Engaging ESL Centers Activity: Building Sentences with Picture Cards

Are you looking for a fun and interactive way to help your ESL students practice sentence structure? Look no further! I'm excited to share a creative centers activity that will engage your students and reinforce their understanding of sentence formation, while building both social/instructional and academic vocabulary. This activity uses picture cards to inspire students to create their own sentences, making learning enjoyable and effective.

Materials Needed:

1. Picture cards with various objects, actions, and scenes (e.g., animals, people, activities)

2. Word cards with basic vocabulary (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)

3. Sentence recording worksheet

4. (Optional) Task Card boxes (I buy them at Michael's)

How to Set Up the Activity:

1. Create a designated "sentence-building" center in your classroom. This can be a table or a corner with enough space for students to spread out the picture and word cards.

2. Place the picture cards in a pile face down and the word cards in another pile nearby.

3. Optionally, you can display a sentence structure chart on the wall to serve as a guide for students.

How to Play:

1. A student picks a picture card from the pile without showing it to the others.

2. The student then selects word cards to build a sentence describing the picture.

3. After constructing the sentence, the student reads it aloud to the group.

4. The other students can guess which picture card the sentence describes.

5. Rotate turns so that each student has a chance to create sentences.

Variations and Extensions:

-->For beginners, provide a sentence structure chart or sentence frames to help them form complete sentences.

-->Encourage students to write down their sentences for extra writing practice.

-->Use the activity as a springboard for discussions about grammar rules and sentence structure.

Benefits of the Activity:

Your ELLs will begin to understand not only English vocabulary, but also English syntax and grammar (how the language is structured and functions). They will also be using the verb "to be" and can begin to make statements about things around them ("The pencil is yellow.").

-->Encourages creativity and critical thinking as students construct their own sentences.

-->Reinforces vocabulary and grammar skills in a hands-on way.

-->Promotes collaboration and communication as students work together to guess each other's sentences.

-->Provides a low-pressure environment for practicing language skills.

In conclusion, this is a great, non-threatening activity for a variety of ages. Students will feel confident at being able to say full sentences in English in a relatively quick time period. The task card nature of this activity also makes it ideal for a centers or partner assignment.