Building Vocabulary Activities:

Teacher List of Idioms with Examples 

Idiom Connection

Academic Vocabulary (K-6) List

Advanced Academic Vocabulary List (Grades 4-6)

Intermediate Academic Vocabulary List (Grades 3-4)

Beginning Academic Vocabulary List (Grades K-2)

Basic Phrases

• Hello. Goodbye.
• Come here.
• What is this?
• Please. Thank you. You're welcome.
• What is your name?
• Where is it? Here it is.
• I like it. I don't like it.
• I don't understand.
• It's your turn.
• Excuse me. I'm sorry.
• What do you want to do?
• How's the weather?
• Where are you going?
• How are you?
• What happens next?

Conversational Phrases

• Hi. My name is… What is your name?
• These are my friends. It's nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you too.
• Are you ready? Sorry. That was awesome.
• What are you doing? I am reading a book. We are shopping.
• I am exercising. We're playing basketball. I'm catching a ball.
• What are you going to do? I'm going to work. I'll help you.
• What's up? Not much. How about you?
• Hello. How are you? I'm fine, thank you.
• Thank you very much. Goodbye. Have a nice day.
• What's he doing? He is eating. He's sleeping.
• What's she doing? She is drawing. She's learning English.
• What are they doing? They play guitars. They're listening to music.
• May I help you? Thank you. You're welcome.
• Where are you from? I'm from China. This is where I live. Cool.
• How old are you? I am thirteen years old. Me too.
• Do you like it? What colors do you have? I have black, yellow, brown, red, and blue.
• What color do you like? I don't like it. Let's do it.
• I'm finished. Yes. Good job.
• Excuse me. Where is the library? I don't know.
• Go straight. Turn right. Then turn left.
• This is not the library. Please show me where it is. Follow me.
• Who are they? This is my father. This is my mother.
• Do you have any brothers or sisters? This is my oldest brother. This is my baby sister. I love my family.
• Where's your picture? Here it is. I have an idea.
• What's this? It's a lemon. It's your turn. OK.
• What's your favorite fruit? I like oranges and bananas. What are these?
• Apples are my favorite fruit. Choose the one you want. I want this one.
• How many do you want? I want ten tickets. One, two, three, four, five. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
• What's the problem? Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Twenty-one.
• I'm sorry. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty. Sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred. One hundred and one.
• What time is it? It's 11:00. It's 11:15.
• I'm hungry. It's 11:30. It's 11:45.
• It's 12:00. It's time for lunch. Let's eat.
• What would you like to drink? I'll have water. I'll have milk.
• What would you like to eat? I'd like a large pizza. Would you repeat that please?
• I'm full. The food was delicious. Who wants ice cream?
• How do you say this in English? This is a calendar. This is a week.
• Would you say that again? Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
• Today is Friday. Yesterday was Thursday. Tomorrow is Saturday.
• May I speak to Dallin, please? I'm in Canada. It's snowing.
• How's the weather? Yesterday, it was cloudy. Today, it's sunny and hot.
• Where are you? It's windy. Are you OK?
• It's raining. What should we do? Do you sell umbrellas?
• This is too small. This is too big. This is the best umbrella.
• How much does this cost? I have a problem. I'll buy it.
• What's the matter? My arm hurts. See you later. I don't understand.
• Surprise. This is for you. Congratulations.
• Do you speak English? I speak English.

Learning Chocolate - LearningChocolate is an online vocabulary platform that provides great practice for students of all ages. Though the images are not that great in some cases, it still gets the job done. Students have a variety of matching exercises to complete, and may even listen to and write each word. There’s also a nifty little dictation exercise! Wonderful for self-study!

Spin and Spell - Spin&Spell is a fantastic online resource for young ESL learners. The app gives you five categories to choose from: clothes, food, transportation, animals or home vocabulary. Once students have chosen a category, they will find lots of words to review. They can choose to spell each word by themselves by clicking on the appropriate letter in the spinning wheel, or they can choose to see how each word is spelled. In the classroom, you can set up teams to challenge each other for points.

ESL VOCABULARY GAMES - Follow the links to browse the variety of interactive vocabulary games we offer. There are interactive vocabulary games and quizzes like: Audio Memory Games, Snakes, and Ladders grammar games, Hangman, Wheel of Fortune, TV Games, and more to help practice English vocabulary.

