ESL Newcomer Activities - Back to School ESL Newcomer ELL Resources

Set your ELL Newcomers up for a successful school year from the first day of school with tons of activities and supports to build vocabulary, reading, writing, oral language, and listening comprehension. Entering a classroom as a non-English speaker can be a very overwhelming experience for your ESL students, but these ELL resources will make them feel welcomed, empowered, and confident in tackling tasks in English. All resources are discounted 20% off as part of this money-saving bundle! Check out the product preview for a visual look at what is included!

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

Note: You can click on each of the product titles to be taken to their individual product links.

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 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 cassdonoian@gmail.com and I can custom make you an additional page

8. Academic Vocabulary Notebook

• 4 Cover Options (“School Words” with boy or girl cover, “Academic Vocabulary” with plain cover or book clip art for older students)

• 5 Subject Dividers (2 Options – with/without clipart) for Science, Math, ELA/Reading, Social Studies, and Other

• 5 Subject Pages (with 1 example for each of the 4 major content areas: math, science, social studies, ELA)

9. Start from Scratch Sight Words

These ten 5-page packets are perfect for daily sight word work. Each lesson introduces 4 Dolch Pre-Primer sight words, as well as 2-4 ”Words to Know”. All “Words to Know”/vocabulary words are used in context with the target sight words. They are pictured to build background knowledge and provide support for your ELLs.

10 Sight Word Packets: Activities Included in each packet:

1. Sight Word Find & Color Code

2. Sight Word Sentence Reading & Picture Match-Up

3. Cut, Trace, & Paste Fill-Ins

4. Sight Word Sentence Scramble

5. Sight Word Showcase

10. Personal Pronouns Unit

In this Personal Pronouns (subject and object pronouns) Unit every question, fill in, etc. on every page is accompanied by a visual/clipart. This is to build students’ vocabulary and allow to them to apply new grammatical skills in an authentic way that is comprehensible to them regardless of their language knowledge.

This unit includes anchor charts and target word wall cards for clear instruction of both subject and object pronouns individually. Follow-up activities include matching, cut & paste, fill-ins, writing activities, and reading (a comic-strip style text using each skill in context).

11. Differentiated Interview Page (Freebie)

This differentiated “All About Me” interview page is perfect for students of all levels! Visuals are included next to each category to give your ELLs and beginning readers support! This page is differentiated with 2 writing options (with dotted line or single line) and a picture-only option. 

• Fill-ins:

-Name

-Favorites (Food, Color, Activity, Animal, Place)

-Likes & Dislikes

-When I Grow Up

-My Family

If you are looking for great activities for your ELL peers, check out the full Double Bundle: Back to School & ELL Newcomer Pack, perfect to fit the needs of ALL your students!