Check out these 5 ESL Speaking Activities that can be adapted for different grade and proficiency levels to get your English learners talking

In this Google Slides lesson, your multilingual middle or high school ESL students will tell their personal narratives in speaking and in a storyboard about where they're from and how they came here. It's a great beginning of the year activity to learn more about each other. It also includes: -Teaching tips at the bottom of slides -Annotated language objective -Verb "be" introduction -Speaking activities -Vocabulary -Writing and speaking with sentence frames -Exit ticket and self-assessment -2 music videos (one about "home"- "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads and "Therefore I Am" by Billie Eilish for "be" practice.) Let me know if you have any questions, and if you enjoy this lesson please leave me some feedback and a rating! Continue learning with me on: Instagram @ell_lady Facebook Group Supporting ELs with a Language-Rich Classroom My online course My EL Mentor: Creating a Language-Rich Classroom My Membership My MLL Mentor: High School Teacher Membership

Entering a brand-new classroom is nerve-wracking for most of our English speaking students. For our newcomer ELLs, it can be a very intense and scary experience. Providing them with a welcoming, thoughtful environment from the moment

This engaging and interactive back to school activity will make an amazing addition to your get-to-know-you fun! There are a variety of options to choose from to make it work for your classroom! :) Options Included: *Class Puzzle {Whole Group} *Small Group Team Puzzle {3 Different Puzzles} *Take Home Family Project {Send Home Letter Included} NOTE: Canadian spelling options are also included!! I really hope you enjoy my product! If you are unsatisfied in any way, contact me right away and I will do my best to make it right :) Please follow me to be updated as I add more products to my store :) I really appreciate your support! Thank you! Check out my blog at: http://keepinitkoolinkinderland.blogspot.com Feel free to email me at: [email protected] Tags For This Item: first day of school, first day of school fun, back to school, back to school fun, back to school activities, beginning of the year, beginning of the year fun, beginning of the year activities, all about me, get to know you, class puzzle, back to school puzzle, puzzle bulletin board, puzzle display, team puzzle, student puzzle

This beginning of the year interactive ESL small group activity will allow you to get to know your Ukrainian speaking students. The pages are extremely engaging, translated with both Ukrainian and English text! Your Ukrainian speaking students will feel included in classroom culture, share something about themselves and seeing their native language integrated into learning validates the students culture. ⚘ ⚘ ⚘ When your students have completed the worksheet and paper chain, I recommend collecting them and displaying them on a hallway bulletin board as seen in preview images. Your entire school will be impressed! ✏️ Student Background: speaks Ukrainian as a first language 1st - 4rd grade benefits from Ukrainian language as an academic support ✏️ Teacher Background: Grade 2, 3, and 4. General Education Teacher, Special Education teacher, Speech therapist, ⚘ TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS THINK GROUP LINK The purpose of Ice Breaker activities is to get to know your students, and for students to get to know each other. But one of the problems with typical ice breakers we see in classrooms, that teachers require students to take huge social risks sharing information about themselves that they might not want to share with an entire classroom. This think-group-link activity enables students with social anxiety to introduce themselves to the class. To help overcome their social anxiety, this get to know you activity takes place in a small group setting so that your students will feel more comfortable are are more likely to open up. This activity can be used with our bi-lingual About Me Cell Phone Selfie art project. Students are assigned to groups, usually working as tables. Each student must independently complete the About Me worksheet. When the students at the table finish their worksheet, the table leader gathers the worksheet and begins a group discussion. Each person talks a little about themselves. The table leader’s job is to ask group members which paper chains they would like to do for the class paper chain activity. All paper chains will be bi-lingual. If your class requires additional bi-lingual paper chains, click on the available link as many other languages will become available shortly. Team leader will gather all the paper chains, and bring them to the table where the group will work together cutting drawing, and linking their paper chains together. When all tables finished their paper chains, the glass will link each group chain together creating a paper chain for the entire classroom. When finished, the teacher or custodian will help hang the chain above your blackboard for the entire school year. ⚘ With this purchase you get: Fifteen (15) Ukrainian – English ‘Get to Know You’ worksheets. Fifteen (15) Sets of Ukrainian – English Black and White Paper Chains, 12 translated paper chains per set Fifteen (15) Sets of Ukrainian – English Flag Values, each set includes 2 pages and 16 flag options Fifteen (15) Sets of Ukrainian – English School Year Goal Round Value Embellishments. Each set contains two pages with twelve round embellishments. ⚘ Why you need this product Creating inclusive classrooms for ESL students can be challenging. Research shows that when teachers incorporate the students native language into classroom activities, instruction and daily visual schedules the student develops greater meta-linguistic awareness. Students feel a sense of cultural validation in a way that cannot be replicated in English only classrooms. ⚘ One more thing.... Ukrainian - English paper chain can be printed on color paper and it makes a stunning bulletin board display. With this product, everyone at the school will be impressed by how awesome it looks. Teachers are free to visit my store to find this activity available in many other foreign languages. Bridging the cultural gap between teacher and student is a necessity in inclusive classrooms. When teachers incorporate a student's native language into classroom activities you connect