Role playing can be a fun and educational way to encourage students to engage in creative conversation with one another. Realistic scenarios such as buying something from the grocery store, asking for directions or having a friendly conversation are role playing exercises that would benefit ESL students. The class could be divided into groups and have skits to perform based on index cards stating what the scenario will be about.
Use index cards and write opposite adjectives in pairs (such as cold and hot, or slow and fast). Have students work in groups to match the opposites. They will need to use critical thinking skills to match the opposite words to one another. This could also be done with items such as fruits and vegetables, seasons, boy and girl, and so on.
Learning songs in English can be fun and an excellent tool for learning and retaining vocabulary. Songs can be used as teaching tools for people of all ages. For adult students, songs such as "Auld Lang Syne" and "Jingle Bells" can be useful to know (see Resources). For younger students, songs such as "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and "B-I-N-G-O" can be fun and helpful.
Making things can be an engaging way to learn new words. Bubbles and dough, for example, are excellent teaching tools for young students. While making the bubbles, students learn words such as "soap" and "water." After the bubbles are made, taking students outside to blow the bubbles and talk about what they see makes for a fun educational activity. After making dough, students can go on to make an object out of the dough and use an English word to describe what they have made.