During the first few days of school, everything looks neat and tidy at home and at school. Items are labeled and drawers are organized. Everything has a place! But how do you keep things this way in the upcoming weeks and months?
Start the year off right with Sprout English’s Lost and Found Challenge! (more…)
Going back to school can be a fun, exciting time for kids. But it can also be a bit intimidating, especially if they’re going to a new school. This is often doubly true for students who are learning a new language! Put your English language learners at ease with an icebreaker activity so they can get to know their classmates. Doing an interview such as the one below will allow them to talk to a new classmate one-on-one, which is usually less intimidating. Later on, they can introduce that classmate to the rest of the class—that way, they will get to know all their classmates, and it’s also much easier to talk about someone else than it is to talk about yourself. Make sure you tell your students your own answers to these questions so they can get to know you, too!
We’ve prepared two printable worksheets (an American spelling version and British spelling version) so that teachers around the world can use this interview without having to make any changes.
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“Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” —Bill Gates
This year you may have set a goal to use technology with your young learners, but you aren’t sure where to begin. Integrating technology with young learners can be tricky. Many digital tools and apps require learners to be 13 and above or have questionable material. Additionally, you have to get the children’s parents to be okay with you publishing their voices, images, and digital creations. This may seem overwhelming, but no need to worry. The checklist below will help you successfully integrate technology in your young learner classes. (more…)
The present perfect is a very common verb tense in English, but it can be confusing for students to learn because it has two main uses that are quite different from one another. Adding to the challenge is the present perfect’s similarity to the simple past and the present perfect progressive. In my experience, most textbooks teach the two main uses separately, and some students never realize that this verb tense can do two different things.
Also, most textbooks don’t include an exercise that combines the present perfect and the simple past. It’s easy enough to produce have + past participle over and over in a written or spoken exercise—the real challenge lies in recognizing the difference between the present perfect and the simple past and being able to produce the correct tense.
Below is a grammar explanation that highlights the two main uses of the present perfect. The simple past and present perfect progressive are also discussed, and a worksheet comparing the present perfect and simple past is available on page 3 of the handout. We hope this handout helps your students understand and use this common tense! (more…)
Have you noticed a pattern on Sprout English’s blog? Each week we focus on a certain theme. The theme may be topic-focused (e.g., Animals) or language-focused (e.g., Simple Present Tense). Sprout English’s theme this week is the Simple Future (using “going to”). We’re featuring a reading lesson from the Library as well as related activities and tips about teaching and reviewing “going to” with your kids or students.
Are you going to help your young learners set some back-to-school goals? September is a month for new beginnings. Your kids are going to make new friends, join new clubs, experiment with new styles, and hopefully even try new foods!
The best way to practice grammar is to use it in a natural scenario. Here is a simple worksheet that you can print out and use with your kids to spark a conversation about goal-setting. (more…)
English students of all ages love learning slang and abbreviations! Language learners always want to know the current, modern way of speaking and writing. This week our Spotlight lesson is The Test – Simple Future Reading, which involves a phone conversation between two students, so I thought I’d extend the lesson from talking on the phone to a very common communication method nowadays: texting! One of the most popular activities I’ve done with my students (of all ages, at one time or another) was to go over and practice using text message abbreviations and acronyms.
Hand out this free, printable list of text message abbreviations and go over them with your students, and then practice by having students text or write out messages back and forth with a partner. (more…)
This week’s theme on Sprout English is Travel! We’re featuring a fun Listen and Draw Activity about Hotels from the Project Depot. You’ll also find a free Travel Vocabulary worksheet and game. Kids love talking about places they’ve been, and traveling is a great way for students to use the language they’ve learned outside of the classroom. Encourage your students to share their travel memories in class with this printable Show and Share Passport. A travel memory doesn’t have to be a vacation to Disneyland. A trip to the zoo, the beach, or Grandma’s house can be a travel memory. Grab yourself a teacher’s stamp to make this even more fun for the kids!
This week’s Spotlight lesson is a Listen and Draw / Read and Draw activity on Hotels, which may naturally lead to a discussion on travel. Travel is a popular topic with students—they love to discuss where they’ve been and where they would like to go next! Expand their travel vocabulary with one of my favorite go-to games that makes learning vocabulary fun. A little competition is great for engaging beginner/low-intermediate or high-intermediate/advanced students and it also helps them remember the new words!
Use the green links below the vocabulary lists to download one or both of the PDFs. The instructions for playing are also below the lists! (more…)
In the Spotlight this week, Sprout English is featuring “there is / there are,” an important structure for practicing subject-verb agreement as well as prepositions of place. We have a NEW ready-made lesson plan for introducing this structure as well as a handy practice worksheet for more advanced learners. Here is a pair activity to try with your students after you use the lesson plan. In addition to practicing the target language, this activity gives students a chance to draw, speak, ask questions, and write.
Print one copy of this worksheet for each student.
1. Choose a Room or Space
Have students choose one room of their house and write it on the blank line (page 1).
2. Draw a Picture (more…)
We all know that when a series of subject nouns are joined by a conjunction, a plural verb is needed. Take this example: Fruit, grains, and vegetables are good for your health. It’s your basic subject-verb agreement. But when we start a sentence with the very common indefinite subject there followed by a series of nouns (e.g., one man and two women), the normal rules go out the window. Should we use there is or there are? Not all style guides and grammarians agree, so what’s best to teach our students?
In honor of Sprout English’s new grammar lesson on There Is / There Are, I decided to create a worksheet for teachers and students who want to elaborate on the two basic rules (there is + singular or uncountable noun and there are + plural noun) by looking at what happens to the verb when it’s followed by nouns in a series. Use this explanation and worksheet to challenge more advanced students, or have it as a follow-up in case any of your students ask about nouns in a series.
Examples: (more…)
