this post useful? Please leave a comment and share this post with others. As always, enjoy and have fun!
More ESL Valentine's Day Activities
Discover more ESL Valentine’s Day Activities for teens and adults. Valentine’s Day Board Game – Discuss Valentine’s Day with this interactive online board game for levels B1+ (lower intermediate and above, suitable for teens and adults. Guess the Valentine’s Day Idiom – In this warmer / cooler activity for teens and adults, students need to guess the Valentine’s Day idiom. This challenging activity is a simple and fun way to introduce students to idioms and expressions related to Valentine’s Day.
Updated 17.January.2021

3 ESL Valentine’s Day Activities

Adults, Listening activity, Poetry, speaking activity, Teens, TEFL, Valentine's Day, Video, Writing, writing activity DavidM 5 Comments

This post looks at 3 ESL Valentine’s Day Activities for teens and adults. These simple no-prep activities are a great way to get students talking and discussing their opinions on St. Valentine’s day. The first activity explains the origins of St. Valentine’s Day while practicing students listening skills with a short video. The second activity […]

Stop The Bus

Adults, All levels, Board game, Brain Breaks, First Class activities, Ice breaker games, Teens, TEFL, vocabulary DavidM 6 Comments

Stop The Bus is a simple and fun vocabulary game for any level or age group. This game will quickly become one of those regularly requested games in class.Activity Time:  5 – 10 mins +Materials required: A piece of paper for each team to write on. Skills practiced: Vocabulary revision, brainstorming and quick thinking. Level: All levels (Young learners, teens and adults)Method1. Put […]

The 25th of January is Burns Night in Scotland. As such, I thought I would put together a simple lesson plan for teens and adults to practice English and also to teach about Scotland. I hope you enjoy the lesson plan. Don’t forget to leave any comments or suggestions. Happy Burns Night to all in Scotland.
Activity Time:  30 + Minutes (In total) Materials required: Lesson plan notes ,Student printable handout Skills practiced: Speaking, listening and Vocabulary. Level: Intermediate +
1. Introduction (5 – 10 minutes)
Tell the class they are going to watch a video. Ask them to watch the video and answer what the significance of the 25th of January is. Answer: Burns night is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scottish poems. It is held on or near the poet’s birthday, 25 January. 2. Robert Burns Poetry. (10 + minutes) Write or project the Robert Burns quotes on the white board one at a time. Remind them that the poetry was written in the 1700’s. Tell them that you want them to explain what they think each sentence means. Tell them that there are no wrong answers. Original Version                                                      Idiomatic Translation                     

“Oh my love is like a red red rose that is newly sprung in June”

“Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,    Small, crafty, cowering, timorous little beast, O, what panic’s in thy breastie!”                              O, what a panic is in your little breast!“The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,             The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The man’s the gowd for a’ that.”                               The man’s the gold for all that.“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,                        Nice seeing your honest, chubby face, Great chieftain o’ the pudding race!”                      Great chieftain of the sausage race!
3. Watch the video again. (5 minutes)
Tell the students that they are going to watch the video again. This time they have to listen and fill in the missing words. Explain that there are between one and two words missing. They don’t have all the text so they must listen carefully. Hand out the text.
Before they watch again, ask the students in pairs to predict the missing words.
4. Brainstorm (5 Minutes) Write Scotland on the board and ask the class to brainstorm what they know about Scotland. Ask them if they know of any inventions that have come from Scotland.5. 10 Things Invented In Scotland.http://youtu.be/So4mlHiFxec Tell the class they are going to watch another short video. Tell them it’s about some of the things invented in Scotland. They must watch and complete the following activity.   10. ___________________ – Robert William Thompson & John Boyd Dunlop
9. ____________________ – J. M Barrie
8. ____________________ – James Braid
7. ____________________ – Robert Watson-Watt
6. ____________________ – Alexander Cummings
5. ____________________ – Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle
4. Telephone                            – ____________________
3. Bicycle                                 – ____________________
2. ___________________   – ____________________
1. _________________     – __________________
 

Robert Burns Night

Adults, Burns Night, Culture, Intermediate, Lesson Plan, Listening activity, Poetry, Rabbie Burns, Robert Burns, Scotland, speaking activity, Teens, Upper Intermediate, Video DavidM Leave a comment

The 25th of January is Burns Night in Scotland. As such, I thought I would put together a simple lesson plan for teens and adults to practice English and also to teach about Scotland. I hope you enjoy the lesson plan. Don’t forget to leave any comments or suggestions. Happy Burns Night to all in […]

5 Drawing Games

All levels, Board games, Drawing, End of class, Interactive whiteboard, Listening activity, speaking activity, Teens, vocabulary, Young learners DavidM 2 Comments

Games like Pictionary are popular games in the classroom. They are simple and easy ways to revise vocabulary and are usually a welcomed break away from the text books. This post will look at some other ways to bring drawing into the classroom in order to practice grammar and vocabulary.  1. Pictionary  Activity Time:  5 minutes […]