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This is a fun activity that helps students read and pronounce words with "s blends". I would begin by showing a picture of a skunk with the class to get their interest and ask them questions to see if they know what animal it is and anything about it.

Next, I would introduce vocabulary words with "s blends" either by writing them on the board or with a worksheet. We would practice these as a class.

Finally, I would hand out the reading worksheet about skunks that included other "s blend" words. Students would read alone, in groups, or as a class (depending on skill level). I would have students highlight any "s blend" words they find.

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ESL Reading Activities - The ESL Teacher Life

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Are you looking for ESL reading activities that give your students independent reading practice and integrate all four domains?

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Begin by walking through a list of emotion words, choral chant repetition, and having pictures of emojis to help students make connections between what the word means when they see it. Then, post the pictures around the room, leaving the pile of words at the teacher's desk. One-by-one, students pick up a word, read it out loud, and find the corresponding picture, under which they place the word to demonstrate their knowledge!

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Give students a few books or magazines and a list of sight words to find. They check off each word as they find it within the books/magazines provided. This activity reinforces recognition and helps students learn to spot sight words in real contexts!

Ideally, it would be nice to have magazines so that the students can circle the words. You can also have students bookmark a page to then share with the class where they found the sight word.

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I enjoy using Arnold Lobel's humorous Frog and Toad books to teach literacy skills. The sentences are simple, but tell a story. I often used them in conjunction with teaching high frequency words where students write their own sentences based on the stories.

This is a photo of a story called The List. It would be a good activity to inspire students to create their own lists of activities they do each day, using high frequency reading and writing words that I've taught them.

A link for lists of high frequency words: https://spedsupport.tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/high-frequency-word-list.pdf

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The teacher starts by showing a picture that shows a concrete thing like a book and then asks one student to say it and one student to spell it and another student to come to the board and write it down, this way they practice recognizing sight words, saying it (pronunciation), and also spelling it.

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For this activity all you will need is a book with illustrations. The steps to completing this activity are simple:

Pre-Reading Discussion: Show the cover of the book and ask students to predict what the story might be about based on the pictures.

Reading: Read the story aloud, showing the pictures to the students. Pause to ask questions and engage students with the story.

Vocabulary Focus: Highlight key vocabulary words and use the pictures to explain their meanings.

Post-Reading Activity: Have students draw their favorite scene from the story and write a simple sentence about it.

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Students will use this activity to play charades with the sight words they have been learning. Before class begins, the teacher will need to print and cut all of the sight words and put them in a cup or bowl. Students will then play charades by acting out the sight word that they drew from the bowl!

This can be adapted with higher levels by playing fishbowl!

In fishbowl, each student will put in person, place, or thing.

Students will play in two teams trying to win.

When it is your teams turn, you draw out a noun and use words/actions to describe what the noun is.

The team who guesses the most correctly wins!

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This game is much like the original "Go Fish" card game but has a literacy twist! The cards will have the sight words on them, every sight word is on two cards (so students can make matches). Students may get into groups of 4 or 5. They will each get 5 cards, they can look to see what sight words they have. When it's someone's turn, they can ask another player if they have a certain card (for example: "John, do you have the word, am?") Whoever was asked, must answer either, "Yes" and then hand it to them, or, "No, go fish." Then the player must pick up another card. They continue this until all of the cards are matched up. When someone gets a match, they must come up with a sentence that has the word in it. (for example, "I am going to school today.")

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This is a game that I found which I think is a good activity when learning phonics. In this activity Ss are given a story/scenario/sentence. The teacher leaves out a word and then holds up two vocab cards. There is one word on each card. They should be synonyms, but one is the correct answer based on context. One example of a sentence is "Reagan went to the mountains/beach. There was lots of sand." The student must pick which word belongs.

Reference

22 Effective ESL Reading Activities | FluentU English Educator Blog

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"Get a hold of..." The wedding game- but make it ESL

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"Get a hold of..." The wedding game- but make it ESL

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Maybe you are familiar with the wedding game where guests have to play musical chairs (fun fact in German we call this game journey to Jerusalem) and when the music stops everyone has to find and grab a certain object in the room (eg. lipstick, heel, tie...). For the ESL varient of the game we are going to be using words that the Ss can find in the classroom and that they have seen and practised in class before.

There is music going to be played and when the music stops the teacher will put a sign with a word on the board.

Now each Ss has to get from their desk to one of the representatives of this object in the classroom (eg. pencil, board, desk, chair, book,...) and touch it. To simplify the game the first to be touching the object could receive a token that counts as a point. Instead of the last one loosing a spot in the game or having to carry the object back to the chair as in the original "musical chairs" version of this game.

Another variant could be each Ss having to touch somethings that starts with the letter "A" for example.

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In this activity students match images with the appropriate letter sound. This matching game would be great for children, but it can also be used for adults. This is a great way for students to practice sounding out words!

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Teaching Letter Sounds to English Learners

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Are you teaching letter sounds to English learners? If so, you know it takes repetition and practice for it become automatic. Introduce just a few letters at a time and teach the letter name, the most common sound to start, and a picture to build a connection.

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I found this Sight Word Bingo on education.com. You can also make your own version of this with the sight words you are teaching at the moment. The Bingo can be purely pen & paper, you can incorporate stickers/stamps, laminate the Bingo sheets and use them again or even make a human sized group Bingo (Bingo grid with the words on the floor, the student that finds the word first stands on the word, play until the whole group shouts "BINGO")! Whatever works best for your Students!

