Category Archives: "Young learners"

ESL guaranteed Irish fun Activities for St Patricks day eslkidsgames.com
This post looks at 5 ESL St. Patrick’s Day activities to add to your lesson plan for St Patrick’s Day. This post has activities for Young Learners, teens and adults.

As I am Irish myself, St Patrick’s Day is one of my favourite holidays that I get to teach about. Due to this, I have put together a number of activities that are fun, engaging and there are lots of opportunities for students to practice key skills and use their creativity.
As always, please leave your opinion, comments and suggestions below or email, tweet or Facebook me.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit
Happy St Patrick’s Day to you (In Irish)
 

Story of St Patrick (Video)

Activity Time:   10 – 15 minutes +
Materials required: Copy of the Powerpoint
Skills practiced: Writing, brainstorming, critical thinking, speaking, listening.
Level: Teens and adults. Pre intermediate +
Method
1. Before you begin the slide show, ask the students what they know about St Patrick.
2. Tell them they are going to hear about the story of St Patrick.

Whiskey In The Jar

“Whiskey in the Jar” is one of the most popular traditional Irish tunes. It features love, robbery, betrayal and a melody that has become known the world over.
The story tells of an Irish highway man who travels the Cork and Kerry mountains and the song tells of how the bold highway man robs from an English soldier.
Activity Time: 10 – 15 minutes +
Materials required: Student handout , Music video below
Skills practiced: Listening, vocabulary, speaking.
Level: Teens and adults Pre-intermediate +
Part One : Music story and look at vocabulary
Key Vocabulary
Project or give each student a list of the key vocabulary of the song. First, get the students to find the meaning of the words if they don’t know them.
Then ask them in pairs to guess what the song might be about.
Part Two: Listening  Give each student a copy of the handout. Give them some time to read and correct any errors they think they see, then let them listen and correct the errors. Stage 1  Listen and correct the errors
The original lyrics
Student’s version with errors
Stage 2 Listen and put the sentences into the correct order (see printable)
Stage 3 Listen and fill in the gaps (see printable)

The Wild Rover – gap fill

Activity Time:   10 – 15 minutes +


Materials required: Student handout  (View), Music below

Skills practiced: Listening, vocabulary, speaking.

Level: Teens and adults beginners +
Method 1. Give students a copy of the handout. Tell them to look at the gaps. Each gap is missing a verb. Tell them to predict which word is missing. 2. Students check their ideas in pairs. 3. Students listen to the song and correct their answers. 4. Now get them singing and clapping! My students always love singing this song.

St Patrick’s Day Storyboard


Activity Time:   10 – 15 minutes +
Materials required: Copy of picture board 
Skills practiced: Vocabulary and expressions
Level: Young Learners +


Method 1. Print out a copy of the storyboards for each pair of students.
2. Cut up the cards and mix them.
3. Give a set of the cards to each pair of students. Tell them that they must look at the pictures and arrange them in the correct order. Then they must write a story using the cards. Tell them that they must write one sentence per picture (Young Learners, a paragraph for teens etc) Tell the students they have 10 minutes. Allow the students to use resources such as dictionaries etc to develop their stories.
4. After students have written their stories, get them to share and present them to the class.
ESL Story picture story prompts for ESL Young learners Story writing

St Patrick’s Day Idioms


St Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity to give students with a chance to learn idioms. Idioms are an important part of language learning. They are a common part of speech and an important part of fluency.


Activity Time:   10 – 15 minutes +
Materials required: Copy of idiom pictures below PDF
Skills practiced: Vocabulary and expressions
Level: Young Learners (one or two idioms),Teens and adults. Beginners +



Method:
1. After you have introduced other vocabulary for St Patrick’s Day, you can introduce idioms. Show the students the idiom and then show them the picture.
2. In pairs, students try to decide what the idiom means then they report back to the class. Give an example of the idiom in use and then get the students to write their own sentence.
3. Revision is important with Idioms. As in the Powerpoint presentation, when revising idioms show the students the picture and ask them in pairs to write the idiom. After check if they have remembered correctly. Following this, concept check the meaning.
Good Luck eslkidsgames.com St Patrick's Day
Definition: A wish of good luck to someone. 
to have a green thumb idiom eslkidsgames.com St Patrick's Day
Definition: A talent for making things grow. 
a green eyed monster idiom eslkidsgames.com
Definition: Jealousy 
to be green idiom eslkidsgames.com
Definition: To recycle materials and good for the environment.
grass is always greener on the other side idiom eslkidsgames.com
Definition: A different place appears better than where you are. 
the luck of the Irish Idiom www.eslkidsgames.com St Patrick's Day
Expression: The Irish are lucky or have luck.
to give the green light idiom eslkidsgames.com
Definition: To give someone permission to do something.

Extra materials For Young Learners

St Patrick’s Day Flashcards – Large flashcards

[gview file=”https://eslkidsgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/St-Patricks-Dat-Flashcards.pdf”]

Key words: Ireland, leprechaun, pot of gold, rainbow, shamrock and snake

Download Flashcards Click here to download the Flashcards


St Patrick’s Day Word Search – A word search to practice the key vocabulary of St Patrick’s Day

Download Word searchClick here to download the word search


St. Patrick’s Day Vocabulary Match Game (young learners)

More ESL St. Patrick's Day Activities
Discover more St Patrick’s Day Activities.
St Interactive St Patrick’s Day Board Game – Practice St Patrick’s Day vocabulary with this fun interactive board game for young learners.

