The sun is shining so what’s better than a day at the beach? Or, if you’re still at school, bring the beach to your classroom. This is a fun Beach Activities EFL ESL lesson plan for preschool children although you could easily adapt it for older kids. It will last about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. This lesson is an easy and fun way to learn and practice vocabulary and actions for all the things you can do at the beach and the objects you’ll need to take with you.
If you’ve got some beach equipment like towels and buckets and spades, you could build a classroom beach and have a real day at the seaside together with your class. Go swimming and have a picnic and practice all the new vocabulary you’ve been learning. Get your bathing suit and sun hat ready, we’re off to the beach in my Beach Activities EFL ESL Lesson plan. Have fun!
You will need:
- Beach equipment – towel, sunscreen, sunhat, sunglasses, bathing costume, bucket and spade, flip flops. If you don’t have these, you could make flashcards or use some like these.
- Paper
- Coloring markers
Songs and videos:
- In the Summer – On the Beach by Kids Songs – Nursery Rhymes – Mini Disco
- Let’s Go to The Beach by AO Kids
- Down at the Beach by Music K-8
Introduce your beach vocabulary
Start off with your normal Hello routine or use one of my favorite Hello songs. Then start introducing the lesson and the theme of the beach. You could do this by looking at pictures or flashcards of the beach, reading a story about the beach (Harry by the Sea is one of my favorites) or showing the kids your beach equipment. Use a mystery box if you want to make it more fun. Now you’ll need to teach the word for each item making sure you use plenty of TPR and getting the class to repeat each word with the actions.
Play a game using the new vocabulary
To practice using the new words, you can play a game with your class. A good game for smaller kids is What’s Missing. Put all the flashcards or equipment in the middle of the floor or the table but keep one hidden. Ask the children to tell you which card is missing. Let them take turns to be the one who hides the card.
Otherwise you could play a Pictionary game and let the kids draw an item on the board so the rest of the class can guess what it is. Make sure they only speak in English and, if you think it’s more of an incentive, make it a competition to see who guesses the most correct answers.
If you’re not using flashcards and have real beach equipment, you could ask the kids to pack a bag for the beach. They can take turns saying what they need to put in the bag and then pack it. If you have enough equipment, you could divide them into small groups and let each group pack a bag.
Learn a song about the beach
Choose one of the first two songs in the list above and learn it with your class. Don’t forget to teach them lots of actions to help them remember it and adapt it to use all the vocabulary you’ve just been learning. If you don’t want to learn the whole song, just use the chorus and sing it without the music and using your vocabulary. Now you’re all ready to go to the beach!
Let’s build a Classroom Beach!
Clear enough space in your classroom to make your beach. Put towels or mats down on the floor and arrange your equipment as though you were really at the beach. Ask the kids what each object is as you get it out and ask them to reply. Don’t forget to make them use full sentences. Once you’re all settled down on a towel on the beach, you can start talking about activities you can do at the beach.
Use a song to teach Beach activities
Use the Down at the Beach song to learn about the different activities you can do at the beach. Talk about the activities and think of actions to do for each one. Then you can learn the song. Sing it without the music and add the different things to do such as building sandcastles, running, playing and anything else the kids can think of. Then sing it all together and do the actions on your classroom beach. Use the equipment on the beach to help you do the actions.
Play a Beach actions game
Now that you’ve discussed all the things you can do at the beach, it’s time to play a game to practice this. So choose an action game such as Simon says. Otherwise, you could do a pair share where the kids have to ask the question ” What do you do at the beach?” and their partner answers ” I play at the beach” or “I swim at the beach”. Change partners a few times and get them to change their actions too so that they practice as much vocabulary as possible. Then, sing the song again and do all the actions.
Draw a picture of your beach
To finish your lesson, ask the children to draw the beach and all the equipment they took. They can draw themselves and their friends doing activities at the beach. Don’t forget to get the kids to repeat the vocabulary. Then label the picture with the vocabulary you’ve been learning in the lesson so the parents can see and practice it at home.
It’s time to go home
To finish the lesson, sing the songs again if you have time and tidy up the classroom. Finish with your normal Goodbye song or routine or use one of my favorites.
I had a lot of fun doing this Beach Activities EFL ESL Lesson plan with my classes so I hope you do too. If you’re interested in any of my other lesson plans, you can find them here. To stay up to date with new lesson plans and teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email below.