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Printable Sight Words Game | Worksheet | Education.com

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The simple and bright look of this sight words game will help your child on the way to being a reading super star.

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For this activity, you will need to make a worksheet with two columns. On one side, you will write singular vocab words in a list going down the page in a large font. On the other side of the page you will put pictures of each vocab word out of order. Students will have to match words to pictures by drawing a line from a word to a picture. This is a great activity for when you have gone over a list of vocabulary and are reinforcing what you have already studied.

Another game that would pair well with this is the sight word secret word game from the last discussion we did as a class. After teaching a list of words associated with pictures, then use those same pictures to create new words. This reinforces words you have already learned as well as creating new ones!

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Who doesn’t love a little competition? I like to call this activity “Sight Word Buzzer”. Almost like a Family Feud meets Jeopardy… A class can be divided into two teams. The teacher will have a stack of appropriate level sight words that they have been focusing on for the week.(This could also include those that have been previously taught and function as a great review game). One St from each team will approach the front of the class near the teacher. At the front there will be a desk with a buzzer. Each st will stand facing one another on opposite sides of the desk with the buzzer in the middle of them on the desk. Both st’s should be able to see the teacher well and be able to reach the buzzer. The teacher will flip a sight word card and the two participants must ring the bell as quickly as possible if they know the word. The st who rings it first has a chance to say the sight word. If he/she is correct, that team earns a point. If it is incorrect, the other participant has a chance to say the word for a point for their team. After both st’s have had an opportunity to guess the word(if necessary) a new pair of st’s will participate. This game can be as short or long as needed as long as you have the flashcards available. Points are kept to determine a winner at the end of the allotted time.

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I have always loved to use the tried and true methods and the crossword puzzle in no exception. Simply create a riddle to solve involving that weeks sight-words/vocabulary words and make a grid to put them in. Have students try to solve the puzzle in a set amount of time. Crossword puzzles are great for reading and writing. They make for a great literacy activity.

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I found this picture and thought it was a really creative way to teach sight words with minimal resources. I would use these "sight word eggs" at a learning station that students/students groups do with the teacher. The teacher can have harder words written on on color, easier words another. colors.

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I would do the classic match a word to a picture activity. This would be done individually by each student. This could be somethings that's done in the beginning of class as well while you're waiting for all the students to show up.

You can also use a different worksheet that has them write in the matching word instead of using a number system or line drawling system.

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Pieces of the Reading Puzzle

Taken from the above website.
"I love dollar stores and all the great materials they have that can be used in the classroom, and buying them won’t break the bank. This game uses two simple puzzles with around twenty pieces each that you can find at almost any dollar store. (If you have a large class, you might want one puzzle for each group of four or five students if you want everyone to do activity at the same time.) You’ll have to get the puzzles ready before doing this activity in class, but it’s not hard to do so. Assemble each puzzle. You will need access to the BACKS of the puzzle pieces, so either assemble it face down or plan to flip it once you have the puzzle together. Plan a short story, which you will write on the back of the puzzle – one word per piece. Do this for each puzzle using a different color marker to label each puzzle. Put the pieces for each puzzle in a separate bag, and you are ready to play. Either divide your class into teams or have individuals play. On their turn, students pull one piece for their puzzle out of the bag and read the word on the piece. If they read it correctly, they keep the piece and try to fit it into their puzzle. If they read the word incorrectly, they must put the piece back in the bag. Continue taking turns until someone’s puzzle is complete. They must then read the entire story aloud to win the game."

This could be adapted by writing sight words on the back, phonics combinations, or other letters of the alphabet to make it more of a literacy activity!

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The purpose of ESL reading comprehension games is to improve the cognitive abilities of your students. When reading, they interpret the meaning of individual words and thus learn how the sentences are formed. Besides, reading comprehension activities can also improve writing skills, as a good reader is usually a good writer as well.

In this article, we are going to talk about various fun reading activities for an ESL classroom, so both classroom and online English teachers can learn new ways to engage with their students.

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ESL Reading Comprehension Activities

ESL Reading Puzzle

For this comprehension activity, you will need two jigsaw puzzles consisting of around 20 pieces each. You will need only the backs of those puzzles to write one word of a small story per each piece. However, you can try and search for blank puzzles, or create your own puzzle - whatever suits you best. Mix up the pieces of one of the puzzles and tell the students to assemble the story and then read it aloud. Use the second puzzle as an example of the correct story.

Rhyming Riddles

Prepare a worksheet with riddles that the students should read in order to figure out the mystery word. The clues include words that rhyme with the mystery word.

Scrambled Sentences

Write or print a text or a dialogue on a paper and then cut it into strips with one sentence per strip. Ask the students to assemble the sentences into coherent text or dialogue. For this reading comprehension activity, students can work in teams and the winning team should be the first to put the sentences together. To make the task more difficult, cut out words instead of sentences.

Filling in the Gaps

Ask students to fill in the gaps in a text with a word that passes best. You can suggest the three variants of words, whereas advanced students can come up with a missing word themselves, or even fill in the entire missing sentences.

Text Related Questions

In this reading comprehension activity, the students should read the text and answer the multiple-choice or true/false questions that are related to this text. Please note that the correct option should not be very obvious.

Book Discussion

Assign your students a book that they should read at home and then discuss the chapters during the class. The difficulty level of the book should correspond with the level of your students.

Proverbs and Idioms

Study the English proverbs and idioms together with your students and encourage them to find the matching proverbs and idioms in their mother tongue. If a proverb or idiom has the same meaning in the student's mother tongue but is explained by different words, encourage this student to translate this proverb or idiom into English. This activity will go a long way with reading comprehension.

