english summer homework ideas

Summer homework may start as early as elementary school, but you don’t have to do it the way it’s always been done! Veteran educators like third-grade teacher Alycia Zimmerman have spent time thinking about how to make summer homework meaningful and interesting enough that students buy in—and even want to do it.  

Read on for Zimmerman’s summer homework game plan and ideas for how to make summer assignments more fun for everyone.

1. Try a New Student Meet and Greet

If possible, meet your incoming students before summer break (even if it’s virtual!) to instill the importance of summer learning.

At the end of the school year, coordinate with the teachers of your incoming students to swap classes for a period. Introduce yourselves to your future students and build excitement for the fun and challenging learning ahead and the very “grown-up” summer homework you will assign.

“We’ve been far more successful in instilling the importance of our summer assignments when presenting about it face-to-face rather than just sending a packet of directions home cold,” says Zimmernan. “The students sit on the edges of their seats as we talk about the importance of summer reading and our certainty that they will do everything they can to 'keep their brains healthy, pink, and strong’ over the summer.”

2. Emphasize the Importance of Summer Reading

Talk about the best summer assignment of all: diving into books!

Reading should be a treat, not a menial assignment, so Zimmerman doesn’t feel guilty about making reading the bulk of her summer homework. Here are some of her most effective strategies for promoting summer reading:

Have students fill out a log  to keep track of the books and other texts they read over the summer. It isn’t necessary to require a certain number of books or specific titles. Simply ask that they find books they love and spend lots of time reading them.

Have your current students write book reviews of their favorite titles to send home with your rising students. Invite your current students to serve as reading ambassadors and speak to the younger students about the importance and joys of reading. When coming from slightly older peers, the message is very well received.

And of course: Sign your students up for the Scholastic Summer Reading Program ! From May 9 to August 19, your students can visit Scholastic Home Base to participate in the free, fun, and safe  summer reading program . As part of the program, kids can read e-books, attend author events, and keep Reading Streaks™ to help unlock a donation of 100K books from Scholastic – distributed to kids with limited or no access to books by Save the Children. 

3. Share Fun and Educational Activities

Direct your students to fun (and educational) activities.

When considering other homework, the best options are activities that students will be motivated to do because they’re entertaining. 

Give your incoming students the “everything is better in moderation” speech so they understand that they shouldn’t play hours of computer games every day this summer. If possible, send them home with printable and book-based packs to polish their skills for the year ahead (you can even pair these with your own assignments): 

4. Connect Through the Mail 

Stay connected with your students over the summer through cards.

Giving incoming students the opportunity to connect with you and with each other can motivate them to complete summer assignments. Here’s one plan for connecting via letters:

Have your incoming students mail you a letter of introduction. Explain that you want to hear about their summer activities, their hobbies, their families, and anything special they want you to know before the school year begins.

When you receive letters from your students, send a postcard back with a brief response. Tell them a bit about your summer plan, and let them know you can’t wait to see them in the fall. 

Encourage them to write again!

You can also pair up students and have them write to each other over the summer. In September, they can bring their pen pal letters to class to display on the bulletin board.

Take advantage of everyone’s increasing familiarity with virtual resources by connecting online, too! Post a short video, article, or question once a week on your classroom's online platform, and invite both incoming students and rising former students to write their thoughts in the comments section. Be sure to moderate their comments and enjoy their back-and-forth dialogues as they engage with each other.

Get started by shopping the best books for summer reading below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store .

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FREE Summer Activities

The weather’s hot, the sun is out, and the flowers are blooming - isn’t summer a wonderful season your students are probably just as excited about it as you are - and some of them are probably reluctant to sit attentively in a classroom when they’d rather be kicking back with a cold drink. keeping students engaged during the summer months can be a tough proposition for esl teachers - and not all of them are up to the challenge. if you want to keep your class interested, you’ll need to get them talking about topics that grab their attention. and there’s no better way to grab their attention than to focus on what they’re all thinking about: summer busyteacher.org offers 103 summer-themed worksheets that’ll get students of all levels speaking , reading , listening , and writing about the season. from simple grammar and vocabulary exercises to advanced composition and speaking activities, we’ve got it all. with these worksheets at the ready, you can turn even the laziest summer classroom into a place filled with fun in the sun. many of the 103 summer-themed worksheets you’ll find here on busyteacher.org include brightly-colored pictures that’ll catch students’ eyes. but that’s just the beginning of what makes these worksheets so engaging for esl students around the world. every worksheet takes a cue from the summer activities that are already on your students’ minds, and invites them to fill in blanks, match summery words with their definitions, solve puzzles about summer fun, and even speak and write about their exciting summer plans. not only do these worksheets cover a wide range of grammar and vocabulary topics - they also address all four of the esl categories of reading, speaking, writing, and listening. and the wide variety of worksheets available on busyteacher.org means that you’ll always be able to find a worksheet that’s the right level for the class you’re teaching - whether they’re just beginning at level one or approaching fluency at level five. quite a few of these worksheets can easily be adapted for several different esl levels, too. when you download a worksheet from busyteacher.org, you never have to wonder whether it’s useful - because every worksheet on this site was created, tested, approved, and uploaded by a real esl teacher like you. in fact, if you’ve got a worksheet that’s been especially helpful in your classroom, we’d love for you to share it with our community just click the “submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page. as you browse through the 103 summer worksheets here on busyteacher.org, you’ll notice our convenient thumbnail view, which makes it easy to preview every worksheet before you download it. and although we stand by the quality of every community-contributed worksheet on our site, some worksheets may be more useful to you than others - which is why it’s handy to be able to check through lots of them at a glance. all our summer worksheets are free to download, use, and share - so what are you waiting for grab some that look right for your class, and see how busyteacher.org makes it easy to bring some summer fun into your classroom read more... ...less.

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10 entertaining homework ideas for online English Language Learners

Did hearing the words, “do your homework,” when you were a child excite you? 

For most of us, the word homework doesn’t conjure up exciting or fun memories. 

Homework was likely one of the last things you wanted to do as a student!

However, what if you could make homework fun for students? What if homework was entertaining? 

In this article, we share some entertaining homework ideas for English language learners to help them improve their English while having fun!

You might be familiar with lots of ESL games and activities for your students , but assigning the right homework can feel overwhelming. 

This is particularly true if you don’t want to burden your students with a tremendous amount of information. 

Have you ever thought about combining games with homework? 

There are many alternative ways to create memorable lessons, such as incorporating karaoke songs to learn English. 

