3 Engaging Post-Winter Break Activities for ESL Students by Proficiency Level
After winter break, it’s always a bit of a challenge to get students back into the swing of things. These post-break activities are designed to ease them in, help them reflect, and get them re-engaged with learning in a meaningful way. I’ve created these activities with beginning, intermediate, and advanced ESL students in mind, but feel free to use any activity with any level—just scaffold as needed!
Reconnecting and Setting Intentions After Winter Break
January is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and start fresh. In my ESL classroom, I focus on helping students reconnect after the break by giving them opportunities to reflect on their experiences, set personal goals, and practice their English skills. These activities support language growth while allowing students to set meaningful intentions for the new year. Each activity is designed for a specific proficiency level, but any level can enjoy the benefits with the right scaffolding!
1. Beginning Level Activity: Winter Break Slideshow
Overview: This Winter Break Slideshow activity is perfect for beginning ESL students. They’ll create a simple slideshow to share what they did over winter break, using visuals and short captions. This lets them practice past-tense verbs and essential vocabulary.
Instructions:
I provide a template with slide prompts like “Over winter break, I…” or “I visited…” to give them structure (linking the template for easy access!).
Students can search for images online that represent what they did, like family gatherings, holiday activities, or places they visited.
Each slide includes a short caption explaining what they did, using simple past-tense verbs like “I went…” or “I saw….”
Language Goals: Reinforce past-tense verbs, encourage sentence formation, and build confidence in sharing personal experiences.
Why It Works: This activity is accessible to beginners thanks to the visuals, while the short captions build sentence skills in a supportive way. This activity can also be scaffolded for intermediate or advanced students by adding longer captions or more detailed descriptions.
2. Intermediate Level Activity: “One Word” for the New Year
Overview: The “One Word” activity is ideal for intermediate ESL students and helps them set an intention for the new year. It’s a simple but meaningful exercise that encourages self-reflection and vocabulary development. You can read more in this blog post.
Instructions:
Students choose a single word that represents their focus for the year, like “confidence,” “growth,” or “success.”
They write 3-4 sentences explaining why they chose this word and how it will inspire them this year. Some guiding questions include, “Why is this word important to you?” or “How will this word help you reach your goals?”
Students can decorate the word on paper or digitally, using colors or images that reflect its meaning.
Language Goals: Build vocabulary, practice sentence structure, and encourage self-expression.
Why It Works: Intermediate students get a chance to express something meaningful while practicing descriptive language. This activity can be adapted for beginners with sentence starters or enhanced for advanced students by asking for specific examples of how they’ll use their word.
3. Advanced Level Activity: Vision Board Creation
Overview: Vision boards are fantastic for advanced ESL students who want to set goals and visually organize their aspirations for the year. This activity encourages creative expression, goal-setting, and gives students a chance to practice advanced vocabulary.
Instructions:
Students gather images, phrases, or quotes that represent their goals for the year. These might include academic aspirations, personal goals, or skills they want to develop.
They can create a physical board with magazine cutouts or make a digital vision board using Canva or Google Slides.
Once completed, students present their vision boards to the class, explaining what each element means to them and why it’s significant.
Language Goals: Develop advanced vocabulary, use descriptive language, and practice presentation skills.
Why It Works: Creating a vision board allows advanced students to articulate complex ideas and dreams, giving them a platform to use detailed language. To make this activity suitable for intermediate or even beginning students, provide sentence starters or focus on fewer elements with simpler descriptions.
Conclusion: Re-Engaging ESL Students with Differentiated Activities
Whether your students are beginners, intermediate, or advanced, these activities are fantastic tools to help them ease back into learning while setting meaningful goals. Each activity supports English language development while promoting personal reflection. With a little scaffolding, any of these activities can work for any proficiency level!
Encouraging students to reflect on their winter break and set intentions for the new year helps them reconnect with the classroom, their goals, and each other. Here’s to starting the year off strong with activities that inspire and support all of our ESL learners!
Ready for More Differentiated ESL Resources?
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