Are you looking for some of the best Thanksgiving ESL activities and games, along with lesson plans, worksheets, vocabulary lists and more? Then you’re certainly in the right place. Keep on reading for all the details you need to know.
Top 16 Thanksgiving ESL Activities
Without further ado, let’s get to the activities and games!
#1: What are you Thankful For?
This is a classic Thanksgiving activity, not just for English learners but for anyone. It’s always nice to think about things we’re thankful for so have a discussion with your students about it, get them to talk with a partner for a few minutes, or have them do a writing exercise.
#2: Thanksgiving Idiom Activity
There are lots of English idioms related to Thanksgiving. Some examples are:
- Stuffed
- Cold turkey
- Gobble up
- The gravy train
- Easy as pie
- Eat like a bird
- Etc.
Check out one of my favourite activities for idioms here. It’s fun, interesting and also memorable:
#3: A to Z Thanksgiving ESL Game
Unless your students are absolute beginners, it’s likely that they already know some Thanksgiving vocabulary before you teach them it. If that’s the case, consider using this quick warm-up activity to help activate your students’ prior knowledge. Or, consider using it for a review activity at the end of your lesson.
More details here: A to Z Alphabet Game.
#4: Dictogloss
Try out this challenging multi-skill ESL activity with your more advanced students. The way it works is that you have to find, or write a little story about Thanksgiving. I’ve talked about my family traditions before. Then, read it out but at a faster rate than normal.
Then, students have to work together to recreate what they just heard. Read it again and students do the same thing. Finally, they can compare their version with the original. Want to try it out? You can get all the information here:
#5: Thanksgiving Listening Comprehension
I always like to include some dedicated listening activities into my conversation classes. After all, conversation is half listening but all too often we just focus on speaking! It’s easy to find listening passages online, or in ESL textbooks. However, YouTube is another great resource.
Here’s one example of a Thanksgiving listening passage you could consider using in your classes. There are a bunch of listening activities to consider doing along with it.
#6: 3 Things ESL Writing Activity
If you want to do a quick and easy ESL writing activity related to Thanksgiving, then consider 3 things. When used as a general activity, students can choose any three things. However, you can also choose a theme such as this one and require that students choose words related to Thanksgiving vocabulary. Find out all the details here:
3 Things Writing Activity for ESL.
#7: ESL Thanksgiving Survey
Do you teach in a country where they celebrate Thanksgiving, or have a similar holiday? Yes? Then you’ll want to consider doing a survey. I love them because they cover a range of skills and also that they require students to get up out of their seats and talk to their classmates. It’s also reasonably quick and easy to make your own. Here are some tips:
Thanksgiving ESL Games and Activities
#8: Thanksgiving Food Activities
For most people, Thanksgiving is ALL about the food. That’s why these ESL food games and activities lend themselves particularly well to Thanksgiving lessons. If you want to see some of our top picks, then have a look right here:
#9: ESL Thanksgiving Vocabulary
Teaching students new vocabulary words related to popular holidays is always a useful exercise. However, it can be a bit dry. A way to live it up is to use a video like this one:
#10: Opinion Games and Activities
Holidays are one of those things that people certainly have some strong opinions about. How they should be spent, what traditions are most important, what you should eat, etc. The good news is that there are lots of interesting, engaging and fun activities for this. Check them out here:
ESL Opinion Activities and Games.
#11: Proof Reading and Editing
If you want to slip in some serious learning into your Thanksgiving lesson, then you’ll want to consider doing this activity. It’s simple enough—find a reading passage related to Thanksgiving and then make some errors. The kind and number of errors strongly depends on your students and what you’ve been teaching them in class but they could include some of the following:
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Capital letters
- Subject verb agreement
- Word order
- Wrong word choices
Find out more about it here: ESL Proof Reading and Editing Activity.
#12: Thanksgiving ESL Songs
I love to use songs and chants when teaching young learners. My favourite thing is that I’ll catch many of them singing the song days later outside of class! When this happens, I consider it a job well done. Here’s one example of a Thanksgiving song, but there are certainly more on YouTube:
#13: Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Lesson
It’s easy to base an entire lesson around a reading passage. And there are certainly lots of them out there at a variety of levels for Thanksgiving. Here are some tips and a template you can use to plan this style of English lesson:
How to Teach an ESL Reading Lesson.
#14: Concentration Vocabulary Game
A fun way to help students remember new words related to Thanksgiving is to play concentration. For beginners, use a vocabulary word and then a corresponding card with the picture. More advanced learners can handle words and definitions.
Then, students have to find the matching pairs using their memory skills. Check out this challenging game here:
#15: Odd One Out
A fun review or warm-up game is odd one out. In this case, choose some sets of words related to Thanksgiving. For example:
- Turkey, stuffing, pilgrim, gravy
Students have to choose the one that doesn’t fit and say why. In this case, they’d likely say pilgrim because it’s not a food. However, I accept any answer as long as students support it well. Find out more here:
ESL Thanksgiving Lessons
#16: Word Challenge Spelling Activity
Spelling is an important, but often neglected skills in ESL classrooms. One fun way to practice it is to use this word challenge game that requires only the use of a whiteboard and a couple of markets. Of course, you’ll want to focus this one on Thanksgiving vocabulary. Learn more about it here:
ESL Thanksgiving Worksheets
Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to? It can be a real timer saver to just print something off and then just use it in class. There are a ton of excellent Thanksgiving ESL worksheets to use. Here are some of the best resources:
ESL Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
There are also a number of ready-to-go ESL Thanksgiving lessons that you might want to consider using. Check out some of our recommendations here:
Thanksgiving ESL Vocabulary
Here are some of the most common words related to Thanksgiving to consider teaching your students:
- autumn
- bounty
- carve
- casserole
- corn
- cranberries
- fall
- family
- feast
- gravy
- harvest
- natives
- pie
- pilgrims
- pumpkin
- stuffing
- sweet potato
- thankful
- turkey
- wheat
Did you like these Thanksgiving ESL Games and Activities?
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Smith, Jennifer Booker (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 132 Pages - 03/31/2016 (Publication Date)
Yes? Thought so. Then you’re going to want to check out this book over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Kids. The key to better English classes is a variety of games and activities and this book will help you do that in style.
There are dozens of student-centred, engaging and fun activities to try out with your students. You’ll be able to make it through an entire semester doing a different activity every single day. It really is that easy to have better English classes with kids.
Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office to use as a handy reference guide. Or, consider taking it with you to your favourite coffee shop on your phone, laptop or tablet for some lesson planning on the go.
Either way, it’s a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome. Check out the book for yourself yourself, but only if you want to level up your teaching!
Have your Say about these Thanksgiving ESL Activities
What’s your favourite Thanksgiving activity or lesson plan idea to do with your students? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.
Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.
Last update on 2020-04-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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