For early learners or for a mixed ability EAL class. The beginners can count and practise 'There is a __&' &';There are __ s'. Also present continuous tense &'What is she doing?&';etc. More advanced students can write about it in the past simple 'The school trip&'. How did they get there? What did they do? etc. Also - good picture for Splat! and Hotseat activitiies. The picture is by Kait Eaton and copyrighted to Duck Egg Blue. I have permission to use it.

A set of cards requiring students to choose an option and justify it. Interesting mix of subjects: stop warfare or end disease? Give up crisps or chocolate? Be able to fly or communicate with animals...etc. They make great starter activities, practising 'I would rather...' and promoting creative thinking. The template is from eslprintables.

Here is a selection of fun starters/ activities using a grid. Only one needs any preparation; you can just go with the others. Adaptable to most subject matter.

This is a compilation of activities, strategies and methods of differentiation to include EAL students in mainstream English.

This is a list of ten great ESL websites with descriptions of what they offer.

Useful practice on describing a picture for the whole class and particularly for EAL students.

September 26th - it's European Day of Languages. Gap fill and match up activities, focusing on the spellings of the languages and matching them to the countries.

A two page activity to get your students talking and writing about shapes. Parts of this could be used as starters and it could certainly lead to a survey: go onto the street and see how many shapes you can spot and in what circumstances. EAL teachers can use this to teach/reinforce prepositions and the present continuous tense.

A reading comprehension, with language exercises. This follows on from my reading comprehension 'Snow Day&'. This is differentiated - EAL students can put the verbs in the past simple, while more advanced students can tackle the discussion points.

We had some training on 'building curious minds' and were asked to think about it. Here are some ideas.

A great picture, with a variety of suggestions and exercises on the present continuous tense.

A narrative of the famous county Durham legend, with comprehension questions and language exercises.

Two pages - a great picture, by Laurie A. Conley. With a picture, I normally 1) play Splat! 2) Memory game 3) Barrier game (pupil A facing picture, pupil B not allowed to look) 'she&'s wearing a pink top - what&';s she doing? 4) Hot seat - e.g.you are Will 'what are you doing?&' &';what can you see?' etc.... Here, I have made a variety of exercises for writing or homework.

56 slides - a compilation of more or less ready-to-go fun activities. Besides ideas, I have included some exercises that you can use or adapt, also website addresses where you can access materials. I enjoyed putting this together and I hope it will be useful.

Mats in various formats for teachers who have EAL students in their class. Some of these I have uploaded previously - on here they are updated. The infographic could be used as staff training: what does each image mean? There is a sentence generator and a mat for teaching new items of vocabulary which I have seen elsewhere in various forms. Hope these are useful!

This is a summary for mainstream teachers with guidelines to make sure that EAL students are included in the lesson.

This is a short narrative in the past simple, with language exercises: true or false, cloze, match up and comprehension questions. It will be useful for years 5, 6, 7 and EAL pupils. My thanks to Ravensburger puzzles for permission to use this great picture. Isn't Flame a beaut?

This is a grid with question openers and tasks going through Bloom's taxonomy. It avoids modals (would, could, should, might) and compound tenses and uses simple language structures that students at an early level of English language acquisition can access.

Quotes on various areas of life: happiness, success, family, technology in the classroom etc.... The students analyse, compare and contrast and make up their own. Each slide could be used as a starter to get your students thinking or to promote debate. They could end by producing an inspirational poster.

The students decide which adjectives/phrases describe the witches and which describe Lady Macbeth. Good for EAL students as they have to decide whether the third person agreement is needed.