Halloween Witch Actions – Present Continuous Grammar for ELLs

 This resource is found here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Present-Continuous-for-Elementary-ESL-4403402

In this Halloween theme they see a witch flying, cooking, or dancing, which helps them understand what is happening right now — the core meaning of the present continuous.

TPR Activity with the flashcards: What Is the Witch Doing? Students respond physically and verbally to the witch flashcards to understand and use present continuous actions. Show a flashcard and say the sentence clearly: “The witch is walking.”
Mime the action as you say it. Have students repeat the sentence and copy your movement.

Students can easily describe what the witch is doing on the flashcards: “She is flying.”
The repetitive sentence pattern helps beginners gain fluency and confidence.

What Is the Witch Doing? – Present Continuous & Collocations. Students practice the present continuous tense while learning common collocations (verb + noun phrases) in context. Strengthens sentence building.

Put a flashcard and have the students give you more collocations for just one action.

Students learn to ask and answer questions in the present continuous tense using Halloween-themed actions. Show a flashcard and ask: “What is the witch doing?” Model the answer slowly, emphasizing She is + verb-ing + object.

The Witch Action Grid – Make and Write Sentences. Students practice forming and writing present continuous sentences by picking a flashcard in a grid.

Categorize the Verbs (Spelling Rules). Display your witch flashcards and the base form of each verb underneath (fly, call, carry…).
Have students observe and classify them according to the spelling change.

Small cards for talking about activities. Connect grammar to writing and creativity. Students choose a small card and write a sentence about it.

Write about what the witch is doing in affirmative, and in negative sentence based on any card.

Write Yes/no questions and suggestions with Let’s!

Students practice writing short descriptive sentences using clothing vocabulary and the present continuous tense.

Speaking Chain. Practice fluency in question-answer patterns. One student picks a card and asks: “What is the witch doing?”  The next student answers: “She is drinking.”
Then takes a new card and continues the chain.

Cut-and-match games build word recognition. Cut the words out the card and play match.

Worksheet 1. Match sentences to the correct witch picture by coloring the frame and sentence in the same color.

Worksheet 2. Answer the question: What are you doing?

Worksheet 3. draw a line from the word to the matching picture, after completing the verb with the missing vowel.

Worksheet 4. Match the verb to the picture.

Worksheet 5. Complete all the verbs and use it as pictionary.

Worksheet 6. Complete the Sentence with the verb.

Sentence Association Game: What Is the Witch Doing?

Students match the witch picture, and the sentence to practice the present continuous tense. Students can work in pairs to match all actions.

Flip Activity: What Is the Witch Doing? They’ll write sentences describing what the witch is doing, then lift the flap to write. Print the template, cut to glue the writing part under the witch images strip. Students lift the flap to check their sentences.

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