Teaching young, true beginners English often begins with common themes like the months of the year and the days of the week. Instead of relying on rote memorization, you can try a variety of creative activities to keep your students engaged and help them remember the months more easily.

Young learners absorb language best when they’re having fun. Here are five fun engaging activities you can use to help your ESL students remember the months of the year.

1) Sing a Months Song

Music is one of the best ways to help vocabulary stick, especially for young learners. Start by introducing the months with a catchy song that your students can sing and move along to. There are many Youtube videos with months-of-the-year sing-alongs that work well in ESL classrooms. For example, this one.

First, play the song and sing along with your students. Ask your students to clap, wave, or jump when they hear their birthday month. After a few rounds, encourage them to sing without the music.

If you want to get extra creative, have the students come up with their own songs for the months of the year! You may be surprised by how inventive they become!

2) Make a Class Calendar

Personal connections help students remember language more effectively. By linking each month to their birthdays, holidays, and special events, the vocabulary becomes meaningful rather than abstract.

Create a shared digital calendar using Google Slides or Jamboard, and have your students add their names to their birth months. Each student can also include one or two special events, such as a holiday they celebrate or an important family occasion.

Review the calendar together using simple sentences like, “Leo’s birthday is in April,” or “Christmas is in December.” Keep this calendar throughout they ear so you can refer back to it and acknowledge students’ special days.

If you’re teaching one-on-one, you can help the student make a personal yearly calendar with their own important dates.

3) Put the Months in Order

Write or display the months in random order and have students drag, type, or arrange them correctly. You can turn this into a race or team challenge by splitting the students into groups or pairs and having them work together.

To reinforce sequencing of the months, ask questions such as:

• “Which month comes after March?”
• “Which month is Halloween in?”

This gets students thinking about the order of the months and the events associated with them.

In a physical classroom, you can also ask students to line up according to their birthday months, from January to December. This adds movement and makes the activity more memorable.

4) Calendar Bingo

Bingo is a great way to review vocabulary because it combines repetition with excitement, which is perfect for young learners. Create bingo cards using the months of the year. Since there are only 12 months, 3 x 3 bingo cards work well. Randomly choose 9 months to put on each card or you can get the students to choose their own months.

Instead of calling out the names of the months directly, give clues such as:

• “The month after May”
• “The month with Valentine’s Day”
• “The month before Christmas”

The first student to get three in a row wins. You can easily create bingo cards using Microsoft Word, Google Docs (with tables), or Canva.

5) Which Month am I?

Give clues about a certain month and have students guess which one it is. Students can also take turns giving clues while their classmates guess as well.

Be mindful if your students live in different parts of the world, the weather would be very different! One student’s summer month may be winter for another. This can also be a great opportunity to build cultural awareness and discuss seasonal differences.

To support beginners and younger learners, add picture clues or emojis on the screen.

Do you have a favourite strategy for teaching the months of the year to your English learners? Share your ideas in the comments below!