Matching Comprehension Activities

Give your students a set of book descriptions accompanied by short biographies of fictional characters with a focus on their reading tastes. The task of the students is to match the readers with the books that would fit them best. Some books have similar topics, so the students have to read all descriptions very carefully in order not to be misled. For example, a person enjoys cooking and would like to buy a cookbook, but not a fiction book about cooking. You can replace the book descriptions with music albums, concerts, job descriptions - whatever you find useful for your students - and adjust the characters' bios accordingly. You can also match the job descriptions to jobs, headings to text, or use something else for this matching reading ESL activity.

Closest Meaning

Give your students a set of sentences and ask them to identify a sentence that is closest in meaning to the "main" sentence.

Irrelevant Sentences

Give your students several texts where one sentence is irrelevant and encourage them to identify this sentence. The students can work in teams, and the winning team should identify all irrelevant sentences earlier than other teams.

Dialogue Completion

During this ESL reading comprehension activity, you should ask your students to fill in the gaps in dialogues with the most suitable phrases.

Spelling Mistakes

Advanced students can try to identify the misspelled words in ESL readings.

Text Genre Identification

During this ESL reading activity, you should give your students several texts of different genres and encourage them to guess the genre.

In addition to reading skills themselves, such classroom reading games help the learners build up the following skills:

sequencing

summarizing

comparing

drawing conclusions

solving problems

finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details

We hope that you will be actively using or are already using these ESOL reading exercises so that your students improve their reading skills.
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13 Activities To Improve ESL Reading Comprehension

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The purpose of ESL reading comprehension games is to improve the cognitive abilities of your students. When reading, they interpret the meaning of individual words and thus learn how the sentences are formed. Besides, reading comprehension activities can also improve writing skills, as a good reader is usually a good writer as well.

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Attached is a sample of a Phonics Stories PDF worksheet that you can find at Ellii.com (formerly called ESL Library). You can find more stories like this one here, including printable PDFs or digital lessons that can be taught using a screen: https://ellii.com/lessons/phonics-stories

Dan needs a tan and his gran has a plan. Why is Dan not a fan? Students practice reading and reproducing words with the /æn/ sound.

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Click here to browse Phonics lessons from Ellii.com. These are paid materials (not free). https://ellii.com/lessons/phonics

Do your students know their ABCs? Your learners will practice printing capital and lowercase letters in these illustrated lessons. Use them with literacy students, absolute beginners, or young learners. The two lessons called Capital Letters and Lowercase Letters feature duplicate material from the lessons on individual letters and are designed for easy printing or if you want to teach either in isolation.

Note: This section focuses on printing and spelling. For lessons on letter sounds visit our Pronunciation and Phonics Stories sections.

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Sample Lesson

Pre Beg

Go to this sample lesson from Phonics to get a feel for the lessons in this section. A paid subscription to Ellii gives you access to all of our 1,000+ lessons and 3,000+ flashcards.

There are no lessons that meet these criteria.

Grammar

Young Learners & Adult Literacy

Life Skills

Academic & Workplace English

Reading & Discovery

English Storylines

Buy a subscription to Ellii to access all of our lessons and flashcards for professional English teachers.

Rely on Ellii for wonderful teaching resources that help you teach a better class. Our ready-made materials are designed for teaching English to teens and adults anywhere in the world. We also have kid-friendly lessons for young learners and middle schoolers as well as lessons for literacy classrooms. We add new materials every month to always keep your classroom content fresh and current.

© 2024 Red River Press. All rights reserved.

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Ready-to-teach ESL lesson plans for teachers. Students learn to print capital and lowercase letters in Ellii's illustrated lessons.

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Here is a sample of some worksheets you can get at Ellii.com (formerly ESL Library). You can find hundreds of other helpful resources on their site for teaching basic vocabulary as well as literacy and numeracy skills for absolute beginners of all ages (including lessons geared specifically for different age groups such as children, teens, or adults). Try searching for materials in their "English Foundations" collection or materials at the "Pre Beginner" level in other collections on the site.

Want to find a super simple vocabulary lesson instead of this alphabet worksheet? Try this link, and then choose "Pre Beg" for the Level, and then the age group of your students:
https://ellii.com/collections/everyday-topics/food-dining

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In this activity, the students start off by lining up or forming a circle. The teacher will give a key sound, show the sound on a sheet of paper, and have the students go around the circle and say a word that has that sound. Every student has to say a different word. This game is a simple and fun way to get students thinking and practicing phonics!

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For this activity, draw or shown an image on the board that represents a word. Then, next to the picture, write all but one of the sounds of the word. For example, if the picture was of a cat - write "at" beside it, and then let the students guess what the missing sound is (not the letter). You could turn this activity into a competition between two teams or simply let it be a review activity for the whole class.

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In this activity the teacher will hand out a piece of paper to each student. The students will draw lines on the paper to make 4 squares. In the corner of each square the teacher will tell the students what letter to write. The teacher will give each student a stack of paper slips containing words that start with each letter in the 4 squares.  Once a word is placed in a square the student will say it out loud. This will continue until all the slips of paper are put in a square. Then the activity will end with the teacher saying each word aloud and allowing the students to tell the teacher where to place it in the 4 squares.

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Students will match the written word to the picture in order to practice reading and understanding. This can be modified later to increase complexity.

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1. Tell students to sit in a circle. This is the fruit bowl.

2. Choose one person to sit in the middle and close their eyes. This is the spoon!

3. Ask students to call out three fruits that they know. Choose the first three you hear (e.g., apples, bananas, strawberries).

