A selection of English ESL timer printables

An easy guide for letter writing. It is meant for first timers. Penpalling is a great thing to do with students and it improves their writing skills very fast.

Penpalling & Letters

It´s an easy and funny text about members of a tortoise family, their age, their favourite food, their likes and dislikes. Comprehension exercises and key included. 

Mortimer Tortoise (+KEY)

This is a game to review vocabulary about insects and other small creatures. 

How to play the game:



●Distribute the cards randomly to your students. Some students may get more than one card.

●Select a student to begin by reading their card aloud. (example: I have got insects. Who has got a spider?)

●Students must listen for their turn and try not to break the chain.

●When the chain circles around to the first student, the game is over.

Suggestions:

● Laminate the cards so they will last for many years to come.

●Set a timer for 2 minutes, five minutes, or whatever. Challenge them to finish the game before the timer goes off.



I HAVE WHO HAS INSECTS GAME

2 TEAMS OF 2 PLAYERS

(a clue giver and a guesser)

A DECK OF 44 CARDS

A TIMER (2mn rounds)



Find and Pronounce as many words as possible...

phonetics card game

A one-page reading activity for A2 (or about) level adults. Created for my German-speaking students, I pass these out as an introduction to the family in the short stories.



The questions on the back are great discussion questions for the next lesson.



In general, I tell students to set a timer for 30 minutes and see how much they can understand in that time without a dictionary. (Some love using the dictionary, anyway.)

Introducing the O'Malley Family

This worksheet helps the students to learn the spelling of numbers from twenty to thirty as well as develops their matching and reading skills. 

*For more fun in the classroom you can set the timer for 1 minute and get the students complete the task in time!*

Numbers 20-30

Mortimer Reader's Theatre

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

a very funny excercise on the clock time! Children are supposed to help Kevin (one of the minions) to take his cakes out of the oven right on time. They have to look at the timer, complete the clock and then right the time on the space below.

The clock time

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

Materials needed: a deck of cards. 
this is a great warmup i use with my students to practice reading and answering questions. 
the method i use is this: the printed pages are put up on the four walls of the classroom and i hold the deck of cards at the center. The students line up in front of me and i give them each a card. I set a timer for 6-10 minutes (depending on the students and the work we have for that day) and say go! They all must find their question, read it, think of their answer, and come back in line to tell me the answer to their question in a complete sentence with correct grammar. (i demonstrate this the first few times we play by having a student pretend to be the teacher. ) if they give a correct answer, they get their next card. If they give an incorrect answer, i tell them to try again and they go back to the end of the line or to look at their question once more. I award points per number of cards the students have after the ten minutes are up.

Card Game - Answering Basic Questions Well

Some time ago I found here a very intresting game. 

Students (in close pairs first, then in an open classroom interaction) choose a random topic by pointing their pensil on the empty side of the paper. They turn the paper, check which topic they chose, and talk about it for a minute (their partner sets the timer). 



The difference with the activity which inspired me is that the topics have been selected for adults mostly. Also, topics can also be of interest to students outside of EU, namely Africa, Middle East and Asia. 



I work with people from African countries and these topics triggered their critical thinking. 



Please, leave a feedback if you have time.

Communicative Activity. Talk Talk Talk (Adults)

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)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

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Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

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

18 Timer English ESL worksheets pdf & doc