A selection of English ESL finish the story printables

This exercise was designed for today's students, who have very little imagination.  I tell them to "be Peter",  to put themselves into the story.  Most students really get into it.  Some need a little extra urging and direction.  I have seen some really creative endings to the story.  Have fun with it.

Finish the story

Creative writing activity. Can be used to practice different gram.features or vocabulary. In our case it was past tense and phrasal verbs relating to relationships. Students work in pairs/groups and come up with four different stories based on the same picture.

This simple worksheet for kids is designed to teach them create a short self-introduction. The students need to finish the story with the help of the pictures. 

Finish the story (general information)

I looked everywhere for a good 'finish-me-story' but eventually gave up and wrote one of my own!  Here it is. My students love writing stories and this one is very seasonal.  Happy Christmas to all!

Dad! I want a go!

Students read the first page, and in groups prepare their own ending. after presenting it, they finish reading the story. and make question to find answers in order to fill in the gaps in the text.
questions:
Color did what eyes have Della?
Gave who gold watch the Jim?
Go Where did Della?
Much how hair owner the to agree pay ?
Much cost chain the  How gold?
Jim Della give Christmas to for What?
Answers:
Della (have)dark brown eyes.
The gold pocket watch (is) a gift from Jim’s father.
Della (go) to a wig shop.
The wig shop owner (agree) to pay 20 dollars for 
her hair.
The gold chain for Jim’s pocket watch (cost) 21 dollars.
Jim (give) Della a beautiful hair comb.



the gift of the magi

This is a writing task to help students when writing a narrative. There are questions to guide them, pictures to help them and a list of things to check when the writing is finished. There is even a section for teacher's comments and a marking template. It is suitable for pre-intermediate and intermediate students.

Narrative -The Accident

A worksheet focusing on the use of prepositions of place using vocabulary from "Bears in the Night" by Stan and Jan Berenstain, with word search for students who finish the first part early and a tracing activity on the second page.

Note that some words in the word search are diagonal and/or backwards.

Initially made for 4th grade Japanese EFL students.

"Bears in the Night" Prepositions/Word Search/Tracing Activity

This is a short fill in the gap fairy tale. 10 verbs in the simple past have been taken out of the text and children have to put them back in the right gap. The story is unfinished and the children have to imagine the rest of the story however they want.

Fairy tales fill in the gap

This resource strengthens skills with irregular verbs and planning a speech. The lesson begins with a listening activity and model for the finished speech. Then, it leads into prompts for the speech. The assignment ends with a rubric for teacher and/or student evaluation.

Like any resource, this resource is only a tool in the hands of a capable teacher. Feel free to adapt it to the needs of individual classes and students. Also, make my day and drop me a note about how you will use it. 

A Visit from the Past: Planned Speech Using Irregular Verbs

This activity is modified for pre-intermediate to intermediate. Still, it can obviously be adapted for more advanced levels by requiring ‘that’ on all answer sheets to be replaced with ‘who’ ‘where’ or ‘when’ where appropriate (ex. It was three days ago when Alex bought his cards), and removing the template for the answers. Hence, they have to construct the grammar themselves by speaking. 
 Divide students into three teams/groups 
 Cut the running dictation sheet into 3 pieces and put each piece at the back of the room. Spread them out. 
 Have the students play running dictation to gather all their information (messenger). 
 When all teams have finished, give them the answers so they can check to see if it's all correct. 
 Cut up the questions sheet into three pieces and give one piece to each group (note) each group should have four questions to answer, and each group will already have one answer for one question. The other three answers will need to be collected from other groups in the final activity. 
 Now have the teams interview each other for the missing information. Make sure they aren't showing their answers. They must ask questions and provide answers by speaking. 
 Compare answers as a class and put all the information together to discover 'who, what, when, and where'.

Cleft sentences with the Trading Card Brothers (running dictation, puzzle, interview).

Students are supposed to use the Halloween vocabulary to create a spooky story. One student starts and the other ones need to continue the story using the words given. They need to use all the words to finish the story. The idea is that they can use their creativity to create a story with the vocabulary. Happy Halloween!

Speaking Practice - Halloween Spooky Story

Here is the start of a short story I wrote. Have students read through it and predict what will happen next, or have them finish the story. My students are very eager to see how the story will end!

Short Story Prediction Prompt

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

56 Finish the story English ESL worksheets pdf & doc