A selection of English ESL quick lesson printables

A fun filler or end of lesson activity in which students practise vocabulary and quick thinking. Kids love to play and compete.

A 5 Minute Activity #1

A simple worksheet to drill and practice the different uses of, 'have to',  'has to',  'don't have to', and, 'doesn't have to'. This was designed as a quick activity for Japanese junior high school students following a lesson on auxiliary verbs. The two tables at the top of the worksheet act as a reminder for the students, but this worksheet can also be turned into a quick test by removing the tables.

Have to / Has to / Don't have to / Doesn't have to

This lesson plan focuses on the present perfect with questions and responses using 'How long...?' The main  language on page one can be adapted to suit the level of student. Listen and repeat one, two or three mini-conversation exchanges or practice reading together. In the practice sections the question 'How long...?'  and responses using 'for,' and, 'since,' are put into play (you can build student confidence by having them apply the practice with the text covered). On page two there are two easy exercises and a quick listening section with some simple follow-up questions. Wrap it all up with a focused application on students own experiences. My students said the lesson was interesting and useful!

Present Perfect

It's a grammatical lesson about auxiliary verbs (be/ have/do) with short, full, and interrogative forms. It's a quick reminder for the beginners with a few examples to illustrate the grid. 

Auxiliary verbs be/ have/ do

A quick warm-up exercise based on the "find someone who" format with questions concerning the events of the Christmas break. 



A nice way to begin the first lesson after New Year. Just distribute one worksheet per student and ask them to walk around the room and find people who meet the given criteria. Finding such people is not enough. They need to ask for some details.



Remember to get some feedback after the exercise is done.

Post-Christmas "find someone who" warm-up

This is a quick true-false quiz to get students thinking about thesis statements at the beginning of a writing lesson. I usually use it as a kind of pre-test; we then discuss in detail the characteristics of strong thesis statements as we check the answers. This is most valuable for students who are already familiar with the fundamentals of essay-writing.

Good Thesis Statements

This is a worksheet for low-level learners and can be used as a quick activity in an introduction lesson.



Students must match the name of the attraction in the word bank with its picture. They must also write the country the attraction is in.



There are 2 worksheets per page to save paper.



The attractions are the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Palace, Niagara Falls, the Sydney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben and Mount Fuji.





Attractions Around the World - Worksheet

After some lessons of the Past Simple tense, this worksheet can be used as a quick revision of the verb forms.

Learners can work individually or in pairs and teachers can check with the whole class.

Past Simple Error Correction

This can be a quick ESL warmup activity in 2x3 minutes or you can devote more time to it if it fits your lesson aims, since it is an activity that sparks students' imagination and is guaranteed to keep them engaged.



Recommended for highschool students and adults, as the activity presupposes ability for abstract thought and working with symbols. 



How to do this warmer activity:



1.	Put students in pairs, then tell them about the activity: "You’re going to act out psychologist and client. The client is supposed to tell the the psychologist about his/her dream. You will interpret the dream together. You will take turns in being the psychologist and the client."



2.	The psychologists need to close their eyes. You then show the clients one of the three “dream scenes”. 



3.	Next, they should describe the dream to their partners by adding some more events to the dream scene depicted in the photo. 



4.	Finally, they should interpret the dream and the symbols in it together. 





Follow-up:



1. You can check the meaning of the various symbols in the dream scenes and discuss it with students:

http://dreammoods.com

Warmer: Interpreting dreams #2

It's a short exercise to start a lesson! But it can be given to quick finishers. key is included! :-)

Sports - crossword

To be honest, this worksheet is time saver because my students are very slow when it comes to writing, I decided to use both the lesson and an exercise to just stick on their notebook. Quick and Easy! Enjoy 

Expressing Time with IN, On, AT

A walk down memory lane which won't be too long or tedious. This activity can be a good warm-up if you revise Past Simple and Past Continuous and need some dynamic to kick-start or round off the lesson. Finding out that your students can't actually remember a lot from "not so ago" can also be fun and a nice stimulus to e.g. write a blog or a diary - in English, of course! :)

What can you remember? - past tenses - quick survey 

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

39 Quick lesson English ESL worksheets pdf & doc