Here are 10 fun and entertaining homework ideas for your ESL students:

• Cafe hopper
• Tiktok star
• Let’s go to the movies
• Hello Mr. Teacher
• Interview a stranger
• Shine like a Karaoke star
• Expert on the loose
• 24 hour challenge
• It’s a wrap!
• Masterchef in the making

1. Cafe hopper

Most people love checking out cafes and this is an easy homework task to assign to your students.  

Have your students visit a variety of cafes as part of their homework. 

Then, consider what they could do for homework in a cafe of their choice.

Here are some fun ideas for turning cafe-hopping into homework:

• Practice ordering in English off of the menu.
• Take a photo of the cafe’s and share the differences and similarities with you in class.
• Speak to a stranger in each cafe in English and ask them some interesting questions about their life.
• Interview the barista about their favorite kind of coffee or beverage.

This is a stress-free homework idea that your students will love, especially if they are coffee or tea lovers!

2. TikTok star

Tiktok is a fun social media application where you can watch videos and songs from creators. You can also watch creators lip-synching to catchy tunes.

Show some fun examples in your class of some famous TikTok songs being lip-synched to by others and practice doing one together.

• For homework, have them choose their favorite song on TikTok.
• They can lip-synch to the song and download the song to their camera album without having to actually post it to TikTok.
• Have them share their creation with you in the next class!

Depending on the age and location of your student, TikTok might not be an option for them. If you are teaching older students or adults , then it might be easier for them to use social media for this homework assignment rather than young children.

If they are too young to use the app, have them find an online video of their favorite song and ask a parent to record them singing!

3. Let’s go to the movies

Going to the movies doesn’t sound like homework, does it? Well, as you might already be discovering, homework doesn’t have to be conventional!

Find some interesting movies that are playing in your students’ area or ask them to watch a movie of their choice in English. 

Tell them that their homework is going to be based on the movie they watch.

Here are some ideas for making going to the movies part of their homework:

• Have them write a summary of the movie or their favorite part.
• Tell them that they have to give you a movie review in your next class.
• Have them act out their favorite part of the movie with a sibling or family member and record it (in English of course!).
• Ask them to make a poster advertising the movie with captions, titles and text to accompany any drawings.

If you are struggling to find movies they can go and watch in the cinema, you can always use these ESL movies and TV shows as a resource. 

Students can also watch movies from the comforts of their homes. 

4. Hello Mr. Teacher!

Students love playing the role of the teacher! 

This can work for in-person or online ESL classes.  

Tell them that as part of the next classroom activity, the first 5 – 10 minutes will be their time to shine as the teacher!

For homework, ask them to:

• Think of one topic that they know a lot about (This could be a sport, musical instrument, game, topic, etc…).
• Have them prepare 5 important things that someone needs to know about their topic.
• Tell them that in their next class they will be the teacher and share their knowledge! (They can even give you homework!).

Have fun with this homework idea and role-play the student where you ask them questions after they finish. 

Your students will love this one!

5. Interview a stranger

This one might need some parent support and guidance if you are teaching children, but having them interview someone is an entertaining homework idea for English language learners.

• It encourages their own voice as they come up with ideas.
• It helps with writing skills as they write out their questions.
• Interviewing encourages conversation and role playing which is a fun way to learn English.

You could have your younger students interview a family member and ask questions related to that family member’s childhood. 

Here are some sample questions you could help your students form:

• What kind of things did you like to do when you were my age?
• What was your favorite thing about school?
• What types of sports did you play when you were young?
• Tell me about what life was like when you were a child.

Have them choose and write out 5-10 questions and come back to class to report on their findings!

6. Shine like a Karaoke star

Who doesn’t like a bit of karaoke? Imagine….singing your heart out to “I love rock n roll” in the privacy of your own home!

You don’t need to go to a karaoke place to actually sing karaoke songs. There are lots of great karaoke songs available online to learn English with your students.

YouTube is a great place to start, just by searching for your favorite song + “karaoke lyrics” in the search bar.

In class, help your student(s) choose a song and task them with finding the online karaoke lyrics to sing along.

Have them sing this for homework! You could even ask a parent to help them record it if they are comfortable with that.

Here are some fun and popular karaoke songs online to learn English:

• “I Will Survive” with Gloria Gaynor
• “Livin’ on a Prayer” with Bon Jovi
• “Summer Nights” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
• “Don’t Stop Believin’” with Journey

7. Expert on the loose

There is an expert in all of us, including your students!

In this fun and entertaining homework idea, have your student share their expertise on something!

To add a different dimension to the homework idea, “Hello Mr. Teacher,” task your students to dress up as the expert and make a short speech on their topic of choice.

Here are some examples:

• Harry Potter
• Michael Jordan (to talk about basketball)
• Favorite sports athlete
• Insect scientist
• Astronaut (if your student knows a lot about space)
• Presidential candidate
• Pilot (for students who know a lot about countries)

Even if they are not an expert on the topic, part of the homework assignment could be to do some research and learn more about their chosen field.

You could even ask them to dress up and come to class in the role, ready to share their knowledge with you! 

8. 24 hour English challenge

This one is self-explanatory and incredibly fun!

Set a challenge for your student to only speak in English for 24 hours. 

This means that you might need to get parents involved with the homework assignment, so that they can help out.

The idea is that they have to speak only in English (as much as is possible given their situation) when interacting with family, friends and at school.

Your students might already be immersed in English environments, but, oftentimes, they are speaking their native language at home with family and friends.

Having your students force themselves to only speak in English is challenging and a great way to encourage English outside the classroom.

9. It’s a wrap!

Lots of students love to rap! Rap music is poetic and encourages a lot of ESL language skills that we want to build in our students.

This is an activity that you can model with your students in class and assign it for homework for them to create their own rap.

Again, they can come back to class and rap their new song to you! It might, however, work better with older students who have a good base level of English, to begin with.

Here are some fun homework assignments incorporating rap:

• Create their own rap if they are the creative type
• Find a well known rap online and practice it to present in class
• Assign your students to find a rap online that they sing and record with their friends

10. Masterchef extraordinaire

For the food lovers, creating a homework assignment that includes cooking can be really fun.

Most kids love the idea of cooking, especially if it centers around cooking their favorite food!

When considering this as a homework idea, consider these possible assignments:

• Create and write out a recipe for a unique culinary dish.
• Make a video about the cooking experience.
• Record a tutorial of how to cook something.
• Turn it into a competition if you have multiple students.

Plus, this works with physical and online classrooms. 

Of course, if you have a physical classroom with multiple students, this could be a really fun in-class experience with some homework assignments to accompany it.

Who doesn’t love a food-related assignment? 

If you choose Masterchef extraordinaire, allow your students to share the food they make with the class and encourage lots of conversations in English.

Homework doesn’t have to be boring!

As you can see, homework doesn’t have to be boring! 