4. Walk around the circle and assign each student one of these three fruits. Tap your students' shoulders as you assign each one a fruit.

5. Now, tell the person in the middle (the spoon) to open their eyes. The spoon will shout one of the fruits (apple, banana, or strawberry) and stand up.*

6. Anyone who was assigned the fruit that was called out must also stand up. Now all of the standing students must run clockwise around the circle and try to find an empty spot in the fruit bowl. (The spoon will run to the outside of the circle and also try to find a vacant spot.) The last person standing goes in the middle and becomes the spoon.

7. Begin again with three different fruits (or repeat the same ones if your students need more practice).

*When students are ready, add a spin-off rule. The teacher (or spoon) can sometimes shout out "Fruit Salad!" Then everyone in the bowl has to get up and switch places, and the spoon has to find a spot too. Remind students that everyone must move clockwise in order to avoid collisions! If you're worried about kids running into each other, make a different action, such as everyone stands up and does three jumping jacks when "fruit salad" is called.

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Topic: “The names of the colors”

Activity: Find the words by writing the missing letters.

*These activity you could do also with different topics/words you have learned with your students.

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This website is filled with great resources for literacy and numeracy classes!

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The following is a list of FREE websites that can help you supplement or even plan your lessons - whether you're working with an ABE (Adult Basic Education) student or an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) student.

English Language Literacy

Homonyms picture chart - a chart of homonyms with their definitions and pictures representing each word

Phrasal verbs picture chart - a chart of informal verbs in English with pictures and definitions

www.lyricstraining.com/ - listen to songs in English and fill in the blanks, practice typing and listening skills

www.fluentland.com/ - Provides English lessons, forums, games, customize to different levels

en.islcollective.com/worksheets - Printable ESOL worksheets for multiple levels.

www.americaslibrary.gov -American history site by the Library of Congress. Includes games, activities and a reading list.

www.businessenglishsite.com/business-english-other-tests.html - Business English vocabulary and lessons for high-level ESOL students.

www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/ - Online lessons and worksheets to compliment Cambridge University Press's Ventures curricula.

www.dailyesl.com - Conversation starters and English speaking practice ideas.

www.eastsideliteracy.org/tutorsupport/ESL/ESLTalkTimeTopics.htm - Conversation starters and English language skill topics.

www.esl.about.com - Sign up for the weekly newsletter for ESOL tips and tricks.

www.eslbrains.com/ - Focuses on business English, but includes other subjects as well. Features video lessons and worksheets for expanded learning and comprehension.

www.eslcafe.com - Lesson plans, pronunciation guides, worksheets, and ESOL quizzes.

www.eslflow.com/Picturelessonsandteachingideas.html - Picture-based lesson plans and worksheets.

www.eslgold.com - Audio and animations focusing on pronunciation, vocabulary, and writing.

www.englishwithjennifer.com - Lesson plan tips and tricks, along with videos for English pronunciation, idioms, and conversation skills.

www.englishcentral.com - Watch and learn English pronunciation through listening and speaking activities. Includes quizzes.

www.engvid.com -Video recordings of ESOL lessons focusing on pronunciation, vocabulary, and conversation skills.

www.manythings.org - Interactive site with word games, worksheets, and ESOL vocabulary lessons.

www.teaching-esl-to-adults.com/best-esl-lesson-plans.html - ESOL lesson plans, worksheets, and information on TESOL certification.

www.tolearnenglish.com/cgi2/myexam/index.php - Searchable multi-lesson activities and lessons with video and audio recordings.

www.usalearns.org - Interactive site with quizzes, lessons, and a weekly newsletter.

www.usingenglish.com/teachers/lesson-plans/level-advanced.html - Advanced topics and worksheets for high-level ESOL students

https://simplyenglishnews.wordpress.com/- Use the news to teach English

https://engoo.com/app/daily-news - Use the news to teach English

https://custom-writing.org/blog/esl-resources-for-students - Compilation of ESL resources

https://allesl.com - Assorted free ESL resources (games, conversation topics, worksheets, etc.)

https://pronuncian.com/minimal-pairs - English Pronunciation Minimal Pairs Practice

Friends World | ESL Resource - 23 short stories translated into Spanish, Hindi, Chinese and Vietnamese

Computer Skills and Work Skills

Test Prep - Citizenship, GED

Learning Differences

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In this activity, the student rolls a dice. Each number on the dice corresponds to a sight word on a pre-made chart. The student reads that particular word aloud and records it on his or her chart. For example, rolling a two might mean the student will read and write the word 'walk.'

This activity is ideal for ESL students because it uses repetition to teach sight words. The more exposure students have to these words, the more they are building their vocabulary and improving their reading fluency.

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This activity can be a nice way to engage the class individually in a warm up activity and have them practise sight words. There are many worksheet resources available online, and at varying levels so teachers can access these materials easily.

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Have a bit of fun while reinforcing sight words. Quick, low prep sight word activity to help improve fluency of these common sight words. Many of them are rule breaker words that are particularly hard for new readers!  Print the gameboards, word tiles, and grab markers like candy, buttons, or pompoms. Simply print pdf file with sight word bingo printable and you are ready for a fun sight words activity.

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Early readers benefit from lots of practice reading common sight words. This Sight Word Bingo Free Printable is a fun way for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and first graders to have fun practicing sight words! There are two levels in this . Just print the gameboards, word tiles, and grab markers like candy, buttons, or pompoms. Simply print pdf file with sight word bingo printable and you are ready for a fun sight words activity.

