small groups | ESL Lesson Plans

Everyone has their favorite activities in the ESL classroom (hangman, a game, perhaps a toy doll), but we have found that we reach for one toy over and over for many different ages and purposes: the ABC foam blocks. These are the kind that we use:

Chenille Kraft WonderFoam Learning Blocks, available on Amazon.com

These blocks can be used from ages 1-10 (and probably older!). Here are a few ways to incorporate these activities into your lesson:

Very Young Learners:

Name the colors
Count the blocks
Build a tower (4 blocks per student) and then make them count to 5 before knocking it down
Do different actions with your blocks: put them on your shoulder, on your hand, on your foot, on your leg, on your tummy, on your head. Count to three and then tip your head so that the block falls on the floor (a big hit!).
Read the numbers
Race to the end of a room to get a specific color out of the pile of blocks (great for when your students are so hyper that your lesson plan is sinking!)

Young primary students:

Group the colors, numbers, letters, etc.
Identify the pictures (show them quickly so it’s not so easy!)
Guess the color (number, etc.) with your eyes closed
Build a big tower, letting each student add one block, until it falls down. The student to place the last block is out!
Play hangman with the pictures on the block.

Older primary students:

Write one of the words on the blackboard from the blocks and have the group give the student that is “it” hints to guess the word. Obviously, the student that is “it” can’t look at the blackboard and the group can’t say the word on the blackboard.
Hide the blocks around the room and have them write prepositional statements about where they find the blocks (“The block is between the book and the pen.”)
Use them as conversation starters (“This block has a penguin. Penguins are animals that live in cold terrain. They eat…”)
Play “I’m going to Grandmother’s house and I’m taking,” and the block that they pull out of the bag is the letter that they have to use.

As you can see, if we could only invest in one teaching toy, it would definitely be this one! What’s your favorite teaching toy? Leave us a comment and let us know!

If you have the benefit of a language assistant in your classroom, working in small groups can be a great alternative to traditional teaching methods! It can also help get your students excited about language learning at any age! This post will give you some tips on how to organize small groups in the classroom setting.

One of the most important parts of working in small groups is to be organized and plan ahead. It’s great to say “We’re going to work in small groups!”, but how will you break students into groups? Will the groups stay in the classroom or go to another appropriate learning environment? How will you keep track of what group’s “turn” it is for small groups? How will you deal with students who do not adapt well to the small groups environment?

These are all questions that you will need to consider when you are contemplating using small groups in your classroom. Try to have a defined idea of what exactly you will be doing and what you want to gain from small group work so that you can answer these questions as best as possible!

One of the most daunting tasks of small group work is forming the different groups with new students, whose abilities you may not know very well at the beginning of the class. We’ve had great experience with using a short English / Science (which is given in English at our school) test on the first 2-3 days of school to place students into groups.

The idea is that the short test should build on things that students have been exposed to, perhaps in previous levels (or in their lives, their preschools, etc.), and preview what they will see during the year. We usually show students ten pictures and ask them a question, thus the test has ten points. We group students by how many points they have (the first group has the students who have scored least amount of points, and so on). This is a good system because it allows you to tailor the activities to the students’ needs and levels, but it’s also nice to mix up the levels if you find that works better for your class. That way, your more advanced students can help those who need a bit more encouragement.

(Note: We also allow ourselves the freedom to change students around in case the test was not an accurate measurement of a student’s ability. Sometimes they are nervous and are actually quite better than what the test shows, in which case they would move up a group.)

The entire test should take about 1-2 minutes to complete. It’s helpful to ask students “What is your name?” and “How are you?” before beginning to help them break into English. You can explain that you are going to show them pictures and ask them questions. We’ve found that using a soothing tone of voice and smiling helps shy learners!

Here are ten pictures and questions that you can use to organize your small group! (All of these are geared towards ESL / EFL young learners, ages 4-6).

1. Is this a boy or a girl?

2. What color is this?

3. What do you see?

4. What is he wearing?

5. Does he like fish?

6. What is she doing?

7. Who is this? (point to Mommy)

8. Where is the fish?

9. How is he feeling?

10. What’s the weather like?

So now that you’ve got your groups, be sure that you explain to them how small groups will work. That way, you can avoid twenty-something students screaming “What group is today?!” when you walk into the classroom.

It’s helpful to hang a small poster in the classroom with the group names (you can even get them to vote on their favorite names!) and the students in each group. You can put a bit of velcro on each group and move an arrow or other cute symbol around each group so that the students can tell what students go next in small groups! This will help things move a bit faster at the beginning of class as well.

Small groups can be a great way for students to get more individualized attention in the language-learning classroom, and these tips will help you organize great groups from the start! What have you found to be the most effective small group tactic? Leave us a comment!

ESL Lesson Plans

Plans and Projects of an ESL teacher living in Madrid

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