Most of your ESL students have a lot to do even outside class, and that’s why assigning homework that doesn’t feel like homework is ideal!

This is an opportunity to get creative, creating excitement for your students to learn English.

If you use some of the homework ideas mentioned here, make sure you document the experience and continue to discover new activities that bring laughter and joy to the classroom. 

And when you are applying to online teaching jobs , be sure to share how you plan to creatively incorporate class assignments and homework for your students!

Enjoy the process and make learning an enjoyable experience for everyone. 

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Creating an Engaging Summer English Project

A summer English project is required in some schools. These can become very onerous on the students and teachers. Today’s blog post is written by Rebecca Gettelman who is a middle and high school teacher from the Midwest. She has been teaching for over eleven years.

A number of years ago I started teaching at a new school.  My job offer came in the first part of June, and along with my contract, I was handed a stack of books and an assignment sheet and was told that all of my students would arrive on day one with a completed summer reading project to hand in. I was quite surprised as I had never had summer work until AP courses in high school, but not in middle school.  I was allowed to design the project as I saw fit, but a summer reading project was a required part of the curriculum. After several years of rethinking, rewriting, and tweaking, I came up with a project that is pretty effective.

Let’s think about how to design and create a project that fits the needs of your students and curriculum.  

What Do You Want Your Students To Do?

Do you want your students to read a least one book over the summer?  Do you want them to do more than just read—something along the lines of analyzing, reviewing, and thoughtfully considering messages? Would you rather your students focus on writing?  Do you want them to write a little bit every day or to just write one big paper?  

By starting with this you make sure that you don’t just end up with the same stale summer book report that has been assigned for decades and instead come up with a project that truly fits your class’s needs and flows smoothly into the new school year.

Include Elements of Fun and Creativity

Remember, it is summer vacation.  Keep in mind how much you, the teacher, are ready for a break by the time you hit those final days of school and remember that your students (and their parents) need some of that downtime too. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t assign a summer project, it just means that something that has elements of fun and inspires a student’s creative side is so much more enjoyable than something that doesn’t. If you are going to assign homework over the summer, you will get much better results if it isn’t something your students detest from start to finish.

Choice Is Important

I love to read.  But hand me a book (even one that I love) and tell me I  have  to read thirty pages and suddenly it becomes work that I will put off for days on end. Remember this when you are putting together your summer project— choice makes all the difference .

Now, the students can’t have the choice to just not do the project, but you can offer them other choices.

• Offer three vastly different books and they have to read one.
• Offer a four-part assignment and only two need to be completed.
• Offer a summer writing assignment, but they get one week off each month of summer.
• Give students the end goal and let them design their project. Read more on student-designed assessments here .

A Few More Suggestions

• A major downfall when assigning summer work to students is that you start day one of the new school year with a huge pile of grading to do. Why not consider offering optional due dates over the summer. You could even offer extra credit to students who turn in work early.
• Make the project something that students can’t just download. There are a million book reports available on the internet for anyone who wants to download them.  By creating a project that is unique, you avoid the curse of plagiarism.
• If you are assigning summer reading, give your local library a heads-up on book titles that you will be using.  The librarians will appreciate it.  This allows them to make sure they have at least a couple of each title on hand. 

Summer projects are a long-standing tradition in many schools and districts, but that doesn’t mean that the assignment has to be old or boring. By designing a great summer project, you can help yourself and your students get something positive and even enjoyable out of this tradition. 

Check out these ready to use summer project ideas:

• Summer Reading Project
• 12 Genre Book Report (let students select their genre-based assignment)
• Summer Writing Project
• Novel Study Choice Board
• Creative Writing Prompts and Activities
• Book Versus Movie Analysis Project

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Seven Homework Ideas to Interest and Engage

Homework from workbooks or grammar worksheets serve as good resources to review the contents of the day's lesson. Typically consisting of fill-in-the-blanks or matching exercises, these controlled, right-or-wrong exercises try to get students to remember the lesson and target language.

Unfortunately, this sort of homework has many drawbacks. A few negatives include:

• The homework fails to engage and interest the students.
• It doesn't push students to analyze, evaluate, or create new ideas.
• If the teacher checks the answers in a lesson, valuable time gets wasted.
• If the lesson begins with the workbook assigned, then this sort of homework doesn't engage students during warm up .
• Many students choose not to complete the assignment and worry less about mistakes when the teacher provides the answers and/or elicits answers from students.

The best homework expands on the lesson, and even prepares students for the next lesson. More specifically:

• Effective homework allows students to use real, relevant, and meaningful language.
• It requires students to use the lesson content in a more flexible manner.
• It lets everyone reuse previously studied language and skills, and thereby make new connections.
• It gives students the chance to incorporate pre-existing knowledge, ideas, and interests.
• This sort of homework challenges students creatively.
• It is engaging and interesting.

What follows are seven ideas I regularly use in my lessons with students of all levels. These same ideas are also ones I encourage my teaching staff to use too.

1: Assign reading materials with discussion questions. The article should connect with and extend the contents of the lesson.

This sort of assignment allows students to work on material which may be above their level; contains a lot of specialized vocabulary; is longer and more detailed than what would normally be usable in a lesson; etc. In an intermediate class, content from Wikipedia or an article written for native speakers serve as only two examples which, although are excellent resources, may be impractical in a lesson with limited time.

...effective homework allows students to use real, relevant, and meaningful language

When students arrive to the next lesson, little to no time should be spent on the actual reading assignment. This means the teacher shouldn't clarify passages or words, check comprehension, and so on. The teacher instead begins with a warm up based on the article, and then segues into the theme or topic. In other words, the article expands on the previous lesson, perhaps showing real use of the target language; an alternative point of view on a topic, more detail on a topic, etc. It serves as the foundation on which to use the target language, discuss, or debate.

2: Assign reading materials for students to write a short summary, answer a critical thinking question, etc. Explicit guidelines should be provided, such as write one page or use three key vocabulary words from today's lesson. When students come to the next class, they exchange papers with a partner, correct any language previously studied, and/or provide one positive comment and one piece of advice.

Again, the teacher can easily incorporate material which extends the lesson topic. The content may be slightly too long and time consuming, contain too many new words to sufficiently teach and use in a regular lesson, and so on. This sort of activity with students providing peer feedback also creates a collaborative learning environment; students help students make progress. What's more, when students listen critically for mistakes, they are thinking, reviewing, and analyzing information, even if they don't catch some of the mistakes.

3: Students look up a person, place, or thing and prepare a short presentation. It doesn't matter much if students research in their L1 or L2 because they will need to write, practice, and present in English.