Sight Word Bingo

As my preschoolers, kindergartners, and grade 1 students were learning to read, I found that they benefited from some extra practice with sight word games. This sight word bingo free printable is a quick, low prep sight word activity to help improve fluency of these common dolch sight words. Many of them are rule breaker words that are particularly hard for new readers! I used this free printable sight word bingo resource when my son was in 1st grade as it "went along" with our Language Arts pacing really well. But this could easily be used with a wide range of kids 4-8 years. So I wanted to share this resource with you too!

Sight word bingo free printable

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The sight words activity pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.

Sight word bingo printable

There are 2 sets to choose from in the sight word bingo printable pdf. Each set includes calling cards and five sight words bingo free printable mats. Print the pages in color and laminate for extra durability if you like.

We use these with a variety of game pieces such as pom poms, buttons, unifex cubes, lego pieces, candy, erasers, and more. Choose whatever you have on hand.

Free sight word bingo printable pdf

There are 5 different mats for each sight words bingo printable level (each set contains 25 commonly used sight words). You can trade off so that your child becomes confident finding the words and reading the words. My son & I had lots of fun playing this game together. It made a HUGE difference in his readying & writing!

Sight word bingo game

The sight word bingo printable pdf includes the following words:

LEVEL 1 - my, go, you , is, was, why, I, no, at, come, by look, one, as, do, see, or to, his, the, for, said, a, of

LEVEL 2 - would, some, are, from, our, many, they, buy, two, very, that, about, this, why, once, your, what, been, love, three, all, any, when, she

Sight Word Printables

Looking for more sight word games, activities, and worksheets to make practicing fun? Try these ideas:

First Grade Printables

If you have a 1st grader and you are looking for more fun, hands on grade 1 worksheets, games and activities to make learning fun - you will love these resources!

Grade 1 Printables

Sight words bingo
By using the printable below you agree to the following:

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Early readers benefit from lots of practice reading common sight words. This Sight Word Bingo Free Printable is a fun way for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and first graders to have fun practicing sight words! There are two levels in this .

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This is a very easy and simple activity that works perfectly for the more beginner students or children. I like this activity because you almost don´t need any materials, just some paper and pens and a bit of creativity. Write different words on small pieces of paper. You can write any word you can think of, you don´t need to have an order or logic in your words. Have the student pick out a word that starts with the letter of their name. For example a student named Tim, choses the word table to begin with. Then the student picks out the next word, this word has to start with the last letter of the previous word. So after table, Tim choses the word egg. After egg he choses giraffe. Like that, the student creates a line of differents words until there are no more words left over for the letter they need.

When the student finishes making the line of words, it is time to start comparing the letters so students can see the difference in pronunciation. For example, the E in table is pronounced differently than the E in egg. And the G in egg is pronounced differently than the G in giraffe. This helps students recognize a pattern and get familiar with the different pronunciations.

To make this activity work, you need at least three different words for each letter of the alphabet. Try to not have the same ending letter in two many words, because you will run out of words more quickly. For children, you can also print a picture of the word. This activity can also help students to practice and learn new vocabulary at the same time. Adapt it however you need and most of all, have fun!

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Literacy Game:  Flyswatter Game to review words

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Literacy Game:  Flyswatter Game to review words

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Flyswatter is a fun ESL vocabulary game for students that makes an excellent way to review sight words or as a warm-up at the beginning of the next class.

The teacher writes the target words on the board in a random fashion. You can use 10-20 words depending on the age and level of students. Divide the class into two teams and provide each team with a fly swatter. One student from each team comes to the front of the room facing the class, with their back to the board and the fly swatter in their hand.

After the teacher calls aloud a word from the list on the board, the players have to turn around and swat the word that has been said with the flyswatter.  All other students need to be SILENT. If two students go for a word at the same time, the one on the bottom of the flyswatter stack gets the point. If a student makes an incorrect choice, he/she does NOT get a point (no second chances).  The student who correctly swats the word then must read his word aloud before receiving the point.

Then another player from EACH team comes forward with their back to the board, waiting to hear the word they are to find and swat  The teacher may need to change the location of some of the words from time, to make the game more fun, since students will soon know where words are located.

Variation #1: Instead of being SILENT, the other class members can call out directions STRAIGHT, UP, DOWN, RIGHT and LEFT- to help players quickly find the word.  This gets the whole class involved.

Variation #2:  Instead of only using sight words, the game can be used to review vocabulary of a previous lesson or story OR the words could all relate to a specific topic of previously learned vocabulary like clothing, food, weather, calendar, etc.

This game is good because it uses listening, recognizing/reading words and speaking the words, all in one activity.

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In this literacy game, students are given a topic, such as "breakfast." They may select from a wide variety of pictures of food, or circle food items in grocery store flyers that they would use to make breakfast, for example. They can be given a "shopping list" that is filled out with some items that the teacher writes. They could also fill out their own shopping list, by copying from the flyer the names of things that they would like to buy. The students can then practice figuring out how much their list would cost to buy. This is a good way to learn the names of food, recognize brand names (icons help), as well as a very transferable skill, when it is time to shop. The above image is based on groceries from Melbourne. I couldn't resist. -Tara

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Ss can put word puzzles together to practice recognizing, spelling, and reading words to help with literacy.
Puzzles can be purchased or made by printing vocabulary words with pictures, then cutting the word so each letter and part of the word picture is separate from the others.
Ss can be in a class group and say the correct letters and words they make together while the teacher shows the puzzle word and picture being made, Ss can be in pairs and work on making the word and picture puzzles correctly with their partner, or Ss can do this activity individually as a Do Now activity in the first few minutes of class.
As each word puzzle is correctly made, Ss learn using both a meaning based approach to learning (seeing and matching the whole picture and sight word, especially if the puzzle is whole before the Ss take it apart and remake it) AND a parts-to-whole approach ( especially if the puzzles are in parts, possibly mixed with pieces from other puzzles and Ss use one letter at a time to spell each word).

