A selection of English ESL countdown printables

song to help the students to memorize the numbers from ten until one.

countdown

a worksheet to practice listening  to a radio interview “Animal Countdown” with Tim Collins from “Animal Watch”, comparing the endangered  animals .

"Animal Countdown”

Listening practice. The students should give definitions about the words given to improve and develop their vocabulary. After, they will prove their listening by choosing the correct word. In the end, they will enjoy listening to the whole song and filling in the blanks. They can discuss then the topic of the song after this activity.

The Final Countdown - Europe

This is a free B1 intermediate level English reading lesson about Paris 2024 Olympics, generated using Cathoven AI tools. It includes the reading and reading comprehension exercises in various formats together with the answer keys and explanations.

True/False questions
Multiple choice questions
Short answer questions 
Writing Exercise

B1 - Reading Lesson - Countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympics

Waltzing Matilda is one of the most popular songs in Australia.



There are different versions of the song but I have chosen the one by The Countdown Kids, which became popular in Spain thanks to a TV Ad.



With Aussie vocabulary and answer key.



Hope you'll like it.

Waltzing Matilda

Students use the Halloween emoji legend to crack the code and uncover the secret message! They will uncover a fun Halloween tongue twister and practice letter recognition and vocabulary. There is also a space where students can write the full tongue twister on the scroll or draw a picture to accompany the tongue twister. Teachers can use my matching video to play in their classroom while students work. Video Link: https://youtu.be/9IdgEKPUvvU

The 10 minute countdown timer has fun, upbeat Halloween music and makes for a great activity!

Halloween Emoji Secret Code Game Activity with Matching Video

Students must fill in the blanks of the story using the Halloween emoji legend. To create a fun Halloween ambiance, you can use my matching YouTube video of a ghost town with countdown timer to give the children 5 minutes to complete the activity: https://youtu.be/OLbtPPooONk


In the box at the bottom right of the worksheet, students can invent their own silly name for the ghost by using the Halloween emoji legend. 
They can draw pictures of the emoji to represent each letter of their name. Then they can trade worksheets with a classmate to reveal the names of their classmates’ ghosts!


To give students more time to complete the activity, you can use any of my Halloween-themed classroom countdown timers: https://youtube.com/@TeachingVibes


The Ghost Town: Halloween Emoji Secret Code Story Activity

This is a countdown calendar for christmas day and a weather chart for december. Ss can draw inside the snow globe following the instructions and register the weather daily. Hope you like it!

Advent Calendar and Weather chart

Students must form 2-letter, 3-letter, 4-letter and 5-letter words from the 9 letters that appear in the diary! This is a fun activity with a 10-minute countdown video to help students practice forming words: https://youtu.be/9T_IejgYCtQ


Letters: P, K, C, A, Y, E, T, D, N


Sample words:
at/ate/eat/candy/dance


Students also have space to practice writing sentences using words they make from the letters in the diary.

Retro 90s Boggle Word Game for Word Formation Practice with Video

Students must use the emoji legend provided to decode Chuck's secret message to his ghost girlfriend. The video that goes along with this video has a countdown timer and animations: https://youtu.be/9aLNpOn41ms

 There is also space for students to use the emoji legend to write their own fun secret messages that their classmates must decode. This is a fun activity to celebrate Halloween or even Valentine's Day!

 Answer key is included with a teacher guide on page 2.

Halloween Emoji Secret Message Activity: Decode Chuck's Message with Video

Students have to build a story using the story starter and 5 different images. This activity is great for Halloween or just for creative writing practice. Students will get two minutes to write 1-2 sentences based on each new symbol that appears in the magic ring. You can use this matching video to give students a visual countdown: https://youtu.be/LQBnXnUEdEA


Story Starter:
“One dark and misty night, a strange glow appeared in the window…”


The symbols that appear are a candle, a black cat, a key, a feather, and a cracked mirror. There are no wrong answers, and students are encouraged to be creative and have fun. Silly stories are great too!


"Magic Ring" Writing Game with Story Starter - Halloween Activity with Video

This worksheet introduces five essential books that can help students and professionals improve their careers and relationships. Written in the voice of a confident “career coach” named Jordan Reed, it presents a WatchMojo-style countdown of the top five books for personal and professional growth: How to Win Friends and Influence People, Emotional Intelligence, Atomic Habits, Daring Greatly, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Each section explains the book’s key message, showing how communication, empathy, and small daily habits lead to success. The worksheet begins with warm-up questions about work and teamwork, followed by a reading text and post-reading discussion. A short writing task encourages reflection on real-life experiences with leadership, emotional control, or problem solving. Ideal for B1–B2 level learners, it develops reading comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary related to psychology, business, and personal development.

Top 5 Books That Will Level Up Your Career

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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Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

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

13 Countdown English ESL worksheets pdf & doc