Holidays ESL Activities, Games, Role-Plays & Worksheets

ESL Hotel Information Activity - Speaking: Information Gap, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Communicative Practice - Pair Work In this communicative hotel information activity, students ask and answer questions about the location of hotel facilities, opening and closing times, and the price of hotel rooms. In pairs, one student asks their partner questions about the Grand Hotel and completes the missing information in a table with the answers. When all the information has been completed, their partner asks questions about the Hilton Hotel. Students then discuss which hotel they like the most and why. Finally, students give feedback to the class on their answers. show less

ESL Holiday Habits Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts In this engaging holiday habits speaking activity, students find out about one another's holiday habits by asking and answering present simple questions. Students go around the class asking each other present simple yes/no questions from the prompts on the worksheet, e.g. 'Do you take a lot of photos when you go on holiday?' When a classmate replies 'Yes, I do', the student writes down their name and asks a follow-up question to gain more information, noting down the answer in the last column. The two students then move on and find new partners. If a classmate answers 'No, I don't', the student repeats the question with other classmates until one of them says yes. This process continues until the students have completed the worksheet with different names and information. Afterwards, students give feedback on their classmates' holiday habits. show less

ESL Holiday Plans Activity - Speaking: Information Gap, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work Here is a free holiday plans information gap activity to help teach students how to ask and answer questions about future holiday arrangements. In pairs, students complete missing information about four people's holiday plans by asking and answering questions with 'be going to' and the present continuous. Afterwards, students compare worksheets to check their answers. Lastly, students use the same questions to ask about their partner's holiday plans. show less

ESL Holiday Conversation Questions Activity - Speaking: Gap-fill, Asking and Answering Question from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this insightful holiday conversation questions speaking activity, students complete questions about holidays with question words and then use the questions to interview a partner. First, students complete holiday conversation questions with question words from a box. In pairs, students then take turns asking the holiday conversation questions to their partner, noting down their answers under the questions and asking follow-up questions to gain more information. Finally, students give feedback to the class on what they found out about their partner. show less

ESL Holiday Conversation Questions Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Gap-fill, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Group and Pair Work In this talking about holidays activity, students complete holiday conversation questions with related vocabulary and then ask and answer the questions with a partner. First, in two groups, students complete holiday conversation questions with related vocabulary from a box. After that, students pair up with someone from the other group. Students then take turns asking and answering the holiday questions with their partner, asking follow-up questions when possible to gain more information. Finally, students give feedback to the class on what they found out about their partner. show less

ESL Holiday Experiences Activity - Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts In this creative holiday postcards activity, students write postcards describing positive and negative holiday experiences. Students begin by writing down positive and negative adjectives to describe different aspects of a holiday. For example, if the aspect was food, students might write disgusting, cold, delicious, tasty, etc. Next, in pairs, students dictate their name and address to their partner and write the information on two postcards. Students then write postcards to their partner, describing imaginary positive and negative holiday experiences. In Postcard 1, students complain and describe negative aspects of their holiday, e.g. 'I ordered a pizza and it was disgusting.' Students then move on to repeat the process with Postcard 2, but this time, they describe the positive aspects of their holiday. Afterwards, students swap worksheets and check their partner's work. Finally, students take turns reading their postcards to the class. show less

ESL Holidays Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Gap-fill, Matching, Unscrambling, Writing Answers - Speaking Activity: Role-Play, Guided Discussion - Pair Work In this free holiday vocabulary worksheet, students learn and practice words and questions related to holidays. Students begin by completing an email about a holiday with words and phrases from a box. Students then match holiday vocabulary from the email to definitions. Next, students unscramble words to form questions about holidays and then answer the questions using the information from the email. After that, in pairs, students role-play a conversation using the questions and answers. Finally, students use the same questions to ask their partner about their last holiday. show less

ESL Hotel Requests Game - Speaking: Miming, Forming Questions, Freer Practice - Group Work In this amusing hotel requests game, students mime and guess hotel requests. Students imagine that they are at a hotel reception in a country where they can't speak the language and that they have to mime requests to the hotel receptionist. A student from one team picks up a card and mimes the hotel request on the card, e.g. 'Could you help me with my suitcase?' The other students watch the mime and call out their ideas. The student, who is miming, points and nods at students who provide accurate guesses until someone says the exact request on the card. The first student to say the correct request scores a point for their team. A student from the other team then picks up a card and continues with the second mime, and so on. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Tour Itineraries Activity - Reading and Speaking: Ordering, Role-Play, Asking and Answering Questions, Communicative Practice - Pair Work In this communicative tour itinerary role-play activity, students practice inquiring about the itinerary of a package tour. First, in pairs, students arrange sentence strips in the correct order to make a conversation between a tour agent and a customer about a package tour itinerary. Students then work individually to complete an itinerary for a package tour of a country or region they know well. Next, pairs role-play two phone calls between a travel agent and a customer inquiring about the itinerary of a package tour using the sentence strips as a guide. The customer asks the agent about all the details of a tour and writes down the information in a table. At the end of each role-play, the customer decides whether or not to make a reservation. If they do, the agent asks for their details, such as their name, phone number and email address. Finally, students give feedback on the tours they were offered. show less

