New Year's ESL Worksheets

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

These New Year's ESL worksheets contain activities, exercises, and digital materials for B1 intermediate students. Using these worksheets, students will explore some New Year’s celebrations and traditions, as well as some from other countries around the world. They'll get to know or learn how people celebrate and specifically any foods or snacks involved.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

In the first part of these New Year's ESL worksheets, students discuss questions about New Year's, depending on whether or not they celebrate it. Then, students do a vocabulary matching activity on some nouns related to New Year’s — for example:

longevity - cheer - luck - booze - wealth

In the third activity on the first page of the New Year’s ESL worksheets, students match some foods to images. These images represent mostly foods that are a part of some New Year’s celebrations in some countries. Students make predictions about the countries where these foods are eaten on New Year’s.

VIDEO & LISTENING COMPREHENSION

In these ESL worksheets, students watch a video of people at a New Year’s celebration. At the party, there are people from all over the world. They are doing the traditions practiced in these countries. These countries include:

• Spain
• Switzerland
• Chile
• The Netherlands
• Russia
• Japan
• Greece

In the worksheets, students do another matching activity. In the activity, they match the countries to the foods or objects. Then they must check their predictions from the third activity of the Preview section. In the final activity of this section, students listen for the words used in some sentences, and write the correct word that they hear.

VOCABULARY & GRAMMAR

This part of the ESL New Year’s worksheets focuses on New Year's celebrations through discussions and activities on articles. First, students share their thoughts on the celebrations they saw in the video and any personal experiences. Then, there are some activities involving the use of articles in sentences related to different celebrations. In the third part, participants fill in articles for sentences describing traditions in specific countries, guided by provided rules. Overall, the activities blend conversation and language practice around the theme of New Year's celebrations and traditions.

BONUS GRAMMAR

This exercise introduces partitive nouns using a video example about Chile's tradition of eating "a spoonful of lentils at midnight." Students get to learn that partitive nouns describe quantity and follow a specific structure. Additional examples include Greece's "a slice of cake" and "a shot of whiskey" in Scotland. Students then choose the appropriate partitive nouns to complete sentences. For example, they select from "a bucket," "a loaf," or "a shot" to rewrite sentences. 

PRESENT A NEW YEAR’S TRADITION!

This exercise offers two choices for students. In Option A, they can pick a New Year's tradition and share details like associated objects and symbolism, using a provided prompt with proper articles. In Option B, students create a new New Year's tradition for a country, presenting details with the same prompt. The examples guide them to use correct articles, promoting creativity and language skills.

Benefits of using these New Year's ESL worksheets:

Cultural Exploration: The worksheets provide a platform for B1 intermediate students to explore New Year's celebrations and traditions, fostering cultural awareness and understanding.

Interactive Learning: The matching activities and discussions make the learning process interactive, allowing students to actively participate in understanding and applying vocabulary related to New Year's traditions.

Grammar Practice: The worksheets incorporate activities focused on articles, providing valuable grammar practice and reinforcing correct usage in sentences related to New Year's celebrations.