ESL Tile-Based Resources
About This Activity Type
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Overview Different Interactive Builder Kits offer a variety of different functions. As we continually add more content, these will range from schedule builders (for weather, school timetables, and travel plans) to tile-based custom vehicle builders. All of the Interactive Builder Kits are designed to be used for speaking activities with 2 or more partners, who communicate verbally to complete information-gap activities. |
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Methodological Background These resources are designed for use in information-gap activities. Information-gap activities are a type of classroom communication practice exercise in both communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching (TBLT). These activities allow teachers and students to complete a task that can only be successfully completed through authentic verbal communication. Note: For card game-based information-gap activities, please visit the Deduction Card Games page. |
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Family Tree Builder Kit
This kit provides a four-layered cardstock based modular family tree builder, with slots built in for different character tiles to be inserted to create a completed family free. Accompanying the modular builder, is a set of completed family tree cards that can be used in conjunction with the modular builder for information-gap activities that utilize family vocabulary words as well as vocabulary words related to clothing, color, and wearable accessories.
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1st (Top) Layer of
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2nd Layer of
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3rd Layer of
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4th Layer of
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5th (Bottom) Layer of
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A large collection of "character tiles" is also provided. These fit perfectly into the tile space provided in the modular family tree builder. Each character tile can verbally be described differently than all other character tiles by communicating some combination of information about the characters clothings, accessories, hair color, or facial hair style.
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Girl With
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Boy With
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Woman With
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Man With
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Woman With
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The backs of each "character tile" feature the character's age, which can be used for activities that involve asking questions about age. The age on the back of each tile roughly matches how old the character on the other side looks.
Every "character tile" has a different age than all of the characters sharing the same gender, so every single tile can be differentiated from every other tile just based on questions about age and gender. This will be useful if a teacher wishes to provide their students with an activity that just uses age and/or gender specific vocabulary words.
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Tile For 5
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Tile For 14
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Tile For 41
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Tile For 56
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Tile For 70
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Monster Builder Tiles
This printable game includes a set of 20 tiles that can be used to assemble a wide variety of different monster combinations. These allow for a game to be played where one partner verbally communicates what a monster on a randomly chosen card (from a set of accompanying game cards) looks like, and the second partner needs to assemble a matching monster without seeing the actual card.
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Sheet of Printable Monster Tiles
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Sheet of Accompanying Game Cards
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These materials are designed to allow for authentic communication practice of body-part vocabulary and some relevant sentence patterns.
Phonics Matching Tiles
This learning system provides a hands-on method for students to practice matching specific phonics sounds to specific words.
As illustrated in the above image, this printable tile-based learning system is perfect for students practicing the spelling of CVC words. The blue-orange-violet color-coding makes it easy for students to differentiate between beginning-consonants, vowels, and ending-consonants.
By choosing which phonics sound tiles to include in the learning area, teachers can use the system to allow their students to just practice one phonics sound type at a type.
For example, if a teacher wanted to provide their students with vowel sound practice, they could choose to only place word tiles and (orange) vowel sound tiles in the learning area. Or, if the teacher wanted their students to focus on ending-consonant sounds, they could choose to only place word tiles and (violet) ending-consonant sound tiles in the learning area.
To use this activity, print a provided set of tiles onto printer-friendly cardstock, cut out the squares, and then glue the appropriate tiles together to create suitably thick tiles.