The start to the school year for newcomer ELLs can be overwhelming and nerve-wracking. It is our job to set them up with tools to help them feel comfortable exploring a new language in a

Okay. You got me. I’m a sucker for scrolling Instagram and Pinterest, looking at those BEAUTIFUL classrooms teachers have put together. You know, the ones that look like Hogwarts, or a cozy coffee shop, or are bright and airy? THOSE. But, as much as I love to look at them, that’s just not me. I ... Read More about Must Have Posters for Spanish Class

Use these low-prep spontaneous speaking activities in your classroom to allow your students to speak in your French, Spanish, German and English in lessons!

The language spoken in the lessons is English. Here are some phrases about classroom language you should know, understand, or be able to use.

Would you like to decorate your classroom with fun, hand-drawn anchor charts/posters? Do you simply not have the time to get them done? Well, you have come to the perfect place! I love making these engaging and appealing anchor charts. I also can draw/create any other topic you would like, just contact me directly and ask! My students absolutely love these posters and references them every day. Many of them are visual learners, so the colorful images really help them connect and remember what they have learned. This particular anchor chart is for readers/writers learning all about capitalization. My students get confused and forget when to capitalize words so this "MINTS" phrase really helps them remember! **These will be copies unless asked otherwise for a custom poster. They are not laminated, and are printed on normal, anchor chart paper. I ship these out ASAP after being ordered, but please keep in mind once shipped, it is outside of my control. Therefore, if shipping does not meet your expectations, I highly encourage you to please reach out to me first, and we have always been able to work something out to make up for anything that may have occurred after I have sent your package, thanks so much!! Hope you love it :)

Download free printable feelings worksheets and use them in class today. On this page, you can find a collection of PDF worksheets for teaching feelings and emotions in English. These feelings worksheets are suitable for kids and beginner English language learners. See below for the feelings worksheets currently available, and check the bottom of the page for related resources.

Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!

Can you believe it is already the end of the school year? I can’t! It seemed like yesterday that I was setting up my classroom and welcoming my second grade sweeties! I am actually sad to end this school year. I have had such a fabulous class. I am going to hate to see them go. Our school is rezoning, so many of our kiddos are going to a new school next year. I always love when my former students come back to give me hugs in the morning. I am going to miss that from them. Not only is this year already going fast, but it is going to go by even quicker since we were off school this whole week unexpectedly. Katy received a HUGE torrential downpour this past week and our city was flooded. We were very blessed and did not receive any damage or flooding to our home, but there were many that did. During our week off, we were stuck inside as it continued to rain. Needless to say, I was very productive! I got a lot done around the house and some online projects done too! Flooding in Old Katy (Photo credit - The Katy Times) I wanted to share a few of my favorites… My A to Z Countdown to Summer was inspired by another teacher on my team. She said that she used to do something like it at her old school. I got to searching online for something, but could not find what I needed. So, like I always do, I created something to fit my classroom! The kids LOVE it! It is a great way to wrap up the year, and a fun way to count down the days until summer break! Since many of my kids are different religions, we don't really do Easter stuff. So, I decided to create some spring activities. My kids LOVE to use QR Codes. They love to use iPads anytime really! I made these "Spring Into..." activities as a review game. You can use this as a "Scoot" activity or just as task cards. I use mine during math station time, so I need it fairly quiet. I just print them out and laminate them. If you run out of time to cut them out or don't want to chance losing any of the cards, just print them out and put into a clear page protector! They come in color and blacklines. They also come in a variety of styles (they are even available without the QR Codes!). I teach second grade, so these are problems up to 1,200. Here is also something that will be fun to do at spring parties or for something fun to do when the kids are getting a little antsy! Use plastic chips or even candy as bingo pieces. There are two versions. One of them is a full color page (or half page) that is ready to go. The other is a DIY set where the kids color in the icons and paste them anywhere on their bingo grid! Both are awesome, and my kids really enjoyed it. They ask me all the time when we will play bingo again! These spring projects were so fun to create! Especially since I had amazing clip art from one of my favorites, Kate Hadfield! I have had so many compliments on my bingo cards when I use her clip art! Be sure to stop by her store and check out her fabulous art work. I have really loved looking at how she creates her items...so interesting! If you are ever looking for great artwork, you can shop her online store above or her TPT store! Another thing I worked on during our impromptu week off was my new United States Symbols Packet. This was so fun to put together! I actually made it after I taught this objective in school. I needed something that was more engaging and fun for the kids. I can’t wait to use it next year! And finally, the one that I am so excited about…. digital papers! FINALLY!! My husband has been working on these on and off for about a year (yes, I said a year!). We are a great team. I think up the stuff, he creates it, and I put it together to offer to my customers. So fun! I love that I can start using these in my products now. I won’t even tell you how much I have spent in digital papers over the last few years. It’s crazy! If anything, making these should save me some money! LOL! I hope you enjoy these products as much as I do. As always, please let me know if you have suggestions or special product requests. Happy spring!

