Some short reading activities for Christmas. I've included a link to a Jacquie Lawson card, with the cat and dog story. However, it isn't quite as I remembered it! I use her cards a lot with my EAL students - they make lovely little mini stories.

Here are some starters/short activities on the language of Maths.

I made this for a year 9 group doing Employability. The first topic was 'Punctuality.&' There are some EAL beginners in the group, so a few slides have got exercises they can access.

This is a picture-based discussion exercise. I give my students some time to look at the sheet. Then , in pairs, they each have to argue one case or the other. Makes a great starter to 'Romeo and Juliet&'.

All about trees. Where do we find trees? What lives in trees? What can they do? An activity that you can do off the cuff.

A great picture, with activities to practise the present continuous tense.

This is a heart warming, short ghost story with exercises: a true/false, match-up activity and comprehension questions.

This is a mini-biography of Cat Stevens, with a true or false activity, comprehension questions and a language exercise. I did this with a year 9 RE group. They carried out a mini research project and then we compared the music of this artist at different stages of his life.

Some facts are presented to promote discussion about McDonald's. Good for EAL students in Business Studies.

A reading comprehension, with questions and language activities. Jack and Kelsey brave the journey only to find that the school is closed.

There are 25 statements, some true, some false. The students have to correct the false statements. Ask them to shade the true statements and there is a hidden letter N, so you can check if they got it right. Then, ask them to read out or discuss their corrections in pairs and this leads to whole class discussion.

This is a worksheet for EAL students. It focuses on key words to do with the circulatory system and breathing. Correct the mistakes, unscramble the words, answer the questions. Your EAL students can do this while the rest of the class does more advanced work.

A great picture, with activities to practise the present continuous tense.

I have made this for an EAL student at beginner level. I have used images from the 2009 movie (starring Jim Carrey). Hope it will be useful for some of you!

A reading passage with exercises.The language focus is the past simple tense. I got the template from Baiba, a member of the greatest EAL site in the world: (erm, after this one, of course!) eslprintables

This is a desk-top mat for mainstream teachers with EAL students in the class. It's a short check list and then suggested activities for beginners through to advanced bilingual learners.

This is a 'Picture-based discussion&' topic. I put them in pairs and give them time to look at the sheet and make notes. One has to argue for the proposal and the other against. Great for starters in English or to develop more fully in PHSE.

This is an EAL newsletter for staff that is fully editable. I have included boxes for a 'student of the month&' feature and an interview with a member of staff. This was very welI received at my school and we had a competition to choose a name for the newsletter. We are undecided between The ReadEMA&'; and 'The Chitchat&'. I will be uploading issue 2 very soon!

The students have to find the prefix or suffix which will go with each of 4 words. There are 32 sets of words. They can then discuss whether they have created antonyms or turned adjectives into proper nouns etc... A few slides at a time for starter activities...

This is a handout with twenty-seven sentences. They have to choose the correct homophone from the brackets. A key is included.