Excitement is building all around the world for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. Kids usually get energized by anything sports-related, so get them into the spirit of the games with our featured vocabulary lesson on Soccer (Football)! (We’ve included both of the sport’s common names in our title because we have subscribers from all over the world. For those of you who might be unaware, this sport is known as “soccer” in the US and Canada and “football” to the rest of the world.)

In this eight-page Word Bank lesson, students will learn nine words associated with soccer, including soccer player, goalie, team, soccer ball, cleats, goal, score, kick, and run. (more…)

When it comes to writing, students often don’t know where to begin. A writing task like Music – Writing Activity is helpful because there are four questions to guide them. Combine that with our tips on paragraph structure, and your students will be writing with ease!

Writing improves many English skills such as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. You can also incorporate speaking, pronunciation, and listening into this writing project. Put students into small groups after they’ve finished writing, and have each student read their paragraphs aloud. They can practice pronunciation while the others practice listening. Also, tell the listeners that they must come up with one related question each to encourage discussion! (more…)

The past progressive (also called the past continuous) is used when comparing two past actions where one is longer than the other. The past progressive is often used when describing emergencies and natural disasters. February 1, our featured story on an earthquake, provides plenty of examples of this tense in a natural context.

All of the readings in our Library section can be done on paper or online, so teachers can choose how to present the reading and comprehension questions. Have your students do it on paper or in a computer lab during class, or assign it for online homework and do the follow-up activities in class the next day. This lesson also includes a grammar exercise, a word search puzzle, and an interview activity.

Other past progressive resources: (more…)

When we were at the TESOL 2014 convention in Portland this year, we got a lot of requests for materials for pre-K, K, and the lower grade levels. Among the materials we’ll be developing is this series of low-level mazes. Introducing Maze Craze: simple, fun mazes that young learners will love!

Our designer Robyn created five lovable characters that your students will want to help feed. The object is to get the food to the animal, which they can then color. If they can’t do the mazes, they will still enjoy the coloring!

These mazes will tie in nicely to a theme on animals or food. Or just do them anytime for fun! (more…)

Today is skateboarder Tony Hawk’s birthday, so it’s a great day/week to try our Skateboarding lesson! Students will enjoy learning about this popular sport and Tony Hawk’s contributions to it.

This six-page Discovery Center lesson includes discussion questions, a short reading full of interesting facts, comprehension questions, vocabulary review (including an odd-one-out exercise and a crossword), and a word maze. There is even an optional black-and-white title page for your young learners to color. (more…)

Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, May 11, in many countries. In honor of this important day, we wrote and designed a NEW lesson on Animal Families!

In this eight-page Word Bank lesson, students will learn the names of mother, father, and baby animals of certain families such as lion, cow, chicken, deer, etc. They will practice this vocabulary through several fun, colorful activities, including a picture dictionary, matchup, word choice, word search, word scramble, and spelling bee. This lesson finishes up with discussion questions so that your students can practice using the vocab in context. These activities are suitable for individual, pair, group, or class work—the choice is yours!

The animal family pictures are also available as flashcards at the end of the lesson. For some ideas on how to use flashcards in class, check out 9 Ways to Use Cards & Flashcards in Class.

More Mother’s Day Materials:

• Mother’s Day Video Fun by Tara Benwell
• Mother’s Day Fun Facts by Tanya Trusler (more…)

The English spelling system is one of the most difficult of all the world’s languages. Our spelling of a word often doesn’t match the sound of the word. Two such sounds are “ph” words and “wh” words, such as “phone” and “whale”. Luckily, we’ve got a lesson devoted entirely to the spelling and sound of “ph” and “wh” words! Your students will be writing and pronouncing these words correctly in no time.

This 16-page phonics lesson can be broken up and done over several days so that your learners get as much practice as they need. It starts off with writing/spelling and speaking exercises and moves on to other grammar points such as Prepositions and Wh Questions about time and place. The colorful images and variety of activities mean your students won’t get bored! (more…)

How are your students feeling today? The useful “Be verb + Adjective” structure is something students usually learn early on that allows them to express feelings. Our Adjectives lesson in the Basic Grammar Structures section of the Grammar School gives students plenty of practice with this structure! (more…)

Find our updated post for 2016 here: http://bit.ly/EasterVocabLesson

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? With our lesson on the Great Pyramid, students can learn about this famous ancient wonder of the world and discuss some of the mysterious facts surrounding it.

The Great Pyramid lesson, in the Discovery Center, includes discussion questions, a short reading full of interesting facts, comprehension questions, vocabulary review (including an odd-one-out exercise and a matching exercise), and a word maze. There is even an optional black-and-white title page for your young learners to color. (more…)