with them in a meaningful way. ⭐⭐⭐DO YOU HAVE REFUGEE STUDENTS FROM UKRAINE? CHECK OUT THESE ESL UKRAINIAN/ENGLISH CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. Ukrainian ⚘ Ukrainian / English About Me Cell Phone Selfie ⚘ Ukrainian / English Reading Faces and Recognizing Emotions ⚘ Ukrainian / English Social Emotional Skills and Coping with Stress ⚘ No Prep English reading Comprehension for Ukrainian Students ⚘ Ukrainian / English Design a Garden Interactive Math and Language Activity ⚘ Ukrainian / English learned Emotional Vocabulary and Reading ESL ⚘ Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Ukrainian Translations ⚘ Christmas in Ukraine! Ukrainian Recipes, Traditions and Bulletin Board Displays ⚘ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Ukrainian English Activity ⭐⭐⭐DO YOU HAVE REFUGEE STUDENTS FROM AFGHANISTAN? CHECK OUT THESE ESL DARI/ENGLISH CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. ♧ESL BUNDLE for Afghan Refugees ♧ESL BUNDLE Social Emotional for Afghan Refugees ♧Dari Alphabet Writing Practice ♧Dari Greetings - thinking about Dari in English ♧Dari - Physical Feelings ♧Dari - Persian Mad Lib Activities with Persian language Support ♧ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Dari English Activity| دری - فارسی ⭐⭐⭐DO YOU HAVE REFUGEE STUDENTS FROM SOMALIA? CHECK OUT THESE ESL SOMALI/ENGLISH CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. ✵ Introduce Myself Cell Phone Somali/English Translations ✵ Somali / English Reading Faces and Recognizing Emotions ✵ Somali /English Daily Visual Schedule ✵ My First Somali - English ABC Workbook - Letter A ✵ My First Somali - English ABC Workbook - Letter B ✵ My First Somali - English ABC Workbook - Letter C ✵ Somali English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Somalia ✵ Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Somali Translations ✵ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Somali English Activity ⭐⭐⭐ TAGALOG ENGLISH! Want to learn FILIPINO? TAGALOG as a second language? Put these resources in your cart now. ◌ྀ Daily Visual Schedule Tagalog - English ◌ྀ Tagalog / English Reading faces and Recognizing Emotions ◌ྀ Filipino English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Philippines ✵ ◌ྀ Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Filipino Translations ◌ྀ Christmas in the Philippines I Traditional Foods, Music, and Parol Art! ◌ྀ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Filipino English Activity ⭐⭐⭐ AMHARIC ENGLISH! Want to learn Ethiopian? Amharic as a second language? Put these resources in your cart now. ኢትዮጵያውያን ተማሪዎቻችንን እንወዳለን! ◌ྀ Daily Visual Schedule Amharic - English ◌ྀ Amharic/ English Reading faces and Recognizing Emotions ◌ྀAmharic English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Ethiopia. ︶︶︶༉ ◌ྀ Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Amharic Translations አማርኛ ◌ྀName My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Amharic English Activity ⭐⭐⭐ARABIC ENGLISH! Want to learn Arabic? Arabic as a second language? Put these resources in your cart now. ۵ Arabic - English Daily Visual Schedule ۵ Arabic English - Reading Faces and Recognize Emotions ۵ Arabic English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL ۵ Fall Themed Mad Libs with Arabic Support ۵ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Arabic English Activity الجدول المرئي اليومي مفردات المشاعر الانجليزية العربية ۵ ⭐⭐⭐Burmese English ۵Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Burmese Translations ۵Burmese English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Myanmar ︶︶︶༉ ۵ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Myanmar Burmese English Activity ⭐⭐⭐ Hindi English ︶︶︶༉Hindi English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from India ︶︶︶༉ Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Hindi Translations Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Hindi English Activity | हिन्दी ⭐⭐⭐ Punjabi English Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Punjabi Translations Punjabi English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from India ︶︶︶༉ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Punjabi English Activity | ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ⭐⭐⭐ Urdu English Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Urdu Translations Urdu English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Pakistan ︶︶︶༉ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Urdu English Activity ⭐⭐⭐ Chinese English ⚘Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Chinese Translations ⚘Chinese English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from China ︶︶︶༉ ⚘Chinese / English Visual Daily Schedule: ELL ESL Behavior Management ⚘ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Chinese English Activity Note that all ESL Activities and Packets integrate the students native language into the activities, our objective is to teach students how to read, write, speak and understand spoken English while meeting their social/emotional needs as well. ______________________________________________________ ➳ Why not learn Italian? It is a beautiful language, rich in history and culture. Italian ➳ Italian Winter Themed Vocabulary ➳Ultimate Italian Starter Bundle ➳Italian Nouns: i sostantivi activities and speech games ➳ Italian I ➳Italian II ➳FREE ITALIAN ➳Italian Verb Drills ➳Il San Valentino - Valentine Day Italy ➳Festa della mamma - Mother's Day Italy ➳Ultimate Italian Starter Pack Spanish ✓ Spanish Puppy Emotions Cards ✓Fall Themed Mad Libs - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives | Spanish Translations ✓ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Spanish English Activity French ✓Spring Theme Bundle ✓Les mots fréquents et les mots communs (FRENCH High Frequency/Sight Words) ✓ French Puppy Emotion Cards ✓Le Jour Saint Valentin - French Love Vocabulary ✓Spring Bingo Vocabulary ✓French Poetry - Victor Hugo Hungarian ✓ Hungarian Occupations and Pronouns Vietnamese ➳ Vietnamese/English Visual Daily Schedule ➳Vietnamese English Reading Strategies ESL ELL ENL for students from Vietnam ➳ Name My Smoothie | Silly Get to Know You Vietnamese English Activity| Tiếng Việt ︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚◌ೄ◌ྀ ˊˎ✧ ˚ ·︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚◌ೄ◌ྀ ˊˎ✧ ˚ ·︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚◌ೄ◌ྀ ˊˎ✧ ˚ ·︶︶︶︶༉‧₊˚◌ೄ◌ྀ ˊˎ✧ ˚ · Science and Evolution ✓Food Web

