OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This ESL lesson plan on outdoor activities & vocabulary offers engaging activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for pre-intermediate A2 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Talk about outdoor activities they enjoy and places where they connect with nature.
• Learn and review useful vocabulary related to outdoor activities and landscapes.
• Watch a video about outdoor adventures in Taiwan and identify the activities and locations.
• Practice using natural phrases to express interests and future plans related to outdoor fun.
• Share their own preferences and summer plans through guided conversation tasks.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

Students begin this ESL lesson on outdoor activities & vocabulary by helping a character named Bruno decide which outdoor activities to try this summer. They match six common outdoor activities—like hiking, surfing, and fishing—to pictures and say which ones Bruno should try. Students then talk about their own relationship with nature and where they enjoy going to experience it. They also complete simple sentences using landscape nouns such as cliff, waterfall, and sandstone, connecting each place to suitable outdoor activities. The section ends with a personal discussion question that asks students whether they prefer peaceful, remote outdoor spots or busy areas full of people. 

VIEWING ACTIVITY

The video introduces students to the stunning natural beauty of Taiwan, featuring bike rides around Sun Moon Lake, visits to unique coastal rock formations, hikes through gorges, and relaxing mountain views. In the first task, students check off which outdoor activities the man in the video mentions. Then, they sequence five moments from the video in the correct order. These include biking, admiring the lake, seeing rock formations, and exploring a gorge. After that, students complete sentences with nature words like lake, mountains, and wind to better understand the setting and the narrator’s experiences. 

VIEWING FOLLOW-UP

Students reflect on the video by discussing their thoughts on Taiwan and whether they’d like to visit. They also connect their personal experiences to the video by talking about similar places they’ve been to and which activities they’d try. In the next part, students read short texts describing four people's summer plans and personal preferences. They identify useful phrases, such as I’m planning on... and I prefer... to..., and sort them into categories about interests and future ideas. Finally, students apply these expressions to describe three fictional people’s preferences and plans. This helps students use the target language around outdoor activities & vocabulary.

LET’S TALK: INTERESTS, PLANS, & (SUMMER!) FUN

In this final section, students bring everything together by speaking about their own interests and plans. In Option A, students write about their own preferences and upcoming plans before sharing them in pairs or with the teacher using helpful phrases from earlier in the lesson. In Option B, they choose from a list of fun and personal summer-related questions to spark conversation. Questions focus on hobbies, vacation ideas, seasonal activities, and future goals. This activity gives students a chance to personalize the language, improve fluency, and confidently express themselves while staying connected to the outdoor activities & vocabulary ESL lesson theme.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES & VOCABULARY ESL LESSON

This lesson plan helps students improve speaking skills through real-life contexts and high-interest content. It gives students the vocabulary they need to talk about nature and travel. The lesson includes a fun, scenic video that provides strong visual support for comprehension. It builds confidence by guiding students through expressions they can reuse in their own conversations. The structured yet flexible design makes it easy to adapt for one-on-one lessons or small groups.