All You Need is Paper (and a little love) ESL/EFL activities

I used this activity with all my groups this year, even adults. On the first day of class, I had them draw themselves. Depending on how old the students are, you can ask them to also write something about themselves under or next to their drawing, so you can get to know them better. Throughout the year, I used these cards to form pairs or groups and choose a helper or someone to read or answer a question. Sometimes I'd let one of the students pick a card too instead of me always doing the shuffling and picking. They were a great classroom management tool, and they really helped me save time. I let the kids take home their drawings on the last day of class. They enjoyed the opportunity to compare how much their drawing styles had changed from the beginning of the year to the present.  

Lots of fish in the sea! In this activity, my second-graders first added some drops of light and dark blue paint on one side of a sheet of paper and then folded the paper in the middle to make the ocean background for their fish. While the paint was drying, they drew their fish on a magazine page. I gave them many colorful circles to fold in the middle and glue onto their fish to be the scales and one googly eye. After the paint had dried and they had cut out their fish, they wrote that fish can swim and have tails and then glued their fish onto the ocean paper. The following class, each student came to the front of the class to share their fish and read their sentence.  I always love that although they are all doing the same activity, each one comes out just a little bit different. 🐟