Thanksgiving vocabulary game for ESL: a 15-minute memory chain, 3–5

1. Brainstorm and sketch (4 min): together, find a food for each letter from A to J and draw a quick sketch of each one, for example apples, beans, corn, dumplings, eggs, fruit salad, grapes, ham, ice cream, juice. Welcome dishes from students' own family gatherings wherever they fit the letter.
2. Model the sentence: "I went to the harvest feast and I brought apples." Underline went and brought, and point out that they are irregular past tense verbs: go becomes went, bring becomes brought.
3. Sit in a circle of six to eight (run two or three circles at once in a big class). The first student says the sentence with an A food. The next repeats it and adds a B food: "I went to the harvest feast and I brought apples and beans."
4. Keep going around. If someone forgets a word, the group helps with a gesture for it, not the word itself, so everyone stays involved.
5. When the chain reaches J, erase the sketches and play one round from memory.
6. Round two: change the sentence to "I went to the market and I bought..." Compare brought and bought. They sound alike but mean different things.

Not every family celebrates Thanksgiving, so call it a harvest feast and welcome any food students eat at family celebrations.

Differentiation: newcomers can say only their own word while holding a picture card, then the circle echoes the whole sentence for them. Advanced speakers add an adjective to every item ("crunchy apples, green beans"), and the next speaker must repeat it exactly. For students with memory or processing needs, leave the sketches up the whole time and restart the chain after five items. For students who use AAC, preload the food words and the phrase "and I brought".

Quick check: on the way out, each student gives the past tense of go, bring and buy, and says one sentence using one of them.

If you try it, tell us the funniest food your class brought to the feast.