11 fun ESL activities for kids and parents.
Want to help your child practise and improve his/her English skills over the summer? Find below 11 fun and engaging ESL activities for kids and the whole family you can try all together over the summer holidays.
11 fun ESL activities.
1. Have your kids draw something. It can be summer themed or any theme your child finds interesting. Then, ask your child to describe the drawing in English. A variation of this fun ESL activity is for you to describe a landscape in English and then instruct your child to produce a drawing. This is an excellent Speaking and Listening ESL activity.
2. Write beach packing or shopping lists in English. This is a rather easy ESL activity, but great for practising Vocabulary.
3. Play Boardgames in English.
4. At the beach! Ask your child:
► What is this/that? What are these/those?
► What should we do?
► What are we/you doing now?
► What do you like the best about here?
► What can you see around you?
Of course, you can try this on any outing or while shopping. The questions can be simple or more demanding, depending on the ESL level of your child. In this way you practise Speaking and Listening.
5. Plan an English ONLY Day. This is an ESL activity devised by a mother which she tested with her 2 sons, both students of mine. According to their testimonies, not only did they have a great time, but also significantly improved their English Speaking skills.
6. Listen to English songs and audio books in English or to English language radio stations.
7. Watch movies, animation or cartoons in CC mode or videos on Youtube, Netflix, Amazon, or even TED.com.
8. Ask your child to read aloud a story in English to you. You can also read a book or a fairytale to him/her. This is good practice for Pronunciation and Listening.
9. Keep a Summer Diary in English. This is actually a superb ESL activity suggested by a student of mine. All you need is a special notebook or a diary and a pen. You don’t have to write in it daily, but make sure you journal a few times a week. Even though Writing is not particularly favoured, free writing, i.e. writing without worrying about rhetorical concerns or conventions and mechanics can prove quite enjoyable indeed and a great way to ease your children in more formal writing activities.
10. Create a Travel Blog in English or in both your mother tongue and English. To do this you can use online apps or just the camera of your mobile.
11. Should you travel abroad, encourage your child to use his/her ESL skills to interact independently. In case you don’t plan a trip abroad, you can always design an ESL role-play activity, be it:
→ At the restaurant.
→ At the hotel.
→ At the airport.
→ At the mall, at the amusement park etc.
Summer fun with ESL practice!
Remember! These 11 ESL activities ought to be, above all, fun and enjoyable! I’m sure you will all absolutely love them! Allow your child to make mistakes and slips when Speaking or Writing in English. Remind them, though, to self-correct when possible! Should you require an English coach to help you design ESL activities you can try this summer, do not hesitate to contact me.
Stay tuned for my next post on Summer Learning Loss.
Are you planning to revise you Grammar skills over this summer? Read on!
https://www.colorincolorado.org/blog/summer-slide-and-ells-what-you-need-know
https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/summer-reading-english-language-learners-library
http://blog.tesol.org/11-tips-to-help-els-avoid-the-summer-slide/