At the start of the next lesson, students exchange their notes with a partner for correction and feedback, and the teacher can restrict the feedback to information from the last lesson(s). As a next step, students practice reading aloud in front of the partner, who again provides feedback and encouragement. Finally, students give the presentation to the class, answering one or two additional questions from students.

This third idea allows students to use vocabulary and grammar which was studied in the previous lesson, as well as connect the target language to new ideas, words, phrases, etc. Students also practice fluency skills, structure, discourse markers, and so on.

4: Students prepare for a role play. Materials or tasks may be assigned to read and understand at home, which might be necessary with a less familiar topic. When students next meet for a lesson, each person provides a mini-presentation on their topic. Students then conduct the role play with language previously learned. For example:

In a travel-related unit, partner A wants to travel to Thailand and partner B wants to visit Spain. Partner A independently does some research at home about Spain (and partner B, vice versa). In class, students alternate between a travel agent recommending Spain and Thailand, and use the phrases from the board, book, or previously practiced.

5: Assign additional listening homework. This proves especially helpful for students or classes that need to focus on listening skills. The students should listen to an audio file from the textbook or website, answer questions, and come to the next class prepared to discuss, summarize, etc.

...providing peer feedback creates a collaborative learning environment

This activity works very well to prepare students on a topic. If students don't know much about the topic, as might be the case with a famous person, preparation allows everyone to more actively and deeply engage with the content in the next lesson.

Students might also shadow the contents, provided the audio is about one minute in length. Shadowing refers to reading the script while the audio plays to mimic intonation, focus on speaking fluency, etc.

6: Vocabulary exchange has students keep a vocabulary notebook each week, and then share two or three words at the start of a lesson. In short, student A teaches his/her words to student B, and vice versa. The vocabulary should include the word form (i.e, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.), a definition, and a sample sentence.

7: Assign material from TED Talks, or have students find a topic of interest. With thousands of videos, students can find a topic to watch, take notes, write a summary, and discuss. Again, like some of the above suggestions, students can peer edit any writing, provide feedback to a mini-presentation, prepare discussion questions for debate and role plays in the following lesson, and so on. And similarly, new grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills and strategies can also be practiced.

The above ideas require students to prepare in advance of the lesson. Because the activities are interactive, engagement and interest tend to be higher. In addition, if students don't do the homework, they are unable to participate in activities, which thus also serves as a final motivator.

You might also be interested in:

• A (Mostly) Complete Glossary for ESL EFL Teaching
• Dictionaries: Harmful or Helpful?
• How to Keep a Vocabulary Notebook

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If you’re looking for a fun group project for 4 or more kids, wacky abstract word art activity is just the ticket. Offering  writing practice  and grammar review, this isn’t your average art project.

Kids practice building sentences with different parts of speech, then create paintings of the silly mad-lib sentences they come up with. In an unexpected fun twist, at the end they get to rip up their paintings and arrange them into wild and unique abstract collages.

Autobiographies

In this fun project, you ask the students to detail their life history in an interesting tone. To avoid monotone, ask them to only include those events in life which they consider adventurous or unforgettable. 

Ask them to highlight emotions rather than timeline. 

You can add a twist to the exercise by asking them to write their ideal future life in an epilogue.

This project will focus on verbal communication skills. 

Ask the students to select a book or excerpt from a book to read. You can assign a genre to keep the communication streamlined. 

Students can take turns to give a short review of their reading together with their viewpoints about it. They can talk about the moral values of the characters or change endings or events to discuss if the plot becomes more entertaining with these changes. 

Check out these ideas on how to run a successful Book Club !

Class Magazine

This is a perfect project for all classes in middle and high school. You can take it to the next level by asking the whole school to start a competition for the best class magazine. 

You can ask your class to select a theme of environmental, health, literary, or societal topic. 

Then ask them to gather all skills; idea-generation, writing, design, and presentation. You will get the most benefits if you make it mandatory for every student to produce content for one page of the magazine. (You can include the advertisement activity within the activity of class magazine.)

Comic Strip 

This is another extensive project that will not only win the hearts of your students but also allow you to assess their creative capabilities. 

Ask them to illustrate interesting events from their lives, or imagination, in the form of comic strips. 

ALSO READ: SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR ANY LANGUAGE CLASS

This activity is similar to the comic activity given above. The only difference is the increased detail that is required in drama writing. An absence of images adds the obligation on the students to describe scenes and expressions. 

Again, students can describe any life event from their reality or imagination. 

You can later ask the students to act on the best dramas to improve their verbal and non-verbal communication. 

Paper Mache Activity

In this messy yet super fun project, students make paper mache futuristic Earths or other imaginary planets as described in science fiction.

This was my cross-curricular activity based off of our Literature reading of  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  and a unit topic in English about the environment and recycling. Of course, you can do paper mache for any lesson or unit that you have!

This article gives you the step-by-step instruction on how to do paper mache in the classroom!

Editorial/ Fan Letter

Editorial is one of English project ideas most suitable for high-schoolers while fan letters work for learners from all English expertise levels. 

Ask your high-schoolers to analyze a societal issue that is close to their heart. Next, they need to define the problem from the viewpoint of aggrieved parties. Ask them to write out the problem and get it published in a local or national newspaper. 

(Be ready to proofread and edit the piece before they send it to relevant personnel.)

Younger students can write fan letters to their best actors, authors, and singers. 

This is another English project which will combine societal, and practical, understanding with English learning. In this project, the students will learn problem-solving skills. 

Ask them to understand a societal or scientific problem. Once they have understood and defined this issue, they have to provide a solution to this problem. 

In the end, they have to present their solution together with the need which gave rise to it in front of the class. (You may want them to include a video presentation with visual effects .)

This activity is one of my students’ favorite s not only because it’s fun but also because it facilitates their learning. I tried this project on two literature readings I had before (The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe) and both achieved the same fantastic end.

In this project, students are tasked to illustrate the setting or a specific part of the book in the form of a three-dimensional miniature scene. Students will pick a favorite scene from the story they are reading and decide how they want to represent it using the materials given (above) and a variety of design strategies.

This writing exercise contains the most fun among all the given projects. You will excite their creativity as well as their inner critic.

Start by inquiring about the literary work which fascinates or inspires them most. 

Ask them if they can add humor to that piece. Let them edit a single character or scene or if they want they can give a humorous outlook to the whole plot. 

Fables 

This open-ended English writing project will ask the students to select one event in their life. This event should be intriguing as well as contain a life lesson. 

Then, they have to retell this piece in third person pronoun. Ask them to keep the tone conversational as well as engaging. 

In the end, ask them to write a conclusive moral of the story. 

POPULAR: 5 Project-based Learning for High School English

Self-Portrait Project

These self-portrait ideas were part of a short project that went really with my middle school ESL class so I thought I’d share them with you.