Item description Would you like to have all the ELA warm ups for middle school ready to be used the entire school year? Is one of your goals to develop your students’ grammar, vocabulary and writing skills with fun ELA bell ringers questions? Would you be interested in offering your class a whole learning experience in the shortest possible time with engaging warm up activities for middle school?   If you found something that gave you all these benefits, would you want to get started with it right away?   Think about what a difference it will make when you start using the One Year of English Middle School Bell Ringers pack in your class! It includes:   1. 180 bell ringers for middle school English on 36 weekly thematic worksheets   5 days per week of bell ringers for middle school ELA: Opinion Monday – opinion paragraph writing (based on quote of the week structure) Wordy Tuesday – vocabulary practice and sentence writing (based on word of the week) Flawless Wednesday – error correction and paragraph writing (grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, capitalization) Literary Thursday – figures of speech and mentor sentences (alliteration, personification, simile, metaphor and lots more) Mindful Friday – creative and reflective writing (SEL topics)   2. Student Response Sheet – template for solving the English bell ringers pdf 3. Answer Keys for error correction and literary terms 4. Google Slides version   ELA Bell Ringers for Middle School Weekly Themes: 1. Motivation Week 2. All About Me Week 3. Inspiration Week 4. Popularity Week 5. Family Week 6. Goals Week 7. … and 30 more! Click on the PREVIEW to take a look at all weekly themes.   The large variety of themes and activities can save you all the guesswork in selecting the ideal ELA warm-ups for your class which means your students will be just the right amount of practice in each skill.   The daily bell ringers for middle school ELA will help you set a coherent routine at the beginning of each class which the students will find constructive and easy to follow.   The ELA bell ringers can be shared in a variety of formats so you will have exactly what your class needs without the hassle of preparing something different every single day.   Just imagine how you will feel when you start to get the benefits and results from this resource right in your class!   Are you afraid that this One Year of ELA Bell Ringers for Middle School Pack will not match the needs of your students? I understand exactly what you feel. Don’t worry! Just try it and if you find this resource not suitable for your class, just email me at [email protected] and I’ll get you a full refund.   James P. has tried these ELA Middle School Bell Ringers for one year in his class and said, “Have already used a lot of these and they are fabulous. Kids look forward to having something to get into after the bell. Definitely helps me get the class started and me organized. Great value. Thanks.”   Why don’t you give it a try? Click on the “Add to cart” red button and you can use it right away!

