Daily Routines ESL Activities, Games, Lesson Plans & Worksheets

If you’re looking for some of the best daily routines activities and games for ESL, then you’re in the right place. We have the best 15 of them, along with lesson plans, worksheets and more. Keep on reading for all the details you need to know about ESL daily schedule activities.

Daily Routines Activities and Games

Let’s get into the best daily schedules ESL activities.

#1: Flyswatter Daily Schedules Vocabulary Game

If you teach beginners, then consider trying out this fun and engaging vocab activity. The way it works is that you can write a bunch of words or phrases related to daily routines on the whiteboard. For example:

• Brush my teeth
• Go to sleep
• Eat breakfast
• Do my homework
• Etc.

Then, divide the class up into two teams and each team sends up one player to the whiteboard. They grab a flyswatter and then teacher gives a hint about one of the phrases. The first student to slap a correct answer gets a point for their team. Replace it with something new and other students get a chance to play.

Sounds like something you want to try with your students? Find out everything you need to know about it here:

Flyswatter ESL Vocabulary Game.

Another situation in which this game works really well is with imperatives. Fill the board with commands such as sit down, brush your teeth, run faster, don’t take a penalty, etc. Then, give a scenario (coach talking to hockey player) and students have to slap the correct imperative.

#2: Daily Routine Survey

Just ask my students and they’ll tell you how much I love to do surveys in my classes.  A great topic for this is the things that students regularly do.

Want to know how to make your own survey quickly and easily? All the details can be found here:

ESL Surveys and Questionnaires.

It’s possible to extend the activity into reported speech practice by having students tell a partner or the class some things they learned from talking to their classmates. More ideas here: Reported speech games.

#3: Dictogloss ESL Daily Schedule Activity

If you teach more advanced learners, then you’ll want to try out Dictogloss. It’s heavy on the listening and then students can respond either by speaking or writing. In this case, you’ll want to find a passage (or write your own) of someone talking about their daily routine.

Find out all the details about this listening activity here:

ESL Dictogloss Activity.

#4: Daily Routines English Idioms Activity

There are a number of English idioms to describe daily routines. Here are just a few of them:

• A walk in the park
• Hit the hay
• Cooking up a storm
• Make someone’s day
• On a roll
• Me time
• Home away from home
• In touch
• Etc.

An interesting way to make idioms more memorable is to do this drawing activity. Find out everything you need to know about it here:

ESL Idiom Activity.

#5: Daily Routine Song for Kids

If you teach children, songs and chants are some ESL teaching gold. The good news is that there are lots on YouTube for just about topic. Here’s just one of them:

#6: Man/Woman on the Street Interview Activity about Daily Routines

In most textbooks on the unit about daily schedules or routines, there will an “interview a partner” kind of activity. These are generally fine to use, of course, but to spice things up a little bit, I like to turn it into something a bit more exciting by doing an activity like this one.

Want to see for yourself? Head over to this article:

Man/Woman on the Street ESL Interview Activity.

#7: Odd One Out with Daily Activities

This is a quite warmer or review activity. Write down four words or phrases and students have to choose which one doesn’t fit. For example:

• Eating lunch, watching a movie, doing homework, hanging out with friends

Students may say that doing homework is the one that doesn’t fit because the other ones are fun while that one isn’t. Of course, many answers are possible as long as students support the one they choose. Check it out:

Odd One One ESL Activity.

#8: Word Association ESL Vocab Activity

Unless your students are absolute beginners, it’s quite likely that they’ve learned about daily routines before. If this is the case, doing something like this mind-mapping activity can be quite helpful for helping students activate their prior knowledge they may have about a topic. This can make new things more memorable.

Find out everything you need to know about this activity here:

ESL Word Association Vocab Activity.

#9: Journalling about Daily Schedules

If I’m teaching writing, I love to have my students talk about their daily lives. One great topic is what their typical day looks like, starting from when they wake up to when they go to school.

To start journaling with your students, have a look at my advice here:

Journaling for English Learners.

#10: Daily Routine ESL Activity

#11: Concentration

If you’re teaching students some new vocabulary words related to daily schedules, then try out this challenging memory game. Put words or phrases on one card and then a corresponding picture on the other. Students then play a memory game in small groups.

Try out this challenging game for new vocabulary with your students. All the details here:

ESL Concentration Memory Game.

#12: Dictation Practice

An easy way to review this topic is to have students do a dictation. Find or write a passage related to someone’s daily schedule. Then, say it slowly, a few words at a time and students have to write down what they hear. It’s an ideal way to review spelling and punctuation as well as new vocabulary words.

Want to know more? Check this out:

ESL Dictation Activity.

#13: Ball Toss ESL Game for Kids

If you teach kids, then you’ll definitely want to try out this fun activity. There are a number of ways you can do it, but here are just a few ideas

• Write times on the ball and students have to say what they’re doing at that time
• Use questions about daily routines
• Say something most people do daily and students have to say what time they normally do it
• Etc.

Find out everything you need to know here:

ESL Ball Toss Game for Kids.

#14: Me Too!

A simple listening and speaking activity is this one. Students take turns saying a true statement about something they do in the day and roughly when they do it. If other students are similar, they say, “Me too!” and then stand up. Continue until everyone has made a statement.

#15: Mixed Up Sentences

A nice way to review just about anything is to use this simple activity. Make up some sentences related to the topic of the day and then scramble them up in order. Students have to work together in pairs to make correct sentences.

Find out all the ins and outs of it here:

ESL Mixed Up Sentence Activity.

Daily Routines ESL Worksheets

If you’re a teacher then I’m sure you like to save time when planning lessons, right? One of the best ways to do this is to use worksheets that other teachers have already made! Here are a few of my top recommendations for daily schedules ESL worksheets:

ISL Collective

Games 4 ESL

English Worksheets

Daily Activities Lesson Plans

Another huge way to save some time is to use daily routine lesson plans. It’s super easy to just print them off and go. Here are a few of the best ones to check out:

ESL Kids Stuff

ESL Flow

Lingua House

Did you like these Daily Routines Activities?

Yes? Thought so. Then you’re going to love this book over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Kids. The key to better English classes with children is a wide variety of interesting and engaging activities and games and this book will help you do that in style. There’s enough material to make it through an entire semester without having to repeat any of them.

You can easily get the book in both digital and print formats. Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office to use as a handy reference guide. Or, take the e-version with you to your favourite coffee shop for some serious lesson planning on the go. Whatever the case, it’s some serious ESL teaching awesome.

Head over to Amazon to find out more details about the book today:

Have your say about these Daily Routines ESL Games and Activities

Did you like these daily schedules ESL games, activities, worksheets and lesson plans? Do you have another idea that you’d like to add to this list? Please leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

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Last update on 2020-10-31 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API