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

 We made a game! Remember the standing paper I've used before? Well, we used it to make a habitat game. We first made four habitats using different colored paper, crayons, markers and sequins. We drew some of the details on white paper, like the trees for the forest and the cactus for the desert and glued them onto their habitats. We glued all the habitats together with a paper handle added to the middle. I wrote the names of the animals on paper circles and glued them onto bottle tops. Each student wrote on a white sheet of paper which animals lived in each habitat, for example, in the desert, there are snakes, lizards and spiders , and glued the paper on the bottom of all the habitats. Students then played the game. They had to mix the animal names up, and we timed how fast they could place them in the correct habitat. They were excited to see how fast they could do it. It was a fun way for them to not only practice thinking and discussing each habitat but to also practice readin...

 My 3rd-grade bilingual class is studying animals and what they need to survive. We started talking about how we can describe animals, for example, a tiny, round, black, and red bug. Guessed it? Yeah, that’s a ladybug 🐞 They read about how they can use colors, shapes, and sizes to talk about different animals.  They then made ladybugs out of red paper, drew some details, and glued them to water bottle tops. They also made a leaf for their ladybug because one of the things they mentioned animals need to survive is a home. Different animals have different homes. We taped the leaves to popsicle sticks, mostly so they wouldn't get lost. At the end of the class, we made a game out of everything.  They placed their leaves on the floor. The ladybugs were placed around a meter away from their leaves. The students had to flick the ladybugs and try to get them as close to their leaves as possible. The student who was able to get their ladybug the closest won the game.  

    Making a Tic Tac Toe is an awesome fun way to review any vocabulary and to celebrate different holidays or festivities. On this game, I used plastic bottle caps, which I always like to save to repurpose, chopsticks and white paper. It's pretty easy for students to make, just advise them in advance to start saving the bottle caps and get some chopsticks or popsicle sticks for the "hashtag". You and the students can be creative when it comes to drawing the eggs and the bunnies. Another option is drawing eggs and carrots or bunnies and carrots. When they're done, have them share the colors and details they used on their eggs. If they are still at home, they can play with their family.  

  I made these characters to play an adaptation of the Among Us game with my teenage students on our first day. They all have to put their heads down on the table and I'll call each one individually. If I show them the green player, they are part of the crew. If I show them the red player, they are the impostor. When they all put their heads up, each student will say a sentence about themselves but the impostor has to say a false sentence. Then, the class has to all vote on who they think the impostor is and why. The sentences can be about things they like or don't like, favorite colors or sports teams, pets they have, anything about their lives. Again, I used a cereal box to make the characters and taped them onto chopsticks, really simple. Let's see how it goes. 🤞🤞

Kids love a guessing game! I'll be using this activity to review pet names. I'm having a student pick a color and then a number. They have to guess which pet is behind the door. If they guess correctly, they get a star. After we play, they can choose any pet and make their own door for the rest of the class to guess. I used 3 sheets of creative paper cut in the middle. This way, I was able to make 2 doors with each paper. I drew the pets on white paper, cut them out, and glued them in the doors after I had already drawn the doors and made the details. I didn't draw a cat and a dog because these are the easiest ones and we had made cats and dogs in other classes. I glued all the doors onto a piece of cardboard, so I can hold them all up at the same time for students to easily see. I really liked the final result and how all the colors look together.  

Inspired by our caterpillars, I made this fruit toss game out of a box I got at the supermarket. I used a tea box to make the fruit and glued bottle caps onto them to make them easier to throw. I decorated the box with my caterpillar and more fruit and added a question I wanted students to be able to answer. The students have to be able to toss the fruit into the hole at the top of the box which is supposed to be the caterpillar's mouth. They have to count how many fruit they were able to get into the hole and tell the class. I showed the game to my goup and invited  them to make one themselves with their families. I'm saving mine to take to school and play with my class when we all finally go back.

Here’s a game young learners can make and play to practice numbers, how many, there is/there are, colors, vocabulary words bees beetles flowers and have fun trying to balance bugs on a flower.                 

Everybody knows how to play tic-tac-toe. I used this game to review superlative with my teen students but it can be used for just about anything. All you have to do is adapt it to what you're teaching. A friend from work gave me the idea to use popsicle sticks (thanks Candice). You can use small paper squares for the exes and circles. It would be best to have students write the words on the paper themselves. The more they do the better. In this picture I used bottle tops, which I am forever saving. After they played the game a few times, they had to come up with sentences in the superlative of the words they used to play. I placed each tic-tac-toe set in plastic bags and handed them out to pairs. If you have time, the class can rotate around the room and play all the sets; each one had different words on them.