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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Ask your students if there are any songs running through their heads today.
If anyone says yes, encourage the student to sing or hum a little bit, and ask the others if they can identify it.
Ask students to write one question they would feel comfortable answering (without writing their name) on an index card.
Collect all of the index cards, put them in a bag, have students draw cards ...
Ask students to present to the class a gesture that is unique to their own culture.
Provide an example by demonstrating the famous 'OK' gesture with your thumb and index finger, or any other.
Ask students to name as many objects in the classroom as they can while you write them on the board.
This can be made slightly :) more competitive by splitting Ss into teams and giving the ...
Ask a student to demonstrate a dance, and assist the student in explaining the movements in English.
Hint: for this to work well, you need to be ready to show an example - teach them some of you ...
Grab that tape recorder and a blank cassette, find a story you enjoy, and make your own story tape!
Each student can read for a while, or can take on the part of a particular character.
Make the ...
Hidden picture ( you can use one from any textbook - the only thing is that it must be relevant to the topic to be discussed).
Teacher shows Ss a small part of the picture - students in groups di ...
I went to the supermarket to buy a kilo of apples...
Each person repeats and adds more food. The chain goes round the class.
Also works well with ABC revision (apples, ....bananas, .... cherries ...
Mime what you had for breakfast / lunch / favourite food.
Write the answers on the board.
You (the teacher) should always be the first to mime something, don't be afraid to make a fool of ...
Writing warmer.
Visualise a PLACE while you suggest its description.
They use their picture to write a composition. (Useful to describe a Person, too.) (- instrumental MUSIC is also effective.) ...
Quick phone calls about anything.
Student A calls (well, pretends to call!) any student (Student B) about anything.
When the conversation is finished, Student B calls any student (Student C) abo ...
Write a word on a postIt note and stick it to the back of one of the students, have him/her come to the board.
CLASS GIVES CLUES IN ENGLISH and volunteer guesses.
Cut sentences of story into words HAND OUT IN CORRECT ORDER.
EACH STUDENTS READS THEIR WORD AND THE NEXT STUDENT REPEATS FROM THE BEGINNING.
The process gets harder as students have to remember ...
This is a warm-up activity that would probably take up to five minutes of your time. The idea isn't mine, but I liked it very much and decided to make the instructions and to share it with you. It ...
This is a brainstormer ws you can use as a warm-up activity when speaking about plans for summer holidays travelling.
Ss have to write down 3 destinations, 3 packing lists for these destinations, ...
a. A man with a pack on his back went into a field and died. (PARACHUTIST)
b. A man walked into a bar in Texas. He asked for a glass of water. The barman pointed his gun at him. The man said "Tha ...
Hand out a list of sentences containing one (or two) incorrections to groups.
Students group and you allot 100 points to each group. They have to bet a number of points (maximum: 10) that they ca ...
Act it out. Hand out plots.
Pupils write the script and act it out:
The Fire. Detective or journalist interviews witnesses (one of whom may be a suspect) about what they saw/heard/did. (The Fir ...
Draw up scheme on board to form 9 partitions, team one is O, team 2 is X
Nine categories: ANIMALS/NEGATIVE/SPORT/FOOD/DESCRIPTION/COUNTRIES/JOBS/WH-QUESTIONS/CLOTHES/IRREGULAR PAST TENSE,
Play ...
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