We've been learning about the parts of speech in the most fun ways. A parts of speech printable and flip book, writing our own mad libs, and more.

Storytelling is a wonderful way to build creativity and imagination in your students. How can storytelling activities be beneficial in the classroom? There are so many ways! inspires purposeful talkingraises enthusiasm for reading textsinitiates writingenhances communityimproves writingengages students Want to see how each of these activities work? Watch the Storytelling Activities video on my YouTube

There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a boost!) You might also like Sara's more recent blog post, Inside My Farmhouse Classroom Makeover. 1. Have a color scheme (if you can) Sara: My principal gave each teacher the paint for one accent wall, so that shade of turquoise inspired the rest of my blue decor: milk crates, bulletin board borders, etc. It helped unify the room to make it look pulled-together instead of random. I've also learned about the importance of contrast. Even a full-blown rainbow color palette can look clean and cohesive (instead of cluttered) if you pair it with black or white to balance it out. Bonnie: If you are looking for inspiration for colors that look great together, check out this Pinterest board. There are lots of combinations that will help you choose colors when you are shopping for classroom materials. 2. Stick to a few favorite fonts Sara: Just like businesses create a brand, you are creating a classroom “look” or persona that you will be known for... or, at least a mood you will create. (Friendly? Professional? Fun? Minimalist?) Try to pick a few fonts that most of your labels, signs, and other wall-hangings will consistently use. For example, I used the Google font Crushed to make and laminate labels for my whiteboard (see below), along with mint-colored painter's tape. 3. Make your classroom library a focal point Bonnie: Your class library should draw students in and works well as the focal point for any English classroom. Here are a few things you can do to make your library stand out: Give bookshelves a makeover by rolling them a new coat of paint and/or taking the shelves out and attaching wallpaper or scrapbook paper to the back. Put a few floating shelves on the walls near your library area where you can feature particular novels recommended by students. Add comfortable, flexible seating near a library to make it more welcoming. These items can be more expensive, so shop around online or scour garage sales until you find seating that may work. Use old books as decorations! When a book is unusable, find a way to repurpose it. One easy way to do this is to cut out the pages and write a reading-inspired quote in black permanent marker on top of the page. Frame the page and put it on your bookshelf! Sara: If your classroom library is small, nonexistent, or needs some attention, check out this blog post for more ideas about how to strengthen it. 4. Display student work Bonnie: Use student work as decor by making a framed gallery wall. All you have to do is pick up some inexpensive 8x10 frames (check your dollar store) and arrange them on your wall. When you get a piece of exceptional student work, add it into the frame! If you don’t want the hassle of buying and hanging frames, order a pack of mixed color picture mats and use them to frame student work on a bulletin board. Sara: Another way to get student work on display (while also practicing literary analysis!) is to have them complete this Quote Illustration and Analysis assignment; students use Canva (or any tool you wish) to make an inspirational or literary quote come to life. The results are stunning! 5. Use author-inspired decor Bonnie: Find ways to incorporate the authors you will be studying into your classroom decor. You can do this by featuring fun facts or by sharing quotes by the author. For example, I use an interactive Shakespeare Hashtag of the Week bulletin display that exposes students to one quote from a Shakespeare play each week. If you don’t want to make your own, you might even consider assigning an author to each student and having them develop a bulletin display with a biography, fun facts, and quotes that you can swap out weekly. Sara: Don't forget to interject moments of literary ALLUSION or author-inspired inside jokes as well, like my favorite light switch art... 6. Make your posters work together Sara: On at least one bulletin board or section of wall space, add some symmetry or consistency by hanging posters in a similar style (color, font, or other), or by displaying images that have a common theme. For example, check out these posters of stylized quotes to get some English class wisdom on your walls. Bonnie: If you are looking for some ideas of common themes you could use for posters, try some of these ideas that could work in any English classroom: funny grammar quotes or fails, literary terms or genres, author quotes, famous lines from literature, idiomatic expressions, or jokes using puns! To read more about my favorite bulletin board ideas for middle and high ELA, check out this blog post. "English is Weird" poster set 7. Make displays that are EASY to update Sara: Two of my favorite bulletin board spaces were ones that took VERY little effort in updating, so I didn't have the self-imposed pressure to redo the whole thing multiple times per year. For example, my Word Nerd Challenge is quick to update on a Monday morning because all I have to do is add this week's word to the list. (I made each word tile a magnet that can go on my whiteboard!) I also made low-prep Quote of the Week flipbooks of reading and writing quotes, which students often asked to flip FOR me. I used Command hooks and spiral binding to hang it on a cabinet. Do you have additional ideas? Tell us in the comments!

