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.
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
I use this warmer with adults who are at Pre-Intermediate level. On a separate piece of paper, each student writes his/her problem or trouble they have. Then I ask them to rumple the paper and thr ...
Begin a lesson on quoting and paraphrasing by writing the beginning of a famous movie quote on the board: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a—“ At least one student will u ...
On the first day of class, have students fill out a profile on a 3”x5” card. Along with name and contact information, have them list one interesting fact about themselves: e.g., &ldquo ...
In the first days of a grammar class, pass out around a folder of pictures clipped from magazines of a variety of people: different ages, genders, ethnicities, etc. Students may choose their own c ...
Students come in having read something for that class period. Tell them they will spend two minutes “speed dating” five of their peers.
During the two-minute “date,” the s ...
Devote the first 15 minutes or even half hour to a chain drill exercise where students have to introduce themselves with a positive adjective that begins with the first letter of their name, and t ...
First demonstrate it yourself: secretly choose a country (for example, France) and describe what (most/some/a few) people in that country are probably doing right now: 'Some people are drinking wi ...
Have a little Present contest competition where your students will compete to write or say as many things as possible in this tense. Each sentence must describe something that is currently happeni ...
Great for groups of strangers, and avoids the dreaded pain of introducing yourself. Get the group to pair off and take turns in being a chat show host and guest. The chat show host has to find ou ...
Ask students to close their eyes and think about a person that its important for them (like their mom, dad, husband, wife, dog, etc), tell them to think about what are they doing right now (for ex ...
Students should try to provide as many different excuses as possible to explain why the person calling them cannot speak to the person s/he wants to. Example: "He is having dinner" or "She is walk ...
This is a highly competitive warmer that will get your learners energized. Hand a bunch of magazines to your students. One per small group should be fine, but if you only have a few students, one ...
Students work in pairs or small groups, making different noises with their mouth - the partner or the rest of the group should guess what this person is doing. 'You are yawning!' 'You are kissing ...
This is a warmer or filler. You need two markers of different colors and a board to write on. Divide students into two groups and name them according to the colors of the markers (“blue gr ...
I have a 'vocabulary' envelope. Each important vocabulary word that I teach goes into the envelope and when I need a warmer or a filler, I have the students pick a word out. They then have to make ...
It is a filler my students like a lot.
You take a deck of small cards and write questions on them (different types and topics depending on the students' level). Then ask the student(s) to take ...
A fun speaking warmer courtesy of Nick Bilborough.
You need one board pen per pair of students (no writing involved).
Put your students in pairs - standing opposite each other, one student holds ...
Here's a short funny story for your learners. It can be used as a warm up. I usually give my students this one together with a few other short funny stories (one per student) and then give them a ...
I was to teach my students of primary grades prepositions. An idea came to my mind.. I thought why not make it a listening & speaking activity. I have managed to use some of the prepositions. ...
Tell your students that they are going to listen to music (choose an instrumental piece without any words) for 2 or 3 minutes and ask them to write anything they want during listening. Younger stu ...
Students make a circle. Each one has a small sheet of paper and a pen. Each student has to write one question on the sheet of paper. Questions can be various, on whatever topics they want. Then st ...
The Talent Show Everyone selects one talent or special gift that they possess and can demonstrate for the group. They introduce themselves, explain what their special talent is, and then perform ...
This is a game that you can do to break the ice and learn the names of students on the first day in class.
It can be done at all levels and it can be played in ten minutes or half an hour dependi ...
Put about ten flashcards (face up) on the ground or on the table. Describe one of the flashcards and let the students guess the correct card. It's a very good game to improve the students listenin ...
Distribute some flashcards facing up. Call out the name of any of the flashcards. The student who touches the card first gets a point. Please be careful: this can get very competitive! Great for r ...
9 8,321All
Got a great worksheet on
Warmers and Fillers?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!
5,883