The days are (finally) getting longer and your adult ESL students have energy again. You know what I’m talking about. That fidgety, restless, can’t-sit-still energy. The way they keep glancing at the windows like they’re planning their escape.
Here’s the thing…spring is the perfect excuse to inject some life back into your classroom. I’m not talking about putting a tulip on your desk and calling it themed. I mean activities that will get your students moving, laughing, and most importantly, using English without realizing how much work they’re doing.
Spring gives you something most teaching units don’t: built-in student interest. Your students are already noticing the weather change. They’re already thinking about being outside. They’re already planning weekend activities and talking about the season shifting. Forget about having to create engagement from scratch. You don’t need to! You can tap into something that’s already happening in their lives.
Take it Outside with a Scavenger Hunt
The easiest way to capitalize on spring energy? Stop fighting it. Tell your students you’re sending them outside and watch the transformation. I’ve asked students to move to another seat and gotten theatrical groans, but mention leaving the building? Suddenly they’re grabbing their phones and heading for the door.
I put my students in mixed native language groups, handed them a list of things to photograph, gave them a deadline, and turned them loose on campus. (This was when I taught in an Intensive English Program located on a university campus.) The list included things like: the feet of someone wearing sandals, a robin, a daffodil, dandelions, someone making a dandelion wish, and an umbrella (whether in use or not).
Here’s what made it work: many of my students desperately wanted to practice speaking English with strangers but didn’t have a reason to approach people. The scavenger hunt gave them permission. They could walk up to anyone, roll their eyes, and blame the weird assignment on me. “My teacher is making us ask about spring idioms. Can you help?”
Add video requirements and you’ve got them interviewing people about their favorite spring flower or what “spring fever” means. The English practice is real, but it doesn’t feel like work.
Show Them What Spring Looks Like Here (where you are)
Your students might be used to cherry blossom festivals or spring carnivals in their home countries, but they probably don’t know about the arts festival two towns over or the you-pick strawberry farm that opens in May. Share camping spots, talk about yard sales, and make sure they know about nearby state or national parks.
Then flip it. Get conversations going about springtime activities in THEIR countries. What does spring look like in South Korea versus Colombia versus Jordan? You’re teaching vocabulary and cultural exchange without a worksheet in sight.
Infuse Everything with Spring
You don’t need a complete spring-themed curriculum. Just add a spring layer to what you’re already teaching.
Teaching prepositions of location or directions? Get some maps and have them plot routes to local you-pick berry farms.
Working with descriptive language? Give them descriptions of local birds and challenge them to notice and photograph the birds throughout the week. My middle-aged students got competitive about this. Suddenly everyone was a birdwatcher.
Teaching step-by-step directions? Write instructions for how to hang a birdhouse, cut them into strips, and have students sequence them. Then talk about whether they’d actually DO it.
Health unit? Bring up springtime allergies. Teach symptoms, causes, and generic terms for allergy medicine. Talk about side effects. Half your class is probably dealing with this right now anyway.
Working on weather vocabulary? Spring is tornado season in Oklahoma; how about where you are? What better time to ensure they know what to do when there’s a warning?
You’ll find ways to add spring to almost anything if you’re paying attention to what’s happening outside your classroom windows.
Give Them Something to Say (and Write)
These next activities give students a reason to have real conversations in English. They’re not just answering comprehension questions or doing dialogue drills. They’re debating, planning, researching, and sharing opinions about topics they actually care about.
The DST Debate
Daylight Saving Time is all over the news every spring. No one argues with that extra hour of sleep in the fall, but losing it in March? Suddenly everyone has opinions.
Divide students into teams and assign each to argue for keeping DST, keeping only standard time, or abolishing the whole system. They’ll research, they’ll get fired up, and they’ll practice persuasive language. It’s structured debate without feeling like a formal academic exercise.
Spring Bucket List (or Dandelion Wish List)
After you’ve discussed spring activities, have students write their Spring Bucket List of things they want to try. Keep it simple or require explanations for each item. Better yet, have them create an actual plan for doing one of the activities, complete with when, where, how much it costs, and who they’ll bring.
I started calling this the Dandelion Wish List after a student asked if “bucket list” meant things to do before dying. That got dark. Dandelion wishes are lighter and more spring-appropriate anyway.
Spring Break Destinations
Have students sign up for unique destinations, then research and plan an imaginary trip. They figure out the route, travel time, costs, where to stay (specific hotels with room rates), must-see sights, must-try restaurants, and activities. They find photos to make everyone jealous.
Most people love thinking about travel, so you’ll have a fully engaged audience for every presentation. Students will take notes on each other’s destinations without you asking them to.
If you can swing it, turn this into planning an actual class picnic. Where should you go? What food should people bring? What activities? Should family members come? How long should it last? Who needs rides? The planning discussions are packed with practical English, and the picnic itself builds classroom community while giving everyone a chance to use their English in a relaxed setting.
Add Language Lessons Disguised as Fun
Spring gives you a natural entry point for teaching idioms and cultural concepts. Your students are more likely to remember expressions when they’re tied to something happening right now, not just listed in a textbook.
Idioms Related to Spring
I’ve never had a class turn down the chance to learn new idioms. Spring is the perfect time to break out idioms like take a hike, go fly a kite.
These phrases work as literal springtime activities AND as idioms, which are easier to remember than random expressions. If your students have (or want to have) a green thumb, teach them which seeds work best for your area so they can start seedlings and plant a spring garden.
Even if you are no spring chicken, you’ll have an easier time dealing with their spring fever and getting them to spring to attention when you have a lesson on spring-related idioms.
April Fool’s Day
Adult ESL students love reading about pranks. The bigger, the better, and if YOU were involved (as the pranker or the victim)? They’ll love them even more! They’ll answer reading comprehension questions about any text, but if it’s about classic April Fool’s jokes? They’re going to devour every word.
Share the big corporate pranks, talk about how media companies amplify jokes, include stories of pranks gone horribly wrong. Then tell them about that time your family got you good. Tell them about when you totally fooled a class in the past and watch them get suspicious of your every move. Ask about jokes they’ve played, not just on April Fool’s Day but anytime.
For extra fun, brainstorm pranks your class could play on other classes. The scheming alone will generate tons of English conversation.
The Bottom Line
Observing and celebrating the seasons keeps us from drowning in the sameness that daily routines force on us. It stops time from jumping every time we blink, where somehow the days drag on forever but the months flash by so fast we can’t remember anything significant happening.
Breaking up the year into seasons transforms the normal ordinary into something special. It gives your students something to notice, something to anticipate, something to discuss beyond grammar drills and vocabulary lists.
So here’s what I want you to do: pick ONE activity from this list. Just one. Try it this week. See what happens when you give your students a reason to notice spring, to talk about spring, to experience spring in English. Then come back and try another one.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
get resources
Want some ready-to-go spring vocabulary resources you can use with your students today?
These are available in my TpT store:
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