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

Looking for a cheap, easy to use therapy material? How about paper bags? I love using paper bags for a variety of activities. Here are some simple ways I have incorporated paper bags into my therapy sessions. 1. Puppets My students love to use puppets to "eat" their articulation cards or other target cards. They also love to use them to tell stories. Making puppets from paper bags is a great, inexpensive way to engage your students in a variety of activities! You can easily make a puppet to match any book or story that you are using. Be creative- your kids will love it! I made these monster puppets with my son this week. They were so easy to make! We used a little paint, glue, and card stock with our paper bags. I found the idea for these cute monsters from this pin: Paper Bag Monster Puppets 2. Describe It To Me This activity is also super easy. I throw a bunch of items into a bag. My students reach in and grab something (no peeking!) to describe. The students remove the object and then describe it using a variety of descriptors. This is a great way to incorporate your Expanding Expression Tool (EET) with describing real objects. Sometimes I will even get really small, cheap objects that the students can keep if they give me a description using all of the beads on the EET. 3. What is in the bag? This is a great activity to work on a student's deductive reasoning skills. I put an object into the bag (students do not see- again, no peeking). Students need to ask questions about my object. This is similar to the game Headbanz. 4. Categories Place pictures of categories on the bag and collect items or pictures to place in each category. I used pictures from my Category Sorting activity. I like to put a piece of Velcro on each bag so that I can interchange the categories without having to get a new bag each time. 5. Collect in a bag Put any kind of card into the bag. My students love to decorate a bag and then collect their cards. 6. Paper bag books You can use two paper bags to make a book that will have two pockets. Simply fold two bags in half and then put the two openings touching each other to make two pockets for a book. Staple together, and done! You have a paper bag book that you can use to target a variety of goals. I used this one to put some of my new sequencing cards in for a student to take home. I have also made these Articulation Paper Bag Books. These are so fun to make with students and send home! Here is a link to a freebie that contains blank frames to use on your paper bags, as well as labels for What is in the bag? and Describe It To Me. Have fun using your paper bags!

Make a giant word search personalized for your child! A great way to practice sight words, spelling words, and reading list for big kids.

Fun and engaging grammar games for your secondary ELA classroom! These grammar games will get your students collaborating, moving, and discussing those critical sentence structure and grammar skills! Bring fun to grammar instruction!

Spice up vocabulary learning in your classroom with 10 fun ways to teach vocabulary. Download the practical ideas with photos and explanations. Use them today!

Teaching Materials and lessons for English teachers. Easy to teach lessons from ESL Teacher 365. Teaching tips and advice.

Literacy Center Ideas - hands-on literacy center activities perfect for 5-8 years | you clever monkey

Learning to read and spell silent letter words can be tricky for kids. Learn teaching tips and tricks that make this concept easy and fun!

I LOVE making charts! Step into my classroom and you’ll probably say, “Wow, someone has too much time!” but to be honest, I don’t! I just love them so much and love the w…

What do we teachers say on the English lessons? This worksheet contains the necessary language students need to understand. You can use it for presenting the topic or as a review. If you pri

Poster zu den wichtigsten Classroom Phrases für den EnglischunterrichtAls einzelne PNG-Dateien einfach schnell ausdruckenACHTUNG: Die Qualität der Rahmen ist we

Check out our library of ESL games for teaching English. All of our ESL games are absolutely free and are great for teaching English online or in the classroom.

Because our words matter.

Stations are a great way to get in a ton of review with your students. Check out 27 activities for stations in Spanish class in this post!

I find it very important to teach my ESL students the classroom requests from the beginning of the year so I made these colorful flashcards to use them as posters in the classroom or as a PPT presenta

Looking for 5th grade anchor charts? Try some of these anchor charts in your classroom to promote visual learning with your students.

Learning languages is awesome. It's fun, challenging, exciting, rewarding... But it can also be tough. It takes a lot of dedication to learn a foreign language well. If you've got your eye on the prize

Are you looking for creative book report ideas for your middle school or elementary classroom? Take a look at this post containing a great idea for a reading project for language arts! Students and teachers alike will love this Book Buffet - you NEED to click through and see the desserts! ;)

A good teacher should try to say as much as possible in a lesson to give as much information as possible… right? WRONG! In this article we will look at why limiting teacher talk time in a class is a…

