363 FREE Warmers, Ice-Breakers and Fillers For The ESL Classroom
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FREE Warmers and Fillers

Planning a lesson is no easy task, especially if you're about to introduce a difficult topic. Sometimes, you need a little bit of something extra to really make your lesson flow. For this reason, ESL teachers usually use warmers and fillers. Warmers are used in lessons to ease the students into the topic you're going to present. Along the same lines, fillers are used to reinforce topics or follow up with extra practice for students. BusyTeacher.org has 363 warmer and filler worksheets to make your lesson run smoothly without skipping a beat.

The beauty of using warmers and fillers is that very little planning goes into using them. That’s great because it cuts your planning time by a lot, and also cuts out any awkward downtime in the classroom. These worksheets are helpful when it comes to grammar, vocabulary, writing, or even listening and speaking practice.

These warmer and filler worksheets can be used in several ways. Some can be used as discussion topics to get your students speaking. Some can be used to review grammar topics you have covered in the past. Another great warmer is a writing practice worksheet, which gives students sentences like “This morning I…” and students write down what they did that morning. There are endless possibilities to what you can do in your classroom with these worksheets.

Another great feature of these warmer/filler worksheets is that most can be used for all levels. However, if you need a worksheet for a specific level, the descriptions of all worksheets on BusyTeacher.org show the levels for which they're appropriate . You can even reuse them for your other classes of different levels. Not sure if a certain worksheet is right for your lesson? No problem! Just click on the thumbnail to preview the worksheet and see if it’s right for your class.

Don’t worry about registering or subscribing, since all worksheets on BusyTeacher.org are free to download, and there's no limit to how many you can download! You can use one or two of our worksheets for your lessons every day. All worksheets on BusyTeacher.org were created and submitted by fellow ESL teachers from all over the world. They've been used in classrooms, too - so rest assured that these worksheets are tried and true.

If you have some worksheets of your own that you've found useful in your lessons, why not share them with other ESL teachers to use in their lessons as well? Upload your worksheets to BusyTeacher.org by clicking the link at the bottom of this page titled “Submit a worksheet,” and join the hundreds of thousands of ESL teachers who already use BusyTeacher.org for their lesson planning needs.

Make BusyTeacher.org your number one online resource for worksheets by bookmarking us today. With 363 warmers and fillers, lesson planning will be a breeze. Get started by checking out our most popular warmers and fillers below.

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The Right Word

The Right Word

Marco Fialho
•, Warmers and Fillers
  This short worksheet is for students at the upper- intermediate level. It focuses on vocabulary and includes a fill-in-the-gap exercise. It might be helpful for those who intend to take ...
1 Views 15,314 Adv
Present Simple Positive - Order Story Cards

Present Simple Positive - Order Story Cards

Grammatics.education
  Young learners watch this animated video and order the story cards as a way to help reinforce their understanding of this aspect of the Present Simple tense. When students have completed ...
1 Views 15,127 BegElem
Present Simple Negative - Order Story Cards

Present Simple Negative - Order Story Cards

Grammatics.education
  Young learners watch an animated video and order the story cards to help reinforce their understanding of this aspect of the Present Simple tense. When students have completed the worksh ...
1 Views 8,508 BegElem
Present Simple Negative Writing Worksheet

Present Simple Negative Writing Worksheet

Grammatics.education
  This worksheet on the Present Simple Negative is used in conjunction with an animated YouTube video. Young learners can watch while they do their language lesson, then have fun practicin ...
1 Views 6,633 BegElem
Present Simple Positive Writing Worksheet

Present Simple Positive Writing Worksheet

Grammatics.education
  This worksheet is designed to be used in conjunction with our animated YouTube video. Young learners can watch and 'do' their language lesson, then have fun practicing writing and finall ...
1 Views 6,746 BegElem
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Present Simple Question – Order Story Cards for Animation

Present Simple Question – Order Story Cards for Animation

Grammatics.education
  Young learners watch an animated video and order the story cards as a way to help reinforce their understanding of the Present Simple tense. When students have completed the worksheet, s ...
1 Views 8,615 BegElem
ESL Activity Sheet For Children – Winter Vocabulary

ESL Activity Sheet For Children – Winter Vocabulary

Ellie @ Osito ESL
•, , , Warmers and Fillers
    This ESL Activity Sheet for children provides 12 picture cards to help teach/revise winter vocabulary. The pictures can be used to make flashcards, bingo boards, or simple games ...
1 Views 15,331 BegElem
Introduction Cards

Introduction Cards

  This worksheet contains 16 cards which you can use whenever your students are practicing how to introduce themselves and giving personal information. You need to cut them out and give on ...
1 Views 21,031 BegElem
Song worksheet: Someone You Loved (L. Capaldi)

Song worksheet: Someone You Loved (L. Capaldi)

  Students listen to the lyrics of Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi through the given link and fill in the verbs in the Present Simple and Present Continuous tenses, including the verb t ...
1 Views 16,989 ElemPre-IntInt
M&Ms – Getting Acquainted