My students were able to come up with three products in one activity: a mind map, a self-portrait and an essay. The unit topic was about “Identity” or “Personality” but I guess this will work for general descriptive adjectives lesson as well. 

Charts 

If you want to include futuristic touch to your English lessons, include a thing or two from STEM subjects. One great way is to ask them to explain or detail a mathematical chart. (You can come up with variations in this original plan. For example, you can ask future businessmen to interpret graphics related to market studies.)

See, if they have enough vocabulary and concepts to comprehend and convey the message to their fellows. 

Fictional Pen-Pals

Just like fan letters, this activity asks the students to write letters to their favorite characters in fictional and non-fictional worlds. 

Ask them to pinpoint the era, region, settings they like most in a given novel or historical account. Next, they would show interest in one of its characters and the reason for this interest. 

In the end, they need to write a letter to this character praising or advising him/her regarding his/her role in the piece. (You can reply on behalf of that character if you think the point made by the student inspires further dialogue.) 

Book Trailer Project

Book Trailer Project  is a digital storytelling activity for middle school or high school students after they finish reading a book. Students need to take the key idea from the book to create a short video that persuades people to check out a book they have read.

Doing the book trailer project requires students to summarize, synthesize and analyze the book and put that analysis in their trailer. Furthermore, having students create book trailers is a great way to incorporate  technology in the classroom  and encourage reading. Thus, book trailer project is a great alternative to boring book report assignments, and can easily be done individually or in groups.

So these are some of creative English project ideas you can use in your English class to prompt your students to express their creativity and language skills. These are fun, practical, and learning-inducing. 

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Great homework ideas for ESL students

Discover great homework ideas for ESL students in your classes

While most people don't want to do extra outside of class, there is no denying that having some English input between lessons is a great way for our students to take ownership of their learning and see faster English improvement. 

So here are five great homework ideas for ESL students:

1. Truth or lie?

Students prepare three short stories about themselves for homework. One is true, the others are false. In the next lesson they tell their partner their stories while their partner asks questions to decide which story is true. Then reverse roles.

A game element is really motivating and this works with many different language levels.

2. Prepare for a quiz

Do you want them to remember new verbs, tense structures or vocabulary? Are you doing a general revision lesson next? Ask your students to revise at home, telling them you’ll put them into teams next week to answer questions. Have each team make up a distinct buzzer sound if you like so they can ‘buzz in’ with the right answer. Winning team gets a prize.

Works best with teens and kids; a neat reason to revise at home and much more fun than an individual test.

3. Set up a FB group for the class

Ask a question a week, invite responses and encourage respectful conversation and debate. Be careful; not everyone likes social media and you may choose a more appropriate platform for sharing ideas outside of class.

Collaboration in English outside of class can be stimulating, build relationships and practice real-world English.

4. Riddles/puzzles/tongue twisters

A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do that? (*answer at bottom of the page)

Lateral thinking questions like the above can be fun and all the while, students are reading English. Alternatively, have students practice tongue twisters at home and either translate one from their own language or make one up. Have them share with the class next time.

It is a lot of fun hearing tongue twisters translated from other languages.

5. Watch YouTube video stories and report back

There are plenty of great story videos ESL students can watch at home and which are graded for level.

In the example video at the bottom of this blog, you'll see a short past tense story, suitable for low level learners. After watching it for homework, here are two ways you can work on it in your next class: 1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video.   2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board.

Alternatively divide the class into A and B.

For homework, A's watch one video and B's another. Pair an A and a B up in class afterwards to summarise the stories to each other.

Video is so engaging and it is much easier to get students to watch something than write something.

As teachers, we can help our students by giving homework tasks that are meaningful, relevant and engaging. Also students are more likely to do the work if it will be checked or used in some way in the following lesson. 

We hope we have inspired you to choose fun, task-based homework activities that have a solid focus and outcome. Notice, too, how there is always a meaningful follow-up to the homework task in class.

When planning homework tasks, you can also take your inspiration from the real-world and ask students to do things like text each other or listen to English music.

The possibilities for productive homework tasks are endless. 

*Answer to lateral thinking question: Friday is a horse .

The Global English  120 hour TESOL Premier course . contains great content on crafting lesson plans and a section on how to give homework effectively.

Check out our ready-to-print and use TEFL lessons   here.

Ask any questions about TESOL training and ESL classes directly  here  or join the chat in our friendly  Facebook group .

• Author: William
• Date: 06/11/2018

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Fantastic Summer Homework Ideas for High Schoolers

If your high schoolers are anything like my high schoolers, they love spending time talking about how bored they are. Yet for whatever reason, that talk never turns into action. Nothing seems to change at the end of the year, as kids are making plans for what they will be doing, or not be doing, over the summer. I always enjoy making an addition to their plans–a little bit of summer homework from their (not always) favorite art teacher. For me, there are always a few of ways to go about it–required summer homework and optional summer homework.

Required Work

For my students who will be in AP Studio Art , I require that they complete 2 projects over the summer that are “portfolio-worthy”. I type out assignment sheets for 3 projects with in-depth explanations. However, each of the three has enough open-endedness within a theme to allow students room for expression and personal voice. If students don’t like any of those 3 projects, or don’t want to do them, I allow them to complete projects of their own choosing. As long as the quality is there, I am open to just about any idea they bring to me.

Photography List

In addition, I send AP students home for the summer with a checklist of photography subjects. The photos students take are referenced and utilized throughout the year in a myriad of projects. The more images they come in with, the better. Many students end up using the cameras on their phones, which is OK because the quality doesn’t have to be stellar. The idea here is not for the photos to serve as the art project, per se; the idea is to have a library of images that can serve as backgrounds, design elements, and inspiration for them come fall.

You can download my 3-page PDF list by clicking the image below, or get a customized Word version by clicking here .

Download Now

Optional Work

For the rest of my students, summer homework is optional. I have a list of projects that I give to whoever may want it, and to a few others that I think might just take on the challenge. These are more lighthearted, fun projects that could take all kinds of different directions. I think it goes without saying, but if kids enjoy the work they are doing, they are more likely to complete it.

Here are a few ideas I like to use:

• Have a friend pose for you. In 20 minutes draw 20 poses. Go!
• Create a drawing or painting inspired by song lyrics or a piece of writing.
• Create a time-lapse video of you working on a drawing or sculpture.
• Sculpt your favorite food out of mud or sand. Photograph it from multiple angles.
• Visit someplace colorful–a farmer’s market, a flower shop, a candy store, or a museum. Make art inspired by the location.

