April: Teaching Topics and Themes for Your ESL Students!

It's April and for many of those living in the North, it means warmers temperatures and spring birds and flowers! Get your students starting the month off with a joke or two on April 1st as it's April Fool's Day across the globe.  There's plenty of spring topics to keep your students busy starting with spring cleaning, spring allergies, spring flowers and spring weather. Get them busy learning more about International Pink Day on April 13th and World Earth Day on April 22nd, too!

Find more ideas on teaching topics this month here!

Happy Easter!

There's plenty of Easter vocabulary and traditions for your ESL students to learn about this week - starting with Good Friday on Friday, March 25th and Easter Sunday on March 27th. Have your students learn more about this religious celebration as well as the commercial side of Easter including the Easter bunny, chocolate goodies and the joys of Easter egg hunting!

Find recommended links for your ESL students here!

March Topic: Spring!

The Spring Equinox has arrived (March 20/21st) to those living in the Northern Hemisphere and with it comes the joys of warmer weather (we hope!), chirping birds and colorful spring flowers! Make this a time to teach or review spring season vocabulary words and phrases with your ESL students!

WARM-UP CONVERSATION QUESTIONS AROUND THE TOPIC OF SEASONS BY ESL MADE EASY:

1. Does your home country recognize the spring/autumn equinox at this time of the year? Describe the changes.
2. What is your favourite season? Why? Has your preference changed over the years?
3. Do you think people are affected emotionally, mentally, or physically with the early signs of spring? Explain.

4. What are some things in people's lives that change       

according to seasons?

Find recommended links for your ESL students here!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

March 17th is St. Patrick's Day so get ready to get your green on! For those with an Irish background, it can be both a religious and cultural celebration full of festive parties, parades and food. Get your ESL students to learn more about the history, customs and traditions of St. Patrick's Day as it marks the feast day of the Apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick and the rich Irish culture too.

FIND RECOMMENDED LINKS FOR YOUR ESL STUDENTS HERE!

March Topic: Plumbing in our Lives!

March 11th is World Plumbing Day! If you take some time to explore the importance of plumbing and the impact this industry has had around the word, I think you might be amazed at what a great teaching topic it can be for the ESL classroom!

 

 

 

WARM-UP CONVERSATION QUESTIONS AROUND THE TOPIC OF PLUMBING by ESL Made Easy:

1. Name some different types of plumbing systems you might find in a typical home of a developed country. How do these systems compare to those found in your home country?

2. Do you think people take plumbing for granted? Explain.

3. What are some of the health consequences of inadequate plumbing? What about where plumbing is completely non-existent?

4. In what ways has plumbing systems changed over the years? Have these changes affected the way we use water?

 

FIND RECOMMENDED TOPICS FOR ESL STUDENTS HERE!

Celebrating International Women's Day!

International Women's Day  is March 8th! This year's theme, Pledge for Parity, encourages pledging towards women and girls worldwide to help them achieve their ambitions and to lessen the gap between gender inequality. Various events and traditions will be taking place to honour and celebrate women's rights and achievements worldwide. Take the time to explore this global event with your ESL students and get them talking about the progress made, as well as the struggles that many women still face today.

See YouTube video - International Women's Day 2016
 

Find recommended links for your ESL students here!

March Topic: Grammar Day!

March 4th is Grammar Day! So why not kick off your day with a quick grammar lesson or review?

Find some of my recommended grammar links for all levels here. Once you've finished with a grammar point, be sure to get your ESL students reinforcing it. Remind them that they need to USE it or they'll LOSE it!

Practice the present continuous verb with a Conversational Grammar worksheet by ESL MADE EASY here!

Click here to celebrate Grammar Day with this fun quiz!

March: Teaching Topics and Themes for your ESL Students!

Where did February go? Well, at least we had the extra day to say good-bye!

March is a busy month with lots of teaching topic ideas here that you can do with your ESL students. Starting with World Compliment Day on March 1st and then International Women's Day on March 8th.  Wait...there's more.....it's St. Patrick's Day on March 17th, Earth Hour Day on March 19th, The Spring Equinox on March 21st and coming early this year is Easter, which falls on March 27th.  Phew......I'm tired already!

Happy Teaching!

February Topic: Leap Year!

Get your students talking about this rare day that comes along every four years. You can find out more about leap year here.




Recommended links for your ESL students:
YouTube: What is Leap Year?
English Blog: An ESL comic activity about leap year
English with Jennifer: Mini lesson on leap year
Telegraph: 20 Crazy Facts about Leap Year
History: Video - Why do we have leap year?
English Baby: Vocabulary and dialogue lesson on leap year
Activity Village: Reading and comprehension on leap year

Incorporating Humour in the ESL Classroom!

ESL Made Easy - Teaching English as a second language can be a serious task, but that doesn’t mean that your classroom needs to be a stark, humourless void. The truth is that incorporating a few laughs into your lessons can have tremendous benefits and help make you a more effective teacher. Your students, many of whom are feeling nervous or suffering from a lack of confidence in their own abilities to master the subject at hand, will feel more at ease after some humour. It makes your class, and your lessons, more memorable too. Plus, getting a few laughs will help your confidence as an instructor — you’ll feel that your students like you and are genuinely listening to what you have to say.

Unless you’re a natural comedian, though, incorporating humour in your classroom is probably easier said than done. How do you do it? Here are four ideas for incorporating humour in your classroom...

February Topic: Black History Month

February is Black History month  in Canada, the U.S., and the United Kingdom. Be sure to get your ESL students learning more about the activities, events, and the important figures in black history.

See recommended links on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Find recommended links to get your ESL students talking about one of the most romantic days of the year here!