ESL Holiday Plans Activity - Reading, Writing and Speaking: Ordering a Dialogue, Matching, Writing and Presenting a Dialogue, Role-Play, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this useful holiday plans activity, students learn holiday vocabulary and practice language for planning a holiday. First, in pairs, students put a conversation about holiday plans in the correct order by reading the sentences to their partner and numbering them from 1 to 17. Student A starts the conversation by looking at their sentences and reading the most suitable one to start the conversation, writing number 1 next to the sentence. Student B listens and looks for a suitable reply and then reads it to Student A, putting number 2 next to the sentence. This process continues until the conversation has been put in order. After that, students match holiday words from the conversation to their definitions. Next, with their partner, students write their own holiday plans dialogue using the holiday vocabulary and language from the conversation. Finally, pairs present their dialogues to the class. show less

ESL Booking a Hotel Activity - Reading and Writing: Ordering a Text, Writing Emails from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this productive hotel bookings activity, students practice writing emails to book and confirm hotel rooms. First, in pairs, students arrange sentence strips in the correct order to reveal two emails. One is a hotel room booking request, and the other is a hotel booking confirmation email. Next, students use information and language on a worksheet to write an email booking a hotel room. The booking includes information about the date of arrival, number of guests and room/hotel requirements. When the students have finished, they give it to their partner, who writes a confirmation email in response to their partner's booking. Afterwards, students hand their confirmation email to their partner, who reads it and corrects any mistakes. Finally, pairs read their emails and responses to the class. show less

ESL Holiday Vocabulary Game - Vocabulary: Matching - Group Work In this enjoyable holiday vocabulary game, students play bingo by listening to definitions and matching them to holiday words and phrases on bingo cards. In groups, the bingo caller reads out definitions of holiday words and phrases. If a student has a holiday word that matches the definition, they cross it off their bingo card. When a student has crossed off three squares in a row, they shout 'Bingo'. If the words and phrases are correct, the student scores a point. Students then continue the game to see who can cross off all nine squares on their bingo card. The first student to do this shouts 'Bingo'. If the answers are correct, the student scores a point. Afterwards, students play a new game with another student taking on the role of the bingo caller. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Holiday Vocabulary Game - Vocabulary: Describing, Guessing - Group Work In this fun holiday vocabulary game, students describe and guess holiday words. In groups, students take turns picking up a card and describing the holiday vocabulary in bold on the card to the group without saying the words on the card. The first student to successfully guess the holiday vocabulary being described wins and keeps the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Travel Agency Role-Play - Speaking Activity: Gap-fill, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Communicative Practice - Pair Work In this communicative travel agency activity, students practice and role-play a travel agency conversation about booking a holiday where they discuss flights, car hire and accommodation. Students begin by completing a gap-fill dialogue between a customer and a travel agent. Next, one student takes on the role of a customer, and the other takes on the role of a travel agent. The customer's task is to find out as much information as they can about flights, car hire and accommodation and book what they consider to be the best options for their holiday. The travel agent's task is to sell the most expensive options by making up information about the benefits and advantages of the higher-priced options. Afterwards, customers give feedback to the class on the options they chose for their holiday and what they thought of their travel agent's sales technique. The travel agents' then reveal their intentions for selling the higher-priced options and explain how successful they were at doing that. show less

ESL Planning a Tour Activity - Speaking: Planning and Presenting an Itinerary - Group Work In this imaginative tour program activity, students compete to see who can provide the best weekend tour of their local city for a group of international tourists. In groups, students take on the role of a tour company and think of a tour company name. The tour companies then compete to see who can provide the best weekend tour of their local city for a group of five international tourists. Each tour company has a limitless budget, and the one that creates the best tour wins a lucrative business contract. Each group then plans a weekend itinerary that includes all the tour details, such as transportation, sightseeing, food and drink, entertainment, accommodation, timing, etc. Afterwards, groups take turns presenting their tour to the class, who listen and make notes about the tour. At the end of each presentation, students ask the group questions about their tour ideas and explore any weaknesses in the itinerary. Finally, the class votes to see which tour company wins the contract. show less