As we embark on a new academic journey, there’s no better time than the start of the school year to introduce and master the art of implementing stations in your classroom.

I made this little activity for students to reflect on what they learned this year. I wanted to create an end of the year activity that had a little substance and required students to reflect on t…

Tips for Primary Teachers.

Find out why teachers should be using icebreaker activities for small groups all year long and not just at the beginning of the school year.

*A DIGITAL OPTION HAS BEEN INCLUDED FOR GOOGLE SLIDES AND FORMS/GOOGLE CLASSROOM* Be sure to re-download! There are directions and links inside the pdf. 🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5. Hello, ELA! This resource is a unique way to get your students warmed up at the beginning of your ELA block.Each month contains 4-5 weeks of ELA bell work, which will have a theme around the season, national holidays, or events associated with that particular month. The morning work is focused on ELA 6th Grade Common Core Standards. Each day has a thematic structure to cover language standards as well as enhance vocabulary and comprehension skills.Save money by purchasing the year long BUNDLE!ELA Daily Review 6th Grade {Growing Bundle} Each week follows a predictable and engaging structure:  Meaningful Monday: Monday is focused on making meaning. Tasks will focus on synonyms, antonyms, vocabulary words, context clues, and making meaning in a short amount of text. Some tasks may require students to make meaning in the text (inference, message, adages, proverbs, etc.) or build vocabulary skills.Text Structure Tuesday: Tuesdays will have a paragraph that requires students to identify the text structure, signal words, main idea, author's perspective, or vocabulary, or any other question types related to the Craft and Structure standards. Wordy Wednesday: Wednesday is all about working with words. Tasks include working with shades of meaning, homophones, spelling, prefixes, suffixes, roots, and other word skills.Throwback Thursday:Thursday is all about grammar usage and conventions. Figurative Friday: Figurative Friday tasks include working with various types of figurative language including similes, metaphors, idioms, poems, alliteration, structures of poems and more! This ELA + Math Morning Work is available for the following grade levels: ELA + Math Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade ELA Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade ELA Weekly Assessments 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade Math Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade Let’s connect!  The Literacy Loft Blog The Literacy Loft on Instagram The Literacy Loft on Pinterest The Literacy Loft on Facebook I hope this resource works for you! Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or feedback. - Jessica

Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The

Entering a brand-new classroom is nerve-wracking for most of our English speaking students. For our newcomer ELLs, it can be a very intense and scary experience. Providing them with a welcoming, thoughtful environment from the moment

I remember when I was a new ESL teacher, I really had no clue where to begin. Thank goodness I had an amazing mentor and roommate; without her I would've been completely lost. Each school district is different, so you may be required to do certain tasks at the start of each year, but as a seasoned ESOL teacher, here are my top 5 suggestions for starting off the school year strong. Where to Begin the Year - ESL Edition Teachers in my district head back to school a week prior to students. The week is filled with meetings, professional development, Open House and squeezing in time to set up instructional spaces. During this hectic week it's also important to find out who my English learners are, who the classroom teachers are that I'll be collaborating with, and to think about routines and procedures I want in place for my ELD instruction. Week 1 - Prior to Students Arriving at School Get your hands on a student list. The list should include important information such as grade level, classroom teacher, ELP level and home language. Sometimes I need to ask the registrar at my school for a list, but most of the time I can find it on my district's EL database site. You'll also want a list of ELP scores from last year (preferably from the past two years) so that you can analyze student proficiency levels AND growth in each language domain. This is key in determining strengths and areas of need. Once you have your student lists, you can begin thinking about how you want to group your students. I'm lucky, in my district to have the autonomy of grouping my students the way that best targets their needs. Some schools/districts group students for you AND make your schedule, giving you no control in these two areas. If you are able to group your own students, I like to group based on language need with about 6 students per group. When I have small homogeneous groups, it allows me to really target students' linguistic needs. I usually use something like this to map out my groups. Students and ELD Groupings Once I have my groups, which I try not to have more than 10 in all, I then I create an initial instructional schedule. That's really a whole other post in itself! It's probably one of the most challenging tasks of the year. Considerations include the master instructional schedule, specials, lunch & recess schedules, as well as gen ed classroom focus minilessons because we don't pull students out during their focus lessons. There's a LOT to consider when creating an effective instructional ELD schedule. I use something like this to map out my draft schedule. Weekly Schedule You'll likely need to tweak your schedule at some point, so keep in mind that it might change as the needs of students change. Both of these pages are from my ESL Teacher Planner, linked at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 1 - get student lists that include the information you need to help create homogenous groups, as well as your instructional schedule. Week 2 - Students First Week of School Students arrive, so now what happens? I do not start my pull-out schedule on day one. IMO, It's important for students to stay in their gen ed classrooms and get settled, even for the first few days. They are building a classroom community, learning procedures and getting acquainted with their new setting. My district does kindergarten K-WAPT testing the first week, so I might not start my ELD schedule until the end of the week. I do push-in though the first few days, when I can, and introduce myself to my students, give them resources such as bilingual dictionaries, as well as a vocabulary workbook to my newcomers. And check in on teachers, especially if they have newcomers in the class!💛 Once I start pulling my groups, the focus is all about Getting to Know You. I really take time this week and next to start building relationships with my students. On my first day with students I share a slide that tells about me and my family. I also share things that I like doing outside of school. Then we go around the group and give each student time to share about them. Introduction Slide It's incredibly important to build trust with students, so really take this time to get to know them as individuals. It'll pay off big time. Some of my favorite "Getting to Know You" activities are... Getting to Know You Activities Four Corners Activity Teach Us Your Name - FREEBIE 👉Additional Getting to Know You activities and resources will be listed at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 2 - let students get settled into their general education classrooms, then start meeting with your students/groups. Introduce yourself and focus on getting to know them as individuals. Start building trust. Week 3 - BOY Assessments Once students have been in school a week or so, and we've started getting to know each other, it's now time to get to know them better as learners. What can students do at this point in time? I have their ELP scores from the previous two years, but that data is not recent, and they've been out of school for a couple of months, so where are they now in their language proficiency? The goal - to find their instructional "starting points." The main assessments I do at the beginning of the year are... Newcomer Group/Level 1 Students - a phonics assessment. Do they know their letter sounds? Which sounds do they know? It's also important to know the literacy level of newcomers in their native language. Do they have age appropriate literacy skills or do they have gaps? Have them write in their native language. Find a book in their native language and let them read it to you. Don't have books available? I often write a message using google translate, then have them read it to me. Did they understand the message? Where they able to respond to it? It's important detective work. 🕵️‍♀️ Phonics Survey for Level 1-2 Students All of my groups, except for maybe my newcomer group, write to a prompt. This allows me to analyze their writing skills. The BOY prompt is usually, "Describe a place you like to visit. Tell what you like to do there." We brainstorm possible places, then I have them write for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, I collect their writing and take anecdotal notes on skills we need to focus on in that group. Beginning of the Year Writing Prompt My school district gives assessments, most of which I'm not a big fan of, that include iReady for reading, PRF for fluency and DSA for spelling. We used to give the DRA2 reading assessment to find the instructional reading level of each student, but we no longer do that, so it's been an adjustment trying to figure out where my kids are in that particular area. The best way, for now, is to listen to them read and check for comprehension. Each data point is a small piece to a much larger puzzle. With all of the assessments listed above, especially my own, I usually have a pretty clear picture of starting points. 👍 Recap Week 3 - take time to assess students so that you know what they can do AND what they need. Finding their starting points will be critical in knowing what to teach them. Week 4 - Routines, Procedures and Planning ELD Lessons It's not until THIS point that I begin planning ELD lessons. Now I know my students better, both as individuals and as students, I've built some trust with getting to know you activities and I've assessed their needs, so NOW I can plan lessons to better suit them. But WAIT! There's one more important item to do before diving into planning! For me, I need to decide which on-going activities I want certain groups to do and then teach them the expectations. What's an on-going activity? It's a skill based weekly activity, such as phonics, grammar, idiom, sight word, writing, etc., that has a procedure needing to be taught or modeled. I definitely don't rush this. This is a big part of routines and procedures! Some of my groups (level 1 & 2 students) have a weekly phonics minilesson and activity, for example. I set this up for success by teaching students the components and expectations of the activity. We set up their ELD Notebooks and I model each expectation. This is really important, IMO, for a successful year. Modeling Expectations for Word Work Weekly Phonics Word Work Activity-Student NotebookPretty soon, the on-going activity becomes a very familiar part of their class time with me. If I want my newcomers doing something in their general education classrooms during independent class time, like a vocabulary workbook activity, I need to take the time to teach them how to do that. Here's a post about planning these types of weekly activities! Once I'm done teaching expectations for on-going activities, THEN I'm ready to plan targeted ELD lessons! 👏 Recap Week 4 - teach routines & procedures- identify on-going activities for groups and model expectations. Start to plan & prepare targeted ELD lessons based on students' linguistic needs. Bottom line... there's a lot to do at the beginning of the year before targeted ELD lessons begin. But at this point, I'm in a MUCH better position to plan lessons that meet the needs of my students. At about 4 weeks into the school year, it's time to plan and prepare materials for my first language function unit... the language of INQUIRY. Here's my post on Language Functions. It explains what a language function is, how to plan a unit and why I love teaching functions. This next post on "Forms and Functions" dives a little deeper into the language forms that accompany language functions. Check them both out! My advice for starting a new school year, do not stress about what you're going to teach the first couple of weeks of school. There are many other priorities that require time and attention. I promise you that spending time getting to know your students both as individuals and as learners before you plan lessons will only enhance your ability to target your instruction, which will ultimately get students to the next level in language proficiency. And that's the goal! 🙌 Additional resources that help get my year started.👇 ESL Teacher Planner Would You Rather My Country Activity "I Like" Activity Vocabulary Workbook for Newcomers - Year-Long Bundle Available! Notebook Covers and Tabs for the ESL Classroom Best of luck to you on a smooth back to school season. Having plans in place for a strong start will set you and your students up for a very successful school year! Take care, Affiliate Links: My Amazon Storefront

