Day of the Dead
Lesson plan overview
In this FREE A2-B1 ESL lesson plan, students will learn about the Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos), a celebration widely observed in Mexico. The worksheet features a range of vocabulary activities, 2 short videos, and plenty of conversation questions. Other worksheets dedicated to autumn celebrations are “Halloween” and “Thanksgiving”.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a couple of conversation questions about the Day of the Dead. Next, students complete a quiz to check what they already know about the Day of the Dead, and to introduce some important vocabulary for the lesson.
Vocabulary: Students take a look at photos of things related to the Day of the Dead (e.g. marigolds, candles, an altar, sugar skulls, offerings, cemetery, tomb) and match the words to the correct photo. Then they complete 3 sentences related to the Day of the Dead with the correct word.
Video 1: Next, they watch the first video in this lesson, called “Día de los muertos: How to build an altar”, and complete the transcript with the missing words.
Vocabulary: Then, they are given 5 definitions and are tasked with finding the correct words in the transcript (e.g. deceased, departed, loved ones, to honor, relatives, soul). Following that, then march 4 words to their synonyms (to die – to pass away, to come together – to gather, to honor – to pay tribute, to decorate – to adorn). To practice the words they’ve just learned, students are given a short text. They need to substitute parts of the text with a suitable word.
Video 2: The vocabulary activities serve as a preparation for the second video, which is more difficult than the first one. It is called “What is the Day of the Dead”. Students watch the video and decide if 6 statements are true or false.
Speaking: After watching the video, students engage in a post-listening discussion about the Day of the Dead and how the deceased are commemorated in their own culture.
Vocabulary: Finally, students work on 2 vocabulary revision activities: a word formation activity and an activity where they need to write a suitable verb from the lesson.
You can use the conversation cards to review the vocabulary from this lesson and as an additional speaking practice.
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
To send the pre-class activities to your students, copy the link below.
In-class activities
Conversation cards PDF
Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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