• Concentration Vocabulary Games for Kids
• Crocodile Vocabulary Board Games for Kids
• Pirate Vocabulary Board Games for Beginners
• Classroom English Vocabulary & Grammar Games
• Sentence Monkey Vocabulary & Grammar Games
• Spelling Games for English Learning Practice
• ESL, Math, Science: Games, Worksheets, Videos

Listening Memory Games

• Action Verbs Audio Concentration Game
• Action Verbs - 12 words- Memory Game
• Action Verbs vocabulary - memory game
• Adjective Opposites - memory game
• About me - Self-introduction memory Game
• Amusement Park - Memory Game
• Animals of the Farm Concentration Game
• Birthday and Age - Memory Game
• Body Parts Memory Game
• Clothes and Colours Memory Game
• Colors Memory Game
• Days of the week and Daily Activities - memory game
• Describing People - What does he look like? - memory game
• Directions and Places - Asking the way - memory game
• Disasters Game - Natural Disasters Vocabulary - Earthquake, Tsunami etc. - memory game
• Exercise and Sports Vocabulary - memory game
• Farm Animal Vocabulary - memory game
• Festivals Vocabulary - memory game
• Fire safety - memory game
• Food vocabulary - memory game
• Fruits vocabulary - memory game

Word Dynamo - Reading Rockets (Small fee) - It’s no exaggeration. This is a dynamic online resource for advanced vocabulary review. Powered by Dictionary.com, WordDynamo offers lots of different ways in which students can practice and review vocabulary, from matching games to crossword puzzles and flashcards. The site is not specifically tailored to ESL students, so most of the vocabulary may be too advanced, but I always recommend this resource to students who are planning to take the TOEFL as there are exercises that are specifically targeted to this group. For your less advanced ESL students, I’d recommend checking out the Elementary School level lists - they may offer just the right amount of challenge to beginner/intermediate ESL students.

Listening Memory Games

• Hobbies and Activities vocabulary - memory game
• I want - Sentences with things we want - CD, Discman, iPod, - memory game
•  Jobs - Easy Jobs - police officer, doctor, teacher, etc. vocabulary - memory game
• Jobs - High Jobs Vocabulary- architect, mechanic, etc- memory game
•  Labeling Games - Drag and Label Pictures
• Months of the year vocabulary - memory game
• Natural World Vocabulary - rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains - memory game
• Numbers and Colours vocabulary - memory game
• Numbers 1 to 10 vocabulary - memory game
• Numbers 10 to 20 vocabulary - memory game
• Olympic sports vocabulary - memory game
•  Pets vocabulary - memory game
• Pets sentences - memory game
• Planets and solar system - memory game
• School supplies 1 vocabulary - memory game
• School Supplies 2 vocabulary - memory game
• Shapes and Colours vocabulary - memory game
• Sickness and seeing a doctor vocabulary - memory game
• Signs and public notices sentences - memory game
•  Time and Daily Routines - memory game
• Toys vocabulary 1 - memory game
• Toys vocabulary 2 - memory game
• Transportation vocabulary1 - memory game
• Transportation vocabulary2 - memory game
• Vegetable vocabulary - memory game
•  Weather vocabulary - memory game
• World Cup ESL Games & Worksheets
• Zoo Animals - memory game

Text-Only Memory Games

• Action Verbs - 6 verbs- memory game
•  Countries and Continents vocabulary - memory game
• Countries and Flags Memory Game
• Food Vocabulary - memory game
• Holiday Activities - memory game
• Tableware - memory game
• Transportation vocabulary - memory game
• Travel Around the world - memory game
•  Zoo Animal Description vocabulary - memory game
• Zoo Animal Memory Game

Assorted Vocabulary Games - Snakes and Ladders, Mazes, Matching, Quizzes etc.

• Snakes and Ladders Beginner Review Game
• Wheel Game - Elementary Revision Game
• Jobs Hangman Game
• Weather Catching Game
• Animal Facts True or False Maze Game
• Jobs Circle Maze Game
• DO or MAKE Collocation Spelling Game
• Weather Wild Card Spelling Game
• Zoo Animals Swap Spelling Game
• Job description matching exercise
• Action Verbs Picture Quiz
• Food Picture Quiz

Semantic Gradient Activity