Happy Monday everyone! Sometimes, I think that the whole world celebrates Mother’s Day, but Father’s Day can sometimes get a little – well looked over. Well, not this year. Here are 5 easy activities to do with your adult ESL students for Father’s Day this year.
- A Father’s Day Warm Up: Start off your Father’s Day lesson with a few warm up questions from ESL Made Easy, like: Do you celebrate Father’s Day or a similar day in your home country? What special roles do fathers play in the family in your culture? What about in the community? Compare the differences and similarities between each kind of father: a birth father, an adoptive father, a stepfather, a father-in-law, and a grandfather. In your opinion, what makes a good father?
- A Father’s Day Description with Adjectives: Have students describe their father, a father figure, or their favorite TV or movie father character to the class. This can be scaled down for beginners by having them describe their persons physical appearance, having them describe their personality in the intermediate level, or both with a story for advanced students. This could also be turned into a game, perhaps having students draw their partners fathers, or with the students submitting their descriptions anonymously and the class guessing which father belongs to which student.
- A Father’s Day Story: Complete with questions for reading comprehension. This activity is great for beginners. This can be teacher led with the teacher reading and the students practicing listening, or with the students taking turn reading the story themselves. I find that I personally like to do both in my classes, I read first, then the students read, then we see what we understood as a class. Click here for the story PDF.
- The History of Father’s Day: This is quite similar to the previous activity, but this one is better suited for intermediate to advanced students. Have students read all about the history of Father’s day on the History Channel’s website here and follow it up with some of these discussion questions about Father’s Day from The Holiday Zone here.
- A Full Father’s Day Lesson Plan: I think I saved the best for last, here is a full Father’s Day lesson plan from EL Civics. The lesson plan is designed for a two and a half hour ESL class and has everything from objectives and a warm up to application and evaluation. This is perfect for the busy teacher, the teacher who didn’t realize it was already June, or perhaps the teacher who said she was going to make a Father’s Day lesson and instead spent the weekend trying to crochet a beanie and binge watching Call the Midwife on Netflix. Alright, alright, the last one may have been a little specific.
- Bonus: Dad-Libs: Here is a bonus perfect for class – Dad ad libs! Dad-libs if you will. (See what I did there).
What’s your favorite Father’s Day activity? What did you think about these activities?? Let us know at info@literacyconnexus.org. We’d love to hear from you! As always, blessings and happy teaching.