A selection of English ESL childhood printables with general reading comprehension, reading comprehension

This ESL printable downloadable worksheet is a handout containing task and exercises about childhood memories with the grammar points used to / would + infinitive.

The way things used to be

This is an ESL reading comprehension about a woman who remembers her childhood spent living in shacks (huts) in Nairobi. It is a beautifully-written piece by Matthew Parris. They have to answer the questions in full sentences and then summarise the passage, or tell it in their own words. Answers and model summaries provided at the end of the worksheet.

RC: a childhood in poverty

This is a worksheet dealing with lesson 3 ; the generation gap. The aim of the pre reading is to explain the words " generation " and " gap".

The comprehension questions are meant to make students know the problem of the main character, Jane, and express their opinions towards the situation. The grammar focus is then turned to different types of compound adjectives.

The writing is a final step where students are asked to write their letters giving Jane some piece od advice.

Generation gap worksheet

this worksheet deals with unit 5 Children's Day . the students learn about the children's rights and how to celebrate the children's day. the text is taken from liveworksheet .

unit 5 Children's Day

First, the students need to read the text (or the teacher can first describe the picture with them). Then they need to complete two tasks: 1) choose the correct answer; 2) write "true" or "false".

Present Simple: Lisa and her bike

This worksheet can be used as a reading or listening comprehension task. It has got a True/False exercise and the answers. It can be used while learning the topic Family.

Dad's Childhood (Year 4)

A reading worksheet for upper intermediate students on bullying. They read a passage, do vocabulary related exercises, answer some questions and hold a discussion on the topic with some reference to given quotes. There is a short guide on how to recognise a victim of bullying. Hope it is of some use to you. And wish you all a very happy new year! :)

BULLIES AN UNKIND PEOPLE

Reading comprehension. Short text about the comeback of once popular Tamagotchi. Eight questions to the text. You may additionally ask the students about their favorite childhood toys and a vocabulary task with answers.

Tamagotchi Comeback

Give your students time to work through the vocabulary. Encourage pair work and help with difficult words. Students can use a dictionary to find the meaning of some of the difficult words in the tables and this can prepare them for the final task. Once the students have studied the tables, they should work in pairs and describe the photo.

A picture is worth a thousand words - 14

This worksheet is part of the “Incredible Kids Doing Big Things” series and focuses on a 13-year-old boy from Kenya who created a simple water filter to help his village. The activity includes a warm-up section, a vocabulary matching task, a gap-fill exercise, a 180-word reading text, multiple-choice comprehension questions, and discussion prompts. It is designed for A2–B1 learners and works well for reading lessons, pair work, or speaking practice. The topic is inspiring for teenagers and encourages them to think about real-world problems and how young people can make a difference. Perfect for classes that enjoy meaningful stories, global themes, and practical vocabulary.

Incredible Kids Doing Big Things: The Water Engineer

Introduce young readers to the joy of reading with these Science of Reading Decodable Books! Designed for early learners, these engaging and child-friendly resources make reading practice simple, fun, and effective. Each page includes decodable sentences with clear, easy-to-read fonts and colorful illustrations that capture children’s attention. Perfect for kindergarten, first grade, and struggling readers, this resource helps children build confidence, fluency, and comprehension while enjoying stories they can actually read.

This product is carefully aligned with the Science of Reading approach, ensuring children practice essential phonics skills while developing a love for reading. With sentences such as “I like to play at the park,” children can connect words with meaningful images, reinforcing both sight word recognition and phonics decoding strategies.

Teachers can use these printable decodable books in guided reading groups, literacy centers, or one-on-one intervention sessions. Parents will also find them ideal for homeschooling, homework practice, and bedtime reading. Because the text is repetitive and predictable, even beginning readers will feel successful and motivated.

✨ Why this resource is special:

Science of Reading aligned decodable sentences
Child-friendly illustrations in a colorful, inclusive style
Builds phonics skills, fluency, and comprehension
Encourages independent reading and confidence
Suitable for classroom use, tutoring, or home practice
With these decodable reading passages, children will not only practice phonics but also see themselves reflected in the inclusive and diverse illustrations, making reading both educational and meaningful.

Science of Reading Decodable Books Engaging Early Literacy Resource for Kids

This is an engaging, ready-to-use ESL Worksheet on “LÁBẸ́ IGI ORÒMBÓ” for young learners and the young at heart. It is lively, culturally rich, and perfect for classroom or online lessons.

SONGS, CULTURE AND CHILDHOOD

General reading comprehension

Childhood

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

12 Childhood, General reading comprehension, Reading Comprehension English ESL worksheets pdf & doc