I remember when I was a new ESL teacher, I really had no clue where to begin. Thank goodness I had an amazing mentor and roommate; without her I would've been completely lost. Each school district is different, so you may be required to do certain tasks at the start of each year, but as a seasoned ESOL teacher, here are my top 5 suggestions for starting off the school year strong. Where to Begin the Year - ESL Edition Teachers in my district head back to school a week prior to students. The week is filled with meetings, professional development, Open House and squeezing in time to set up instructional spaces. During this hectic week it's also important to find out who my English learners are, who the classroom teachers are that I'll be collaborating with, and to think about routines and procedures I want in place for my ELD instruction. Week 1 - Prior to Students Arriving at School Get your hands on a student list. The list should include important information such as grade level, classroom teacher, ELP level and home language. Sometimes I need to ask the registrar at my school for a list, but most of the time I can find it on my district's EL database site. You'll also want a list of ELP scores from last year (preferably from the past two years) so that you can analyze student proficiency levels AND growth in each language domain. This is key in determining strengths and areas of need. Once you have your student lists, you can begin thinking about how you want to group your students. I'm lucky, in my district to have the autonomy of grouping my students the way that best targets their needs. Some schools/districts group students for you AND make your schedule, giving you no control in these two areas. If you are able to group your own students, I like to group based on language need with about 6 students per group. When I have small homogeneous groups, it allows me to really target students' linguistic needs. I usually use something like this to map out my groups. Students and ELD Groupings Once I have my groups, which I try not to have more than 10 in all, I then I create an initial instructional schedule. That's really a whole other post in itself! It's probably one of the most challenging tasks of the year. Considerations include the master instructional schedule, specials, lunch & recess schedules, as well as gen ed classroom focus minilessons because we don't pull students out during their focus lessons. There's a LOT to consider when creating an effective instructional ELD schedule. I use something like this to map out my draft schedule. Weekly Schedule You'll likely need to tweak your schedule at some point, so keep in mind that it might change as the needs of students change. Both of these pages are from my ESL Teacher Planner, linked at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 1 - get student lists that include the information you need to help create homogenous groups, as well as your instructional schedule. Week 2 - Students First Week of School Students arrive, so now what happens? I do not start my pull-out schedule on day one. IMO, It's important for students to stay in their gen ed classrooms and get settled, even for the first few days. They are building a classroom community, learning procedures and getting acquainted with their new setting. My district does kindergarten K-WAPT testing the first week, so I might not start my ELD schedule until the end of the week. I do push-in though the first few days, when I can, and introduce myself to my students, give them resources such as bilingual dictionaries, as well as a vocabulary workbook to my newcomers. And check in on teachers, especially if they have newcomers in the class!💛 Once I start pulling my groups, the focus is all about Getting to Know You. I really take time this week and next to start building relationships with my students. On my first day with students I share a slide that tells about me and my family. I also share things that I like doing outside of school. Then we go around the group and give each student time to share about them. Introduction Slide It's incredibly important to build trust with students, so really take this time to get to know them as individuals. It'll pay off big time. Some of my favorite "Getting to Know You" activities are... Getting to Know You Activities Four Corners Activity Teach Us Your Name - FREEBIE 👉Additional Getting to Know You activities and resources will be listed at the bottom of this post. Recap Week 2 - let students get settled into their general education classrooms, then start meeting with your students/groups. Introduce yourself and focus on getting to know them as individuals. Start building trust. Week 3 - BOY Assessments Once students have been in school a week or so, and we've started getting to know each other, it's now time to get to know them better as learners. What can students do at this point in time? I have their ELP scores from the previous two years, but that data is not recent, and they've been out of school for a couple of months, so where are they now in their language proficiency? The goal - to find their instructional "starting points." The main assessments I do at the beginning of the year are... Newcomer Group/Level 1 Students - a phonics assessment. Do they know their letter sounds? Which sounds do they know? It's also important to know the literacy level of newcomers in their native language. Do they have age appropriate literacy skills or do they have gaps? Have them write in their native language. Find a book in their native language and let them read it to you. Don't have books available? I often write a message using google translate, then have them read it to me. Did they understand the message? Where they able to respond to it? It's important detective work. 🕵️‍♀️ Phonics Survey for Level 1-2 Students All of my groups, except for maybe my newcomer group, write to a prompt. This allows me to analyze their writing skills. The BOY prompt is usually, "Describe a place you like to visit. Tell what you like to do there." We brainstorm possible places, then I have them write for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, I collect their writing and take anecdotal notes on skills we need to focus on in that group. Beginning of the Year Writing Prompt My school district gives assessments, most of which I'm not a big fan of, that include iReady for reading, PRF for fluency and DSA for spelling. We used to give the DRA2 reading assessment to find the instructional reading level of each student, but we no longer do that, so it's been an adjustment trying to figure out where my kids are in that particular area. The best way, for now, is to listen to them read and check for comprehension. Each data point is a small piece to a much larger puzzle. With all of the assessments listed above, especially my own, I usually have a pretty clear picture of starting points. 👍 Recap Week 3 - take time to assess students so that you know what they can do AND what they need. Finding their starting points will be critical in knowing what to teach them. Week 4 - Routines, Procedures and Planning ELD Lessons It's not until THIS point that I begin planning ELD lessons. Now I know my students better, both as individuals and as students, I've built some trust with getting to know you activities and I've assessed their needs, so NOW I can plan lessons to better suit them. But WAIT! There's one more important item to do before diving into planning! For me, I need to decide which on-going activities I want certain groups to do and then teach them the expectations. What's an on-going activity? It's a skill based weekly activity, such as phonics, grammar, idiom, sight word, writing, etc., that has a procedure needing to be taught or modeled. I definitely don't rush this. This is a big part of routines and procedures! Some of my groups (level 1 & 2 students) have a weekly phonics minilesson and activity, for example. I set this up for success by teaching students the components and expectations of the activity. We set up their ELD Notebooks and I model each expectation. This is really important, IMO, for a successful year. Modeling Expectations for Word Work Weekly Phonics Word Work Activity-Student NotebookPretty soon, the on-going activity becomes a very familiar part of their class time with me. If I want my newcomers doing something in their general education classrooms during independent class time, like a vocabulary workbook activity, I need to take the time to teach them how to do that. Here's a post about planning these types of weekly activities! Once I'm done teaching expectations for on-going activities, THEN I'm ready to plan targeted ELD lessons! 👏 Recap Week 4 - teach routines & procedures- identify on-going activities for groups and model expectations. Start to plan & prepare targeted ELD lessons based on students' linguistic needs. Bottom line... there's a lot to do at the beginning of the year before targeted ELD lessons begin. But at this point, I'm in a MUCH better position to plan lessons that meet the needs of my students. At about 4 weeks into the school year, it's time to plan and prepare materials for my first language function unit... the language of INQUIRY. Here's my post on Language Functions. It explains what a language function is, how to plan a unit and why I love teaching functions. This next post on "Forms and Functions" dives a little deeper into the language forms that accompany language functions. Check them both out! My advice for starting a new school year, do not stress about what you're going to teach the first couple of weeks of school. There are many other priorities that require time and attention. I promise you that spending time getting to know your students both as individuals and as learners before you plan lessons will only enhance your ability to target your instruction, which will ultimately get students to the next level in language proficiency. And that's the goal! 🙌 Additional resources that help get my year started.👇 ESL Teacher Planner Would You Rather My Country Activity "I Like" Activity Vocabulary Workbook for Newcomers - Year-Long Bundle Available! Notebook Covers and Tabs for the ESL Classroom Best of luck to you on a smooth back to school season. Having plans in place for a strong start will set you and your students up for a very successful school year! Take care, Affiliate Links: My Amazon Storefront