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Using a Phonics Curriculum: "Phonics For Adults: Adult Phonics Reading Program" by Christopher Hintsala

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Using a Phonics Curriculum: "Phonics For Adults: Adult Phonics Reading Program" by Christopher Hintsala

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Remember to provide students with opportunities to practice learning sight words and looking at full sentences. At the same time, it is useful to give students helpful tools, like phonics, to sound words out on their own. However, for students with limited knowledge of literacy in any language, this can seem pretty arbitrary and abstract. As each sound is identified, it should be put into a word, and that word should be put into a sentence as soon as possible. This is a way to incorporate both of the "Part-to-Whole" and "Meaning-Based" approaches.

There are a number of published textbooks that provide systematic introduction, practice, and recognition of the sounds of English. If you've never taught phonics before, then purchasing a book will give you a clear guide to follow with your students.

Here is an example of a step-by-step curriculum that teaches phonics:

Course book — Phonics For Adults: Adult Phonics Reading Program by Christopher Hintsala

Video Playlist — This course book also comes with its own YouTube playlist, which means that you can have your students study this curriculum on their own as homework, or as a self-guided "learning station" in your classroom.

Watch this video for a sample from Christopher's phonics curriculum.

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Adult Phonics Level 1 lesson 1 ABC Alphabet Sounds and Words | Homeschool Phonics Curriculum

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Reading Resource: "Changing Lanes" — Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre

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Reading Resource: "Changing Lanes" — Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre

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This series of reading resources includes 7 stories for adult ESL literacy learners.

Changing Lanes is a seven-book reading series for adult ESL literacy learners and can also be used in a low-level ESL classroom as a supplementary reading and writing resource. Changing Lanes was developed to address the need for relevant adult ESL literacy resources for both newcomers and instructors living in Halifax. The stories are about and for new immigrants who are still adjusting to a new life in Canada.

Each book deals with one or more life skills (Examples: dressing for winter, eating well, taking a bus, etc.). Each of the books are divided into two components: reading material and learning activities. Stories are authentic and personal. They are repetitive in structure with high-frequency vocabulary. The learning activities are designed to provide speaking, writing, and reading comprehension practice. The teacher can introduce the chapter with a set of activities where new vocabulary is presented (see the end of each story for a set of worksheets). As part of the introduction, students may be asked to fill in the missing letters and copy the words to practice their writing skills. The post-reading set of activities is designed to check comprehension and to make the story personally relevant for the learners.

See a sample of one of the stories below, or explore these links for more:

Click here to view our digital folder with additional stories from this series.

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Reading Series for Refugees 2 - Changing Lanes

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Reading Resource: "ESL Literacy Readers" — Bow Valley College

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Reading Resource: "ESL Literacy Readers" — Bow Valley College

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This series of reading resources includes 40 stories for adult ESL literacy learners.

Great strides have been made over recent years in the field of ESL literacy: practitioners are currently better able to identify literacy learners and to understand and address their learning needs than ever before. However, the lack of resources suitable for the ESL literacy classroom continues to be a challenge for instructors. Literacy instructors have — almost without exception — had to create their own materials or modify available materials significantly to suit the needs of their learners. Stories written for mainstream ESL learners are usually inappropriate for literacy learners due to a myriad of factors, such as inappropriate font, pages that are too cluttered, and minimal whitespace. Materials written for adult (non-ESL) literacy learners usually contain unfamiliar sentence structures and vocabulary that is quite different from what works for literacy learners, for whom vocabulary-building must also be emphasized along with the acquisition of literacy skills. Finally, children’s literature can sometimes be used, but often the vocabulary, sentence structures, and subject matter are inappropriate for adults.

The stories in the Bow Valley College collection have been written specifically with adult ESL literacy learners and their needs in mind. Vocabulary, sentence structure, and font size were important considerations. The themes were carefully chosen to be both of high interest to learners and, more importantly, of relevance to their lives. Every effort was made to ensure the stories would authentically represent learners themselves. The events and issues that a typical learner may experience provide the themes and most of the photographs that accompany the stories are not stock photos, but photos of real learners at Bow Valley College.

See a sample of one of the stories below, or explore these links for more:

Click here to view our digital folder with additional stories from this series.

Click here to read a short guide that includes tips for using this series in your classes and additional extension activity ideas.

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Reading Series for Refugees 1 - ESL Literacy Readers

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Sight Word Centers - SAMPLER - by Lavinia Pop.pdf

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Ready-to-use Literacy Activities that you can facilitate in a learning station format.

Here are a few simple activities that are organized into separate stations—or "centers" as they are called here. Each of the centers in this document includes a cover page, followed by a set of directions, and reproducible worksheets that you can copy for your students. These samples were created by Lavinia Pop. Click here if you'd like to purchase more of her materials for teaching sight words, phonics, and other topics.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files.

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Sight Word Centers - SAMPLER - by Lavinia Pop.pdf

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Here is another fun alternative to having students trace letters: Give them empty boxes to fill instead! This can be a fun way for your students to practice writing sight words—and even their own name. This activity also pairs well with a simple "Unjumble" activity where the students are given slips of paper with letters on them (or flashcards, Bananagrams pieces, Scrabble pieces, etc.), and then they need to rearrange the letters in the correct order.

