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!
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 is designed as a decodable text for older readers (year 4 – Year 8). It focuses on cricket and contains factual information about it and personal stories of the narrator and their love of the sport. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: The text emphasises the following phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences: /k/ phoneme represented by -ck,…
This resource is designed as a decodable text for older readers (Year 4 – Year 8). It focuses on Slugs and Snails (minibeasts) and contains information about the differences between the bugs and some non-fiction information about them. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: It has a particular focus on long /ā/ sounds, represented by ‘ai’ and…
This resource is designed as a decodable text for older readers (year 4 – Year 8). It focuses on a fictional narrative about a trip to a shop and includes details about what the children bought and saw. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: It has a particular focus on: digraphs: sh, ch, th, -ng and…
This comprehensive resource provides 10 independent activity sheets designed for Year 3 students to practice essential literacy skills autonomously. These activities are ideal for literacy rotations, homework, or early finishers, allowing students to work without interrupting the teacher. Please note: We’ve included a version with “Year 3” in the heading and a version without…
Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. This comprehensive resource based on the article ‘Kūmara – Behind the Scenes’ from Junior Journal 63, 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. Kūmara – Behind…
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…
Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. This comprehensive resource based on the article ‘What is a Tree>’ from Junior Journal 64, will develop your students’ reading comprehension while also developing key content knowledge. It is a great addition to your Year 3 structured literacy program. What is a Tree – Junior…
Develop your students’ reading comprehension with this comprehensive resource, focused on the non-fiction article “Living by the Maramataka” from the Level 3 November 2022 School Journal. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program. Enhance Your Students’ reading comprehension skills with Science of Reading Principles. This teaching tool engages students in deep comprehension strategies,…
This resource is designed as a decodable text for older readers (Year 4 – Year 8). It is a simple narrative that follows Pete, who goes to the creek to look for frogs and gets stuck in the mud. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: It has a particular focus on: /ē/ (long e), represented by ‘ee’…
This resource is designed as a decodable text for older readers (Year 4 – Year 8). It focuses on bees and contains simple non-fiction information about their appearance and behaviour. Focus Phonemes and Graphemes: It has a particular focus on the Floss rule: -ff, -ll, -ss, -zz This resource contains: Decodable text ‘The Buzz…
This resource contains 8 independent activity sheets designed for Year 6 students to practice literacy skills autonomously. These tasks are structured to provide student agency and to allow teachers to work with other groups without frequent interruptions. Please note: We’ve included a version with “Year 6” in the heading and a version without it….
Develop your students’ reading comprehension and writing skills with this comprehensive resource, focused on the pūrākau (Māori legend) How Māui Discovered Fire. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program. Enhance Your Students’ reading comprehension skills with Science of Reading Principles. This reading and writing teaching tool engages students in deep comprehension strategies,…
Develop your students’ reading comprehension with this comprehensive resource, focused on the fiction story “Pai Tū, Pai Hinga” in New Zealand from the Year 5-6 November 2025 School Journal. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program. Enhance Your Students’ reading comprehension skills with Science of Reading Principles. This teaching tool engages students…
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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