Free Time Activities
This free time activities ESL lesson teaches hobby vocabulary and language for preferences. Students use charades, video prompts and a class survey to ask 'What do you do in your free time?' and 'Do you like...?' They write about a favourite activity and roleplay an interview between a hobby host and guest.
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Lesson format
2 × 45 minutes
Level
Elementary
Age group
Ages 8–11
Main focus
Speaking first
What students will learn
Lesson flow
Students mime hobbies like playing guitar or drawing for classmates to guess, learn free-time vocabulary from a video pausing on 'What does she do? She reads,' and drill 'Do you like swimming? Yes, I do.' The second lesson finds classmates who share a hobby through a mingling survey, writes about their free time explaining what they do and why they like it, roleplays a hobby interview as interviewer and guest, and races to hobby corners shouting their favourite activity.
Target language
- • 'What do you do in your free time?'
- • 'Do you like ___ing?'
- • Free time activity vocabulary
- • 'I like it because ___'
Key vocabulary
Free Time Activities
- • painting
- • gardening
- • cooking
- • reading
- • cycling
- • swimming
- • hiking
- • gaming
- • photography
- • knitting
Useful Words
- • weekend
- • activity
Speaking questions students answer
- • What do you do in your free time?
- • Do you like drawing?
- • Do you like swimming?
- • What's your favourite hobby?
- • Do you do it with friends?
Interactive activities in this lesson
Cross-curricular connections
- • Physical Education
- • Art & Design
- • Personal Development
Support
- • Provide the sentence frame 'I like ___ing' / 'I don't like ___ing'
- • Keep hobby picture cards visible during the survey
- • Allow students to point to pictures while answering interview questions
Challenge
- • Explain why they like a hobby using 'because'
- • Compare two hobbies using full sentences
- • Act as the interviewer in the hobby-interview roleplay, asking follow-up questions
Home challenge
Students keep a simple free-time diary for two days, writing one sentence about each activity they did, then share their favourite moment with the class.
Recommended teaching contexts
Why this lesson works
The lesson follows a clear progression: Mime hobbies in a Hobby Charades warm-up, ask 'What do you do in your free time?' and 'Do you like...?', survey classmates about shared hobbies and roleplay a hobby interview. Teachers can open the materials and start immediately, while students move from supported vocabulary practice to purposeful spoken English.