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Do you have Newcomer Multinlingual Learners (MLs) and want to engage them in the fun and excitement of Halloween WHILE STILL teaching content?! Then read on--this blog post is for YOU!
Halloween is a very prominent American cultural tradition, so it's important that you make time in your class to help your MLs understand a little bit of the history, symbols, and language. But of course you have a curriculum of ESL to get through...how to combine both?! Let's take a look at some lesson and actvitiy ideas that can accomplish this AND are Newcomer friendly.
Halloween Bingo to teach seasonal vocabulary to ESL students
BINGO is a fantastic game to develop vocabulary on a specific topic. My students love this game and beg to play it. We usually start each new season with a bingo game so that they can be empowered with the words to describe what they are seeing around them.
Another thing that is great about bingo is that it's very low stress. This is KEY for Newcomer MLs. Their affective filter is up so high (especially in middle and high school), that they need something fun and lighthearted in order to begin to learn. Bingo with a Halloween theme does JUST THAT. They are learning without even realizing that they are learning. It's brilliant. Here's how I use the bingo game in order of how I teach the words and structure the lesson: 1. Use the vocabulary cards to pre-teach all the words that students will ne using in the game. If you'd like to purchase my Bingo set, the vocab cards all come with high quality pictures to help students remember the words 2. Practice Game Language ("Can you repeat that?" "I won!" "I need (#) more!")
3. Use the vocab cards as calling cards and start the game. Speak clearly and point to the pictures. As students get better, you can avoid pointing to the pictures.
Click the image to the right to purchase this ready-made ESL Halloween Bingo Game -->
Pumpkin reading comprehension passage to develop reading skills and teach about an American tradition
Use the fun fall traditions as a backdrop for your content teaching. For example, picking and carving pumpkins can serve as the topic for a reading strategies lesson, vocabualry activity, speaking activity, etc. Take a look at one of my resources below.
This resources is a great confidence boosters for newcomer ESL students and I have used it repeatedly with great success! Students also enjoy the fun, spooky, holiday theme. Halloween is a big deal in the United States, but not so in other countries. This fun reading passage and activities introduce your multilingual learners to the language and traditions surrounding Halloween.
I expanded on the reading and added another component to this lesson because I wanted to get my students
speaking. Check out the "Design Your Own Pumpkin" Write and Speak task to the right. Students wrote out their jack-o-lantern descriptions (with support and sentence starters) first. Then we presented our pumpkins to the class and read the descriptions aloud.
If you'd like to purchase this product, click on either of the pictures!
Halloween themed prepositions lesson to teach a tricky grammar topic
Prepositions are notoriously difficult and frustrating for second language learners. However, you can infuse a lot of fun into a lesson on prepositions by adding some Halloween elements! Teach your students Halloween vocabulary and then translate that vocab into a lesson or activity on prepositions.
For example, I made different levels of task cards that my students could complete, using Halloween objects with the various prepositions of location. Students needed to product language such as "The pumkpin is between the cat and the witch."
I also had them reading and drawing the location of things based on a short passage (see pic). OR, the reverse: I gave them a picture/Halloween scene, and they had to write as many sentences as they could, using prepositions and describing the location of things.
This was a fair bit of prep, I will say, so if you'd like the ready-made lesson, click on any of the images to purchase it.
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