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, ready-to-use vocabulary kit provides everything you need to target critical Who, What, Where, When, and Why questions, build descriptive language, and practice inferencing skills with your students. Based on six vibrant, high-quality “busy scenes,” this resource is great for oral language and vocabulary development. What’s Included in This Kit: 1. Six High-Quality…
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…
Teach your students the essential modern skill of writing a clear and effective email with this complete, ready-to-use mini-unit. This resource uses vibrant, engaging slides and practical activities to guide students through the entire process, from planning to publishing. This mini-unit covers the crucial differences between formal and informal emails, making it the perfect…
Enhance your students’ reading comprehension and scientific understanding with this comprehensive resource, focused on How Vaccines Work from the Level 4 November 2022 School Journal. This teaching tool is a great addition to your structured literacy program. It engages students in deep comprehension strategies, vocabulary building, grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal reasoning, and content knowledge…
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 resource is a comprehension, discussion, and activity guide accompanying the New Zealand CHAPTERS series. This series supports Year 3 students in transitioning to reading longer texts. The resource supports the teaching and reading of Papa Pasi’s Fabulous Birthday by Victor Rodger. Niva’s family have arrived from overseas. They’ve come to surprise Papa Pasi…
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,…
Enhance your students’ reading comprehension and cultural understanding with this comprehensive resource, focused on Brave from the Year 7-8 November 2025 School Journal. This teaching tool is a great addition to your structured literacy program. It engages students in deep comprehension strategies, vocabulary building, grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal reasoning, and content knowledge—key elements…
Enhance your students’ reading comprehension and cultural understanding with this whole-class teaching resource, focused on Standing with the Ancestors: Fifty Years of Polyfest from the Year 7-8 November 2025 School Journal. This teaching tool is great as an addition to your structured literacy program. It engages students in deep comprehension strategies, vocabulary building, grammar,…
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…
Develop your students’ reading comprehension with this comprehensive whole-class teaching resource, focused on the story Spotting Kiwi from the Year 4 November 2025 School Journal. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program. Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. Spotting Kiwi – School Journal Year 4 November 2025 This…
Develop your students’ reading comprehension with this comprehensive resource, focused on The Polish Refugee Children from the Level 2 November 2016 School Journal. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program. Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. This teaching tool engages students in deep comprehension strategies, vocabulary building, grammar,…
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 contains 8 independent activity sheets designed for Year 5 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 5” in the heading and a version without it….
This colourful set of 32 Verbs Tasks Cards helps students to understand one of the key building blocks of sentences. Print and laminate these verb and verb tenses 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….
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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