5 Engaging ESL Filler Activities for Your Classroom

Keeping an ESL class engaging can be challenging, but effective filler activities make a big difference. These activities fill short lesson gaps while reinforcing language skills in a fun way.

Here are some ready-to-use ESL filler activities that cover various skills and can be adapted to different proficiency levels.

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What Are ESL Filler Activities?

ESL filler activities are short, engaging exercises that you can use to fill in small gaps of time or warm up your students at the beginning of class. They can help break the ice and allow students to practice English skills in a relaxed way.

The most important factor in using filler activities is student engagement. You want these exercises to spark the enthusiasm that will motivate you and your class daily. This is especially true when teaching challenging concepts. 

ESL filler activities are also diverse and flexible. They can be stand-alone activities, or they can complement the core material in your lesson plan. Let’s take a look at five filler activities you can use to energize and engage your students.

1. Deserted on an Island

Deserted on an Island poses the age-old question to your students, “If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you bring?” This activity combines creativity and communication for a fun-filled learning atmosphere.

It covers skills including quick English thought, vocabulary, grammar, writing and discussion. Here’s how you can use this ESL filler activity in your next class:

• Start this activity off by writing the question on the board. Draw a desert island and a stranded person for an extra visual boost.
• Next, tell your students what two things you would bring if deserted on an island. Write your two choices on the board and follow up by explaining why you chose those items. Take questions regarding your choices, and ensure that your class understands the activity.
• Next, pose the question to your students. Give them a minute or two to be creative and write down their choices.
• Once your students are ready, choose a student and ask them what two things they chose. Then let other students in the class ask them why they chose those things. Repeat with the next student, and so on.

This ESL filler activity can be paired with core lesson plans covering vocabulary or grammatical concepts such as hypotheticals. Ensure you keep the momentum moving to keep engagement high among the class.

2. The End Is the Beginning

This is a fast-paced activity with a strong focus on vocabulary. It also covers skills such as quick English thought, communication, speaking and listening.

You’ll need to choose a few topics you’ve already covered in class, or you can pair it with a vocabulary lesson to ensure comprehension. Here’s how it works:

• You’ll first set the topic for the first round. For example, let’s say the topic is “animals.” You’ll say an animal such as “bird” and then point to Student A.
• Student A will need to quickly form a new word that relates to animals in some way using the last letter of the word “bird,” which is the letter “D.”
• Student A will stand and say, for example, “dog” and point to Student B. Student B will think on his or her feet, stand and say, for example, “giraffe” and point to Student C.
• The activity will continue around the classroom until the topic is exhausted or students become stumped.

It’s best practice to begin with an easy topic, such as animals, verbs, etc. in order to ease into this fun and engaging ESL filler activity. Here’s a list of ESL vocabulary categories you may find helpful.

3. I Love

I Love is an ESL filler activity that focuses on students’ interests. It’s great for boosting classroom energy and helps students get to know each other better.

It will also help your students with vocabulary, grammar, speaking, listening and sentence construction. Here’s how you can use this activity in class:

• First, give your students an example. Start the activity by telling your class a few things you love. For example, “I love dogs” or “I love to travel.”
• Next, ask Student A what he or she loves. They may say, “I love soccer.” You’ll then repeat what they love and say something you love. For example, “Student A loves soccer, but I love to travel.”
• Then point to Student B. Student B could say, “Teacher loves to travel, but I love pizza” and then point to Student C, who could say, “Student B loves pizza, but I love my dog, Harry.”

The momentum will build as students each engage in listening and saying what they love. This activity is certainly simple, but very fast-paced.

4. Story Spoilers

Story Spoilers allows your students to listen and communicate in a fun way while using their creativity. It also covers quick English thought, grammar, writing and storytelling.

This activity can complement a lesson plan covering a variety of core topics such as household, places, verbs and verb tenses. The objective is to get students talking with one another in small groups. Here’s how it works:

• First, put your class into small groups. Next, write an open-ended question on the board or have your students dictate what you say in their English notebooks.
• Let’s say the beginning of the first story is, “I went to the park with my dog and… ” Those small student groups will discuss and write a few endings to the story—AKA spoilers. Put a time limit on this to keep up the momentum and push them to think quickly in English.  
• Once the groups are ready, ask Group A what their spoilers are. They may have written, “I went to the park with my dog and he ate my ice cream.” Then ask Group B and so on, until all spoilers are read.
• Finally, have students vote for their favorite spoilers to bring this fun ESL filler activity to a close.

If you’re focusing on writing, you can have your students write the middle of the story later in class or for homework. You can also float around the classroom to check grammar and answer questions if needed. 

5. This or That

This or That will push your students to be quick listeners and thinkers and practice their speaking skills. It’s a fast-paced and engaging activity where students must make quick decisions in English to keep the momentum going.

You’ll need to have a few props ready for this activity such as a hat, pencils, scarf, shoes, shirt, books, etc. for students to choose from. Each student should have one item. Here’s how it works:

• First, give your students an example of how this activity will go. Give each student one item from your prop box. Then ask Student A if he or she would rather have this (what you have) or that (what Student A has).
• Student A will choose one item by responding, “I would rather have this” (what they have in their hand) or “I would rather have that” (what you have in your hand).
• If the Student A chooses that, they’ll come and exchange the items. Student A will then ask Student B, “Would you rather have this or that?” This continues until all students have asked and answered the “This or That” question.

You can add demonstrative plurals into this fun ESL filler activity by using “these” or “those” with multiple props. 

If you need more filler activities for your ESL class, a program like FluentU will engage and entertain your students while filling those minutes at the end of class or transitioning between topics.

Whether you need a short video to highlight a point or some fun activities to test the student’s vocabulary, you can enjoy lots of versatility with FluentU. 

 

ESL filler activities are a great way to engage students of all levels and ages and keep your lessons fun and fresh. 

With these activities in your back pocket, you can spark class intrigue at a moment’s notice.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)