Hello December! December Activity Ideas for Adult ESL Students

Hello and Happy December from Literacy Connexus everyone! We hope that this blog post finds you happy, healthy, and jolly!

As some of you may know – if you follow us on social media (if you don’t you should!), Literacy Connexus participated in Giving Tuesday for the first time this year. Giving Tuesday raised $2.7 billion for various causes around the globe this year! Not to be cliché, but the thought of so many people coming together to support causes near and dear to their hearts, really put us in the holiday spirit and left us feeling warm and fuzzy.

With that being said, I want to give my fellow ESL teachers a little helping hand in their end of the year lesson planning today with a few December ESL activities for adult students.

I scoured the internet high and low and found an awesome resource from a fellow ESL blogger at ESL Speaking. ESL Speaking compiled a great list of 25 Christmas ESL activities, games, worksheets, and lesson plans, but I am going to share some activities from the list that I think would be perfect for adult students in the ESL classroom.

1. Charades
   1. Engage in charades – Christmas style! ESL Speaking has a great lesson plan for this all ready to go. Click here to check it out.
2. Christmas Conversations
   1. Making room for natural conversations in English is always one of the best ways to improve your student’s speaking skills. Now, just make the topics Christmas or winter theme! Do you celebrate Christmas in your home? How? What are some traditions that you have? What’s your favorite Christmas memory? What’s the best gift you’ve ever given for Christmas? Keep it going!
3. Tell Me About This Picture – Picture Prompts
   1. Use different Christmas or winter pictures and have your students describe the pictures. Can they name some of the items in the picture in English? What’s happening? The students can even write a story together about the pictures. The possibilities are endless.
4. Christmas or Winter Chain-Spelling
   1. Show students familiar Christmas or winter images and have them work together to spell them letter by letter. The first student to guess the wrong letter is out, and the last student standing wins.
5. Movie Day with Home Alone!
   1. This can be a fun activity for students, perhaps for the last class before winter break. Watch Home Alone together (with subtitles if you’re feeling kind) and have students answer comprehension questions about the movie. What’s happening? Have students discuss the movie and give their opinions as well.
6. Christmas Research Project – Task-Based Learning
   1. Have students get into small groups and research different aspects of Christmas like traditions, food, origins, and more. Then have students present what they found. This task is better suited for intermediate to advanced ESL students but I think it’s a great activity!

Click here to read the complete list of activities.

So, what do you have planned for your classroom this month? Try adding one of these activities to your roster and let us know how it goes!

We’ll be back next Friday with more ESL content. Until then, blessings and happy teaching.

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