If you want your students to practice writing their name, take their photo (with their permission of course) and then insert it on one of the slides in the Google Slides document below. Then print and laminate the page. Now have your students practice filling in the empty boxes every day until they can do it effortlessly. For an additional activity, tape a Ziplock bag or an envelope to the back of this laminated page, and add slips of paper for each letter in that student's name. The student can do both of these activities at the same time.

About this resource: Here are some free worksheets that you can use to get your students to practice writing single words, using the ideas that we've described above. You can customize these resources by adding photos that are personalized to your students and whatever sight words they are learning in class. To make these resources reusable, you may want to consider laminating them and then having your students complete these activities using erasable markers instead of pens or pencils.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files. (To make your own editable copy of this document, click the link to open the master file in Google Slides, then click "File" and "Make a copy.")

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"Word Boxes" Literacy Activity - GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION

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"Tracing Letters and Numbers" Literacy Activity

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"Tracing Letters and Numbers" Literacy Activity

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Now that we've had a little break to stretch and talk about the calendar, we can return to practicing our alphabet and numbers. However, instead of simply recognizing the different letters and numbers as we did with the flashcards earlier, now we are going to practice tracing them. Worksheets like the kinds you will find below are some of the most popular ways to practice writing individual letters and numbers, gradually building towards sight words and eventually simple sentences. Many of these worksheets will include light-gray letters that the students can trace (write over the top of the letters), and then extra spaces where they can practice writing the letters on their own. And the same resources can be used for practicing numbers as well.

Need a break from worksheets? You can also substitute one of these worksheet activities with a more creative, tactile, or kinesthetic activity instead. For example, you can have your students paint their letters, form their letters out of Play-doh, create the letters with their bodies (have two students lay on the ground to form a "T"), or you can facilitate a relay race (have several teams race to the whiteboard where they must draw a random flashcard from a pile and then write the letter or sight word on the board). What are some other creative activities that you can think of?

Other recommended resources: You can also purchase complete workbooks (carefully sequenced collections of worksheets) for your classroom at a bookstore, Walmart, Amazon, etc. Many of these workbooks are reproducible, which means you can buy one book and then make multiple copies of it. Here are a few examples of workbooks that you can purchase, or that you can use as inspiration when you are creating your own worksheets using the Google Slides document below:

Learning to use a Pencil — My First Book of Pencil Control: Practice Pattern Writing

Writing the Alphabet — Trace the Letters of the Alphabet: On the Go

Writing Sight Words — Carson Dellosa Trace With Me: Sight Words

About this resource: Here are some free worksheets that you can use for writing the alphabet and numbers. You can customize these resources by adding personalized extension activities for your students that include photos, sight words, and even sentences. To make these resources reusable, you may want to consider laminating them and then having your students complete these activities using erasable markers instead of pens or pencils.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files. (To make your own editable copy of this document, click the link to open the master file in Google Slides, then click "File" and "Make a copy.")

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"Tracing Letters and Numbers" Literacy Activity - GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION

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To help students relax, we like to do a "Stretches" TPR-style activity that helps students practice some basic vocabulary at the same time. You can have students lead the rest of the class in this simple and fun activity. Do this activity whenever you need a little energy boost, or if you want to lower your students' affective filters. You can make this a pre-scheduled activity that happens at the same time every day ("Alright, we're done with the Calendar, what's next? Stretches! That's right."). Or you can save this activity for specific moments when it looks like your students need to take a break from their other learning activities ("Let's take a break... who would like to lead us in some stretches?").

This activity can be an effective way to practice vocabulary such as directions ("left, right, up, down, around..."), body parts ("turn your head to the left, raise your hands in the air..."), and common instructions in the classroom ("stand up, sit down..."). However, don't feel like you need to turn this activity into a teachable moment about English vocabulary. Taking a quick break simply to relax our brains and move our bodies is worthwhile all on its own! You may also find that your students are more refreshed after a 2-minute stretching exercise than they are after a regular 10-minute break. This kind of activity is much more effective if students move slowly while taking slow, deep, deliberate breaths, and you might want to model this kind of moving and breathing to normalize it and so your students will get the most out of this time.

Here is a suggestion for a few stretches that are easy to do and that use simple vocabulary (you can easily customize these if you wish, and you can even let your students create their own if they get bored of doing these). Before you begin, you can have a student stand up and lead the rest of the class by modeling each motion and saying the following instructions out loud:

"Stand up." — Everyone stands up and pushes in their chairs.

"Take a deep breath." — To fully relax, take a deep breath in, hold it for a moment, and then slowly breathe out.

"Look left." — Stretch your neck to the side and hold it for a few seconds. You can model this movement by placing a finger on your right cheek.

"Look right." — You can model this by placing a finger on your left cheek.

"Look around." — Slowly roll your head around in a circle a few times to continue stretching your neck.

"Hands in the air." — Slowly reach your hands up toward the ceiling and hold that position. You can also "wiggle your fingers" if you like.

"Touch the ground." — Slowly reach your hands down toward the ground and hold that position.

"Turn around." — Slowly turn around in a circle. Some students will find this silly and fun, but you can skip it if your students feel like it's too childish.

"Smile." — Take a moment to smile or even laugh together. You can model this by pointing to your mouth. You can also add another deep breath here.

"Sit down." — Everyone sits back down in their chairs.

