3 Spring Lesson Ideas

Self-quarantine, week 6.
I’ve heard rumours that it’s already spring out there, in the wild. It may be, as I haven’t been on a walk for weeks. To be sure, it is somewhat frustrating… So I decided to revive some spring spirit itn an EFL classroom – be that online or offline – so below you’ll find my three favourite no-prep ideas for spring-related activities.

The Colors of Evil

What’s better than pink, fluffy and cuddly evil? Pink, fluffy and cuddly evil that helps you work on your English!
One of my favourite shorts is The Colors of Evil, an unbelievably adorable film showing you the importance of spelling… and friendship. All you need is click on this link and see a ready lesson plan.
This lesson is so colourful and fresh, it will brighten any day!

Spring poems

I remember when I asked my students to write spring poems…
I don’t think they realised that they would have been able to write something creative and even vaguely reminding a piece of poetry, so they were really surprised when I collected their projects and read them out loud, and to their surprise they managed to do it just beautifully!
If you want to see the lesson plan – and my students’ poetry – just click here.

I rewrote the poems into Canva projects, printed them out and decorated school with them, however in the online classroom I would encourage them to make their own Canva posters – you may still print them out once you get back to your classroom.

Tourists attractions (A2-B1 and above)

It’s a little project that takes around two lessons, with a lot of fun for students and literally nothing you have to do before the class, as Google Maps or Google Street View showing the vicinity of your school will do just fine.

On the first lesson, students pick some interesting places around the school and, in secret, make up interesting stories about them – on lower levels they may work in pairs to feel more comfortable. They should write the stories down and optionally give you to proofread (I skipped this step hoping to be surprised and indeed I was, so in case you prefer to have some control over these  particularly controversial stories – go for proofreading).

On the second lesson just go for a walk using either Google Maps or Google Street View, stop in front of each landmark and let the person who made up a story about it, tell it the way tourist guides do.

Where’s the fun? First of all, stories. I listened to various tales of cannibalism in an old asylum (you’d never think of it, looking at an ordinary kebab place), a series of unexplained disappearances and eerie cults (obviously, a church), haunted graveyard (in a park, not in an actual graveyard as that would be too obvious) etc.
Secondly, you’ll enjoy an impression of a real excursion. Feel free to talk about your favourite places, where you would like to go once the self-isolation time is over etc. It can be a simple, yet memorable experience!

I hope you like my ideas – frankly speaking, I’ve felt spring just writing them down. Have fun with your students!

Stay safe!