Many teachers have "tried and true" resources that they pull from year after year. I've been an elementary ESL teacher since 2005 working with grades 1-6. During this time I have used a ton of resources with my students; and my favorites have stuck with me. Even though my "classroom" can change year to year, from pushing-in, co-teaching, to predominantly working with small pull-out groups, these tried and true resources are ones that I wouldn't want to do without. Here's a look at a few of my top favorites... Graphic Organizers This resource is #1 for a reason! I almost always use graphic organizers to teach reading comprehension. I find them to be highly effective because they are not text heavy. Students read with a purpose, then complete an activity that supports that specific reading skill/strategy. No matter my students' level of reading or language proficiency, a simple graphic organizer is what I need to reinforce that skill or strategy! I keep these graphic organizers on my desktop, and when I'm planning my lessons I can quickly pull up the organizers I need, then print and go! Tip: When I print, I reduce the setting to 80% and then trim the sides. Students glue the graphic organizer into their reading notebooks which makes for a great collection of student work and visual reference of student progress and effort. Leveled Books for Reading Instruction I have been very lucky to work in schools that have had awesome book rooms full of guided reading sets. I hope that you have the same access to books in your school. Finding books on my students' levels is one thing, but finding relevant books, especially for my upper elementary beginning ELs, is another. It's a challenge, for sure, but with a good book room I know that I can almost always find what I need. Click here for a free modified guided reading lesson plan template! Don't have a stocked book room? I also order several grade levels of the Scholastic News Magazines. (I think 10 magazines per grade level is the minimum order; that's what I get.) I mostly use grades 1, 2 & 3 with my ELs. With your order, you also have access to the online magazines, which is awesome! You can project to an interactive whiteboard, or have students read on an iPad or computer. These various grade levels make it easy to differentiate text levels. Since I use the magazines for reading instruction, students do not take them home. I keep the magazines organized by grade level and time of year, then I reuse the ones I love, year after year. Reading instruction is a big part of my day, so having access to leveled reading materials is a must! Visual Reading Word Wall Cards I love this resource because of the visuals. and the versatility. When introducing a reading concept, such as "making predictions" or "plot," to beginning or intermediate English learners, a meaningful visual is definitely worth a thousand words! These reading word wall cards provide my students with the visual supports they need as they are learning new concepts in English. I use these cards at my reading table, as a word wall, in anchor charts, as sorting headers, and in my learning objectives that I post on the board. Guided Reading Table Anchor Chart Lesson Objectives Words Their Way for Word Study For ELLs, learning spelling patterns in English is important. I especially like this resource because I can differentiate it according to the needs of my students. First, I assess what my students already know, as far as consonants, short and long vowels, word families, digraphs, etc., then start from there. We systematically work through the sorts building their knowledge of sounds and spelling patterns. A bonus with this resource is that it's another exposure to new vocabulary! Each Monday my students receive their list of words, and each day of the week they have various independent activities to do with their words. Then on Fridays, we finish up with a quick spelling quiz. Click for a free download of Weekly Word Study Activities To start, I set up their notebooks with their weekly Word Study Activities. We do this together the first week or two, so that I know that they understand what's expected. This is a word sort that my newcomers might be working on. And this is a sort that my intermediate ELLs might be working on. After I copy the page, I'll cut the page so that they have about 15 new words per week. My advanced ELLs might have 18 to 20 words. Once my students understand their weekly activities, these Word Study Activities become independent activities during the week while in Reader's Workshop. Students are responsible for completing the weekly work and learning their words. I set them up on Monday with their new words, then quiz them on Friday. It's up to them to do the work Tuesday through Thursday. Vocabulary Mini Office This is a MUST have for my newcomers! When they arrive, this is the first resource I give them. It's basic vocabulary that students use everyday. The Vocabulary Mini Office is kept at their desk to use during independent work time. Whether during Writer's Workshop, Reading or Vocabulary practice, it provides them with access to everyday vocabulary. My newcomers love this resource and they use it often. For my older newcomers I put the pages inside their reading folder. When they practice their writing, they can easily find the vocabulary they need. Daily Language Review I often use this resource as a warm-up activity. With my beginner and intermediate students, this is a group activity we do together. I want them to get used to the format of the questions so I do a lot of guided practice and modeling with this resource. My advanced kiddos do this as a quick independent warm up and then we go over it together. It takes about 5 minutes. Depending on the language level of my groups, I pull pages from either the first, second or third grade book. It also provides a great jumping off point. I can see in which areas of grammar my students need direct instruction, such as contractions, sentence structure, mechanics, etc. It's just a quick warm-up. My students like it and I get good information about them from it. As a teacher of English Language Learners, these are some of my must have resources. When I plan my lessons, these are many of the first resources I grab. They make my instruction consistent, effective and meaningful. Yes, there are other resources that I would not want to do without, and perhaps that would make for a follow up post, but if I were to pick my top resources, these would be them! I'd love to know what some of your favorite resources are! (Affiliate Links Below)

Every great reader has their beginnings in sounding out words!

Playing ESL speaking games offers numerous benefits for language learners. Here are 3 games to get you started!

Our favorite 2nd grade anchor charts for math, language arts, and beyond. You'll definitely want to use some of these in your classroom.

Board game that stimulates creative thinking and vocabulary building. There are two similar board games available for download: Name 3 Things (easy) and Name 7 Things (Hard). - ESL worksheets