Inside: Icebreakers for Spanish classrooms the first week of school. Building community the first couple of days in school is important. Icebreakers can be a fun way to get to know each other a little and even introduce a bit of Spanish! They're especially fun for returning students. Note: As a semi-introvert, most icebreakers terrify me.

The first week anxiety and nerves are real! Help your new students with some beginning of the year team building activities and ice breakers.

In this Google Slides resource, teachers can save their multilingual ESL students' work in a digital portfolio to track growth. The slides are broken up by language domain and there is also a slide for content-area sample work as well when working with other teachers in the building. Links can be inserted into the slides or screenshots/pictures can be entered. Teachers can duplicate this resource for each of their students. Great to start using at the beginning of the school year! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you enjoy this lesson please leave me some feedback and a rating! Continue learning with me on: Instagram @ell_lady Facebook Group Supporting ELs with a Language-Rich Classroom My online course My EL Mentor: Creating a Language-Rich Classroom My Membership My MLL Mentor: High School Teacher Membership

This resource is perfect for a classroom teacher or ELL teacher looking for tons of great back to school activities to fit ALL your students' needs! This double bundle includes all back to school resources bundled together at an additional 10% off both the already-discounted Back to School Bundle and ELL Newcomer Bundle! To check out each bundle, click on the links below (links are included for all individual resources as well). BUNDLE #1: Back to School Bundle: WHAT’S INCLUDED: 1. Back to School All About Me Book (Digital and Paper): • Teacher Instructions • 12 Full Page Templates: (also available in half page mini book option) -"This is Me" (Portrait) - "More About Me" (Traits) - My Goals - My Hobbies - My Family - When I Grow Up - My Favorites - My Home - My School - My School Favorites - My Vacation - What I Want to Learn • ELL/Immigrant Student Specific Pages: (optional) - My Country - My Traditions • Differentiated Writing Pages: For writing templates that require writing, there are templates included with sentence starters or basic box fill-ins. - My Home - My School - When I Grow Up - My Goals • Free-Writing: (optional) - 3 Different Rule-Widths of Free-Writing Pages 2. Back to School Activities/Worksheets (Digital and Paper): • Word Searches: 4 levels included with back to school vocabulary terms. Answer Keys included. • Back to School Bingo: “Find someone who...” Bingo is a fun icebreaker activity to have students interact and learn about each other, create their own Bingo boards, and then play! 2 Cards are included with the same questions mixed up (full page or half page option). • Brag Bag: Students write, or draw (both options included) about their interests, talents, and traits. • Rules & Expectations: Students fill in the classroom rules on a “white board”, write about why they are important, and then choose one rule to draw an example and non-example of following it. • Venn Diagram: Students compare and contrast the first day last year and this year (personality, feelings, first day activities etc.) • Classroom Puzzle Display: Includes teacher directions and student puzzle piece templates for a beautiful display. These even work well to have on student’s desk when they first come in on the first day, as something calming and unintimidating to work on while everyone gets settled. • Morning & Dismissal Routine Countdowns: This is a way for students to visually see what to do at the start and end of each school day. • Classroom Map: Students draw their own classroom map with a key (2 options included: key already filled in or blank). • Classroom KWL: This works well about a week into the school year to see what students are understanding about the classroom, and what questions they still have. • My Life Timeline: Fun, visual way for students to show some big life events they have experienced. • Making Words: Students make words from Back to School, New Classmates, and School Supplies. Answer key is included. • Break the Code: Students decode a message from the teacher (2 Options). Answer Key is included. 3. Back to School Writing Prompts/Reflection Journal *32 Writing Prompts* • Option #1 (no prep): Full Page Writing Prompts • Option #2 (little prep): Students receive 2 pages (32 writing prompts total) that they can choose from to cut & paste into their Back to School journals. • Option #3 (more prep) Teacher chooses writing prompts to cut out for students to complete one at a time. • Back to School Journals: Full Page or Half Page (foldable mini book) options. Also comes in 3 writing rule-widths. 4. Back to School Glyphs *4 Glyph Themes* • Backpack Glyph: Backpack & School Supplies • Classroom Coloring Glyph: Decorate a Classroom • Lunchbox Glyph: Lunchbox & Food • Silly Face Drawing Glyph: Drawing Silly Face Features Each Glyph comes with: •Student Checklist: Each theme includes different questions that students check off the answers to in order to create their individual glyph. •Cut-outs (except for Classroom Glyph: These are meant to be cut out and glued onto construction paper. •Full Page: Students can use this page to color and decorate their glyph, rather than cut and glue onto another piece of paper. •Bar Graph: This is a simple bar graph students use to record data from a question for each glyph. You can then use them to have students draw conclusions based on the data. BUNDLE #2: ELL Newcomer Ultimate Starter Pack 1. Picture Dictionary with Vocabulary Activities • Picture Dictionary Topics: -School Vocabulary (2 Pages - Supplies & Routines) -Family -Descriptions -Emotions -Home -Body Parts & Five Senses -Transportation -Food -Fruits & Vegetables -Daily Routines -Clothes -Shapes -Colors -Animals -Ocean Animals -Insects -Sports & Activities -Toys -Places -Jobs -Weather -Nature -Home • Vocabulary Activities: (for each topic) -Basic Matching: Students draw a line from the vocabulary word to its picture -Cut & Paste: Students cut out pictures and glue them under the appropriate vocabulary word. -Color & Shape Coding: Students follow simple visual directions to use a crayon to color and shape around each vocabulary word. This provides colors and shapes vocabulary reinforcement through each of the topics. -Writing: Students write the vocabulary word next to its picture. 2. Thematic Vocabulary Posters These posters are full-sized colored sheets of the same topics covered in My Picture Dictionary (above). 3. Interactive Mini Books (Set 1) These are simple books with repetitive sentence starters. Students cut out the pictures or phrases on the last page of their mini reader and glue them on their correct page. Each book is 9-12 pages long, which includes the cover and last page of cut-outs.   • Stories included: -Sports & Activities: “A Rainy Day” -Sports & Activities: “A Sunny Day” -Daily Routines: “All About Our Days” -School Supplies: “What’s in Your Backpack?” -Food: “What’s for Lunch?” -Body Parts: “My 5 Senses” -Toys: “What’s Your Favorite Toy?” 4. Desk Name Plates These desk name plates include shapes, colors, hundreds chart, alphabet letters & beginning sound pictures, place value, Pre-Primer and Primer sight words, left & right direction cues, and number spellings. • ELL Option: The hundreds chart is replaced with tons of helpful school vocabulary. • Printing Options: A full color, colored boxes only with white background, or grayscale desk name plate are all included. • Editable Option: This is an option to replace the Sight Words box or fill-in student names ahead of time. You can also replace sections of the desk name plate you would like to change for your own students by inserting text boxes. 5. School Supplies Vocabulary Unit • Vocabulary Poster • Vocabulary Cards: These can be used as flashcards, a word wall, or hole punched onto word ring. Labels are also included as a separate PDF with different color options and school supplies as singular nouns (for flashcards or word wall) or plural nouns (for labels). Lastly, there is an editable "create your own" labels PowerPoint for even more flexibility. • Lift the Flap Book (2 Pages): Students cut on the dotted lines of the cover page to create the flaps. Then, they glue the cover page to the bottom page along the center. Two cover options are available: with clipart or without clipart. • Lift the Flap Foldable (1 Page): This is an alternative to the lift the flap book for a 1 page option. Students cut on the dotted lines and then fold each side over the center images. They write the vocabulary term on the outside of the flap. • Interactive Mini Reader: This is a simple book with repetitive sentence starters. Students cut out the pictures on the last page of their mini reader and glue them on their correct page. • Worksheets: These provide students chances to build up from simple matching to writing with the vocabulary words. They are great for independent practice or homework. • Discussion Starters: Each photograph comes with an image the teacher uses to work on oral language skills through discussion. After folding the paper in half, the teacher has questions on their side and the students have the image facing them. The teacher can also see sentence starters, which can be written on the board as a support for beginning ELLs. This is great for providing vocabulary and boost writing confidence for the next activity (#8, below). • Photography Free-Writes: Students have space to write vocabulary from the discussion (#7, above). Then, they write about the photograph. There are 2 writing rule width options included. • Vocabulary Cards: Smaller vocabulary cards that are perfect for a matching game or Bingo. • Bingo Cards(10 cards) Vocabulary Words: scissors, backpack, book, ruler, pencil, eraser, crayons, glue, glue stick, notebook, paper, highlighter, calculator, pencil sharpener, tape, folder, clipboard, lunchbox 6. Back to School Listen to This! Oral Language Game • Game Instructions with Visuals • Notes for Differentiating & Game Variations • 4 Game Boards (2 school supply vocabulary, 2 school actions vocabulary) • 4 Game Card Sheets • Score Cards (2 size options) • Number Cards 7. ELL Progress Reports or Report Card Addendums For ESL/ELLs that are difficult to grade due to low English proficiency, it can be disheartening to send home a report card with mostly 1s. These report card add-ons, or progress reports, provide a way to communicate with parents solely on their learner qualities and growth in English in academic areas. -Included are the exact copies we use for Grades 1-8 in our district, along with more generic copies that could be used to your district’s needs (blanks for subject areas, and a date only space rather than for trimester/quarter). If there's another change you need me to make on the document to fit your district's needs please let me know by e-mail at [email protected] and I can custom make you an additional page 8. Academic Vocabulary Notebook • 4 Cover Options (“School Words” with boy or girl cover, “Academic

