Extracurricular activities
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson plan deals with the topic of extracurricular activities, and whether children have too many extracurricular activities nowadays. Other lessons you might find useful are education-related lessons such as “Should you take a gap year”, “Apprenticeships vs university”, “Phrasal verbs: learning and education”, “Idioms: learning and education”, as well as lessons related to children and parenting: “Are playgrounds too safe?”, “Family traditions”, “Should we give children an allowance?”, and “Phrasal verbs: childhood”.
Speaking: the lesson starts with a couple of questions related to extracurricular activities. Then, students take a look at different extracurricular activities, divided into categories, and identify the ones that are in the wrong category. After that students choose 5 extracurricular activities, and say what skills each one develops (e.g. leadership, decision-making, conflict resolution, teamwork and collaboration, public speaking, creativity, environmental awareness).
Vocabulary, reading and speaking: Students read 5 opinions related to extracurricular activities and discuss which ones they agree and disagree with. The opinions introduce important vocabulary (e.g. development, well-rounded, overscheduled, burnout, downtime, quality time, family bonding). They match the words to their definitions, and then discuss a few talking points given.
Listening: Students watch a video called “Studies suggest too many extracurricular activities may be harmful to kids“, and complete the answers to 6 questions with the missing information. Then they engage in a post-listening discussion.
Finally, students discuss ways children spend their summer vacation.
For more speaking practice, you can use the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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:
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In-class activities
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.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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