Media Consumption

Lastly, I love to have students take the time to look up interesting artists using not only books and websites, but videos and other media. Artists my students really respond to are Banksy, Robert Longo, Maya Lin, Cheeming Boey, Kara Walker, James Turrell, and Kehinde Wiley. The Art 21 series from PBS is also a great resource. The key is to make the artist interesting enough that kids want to look at more of their work and learn more about the art being made.

Whether your students are making work because they want to or making work because they have to, summer homework is a great avenue to keep them involved and engaged over the summer. There is undoubtedly a challenge in seeing that work is actually completed, but if it is, students come back to the next school year with renewed energy, more confidence, and hopefully a little better understanding of their own art and the art of others.

Do you assign summer homework? Why or why not?

What summer homework assignments have been successful for you?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

Timothy Bogatz

Tim Bogatz is AOEU’s Content & PD Event Manager and a former AOEU Writer and high school art educator. He focuses on creativity development, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking skills in the art room.

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9 English Camp Activities Your ESL Students Will Love

If you (or your students) think you can’t have fun and learn English at the same time during summer camp, you’re wrong. You don’t have to sit at desks in front of a white board to be a successful language learner.

Here are nine excellent summer camp activities that you can use, with a little language twist, to make sure your campers are becoming stronger English speakers as well .

1. Scavenger Hunts

2. theme tag, 3. backyard scrabble, 4. go for a hike, 5. caption that, 6. the human knot, 7. puppet plays, 8. nature impressions, 9. campfire songs.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What camper doesn’t love a good scavenger hunt? It’s part of the ritual of camp, and it’s simple to make sure your students are getting some language practice while searching. They probably won’t even realize they are learning when you try these fun versions of the typical list and seek.

• Description hunts: Rather than writing out a list of items for your students to find, try writing item descriptions instead. You can write simple descriptions (i.e. This piece of metal holds papers together. = paperclip), write your clues more in riddle form (i.e. Inside this box is gold for the taking, but there are no locks or keys to open it. = an egg) or do a combination. The point is that your students get some reading comprehension practice  when they figure out what you are describing by your clue.
• Adjective hunts:  If you want to focus on a certain part of speech, like the wonderful adjective, try giving your students a simple list of descriptive words rather than nouns to be found. They will then have to find something each adjective could be describing. If you do this version, be sure to include some adjectives your students might not already know to increase their vocabularies in the process. Try words such as “spherical,” “musty,” “submerged” or “rustic.”
• Vocabulary hunts:  A language-twisted scavenger hunt doesn’t have to be complicated. On your list of items to find, simply include some words that are a part of your current vocabulary unit as reinforcement for your students.

No matter what type of scavenger hunt you do, consider making it a photo scavenger hunt, where students take pictures of the items they find rather than bringing back the items themselves.

When I was a kid, I loved playing TV tag in gym class. The rules were very similar to traditional tag. One person was it, and that person ran around trying to tag someone else who would then become “it.”

In some versions of tag, players have a base that they can run to and be safe. In this version, you could be safe anywhere as long as you could name a television show.

Right before “it” tagged us, we would drop to one knee and call out a TV show. If you did this before “it” could tag you, you were safe. If “it” got to you before you called out your show, it was now your job to chase the other players.

We called the game “TV tag,” but you can use any theme at all: colors, animals, sports, etc.

The game gets played the same way; players must drop to one knee and call out an item in the chosen theme to be safe from “it.”

What makes this game great for ESL students is that you can choose any theme you want, and whatever it is, your students will learn new vocabulary words in that category. After they have played the game once, you can easily change up the theme for each game. Your students will have fun running around and not even realize they are hearing and learning new and unfamiliar words. (And they won’t need to carry a dictionary to do it.)

Have you seen the homemade versions of Scrabble  that use your entire backyard as the playing board? They are so fun! Your students will think so, too, when they play this classic word game under the bright summer sky in your very own Backyard Scrabble game.

To make your game, first make your letter tiles out of cardboard or card stock, or print them out and laminate them. You will want your letters to have some sturdiness. Each letter should be about the size of a standard piece of printing paper.

Since the yard, field or open space is your “game board,” you’ll have to eyeball your rows and columns, keeping them as straight as you can. You won’t have lines on the ground to guide you where to put letters. Just do your best. It’s okay if things get a little (or a lot) crooked.

You also won’t have the double word and double letter spaces you’ll find on a traditional Scrabble board. So you’ll have to decide for yourself if you want to keep score. I think the fun is in playing rather than winning, so I often pass on keeping score when my ESL students play Scrabble—either inside or outside.

Other than that, you’ll play according to the traditional rules, swapping letters only at the expense of losing your turn and making sure each word played connects with another word already on the board.

Your students will learn new and unusual vocabulary (especially if you play, too), and I guarantee they’ll have a great time.

How well can your students follow directions? You’ll know if you send them on a hike with written directions.

If you are familiar with geocaching , you’ll have an idea how this hike will work. Hide a small prize for students to find. But instead of giving them latitude and longitude coordinates as you would with geocaching, give them a set of written directions to find the prize.

They will have fun searching, while getting some reading practice in the process.

I don’t know about you, but I love to take fun pictures of my students. When you have kids at camp, you will have plenty of opportunities to take pictures of fun and interesting ESL activities .

When you do, print out your pictures and post them on a bulletin board. Then put some sticky notes nearby for your students to use when writing funny captions to go with each photo.

Students will love both writing their own captions and reading captions that their fellow campers have written. At the end of camp, compile your photos and captions into a photobook with your favorite desktop publishing program. Then make copies for each camper to take home to remember what a great time they had.

This is a fun team building exercise where students must untangle themselves from, you guessed it, a human knot.

To set up, have everyone stand in a circle. Everyone puts their right hand into the circle and takes someone else’s hand—but not the hand of the person directly on their left or right. Then everyone puts their left hand into the middle and grasps another hand—but again, not the hand of the two people directly on their sides. ( Here are clear video directions from the children’s show “Zoom.”)

Without letting go of any of the hands, students must untangle the knot of human limbs they have created. In the process they will have to talk to each other and strategize, and in so doing will get some great speaking practice.

When the knot is finally untangled, the students will be standing in a circle holding hands. (The perfect opportunity for you to snap a photo to caption later.)

If your students like arts and crafts, take some time one day to make puppets. You can use one of these ideas , the simple paper finger puppets here  or one of your own.

After the puppets are complete, have groups of students come up with a puppet show for the other campers. You can have them write out the script or improvise. Either way, they will get in some language practice while entertaining their audience.

If your students like being in the great outdoors, try making impressions of items they find in salt dough or art clay .

Have students choose items such as branches, fern leaves, rocks, etc. and make impressions of them in a ball of dough. After the impressions have dried, see if everyone in the group can guess what their classmates used to make each of the impressions.

