Your search for fresh, effective activities for ESL students is over. At Top Teaching Tasks, our comprehensive collection of ESL teaching activities takes the stress out of lesson planning and puts the joy back into language teaching. From our popular inferring activities to advanced language exercises, we’ve covered every aspect of ESL learning.
Whether you’re teaching primary school newcomers or guiding advanced learners through complex language concepts, our ESL resources provide the perfect blend of educational value and engagement. Explore the collection of fun activities to teach English to second language learners below!
Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. This comprehensive resource, focused on the Cook Islands’ traditional story Mariri, the Flying Man from Junior Journal 60, will develop your students’ reading comprehension. It is great as an addition to your Year 3 structured literacy program. Mariri, the Flying Man—Junior Journal 60: This…
This resource is designed as a decodable text for older readers (year 4 – Year 8). It is a narrative about going away on a camping trip with friends. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: It has a particular focus on: /k/ phoneme represented by –ck, c and k /oa/ phoneme represented by oa, ow and…
Stop teaching literacy skills in isolation! This comprehensive unit brings a pivotal moment in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history to life while systematically building the reading and writing skills your students need. Grounded in the Science of Learning, this Women and the Vote unit is more than just a set of activities. It’s a carefully sequenced,…
These Phonics and Structured Literacy teaching slides have been created to specifically support the teaching and learning of nine consonant patterns -ff, -ll, -ss, -zz, -tch, -dge, qu, wh, x. This teaching tool could be used as a warm-up at the start of a structured literacy session, as revision or as a whole class lesson….
Prepare your students for intermediate math with these 70 Year 6 (Phase 2) “Number of the Day” slides. Designed for the specific needs of Year 6 students, this resource connects complex place value concepts with fractions, decimals, and percentages. These daily warm-ups are rigorous and designed to build fluency across the full base-10 system—extending…
This colourful set of 32 Adjectives Tasks Cards helps students to understand one of the key building blocks of sentences. Print and laminate these adjectives task cards for regular use! These grammar-syntax activities align with the Science of Reading (SoR). This resource is a practical addition to your structured literacy programme. Activities link directly…
This resource provides follow-up activities and home-learning tasks for four new (March 2026) Ready to Read Phonics Plus Māhuri Sapling Level readers found in New Zealand schools. An engaging format is used to develop your students’ sense of agency and independence – perfect for your reading rotations. Texts Covered in this Resource: Lani in…
Unlock the power of descriptive writing in your junior classroom! This comprehensive, no-prep unit provides everything you need to teach your Year 1-3 students how to write with vivid detail using the five senses. Transform simple sentences into rich, imaginative descriptions and watch your students’ writing confidence soar. Say goodbye to “It was nice”…
This complete unit, built for the NZ Curriculum (Phase One, Years 2-3), provides everything you need to systematically and explicitly teach the nine most common suffixes using an evidence-based, morphology-first approach. The nine suffixes included are -ing, -ed, -es, -s, -er, -est, -ly, -ful, and -less. Built on the principles of the Science of…
This resource is designed to give students extra fluency practice. Project the slides on your classroom projector or TV, and you are ready to go! A full teacher script is built into the slides to help guide you through the resource. The words used in this fluency resource are aligned to the scope and…
This comprehensive resource based on the report ‘Solar Power in Tokelau’ from Junior Journal 57, will develop your students’ reading comprehension while also developing key content knowledge. It is great as an addition to your Year 3 structured literacy program. You can also use this during Tokelau Language Week! Solar Power in Tokela –…
Enhance Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles Empower your students’ literacy skills with this whole class teaching structured literacy resource, tailored for teaching comprehension through The Art of Taiaha—a captivating article from the Level 4 June 2024 School Journal. This comprehensive resource integrates Science of Reading strategies, making it the perfect addition to your…
This resource provides follow-up activities and home-learning tasks for a new (March 2026) Ready to Read Phonics Plus Tupu Level reader: A Theme Tune found in New Zealand schools. An engaging format is used to develop your students’ sense of agency and independence – perfect for your reading rotations. Texts Covered in this Resource:…
Boost your students’ speaking and listening skills with this engaging pack of 5 Barrier Game Activities! This resource is a fun, hands-on tool designed to directly target the Oral Language strand of the New Zealand Curriculum for Phase 1 (Years 0-3). It provides a purposeful and playful way for students to express ideas and understand…
Enhance your students’ reading comprehension and knowledge of NZ history content with this comprehensive resource, focused on Kei te Tāone Nui – Māori and the City 1945-1970 from the Level 4 May 2021 School Journal. This teaching tool is great as an addition to your structured literacy program. It engages students in deep comprehension…
Boost Reading Comprehension with our “All as One” Whole-Class Teaching Resource Elevate your students’ reading comprehension skills using Science of Reading principles with this comprehensive resource. These activities focus on the “All as One” article from the Level 3 November 2020 School Journal. Ideal for structured literacy programmes and timely for Ramadan studies, this tool…
Our foundation-level ESL activities create a supportive environment for new English learners. Speaking and listening exercises form the core of this level, transforming potentially daunting concepts into enjoyable learning experiences that reinforce fundamental language structures.
Our intermediate activities for ESL students build on basic foundations and focus on developing more complex language skills. Conversation practice materials include reading comprehension and interactive exercises that improve understanding and critical thinking. Guide students from basic sentence construction to confident paragraph writing and strong inference and composition skills.
Our advanced ESL activities offer sophisticated language development opportunities for learners ready to refine their English mastery. Challenge students to think critically while expressing complex ideas fluently with more complex language exercises.
If you’re looking for ESL teaching activities that deliver results, our comprehensive collection stands out in the New Zealand education landscape for all the right reasons.
Whether teaching a diverse classroom of beginners or guiding higher-level students, you'll find materials that can be easily adapted to suit your teaching style and students' needs. Our collection ranges from back-to-school activities that help students settle in, to advanced language exercises for confident learners.
Moving beyond traditional worksheet-based learning, we’ve created interactive activities that excite students about learning English—from speaking exercises that build real-world confidence to writing activities that develop academic skills. Plus, with regular updates and new additions to our collection through our membership subscription, you’ll never run out of fresh and fun activities to teach English and keep your ESL lessons dynamic and effective.
We comprehensively design our ESL teaching activities to support every stage of the English learning journey. Each resource is carefully calibrated to match specific proficiency levels, ensuring students are appropriately challenged without feeling overwhelmed.
Our activities feature built-in flexibility that makes them particularly effective when you need to adjust the difficulty level up or down to match your student"s needs. Every activity comes with extension options for quick learners and additional support materials for those who need extra practice.
We update our ESL teaching resources monthly, ensuring you always have access to current and engaging materials. When you sign up for a membership subscription, you receive automatic access to all new and updated materials, along with helpful notifications about fresh content. This means you"ll never miss out on new activities that could benefit your students.
Absolutely. Since modern language teaching happens in various settings—whether one-on-one with a student or managing a lively classroom of 30—you can easily adapt our activities for ESL students to suit your teaching environment, ensuring consistent learning outcomes regardless of the setting.
From building basic conversation skills to mastering academic English, our resources provide the perfect blend of educational value and student engagement. Transform your ESL teaching experience with our comprehensive collection of fun activities to teach English.
Join our community of successful teachers; explore fun ESL teaching activities from Top Teaching Tasks today!
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