October Topics and Themes for ESL Students

OCTOBER is a busy month and also provides ESL teachers with lots of ideas for planning topics. Be sure to check out October Topics and Themes and follow ESL Made Easy by email for updated posts on recommended links to free ESL activities and worksheets. 

Feel free to add any of your favourite links or teaching ideas around this festive and spooky month!

September Topic: International Coffee Day!

International Coffee Day is coming up this Tuesday! This day has been traditionally observed and celebrated on September 29th in many coffee loving countries.  If you or any of your students are java lovers, then what could be more fun than learning about coffee, its origins, and all its economic and health benefits. International Coffee Day is a great day for helping to raise awareness for fair trade coffee and for all its coffee growers around the world. Learn more about fair trade coffee here.

World-wide coffee vendors also look forward to this day and celebrate with giveaways and special deals for their loyal customers. Talking about International Coffee Day can make for a lively and stimulating class discussion (on any day, really) - especially for your coffee drinkers!

September Topic: Autumn Equinox

It's that time of the year again when the hours of daylight become shorter if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. For those of you who enjoy cooler days and nights, the changing colour of leaves, and wearing warm fuzzy sweaters, you don't have long to wait. 

This year, the Autumn Equinox is on September 22nd, or depending on where you live, September 23rd. Many of us recognize this time to welcome the change of seasons with traditional celebrations, symbols and festivities. And with that, comes plenty of vocabulary words and activities you can do with your ESL students. >>>

September Topic: Positive Thinking!

For those of you who don't know, Positive Thinking Day is on September 13th. An American entrepreneur started this day in order to concentrate on all things positive. Thinking positively is not always an easy thing to do, but if you train your brain to know when you are in, or entering a negative state of mind, then the shift to positive thinking might just become a habit! I do believe that positive thinking in general is an excellent topic to be sharing with any ESL learner!

September 11th - A Day to Remember

The anniversary of September 11th can be another sensitive topic to address with a multicultural class of adult ESL students. However, because of its significance, it's also a topic we can't easily ignore. Below are some warm-up questions I've used in previous years. If you have any ideas or activities that have been particularly effective for you, please feel free to share them. It's always helpful to hear what has worked well for others! >>>

World Suicide Prevention Day - September 10

While it can be a sensitive topic, World Suicide Prevention Day is still worth addressing with your ESL students. Here are some links to online material that you can use to help introduce and highlight key vocabulary and other discussion topics related to suicide awareness and prevention. Students will likely want to share their opinions and discuss any experiences they have had with this major public health issue.....

>>>

September Topic: Celebrating Grandparents!

Get your students talking about their grandparents in class! 
It's a special day (September 7th, 2014) that follows the same footsteps as Mother's Day and Father's Day and is celebrated on each Sunday after Labour Day weekend in both Canada and the US. Students will love to be able to talk about their family's history and honor their grandparents for all that that they do or did. >>>

Let's Talk English!

I happened to be watching TV yesterday and stumbled upon a local channel featuring Canadian produced ESL skits designed to help viewers learn English. To my surprise, the show was very well done and full of speaking, listening, reading, vocabulary and grammar skills and tips. Lots of phrases and idioms were tied into each episode and I have to say, it kept me in my seat! >>>