M&Ms – Getting Acquainted

iulkahrynkiv
• » Warmers and Fillers
  If you are looking for a way to start a lesson with a new group, this activity is ideal for you. It is catching, entertaining and easy. Besides, it's appropriate for both young learners ...
1 Views 15,789 BegElemPre-IntIntAdv
ESL Activity Sheet For Children – Label The Snowman

ESL Activity Sheet For Children – Label The Snowman

Ellie @ Osito ESL
  This ESL Activity Sheet for small children can be used to talk about body parts and clothing and to teach/revise vocabulary. Children can label and color in the sheet (reading and w ...
1 Views 10,103 BegElem
Describing Appearances PPT

Describing Appearances PPT

Jeff Genet
  This is a powerful visual aid to teach your students vocabulary and expressions to describe appearance. Use this Power Point to pre-teach vocabulary, as a warm up for lessons or as the c ...
1 Views 15,607 ElemPre-IntInt
Tic Tac Toe (To Practice Any Tense)

Tic Tac Toe (To Practice Any Tense)

This is a great activity that you can use as a warmer, as a review activity or even as a filler. It can be used in ANY level to practice any tense for affirmative, negative or questions. It's a g ...
1 Views 28,795 All
My Teacher Ate My Homework - Different Ways Of Eating

My Teacher Ate My Homework - Different Ways Of Eating

Barbora
This is a worksheet with a Ken Nesbitt's poem of the same name. It is a short funny poem that contains many verbs that refer to eating (nibble, gobble, etc.) The synonyms of eat are bold, and s ...
1 Views 27,544 Pre-IntIntAdv
ESL Activity Sheet For Children - Farm Animals & Prepositions of Place

ESL Activity Sheet For Children - Farm Animals & Prepositions of Place

Ellie @ Osito ESL
This ESL Activity Sheet for children can be used in numerous ways to cover basic vocabulary and grammar points. The key objectives are: teaching/revising farm animal vocabulary and teaching/lear ...
1 Views 16,808 BegElem
ESL Vocabulary Card Game - Farm & Wild Animals

ESL Vocabulary Card Game - Farm & Wild Animals

Ellie @ Osito ESL
•, , , Warmers and Fillers
This 3-page PDF contains 27 game cards to be used as an engaging ESL/EFL game. Best played in groups of eight. The game helps children recall and revise animal vocabulary. It includes farm animal ...
1 Views 13,583 BegElem
Why do we say OK?

Why do we say OK?

Barbora
Have you ever wondered where OK came from? Watch the youTube video "Why do we say OK" to find out. And while you're watching it, try to answer very easy questions from the worksheet, OK? The wor ...
1 Views 22,005 Pre-IntInt
Song Worksheet: Halloween-The Addams Family

Song Worksheet: Halloween-The Addams Family

First, students have to guess/look up the meaning of some words connected to Halloween or scary things. Then they have to complete the lyrics of the theme song of The Addams Family with those wor ...
2 Views 26,514 All

SONG: I Can See Clearly Now

Guilherme G Tidon
This is a very simple song and activity which contains vocabulary about weather, as well as some use of 'can' and 'going to' (informally contracted as 'gonna'). There are also some adjectives and ...
1 Views 38,325 BegElemPre-IntIntAdv
Frozen by Madonna Song Worksheet

Frozen by Madonna Song Worksheet

dephney
• » Warmers and Fillers
This is a song worksheet for elem. level students which can be used as a warmer or end of lesson activity. Students will listen to the song and fill in the blanks. After the fill in the blanks p ...
1 Views 12,989 Elem
Role Plays For ESL Classes

Role Plays For ESL Classes

Isaac Bueso Borràs
This sample worksheet contains six role playing situations from the book “ESL role plays for English teachers: 40 great role plays for ESL classes.” Each role plays presents some usef ...
1 Views 172,776 IntAdvExam
Find Someone Who Movies/Films

Find Someone Who Movies/Films

•, Warmers and Fillers
Cut the handout out to use as a warmer or one of activities on topic of movies/film genres, etc. Each student gets a card and starts asking other students questions to find a person who does somet ...
2 Views 34,706 Pre-IntIntAdv
ESL Conversation Questions

ESL Conversation Questions

• » Warmers and Fillers
50 sets of conversation questions on 50 different topics. Each topic contains six questions. This resource is suitable for ESL teachers who have classes of pre-intermediate or intermediate level w ...
1 Views 42,148 Pre-IntInt
Guess the Movie Based on the Plot

Guess the Movie Based on the Plot

If you are talking about movies and it seems that you've done everything, let your students do this task. They have to guess what the movie is by reading a summary about it. The keys are included ...
4 Views 76,935 IntAdvExam
Cat Idioms

Cat Idioms

•, , , Warmers and Fillers
A worksheet for this video about cat idioms in the English language. Idioms included: cat got your tongue?, a fat cat, to purr like a cat, when the cat's away, to be the cat's whiskers, the cat is ...
8 Views 62,002 Pre-IntIntAdv

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