All About Me FLOWERS Poster Banners Craftivity ✔️This creative activity is a fun way for students to express themselves and share about their unique personalities. It's perfect for the beginning of the school year as a "get to know you" project or as a regular spotlight on individual students. ✔️Versatile Use: This activity can be used any time during the year, not just for back-to-school. It can be a fun way to refresh classroom dynamics, celebrate individuality, or simply as a creative break from routine. ✔️ Perfect for: Back-to-school icebreaker activities Getting to know new classmates Classroom displays and bulletin boards Creating a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment Product Features: Choose from 2 poster crafts Includes 24 different kid faces for students to choose from, with two different versions: one with faces and one without (for students to draw their own faces) Includes 5 word bank printables for completing posters Provides 8 extra "About Me" practice pages for more writing fun Available in both gr ay/gr ey and col or/col our spellings Printable poster directions for easy setup Includes 3 different titles for bulletin board display in both color and black and white Ready photos of the final outcome for reference Digital Option: For teachers who prefer digital activities, we've included a Google Slides version. Simply share the activity with students in Google Classroom, and they can enter their own information. Students will use Google Slides to insert their thoughts and ideas, answering each of the questions listed in the project. This provides teachers with both printable and digital options to suit their needs. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ✔️Celebrate each student's individuality with the "All About Me FLOWERS Poster Banners Craftivity"! ✔️Encourage self-expression and creativity with this interactive activity that lets students showcase what makes them unique. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ✅Click the preview button for a detailed look at what's included! You may also be interested in: All About Me / Star of The Week/ Month Bee Theme Classroom:❤️ ALL ABOUT ME / BUNDLE Summer-WRITING ✏️ACTIVITIES❤️ Back to School & End of the School Year All About My Summer-1 ❤️Writing Prompts /Back to School Ice Breaker All About My Summer-2 ❤️ Back to School Ice Breaker All About Me Banner Activity /Superhero Theme I truly appreciate your support and look forward to hearing your feedback. Don't forget to rate this product! :) You will also receive FREE credits towards your future purchases. Thank YOU! __________________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click here to follow me and be first to hear about resources, sales and updates! Thank you for visiting the ★ESL Classroom★.  Have fun teaching !❤️ Victoria ✉ Find me on Facebook ✉ Follow me on Instagram

A David Goes to School cut-and-paste activity that can be used in the beginning of the school year. Visit my blog for more Back to School Themed Printable Resources and activity ideas :) Be sure to "Follow me" for updates on new products and freebies!! And please don’t forget to leave a review if you love this product! Through leaving reviews, you can earn TpT credits, which are points that can be applied to future TpT purchases. Thank you!

I really dislike icebreakers. They make me cringe. When I became a teacher, I swore I would spare my students the torture of icebreakers. That being said, I also realize how important it is to buil…

This 5-day set of community building activities is all about the importance of saying our names correctly. Designed for the multicultural or ESL classroom, this resource will help you establish the norm at the beginning of the school year that all of our names deserve respect. Learning Objectives: Through this mini-unit, students will: Identify the meaning, origin, and story of their own name Understand that "familiar" names vary across cultures Understand why it's important to say names correctly Develop strategies for saying other peoples' names correctly and helping others say their own name correctly Day-by-day Activities: Day 1: Students interview a family member to learn about their own name Day 2: Students complete a poster with symbolism representing the meaning of their name Day 3: Students present their name posters Day 4: Students discuss how names vary across cultures and why it's important to say names correctly Day 5: Students reflect on what they learned What's Included: 5 days of lesson plans Student handouts Slides Classroom posters (strategies for saying names correctly) You might also be interested in these ESL resources: Mentor Sentences for ESL Academic Vocabulary Daily Practice 10-Minute Grammar Mini-Lessons Seasonal Vocabulary Task Cards Poster Bundle ESL Growth Mindset: What to Say Instead of "I Don't Know" Multilingual Welcome Posters with Country Flags Informational Text Structure Paragraph Frames for ESL Don't forget to leave a rating and a review! This earns you credits toward future purchases AND helps me tremendously in my product development. Want more from The ESL Studio? Please follow my shop!

Even in the middle of the summer, I still find myself thinking about the upcoming school year and what I can do to make it even better than the last. Today I thought I would share one of the routines

The Most Comprehensive ESL Teacher Planner Available Organize in Style - Take Control of Your Responsabilities TRANSFORM YOUR DAILY WORK ACTIVITIES Use the monthly pages to track meetings with teachers and parentsUse the planner to