Heads up, this is a great time to use modal verbs or adverbs of frequency. (i.e. It could be a twig. It is most likely a pebble.)

What camp would be complete without a campfire and a guitar or two? You can use this time to get in some language practice too, by strategically choosing the songs you sing.

Try singing some grammar songs (such as those from  “Schoolhouse Rock” ) or songs that teach specific vocabulary. Take popular songs and rewrite the lyrics so they teach and/or review what you want your students to know.

Here’s a head’s up: If you are planning on singing around a fire in the dark, switch the print settings so you have white words on a black background. That way students will be able to hold them up to the fire and still see the words on the page.

English camp can be one of the most memorable experiences in a young person’s life. Make sure your camp makes the grade by merging summer fun with language development. Your students will be sure to count your camp as a best summer memory!

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Imaginative activities and projects to pack your students' summer holidays with creativity

13 July 2022

Bonus: Homework for teachers. Take some time over the summer to look after your own wellbeing (although maybe wait until just before the new term starts!) with these Dreamachine Teacher Wellbeing CPD videos and creative activities .

1. Dreamachine Resources At Home Pack

Print off the entire pack or just one or two from this collection of activities from the Dreamachine Schools resources, specially picked out for families at home. They include science, global citizenship and wellbeing activities suitable for all ages, but will need adults to support the delivery as they are written in a lesson plan style. The activities include an interactive science survey into the senses: Life’s Big Questions – with videos to watch presented by Newsround’s Martin Dougan and fun illusions to try out.

2. British Science Week Activity Packs

For child-facing activities that are print off and go try this year’s British Science Week activity packs , which include a Dreamachine optical illusion challenge.

3. Summer Reading Challenge 2022

This year’s summer reading challenge is online and even if your school didn’t sign—up, children can still register to join in online and get books form the library: www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

You could print out this resource from StoryTrails and Unboxed Learning , with lots of ideas for storytelling.

4. The Poetry Society and Stemettes About Us Competition

About Us is all about exploring the many ways life across the universe is connected. Young people aged 4-18 can enter their poems and/ or Scratch projects on the theme of ‘connectivity and the universe‘, to win books and tech goodies, talent development opportunities, and free workshops for their school. All entrants will receive an e-certificate for participating and the competition closes on 31 August 2022. www.aboutus.earth/about-the-competition

5. Teaching for Creativity Taster Cards

Our Teaching for Creativity Taster Card activities are short and simple so could easily be facilitated by a parent or carer!

6. Keep an alternative journal

Document your summer break in a diary, but try to do it without writing a word! Create a scrapbook (or box!) of your summer, to remind you of what you did and how you felt. Try to include something for every week, but you can include as many entries as you like. How many different types of entries can you do? Some ideas are:

• Draw or paint a picture of what you did
• Draw the weather that day
• Close your eyes and draw how you feel
• Take a photo
• Collect a memento e.g. a ticket, a receipt, a food packet, newspaper, a leaf, a stone
• Draw a list of the music you listened to / books you read / games you played
• Make a collage of something you are looking forward to
• Make a picture of the tastiest food you ate – try using something unusual in a collage like pasta, lentils or cut up food packaging
• Listen to the noises outside and draw what you think you can hear

7. Design a new invention

Invent something to solve the problem of ____________.

Draw your invention and label it or make a model of it and a short video explaining how it will work. Think about: How does it work? What size will it be if you made it for real? What material is it made of? Where does it get power or energy from to work? What will you call it?

Check out Little Inventors for inspiration: www.littleinventors.org/ideas

Insert a problem to solve that you think your students will know about / connects to your learning this year or look on www.littleinventors.org/mini-challenges/

Some ideas are: plastic food packaging, ocean pollution, keeping cool in the heatwave, keeping house plants alive, how to stay dry when camping, learning times tables, getting to school on time.

8. Put on an art exhibition

Visit Tate Kids and choose some of the activities to create your own artwork: www.tate.org.uk/kids/make

Once you have enough pieces, stage an art exhibition in your home or garden and invite families and friends. Think about how you want them to feel when they are in the exhibition. Do you want them to feel excited/calm/intrigued or think about issues you care about? How can you display your work to try and achieve this? Take photos and collect some quotes of how they found the experience!

9. Learn some origami

Learn to make something out of origami, the art of paper folding. Maths on Toast have some how-to-videos: www.mathsontoast.org.uk/activity-category/videos/

All you need is some squares of paper – even newspaper will do (an easy way to make a square of paper is to fold one corner over to the bottom edge and then cut along ).

10. Write a cultural review

Write a review of a film/book/computer game/album/podcast /play/day out/experience – anything cultural that interests you! How did it make you feel? What were the best bits? What could improve? What surprised you?

You could provide them with a quick list of family days out (preferably free and local) to spark ideas. If your students are London based, here is a list of some free goings on in the capital to get you started:

Greenwich + Docklands - International Festival 2022 (FREE) 26 August – 11 September / Festival - free theatre, art, dance and circus.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: Alienarium 5 at Serpentine South Gallery (FREE) until 4 September / Art exhibition - a speculative environment that invites us to imagine possible encounters with extraterrestrials.

Covent Garden Cool Down – August Bank Holiday weekend / Experience - an annual ice cream festival on the streets of Covent Garden.

Take One Picture 2022 at the National Gallery (FREE) until 11 September / Art exhibition - primary schools from across the UK have responded creatively to 'The Finding of Moses' by Orazio Gentileschi.

Hew Locke: The Procession at Tate Britain (FREE) until January 2023 / Art exhibition – an installation of sculptures of people gathering and moving together to and ‘to celebrate, worship, protest, mourn, escape or even to better themselves’.

Kids Week – throughout August / Theatre - children 17 and under can go to theatre shows for free when accompanied by a full price paying adult.

Brent Biennial 2022: In The House Of My Love (FREE) until 11 September / Art exhibition - artists and community groups whose works explore the many meanings of homemaking.

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20+ creative alternative homework ideas for teachers

When giving homework, it must always be based on learning goals your students have to reach, just like in your lessons. But it’s sad to see that lots of teachers are using homework as extra lesson time. Of course, as a teacher, you’re on a clock. But that doesn’t mean your students have to suffer from it and keep working on those boring textbooks and worksheets at home.

Consider goals like attitudes, real-life experiences, and practice, physical exercise, social encounters, creative solutions, and philanthropy as crucial as your lesson goals. These are things students don’t just pick up in your classroom. These are things they pick up in life.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some innovative homework ideas that will engage your students more. These alternatives to traditional homework will thereby also teach your students new things that can’t be taught in the classroom. You will find a variety of homework ideas: online and offline.