St Patrick’s Day Quiz – Test your students’ knowledge of everything Irish with this fun St Patrick’s Day Quiz!

ESL St. Patrick’s Day Activity: True or False  is a simple St. Patrick’s Day activity for teens and adults. In this activity, students test their knowledge about Ireland and Saint Patrick’s Day by deciding if the statements are true or false.

Find more games and activities weekly on our YouTube Channel
Page updated 14 Febuary 2022

5 ESL St Patrick’s Day Activities

Adults, Authentic material, ESL, Flash cards, Interactive whiteboard, Listening activity, Music, smart board, speaking activity, St Patricks Day, Teens, Video, vocabulary, writing activity, Young learners DavidM 4 Comments

This post looks at 5 ESL St. Patrick’s Day activities to add to your lesson plan for St Patrick’s Day. This post has activities for Young Learners, teens and adults. As I am Irish myself, St Patrick’s Day is one of my favourite holidays that I get to teach about. Due to this, I have […]

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 […]

ESL Christmas Activites teens, adults and young leaners

This post focuses on Christmas activities and games for the ESL classroom. Ranging from young learners to adults, these activities are sure to bring festive cheer to any classroom!

Christmas Taboo

Activity Time:  15 mins +
Materials required: a copy of the printable.
Level: Young learners and teens.
Printable: Download


Christmas Taboo is a simple game you can play in class to revise Christmas vocabulary. The aim of the game is simple; each person takes a card and they must describe the word on the card without saying or using that word or any of the additional words written on that card.

Christmas Quiz

Activity Time:  10 mins
Materials required: a copy of the printable
Level: Young learners.
Printable: Download

This simple quiz can be used to test your classes knowledge of Santa Claus. This quiz can be used in a number of different ways, but I’ve personally had success with putting the class into teams of pairs and using it with The Bomb Game. To add to this quiz, get your students to write one question each about Christmas. You can use this quiz with “bomb” for Smart board or with the printable version.

Conversation questions

Activity Time:  10 mins +
Materials required: a copy of the printable
Level: Teens and Adults all levels.
Printable: Download 

Over 25 different questions to get the class talking about Christmas.

Christmas Video Facts

This is a great simple activity to practice their reading and writing skills while talking about some unusual facts about Christmas.

Activity Time:  15 mins
Materials required: A computer to play the video
Level: Teens and Adults Intermediate +
Method
1. First put your class in pairs. Tell them to write the following information on a piece of paper or on their notebooks. Make sure they leave space so they can write information next to these numbers and words.


2. Tell them they are going to watch a video. One person will watch the video and tell their partner about the relevance of the information they have previously written.
3. Play the video twice and then check their answers.

Solutions:


 
That concludes this Christmas special. I hope you have a fantastic Christmas and enjoy the holiday break. Don’t forget to connect with me on Facebook and on Twitter
Don’t forget to comment with any ideas, suggestions or successes!
More Christmas activities
Discover more Christmas activities for kids, teens and adults.

Christmas Spot the Difference – Practice Christmas vocabulary with this fun interactive online game.

ESL Christmas Quiz – This great no-prep Christmas quiz is great for teens and adults and covers Christmas cultural knowledge, vocabulary, Christmas music.

ESL Christmas Tongue Twisters – A collection of Christmas tongue twisters to practice pronunciation with young learners and teen and even adults.

Christmas Story Recall – In this activity, students watch/listen to a short Christmas story and then they try and rewrite/tell the story later.

ESL Christmas Charades – This activity is a great no-prep game for teens and adults to practice Christmas vocabulary.

Just a minute Christmas Challenge – In this activity students need to speak about a Christmas photo for one minute. This activity is great for teens and adults who are preparing for the B1 Exam (PET).

ESL Christmas Debate – In this activity, students have a debate on different statements related to Christmas. This activity is great for teens and adults with a higher level.

Christmas Vocabulary Word Search –(Interactive online game) Christmas Vocabulary word search to review Christmas vocabulary.

Christmas Vocabulary Hangman – (Interactive online game for kids) Classic hangman style game to practice vocabulary and spelling.

Find more games and activities on our YouTube Channel

4 Christmas Activities

Adults, Authentic material, Christmas, games, Intermediate, Lower intermediate, Quiz, speaking activity, Teens, Video, Young learners DavidM 4 Comments

This post focuses on Christmas activities and games for the ESL classroom. Ranging from young learners to adults, these activities are sure to bring festive cheer to any classroom! Christmas Taboo Activity Time:  15 mins + Materials required: a copy of the printable. Level: Young learners and teens. Printable: Download Christmas Taboo is a simple game you can play in […]

Brain Breaks

All levels, Brain Breaks, Curiosity, Listening activity, reusable, Total Physical Response, very young learners, Young learners DavidM 7 Comments

Brain breaks are a great way to re-energize tired students. They are very easy and simple, and there are hundreds of variations found on the web for free. They are great for breaking up class stages and keeping the class interested and focused.They are particularly popular with young learners and a great opportunity to practice Total Physical Response. Here […]