A through Z Countdown to Summer This A through Z Countdown to Summer is a great activity to help me get through the last 26 days of school! This activity consists of 26 fun, low maintenance activities that correlates with each letter of the alphabet. Each daily activity requires little to no prep work for me!! Many of these end of school countdowns that I have found online require a lot of prep work, notes home, reminders, etc. I did not want that! These daily activities are simple activities that provide a fun brain break for the students! Here is a look into each day's activities: Here is the poster I display the letter of the day on. Here is a look into C's activity! This is what the letter activity cards look like: I begin this activity 26 school days before the end of the year. I start with the letter A and do a letter each day until the last day of school. Each day I surprise my students on what the letter activity for the day is going to be. They love to guess what activity they will get to do for each letter! I roll up each activity card and place it in a balloon labeled with that letter. At the end of the day we pop the balloon and see what fun activity we get to do for the last hour of the day. I save the activity for the end of the day because the students are usually checked out by then. Plus I use it as a behavior management tool. If I have students that are not behaving during the day I have them miss out on the fun end of the day letter activity. Click HERE to download my A through Z Countdown to Summer activity from my TpT store! I pair this activity with this activity..... End of School Alphabet Countdown Booklet This activity is a great end of the school year concept review! It's perfect to use for any grade! I begin this activity 26 school days before the last day of school. Each day I have the students think of the concepts they have learned throughout the school year that begins with the letter of the day. For example, on the first day of the activity the students think of all the things they learned throughout the year that begins with the letter A. Some examples are: addition, antonyms, etc. I like to have the students work on this activity independently first. Then, after some time I allow the students to work with their group. Finally, we share and discuss what everyone put together as a class. As we share, I use it as a great review opportunity. The students will amaze you on how much they remember and what they can think of for each letter! Here is an example of how many things we think of for each letter! If you don't want to make the entire booklet for this activity you could always use the one page A though Z worksheet instead! Click HERE to download my End of School Alphabet Countdown Booklet from my TpT Store! Autograph Booklet At the end of the school year we always have a yearbook signing party. It never fails I have tons of students who do not purchase a yearbook each year. So I put together this autograph booklet for the students to sign during the yearbook signing party. Since it's only one page I make one for each of my students...even if they bought a yearbook. I made it just one page (copied front to back) because let's face it the last thing I want to do at the end of the year is make tons of copies. LOL! Also it never fails we are always running low on paper at the end of the school year. This booklet works out perfect and there is always plenty of room for all the student's signatures. You also can have the students spend some time coloring it! :) Here is the front of the booklet. There is a spot for the student's name, the school, and year. I have made this page specific for each grade level. Plenty of room for autographs! The back of the booklet is reserved for the teachers to sign and write a message to the students. Click HERE to download my Autograph Booklet from my TpT Store! Summer Reading Challenge I give this Summer Reading Challenge to my students on the last day of school. I have them complete it with their families over the summer to keep their reading skills up. Those students who complete the reading challenge over the summer and return it to me on the first day of the new school year get a reward! Here is the note I send home to my parents explaining the Summer Reading Challenge and why it's important for their child to read over the summer. Here is the summer reading challenge. I have the parents initial in each box as their child completes the activity. Click HERE to download my Summer Reading Challenge from my TpT Store! Memory Binders/Student Portfolios I keep a memory binder/portfolio for each of my students throughout the school year. I keep writing activities, special work, assessments, etc. in the binder. I use these monthly dividers to organize all the paperwork inside each binder. I run the dividers on cardstock paper and allow the students to color it how they wish! At the end of the school year the students get to take their binders home as a parent gift! It's a great way to showcase each student's progress throughout the year to their parents! Click HERE to download my Monthly Dividers for End of Year Memory Binders and/or Portfolios from my TpT Store!

Listening and following verbal or oral directions is an important skill that many students lack. You may relate to Charlie Brown's teacher after going over step-by-step directions. Students often hear the sound the teacher's voice is making, but fail to tune into the meaning of the words. When students aren't actively listening, they miss important information that can impact their academic AND behavior in the classroom. One way you can help your students practice active listening so they will follow directions is with a fun activity called Listen and Draw. Listen and Draw is a great activity to do with your class at the beginning of the year when you are teaching class procedures. Include these with your plans after breaks as a warmup plus a good reminder about practicing listening and following directions. Grab a free copy of FREE Listen & Draw - Following Directions Activity. Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

With this document, I outlined a curriculum that you can use with your newcomer ELL students who just arrived to the country. I know that in many schools teachers are lost as to where to start with students, especially when they come in the middle of the year. This outline should help you find a pla...

The last 2 weeks of school, we've been working on our last part of our memory books. I posted about them before, you can read about them {HERE} and HERE Don't they look so beautiful all finished?! I love how they turn out! Some years I bind them with a comb, and other years, I just staple them together. It all depends on the time and volunteers. haha! I really love making these memory books each year. You can totally see the change that they make from August to May. I'm always SO amazed! So these are the last set of pages that we've been working on... I took their pictures and printed them at Walgreens and they glued them on their self portrait page. They finished thieir "Favorites" page... I also took their measurement with a piece of yarn and they put it in their coin envelope. I think next year I am going to take a picture of the school so they can glue it on there... I never give them a picture of me for this page - I love to see their drawings of me! AND, there is a file in the download of editable pages! All the pages that you can glue pictures down on are editable so that you can add the pictures on the pages digitally and then print them with the picture already on them! I also like to add text boxes and type in the students' names under the class picture. You can do whatever works best for you! I do this for our "Class Picture" page. I add in a big "good" picture of us all and type in all the names. Then I add in some goofy pictures for fun - one of the beginning of the year and one from the end. We also have an "autograph" day with our grade level, (I'll post about that later) and that is added to the end of the book... and the a note from the teacher is on the last cover page. I've had some requests from friends in other grades, so I have a PreK, Kindergarten, and 2nd grade edition too! These are just the end of the year pages - here's what is all included! And now there is a vertical version!! I have added 3rd grade to the list of grades in my store. Check them out in my TpT store {HERE}.

I have four days left... and I'm getting a little sad! I've had half of my people for two years now and I'm sooo going to miss them! I'm ...

Giving students an easy, independent activity to start as soon as they arrive on the first day of school is a great way to calm their nerves. It also allows you to focus on greeting new students and getting supplies organized and put away. Here is a great first day of school printable that students ... Read More about Read & Find – First Day of School Printable

We had our first day of school with students Wednesday and I forgot how utterly exhausting and mind blowing that first day is! We did lots ...

A great generic and editable welcome letter for all Special Education Teachers to use at the beginning of the school year.

The best "icebreaker" activity for high school students (who hate icebreaker activities). Get a jump start on creating a bond with your students.

Learn how to set yearlong plans, plan for a unit and daily topics, and create lessons plans.

★★★ ESL LAP BOOK ★★★ This fun and interactive ESL Lap Book is the perfect way to begin the school year. Your Cycle Two ESL students will love this fun and hands-on project. In this product, you will find two lap book options to best meet your students' needs. Option 1: ★ A Ready-To-Use Lap Book (Print - Cut and Glue) Option 2: ★ A Blank Version This Lap Book kit contains the following interactive parts: Lapbook cover (3 options) Self-portrait Numbers Feelings Functional language Days of the week Months of the year Seasons School supplies Classroom actions Shapes Colors Weather There's also an editable Powerpoint with instructions on ''how'' to build the Lap Book. I recommend creating this lap book one section at a time, and MODELING first. Check the PREVIEW to see more of what is inside! You are purchasing a compressed ZIP file containing regular PDF files. Before purchasing, please check that you are able to open ZIP files and ensure that your ZIP opening software is updated. If you are having technical issues opening this ZIP file, please let me know either in the Q&A section or contact me on Facebook. I always appreciate your feedback. Do not hesitate to contact me on FACEBOOK if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to improve this resource. Thank you for visiting my store! Visit my BLOG for more ESL resources and ideas. Happy teaching everyone! © Valerie Caron ******************************************************************* Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. ☺ Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. Voila! You will now receive email updates about this store. ☺ ********************************************************************