I will mention homework alternatives for primary school and high school. Some of these ideas can be changed a little bit, so they are the perfect fit for the right audience.

20 Creative homework ideas

You can divide homework tasks into the following themes or categories:

• Crafts & arts
• Outdoor activities & outings
• Games and activities
• Physical activities
• Digital or computer activities
• Philanthropy & social work

💡 Good to know : all the ready-to-use homework activities are created with BookWidgets . You can easily create activities like these yourself or duplicate an activity below for free, edit it if needed, and share it with your students. You can do so in the examples separately, or you can find all the homework examples in the BookWidgets Blog group folder .

Crafts and arts homework

1. prepare a dish from a recipe book.

2. Make a board game

3. Create a birdhouse

4. Transform a fictional book character into a hand puppet

Outdoor homework activities and outings

5. coupon game.

Students can also go grocery shopping with their parents. Here, they have to read the ingredients of the products and help their parents choose the healthiest products for the best prices, figure out the best deal between the sizes of items, …

6. Visit the zoo

7. Visit the local dumping ground or container park

8. Build a tree house

Games and activities as homework

9. bookwidgets games.

10. Minecraft

11. Play Cards

12. Play Zoo Tycoon or Rollercoaster Tycoon

Physical homework activities

13. rope skipping.

Many rope-skipping songs let your students do different tricks while rope-skipping. This is an excellent opportunity for homework as well. Ask your students to transform a rope skipping song into a song with lesson content. Let them count or spell or even sum up the different states or capitals. To engage their lifestyles even harder, you can additionally give them the assignment to create a TikTok in which they are jumping and singing.

Click here to see how you can get Tiktok more involved in the classroom.

14. Walking quest

If there aren’t any walking quests in the neighborhood, you could ask your students to create a walking quest like this for their fellow students. What a fun day it will be!

15. Obstacle Quiz

In order for students to answer the questions, they have to run and pass a challenging parkour. This is a fun homework exercise, and in the end, it’s a great lesson starter or lesson end.

16. Swimming games

After the activity, they can fill out an Exit Slip:

Digital or computer homework activities

17. create a picture album.

This teaches them to handle the online software, add pictures and write without spelling mistakes. And of course, creating memories is so much fun!

18. Video job application

19. Your life in 10 minutes - video

20. Email pen-pals

Is it still too complicated? Read the messages from your students, before they send them, and provide them with some feedback.

Philanthropy and social homework

21. grow a community garden.

22. Help in a retirement home

23. Help at a homeless shelter

24. Collect litter

Here’s another homework tip: Don’t call homework “homework”. Call it a challenge. Homework has become a negative word for students, and I bet they start rolling their eyes as you even mention the word.

Still looking for more inspiration? Check out the blog on short films and lesson activities that spice up your Google Classroom . Tip: even if you don’t use Google Classroom, there is a lot of inspiration back here.

Above you have read single assignments. But, you also have the option to involve your homework in a project. Find out more here .

So, as I mentioned earlier, there are many fun alternatives to traditional homework. Now it’s up to you to apply this in the classroom as well. In this folder , you will find all the examples you have come across.

Which idea do you or perhaps your students like the most? Let us know on Twitter . Of course, there are many more alternatives. If you have other ideas, you are always welcome to share it with other teachers in our Facebook group .

One more thing: don’t forget to say hi👋 on LikedIn .

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Summer Holiday Homework Ideas

Subject: Cross-curricular topics

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

22 January 2024

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20 home learning ideas for the summer break. Tasks are varied, including: writing, math, creative and social-emotional skills.

Provide as a handout for children to select from. Why not challenge children to complete 3, 4 or 5 of their choosing?

Some tasks could be useful for new term display or presentation.

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Use with caution - in this current financial climate, this pack of homework ideas could potentially exclude families that do not go on holiday or have do not relationships with their (extended) families. Not all children have a 'good' summer break. For those that do, it is great.

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Your Career• 3 Min read

6th September 2020

Creative Homework Ideas

How can you create homework assignments that build on the day’s lessons and encourage creative, student-led learning? It’s a challenge for most teachers, especially as motivating pupils to complete homework can add a whole extra layer to your lesson plans. But it’s essential to bridge the gap between teacher and student learning –  the skills gained through independent study reinforces knowledge from your class, as well as a host of other benefits:

• Extended learning time – outside of the constraints of the school day, students are free to learn at their own pace and in their own environment.
• Independent learning – vital skills for exam preparation and higher education
• Teaches students to be resourceful and to overcome challenges independently.
• Gives students the freedom to be creative in their learning, gain valuable problem-solving skills and confidence in their own abilities.

Tips For Setting Creative Homework

• Plan independent learning both in and out of the classroom – you can monitor students effectiveness and address issues that may arise in the classroom before they become problematic for pupils at home.
• Don’t leave homework assignment to the end of the lesson, rushing through the task might leave some students confused which inevitably leads to a lower homework completion rate. Write plenty of time for explaining homework assignments into your lesson planning – read our Beginner’s Guide To Lesson Planning here
• Homework should to not too easy nor not too hard, offering pupils a challenge that reinforced the topics learnt during the day
• Give room for creative expression – allowing students to add their own diagrams, decorations or chose their own project topics from a selection. 
• Try using peer or self-assessment to mark homework – a double whammy of reducing your workload and allowing pupils to take control of their own learning.
• Include timings and explicit steps for completing more complicated assignments, especially for pupils that you anticipate might struggle. Comprehension of the task is the biggest hurdle in getting pupils to work on an independent basis.
• Self-driven projects, posters, creative tasks and research are more exciting than standard comprehension tasks and might encourage pupils that find sitting and writing dull or hard to complete the homework set – give students the freedom to learn and be creative in their home study.
• Provide specific instructions and internet safety reminders for research-led assignments. It’s very easy for children to find research overwhelming with a vast amount of information available online. Provide suggested websites and links in your homework to keep things on track!
• Don’t introduce a new topic for homework – keep it to topics that you’ve already covered in class
• Taking note of the subjects that excite and engage your class and set homework accordingly – try keeping dryer topics and  for the classroom so that you can monitor engagement
• Mark work promptly – essential to keep students motivated to complete work in their own time!
• Offering students the opportunity to select the homework that they would like to do from a selection guarantees a higher rate of completion. We’ve seen some teachers create grids or sheets of homework assignments for the pupils to select, or offer baskets of activities for younger children to take home and complete with an adult.

Creative Homework Ideas For All Ages

Coming up with innovative ways for students to reinforce their knowledge at home can be difficult – many of these ideas would be suitable for lots of subjects with a little tweaking!

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