About this resource: Here are some free printable resources that you can use as a visual aid when facilitating this activity. You can customize these resources by adding different photos and using different fonts and colors (for an extra stylish version of this resource for adults, we like to fill the small text boxes with a black background and use a nice font). After printing these resources you can hang them on your wall where your students can see them and where they can be pointed to as a visual aid if needed.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files. (To make your own editable copy of this document, click the link to open the master file in Google Slides, then click "File" and "Make a copy.")

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"Stretches" Literacy Activity - GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION

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After the first 10 or 15 minutes (hopefully after everyone has arrived to class), we ask one of the students to come up to the whiteboard to lead the rest of the class in a "Calendar" oral presentation activity. This helps students practice basic reading skills, oral presentation skills, verb tenses ("Yesterday was... Today is... Tomorrow will be..."), as well as reading and writing dates—a skill that is crucial for filling out important paperwork when refugees are initially resettled. This also gives you a good moment to make a few announcements and discuss any important dates for upcoming classes, field trips, etc.

Calendar activities like this one can also be a great moment to discuss other topics in class, such as the weather ("It is sunny / cloudy / windy / raining / snowing / hot / cold outside."); the temperature ("It is 20 degrees outside."); and clothing ("Today, the temperature is cold... What clothes do we wear when it is cold?"). Your students can practice speaking about these topics using very basic sentences, and the vocabulary changes somewhat from day to day, which makes this such a good companion to the calendar activity. If your students have recently arrived from another part of the world and they are unfamiliar with your local weather, then this also gives you a chance to help them assimilate and make sure that their basic needs are taken care of (such as adequate clothing, heating, and so on).

About this resource: Here are some free calendar resources that you can use for practicing the date, days of the week, months, and year, as described above. You can customize these resources by adding photos and using different fonts and colors (for an inexpensive yet nice-looking option, we like to print our materials using black ink on colorful paper). If you are printing your own resources, you may want to consider laminating them or using cardstock paper to help them last longer. You can also purchase an inexpensive calendar for your classroom at a bookstore, Walmart, Amazon, etc.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files. (To make your own editable copy of this document, click the link to open the master file in Google Slides, then click "File" and "Make a copy.")

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"Calendar" Literacy Activity - GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION

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As students begin to arrive at class, we like to do a "Do Now" activity by having them practice sorting alphabet flashcards (A, B, C...) and number flashcards (1, 2, 3...) in the correct order at their table. This is a good activity for beginners because they are only working on recognizing the letters and numbers (they don't need to write them, or speak them in a sentence, and so on). If you have classroom assistants, then you can have them sit beside students to help them say the names of these letters and numbers while they complete the activity, and they can also help them practice the sounds associated with each letter using phonics techniques ("What sound does P make? ... Puh, good job!"). To keep your students from getting bored of drilling these letters and their sounds, connect the sounds that the letters make to words, and use those words in sentences, as soon as possible ("What word starts with P? Pao!  Yes. Repeat after me, 'My name is Pao'... Very Good!"). This activity functions as a simple Warm Up for students who already know their alphabet and numbers but who could use the additional practice. If you have brand-new students in your class, you may need to introduce them to the alphabet and numbers in English before they can confidently do this activity on their own. Instead of using flashcards for this activity, you can also use Bananagrams pieces, Scrabble pieces, and Alphabet Puzzles to practice the alphabet.

You can prepare a few extension activities in case you have some students who finish early. If you have higher-level students in your class, then you can substitute this basic flashcard activity with something more challenging instead, such as completing a fun worksheet or playing a higher-level flashcard game (Example: playing the "Memory" game using Sight Words like a, at, and, are, away). You can also give students a cup of coins (and/or paper money) and then have them draw a random flashcard with a number or price on it, and then have them practice counting out the correct amount of money in English. Before you can do this activity, you may need to introduce the students to money-related vocabulary ("cents, dollars, penny, dime, quarter, etc."), but this will provide a meaningful way to practice these numbers and it will also help your students feel more comfortable shopping for groceries for their families. Similarly, you can give your students flashcards with random times written on them and have them practice time-related vocabulary ("twelve o'clock, one-o-five, two thirty, etc."). In addition to these activities, we might also do other Warm Up or Icebreaker activities in our classes, especially if there are any new students or classroom assistants in the room.

About "Do Now" activities: Also commonly known as "Bell Ringer" activities, these are a type of self-paced Warm Up activity that students start by themselves right when they show up to class. These activities are often something simple and familiar that get the students actively practicing their language skills right away. Since many literacy students are mothers, and many of those moms are also refugees or other types of newcomers to your community, it can be quite common for some of them to arrive 5 or 10 minutes late. "Do Now" activities can help solve this issue by getting everyone quietly working on a self-directed activity as soon as they show up to class, no matter what time that is. This will maximize those first few minutes of class and it will also give you, as the teacher, some extra moments to take attendance, organize resources, greet new students, or work with a student one-on-one. What are some other activities you can do at the start of every class?

About this resource: Here are some free flashcards that you can use for practicing the alphabet and numbers as described above. You can customize these resources by adding photos and using different fonts and colors (for an inexpensive yet nice-looking option, we like to print our materials using black ink on colorful paper). If you are printing your own resources, you may want to consider laminating them or using cardstock paper to help them last longer. You can also purchase an inexpensive set of flashcards at a bookstore, Walmart, Amazon, etc.

Click here to view, print, or make a copy of this document for your files. (To make your own editable copy of this document, click the link to open the master file in Google Slides, then click "File" and "Make a copy.")

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"Flashcards" Literacy Activity - GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION