Hi, my dear colleagues! Many educators asked if they could get some of my interactive materials, so I decided to share 10 interactive ESL digital materials for free and start 2021 with many freebies, activities, and design tips.
In this post, I will share 10 highly interactive materials for young learners and teenagers in various categories – you can use them in your classroom freely and share them online as you wish.
These free ESL digital materials fall under the following categories:
- Interactive, animated presentations
- Board games and various other games
- Escape rooms
- WebQuests
- ALL kinds of quizzes
- Digital storytelling
- Videos
- Audio narration
- Interactive infographics
- Interactive calendars, boards, virtual classrooms, and more!
Amazing interactive presentations, pictures, and infographics
Renewable Energy Resources and Designing an Eco-house – 4 skills + a project
The first material is an interactive lesson incorporating environmental education, all 4 skills (listening, reading, writing, speaking, and a project.) Explore a detailed post with the full lesson plan below and see how you can use this lesson with your teenage students.
Renewable Energy Resources and Designing an Eco-house With a Class from India
Get the link to this presentation HERE and use it in your class.
Preschool/early elementary school advent calendar with daily activities (Art, English, PE, Science)
An interactive advent calendar can be an amazing asset to parents and give them some activities with their children every day. Some activities are more independent, and some require parent assistance. As it says in the title, this is a preschool/early elementary school advent calendar with daily activities (Art, English, PE, Science).
Get the link to this advent calendar HERE and use it in your class.
Interactive board game and various types of gamification activities
To continue this article, here are some more amazing and free ESL digital materials.
Interactive board game
This interactive board game can be played with 4 players, and it is designed to motivate teenagers to speak and talk about themselves. The game includes unusual questions and around 5 wild-card places with a pop-up spinning wheel. The wheel has unusual, awkward, and silly questions.
Get the link to this interactive board game HERE and use it in your class.
Interactive spelling activity
Use this interactive Halloween spelling activity to practice spelling, word formation, and creative thinking.
Get the link to this interactive Halloween spelling material HERE and use it in your class. Brainstorm 3, 4, and 5-letter words you can make with the given letters. Move the letters to the box you want.
As an additional activity, you can also make nonsensical words and have fun with them!
Interactive Halloween flashcard set with audio
Use this interactive Halloween flashcard set with audio with young and very young learners to introduce new vocabulary and practice sight words. Play the audio to hear the words and repeat them. Have fun naming the flashcards and try to describe them.
Get the link to this interactive Halloween flashcard set with audio HERE and use it in your class.
Escape rooms and WebQuests
The house terror escape room
Use this terror house with teenagers and motivate them to collaborate in groups. The group that escapes first gets an award.
To save Halloween, you need to escape the terror house and find the cloaked thieves! Follow the clues to find a way out, but beware… IT IS INDEED A HOUSE OF TERRORS!
Get the link to this interactive escape room HERE and use it in your class.
Interactive virtual classrooms, boards, calendars & attendance charts
Bijmoji virtual classroom
The next two materials are just an example, and since they are individualized for me, they cannot be used in another classroom. However, you can use these two as inspiration. Virtual classrooms like this make children feel more connected with you in distance learning + you can easily organize your materials/schedule for the week.
Interactive timetable + Bitmoji
Digital storytelling + audio narration
Digital storytelling TYPE 1
The first type of digital storytelling includes taking pdf/pictures of the book, uploading it, animating it, and adding a sound effect to make it more alive. This way, you can easily use it in distance learning and face-to-face + you don’t have to waste space and money to buy a physical copy of the book.
If you want to see the full lesson plan and all the steps for storytelling (including a detailed reflection of an online storytelling session with this book), explore the link below.
Christmas Around The World: Home for the Holidays Storytelling with a Class from India
Get the link to this interactive digital story with sounds HERE and use it in your class.
Digital storytelling TYPE 2
Another digital storytelling material includes pre-reading and post-reading tasks. The tasks can be done individually, at home as well.
To learn more about storytelling methodology, read this article.
Storytelling Methodology for Young Learners: Activities & an Example Lesson Plan
If you want to see the full lesson plan and all the steps for storytelling (including a video of the story itself), explore the link below.
Storytelling-based Learning- Workshop 4: Class Two at the Zoo by Julia Jarman, illustrated by Lynne
Get the link to this interactive material with storytelling tasks HERE and use it in your class.
How can you design materials like this?
If you are tired of creating content and materials for your classroom in 654 different apps, make an account on Genial.ly and start practicing your designing skills!
In Genial.ly, you can create:
- Interactive, animated presentations
- Board games and various other games
- Escape rooms
- WebQuests
- ALL kinds of quizzes
- Digital storytelling
- Videos
- Audio narration
- Interactive infographics
- Interactive calendars, boards, virtual classrooms, and more!
How can you enrich your classroom with Genial.ly?
- Genial.ly offers such a high level of interactivity you cannot achieve with literally any digital tool at the moment.
- High interactivity in the teaching material leads to improved interactivity in the class beyond the screen.
- There is a high possibility of student and teacher collaboration.
Tips for designing materials in Genial.ly
When you start working with such a huge tool, it can be a bit scary. Don’t be hard on yourself and work a little every day. Here are some tips on how you can start!
- Keep the tasks simple.
- Include translations in their native language.
- Add audio instructions which can be recorded directly in Genial.ly.
- Give some students the role of a teacher assistant.
- Refrain from explaining everything – let the children explore and give them time to learn by themselves.
- Have a demonstration and practice using the tool before starting an activity.
- The tasks should be simple enough to be done independently, at home.
6-hour long Genial.ly Gamification Masterclass
If you are interested in learning more about Genial.ly and becoming a classroom designer, I am hosting a 6-hour masterclass as an official Genial.ly ambassador! 
You will also get a course, lifetime access, recordings, and personalized feedback from me on your final design!
The masterclass is supported by Genial.ly directly!
ANOTHER GIFT INCLUDES A FREE YEARLY EDU-PRO ACCOUNT AT GENIAL.LY THAT UNLOCKS ALL OF THE PREMIUM TEMPLATES!
Apply for the masterclass in April 2022!
It’s time to start your interactive journey and become a classroom designer!
You will be able to pay with all major credit cards, and the 6-hour long masterclass is only 37$!
P. S. Drop me a message directly in the messenger button on the website if you have any questions!
P.P.S. Read some more AMAZING testimonials educators shared after participating in the first cohort of the masterclass. I am thrilled it had such an impact on them!
Click on the photo below to see the program and apply! 
To conclude
How did you like my free ESL digital materials? Let me know in the comment section! Have fun with them in your classroom and make it more interactive with every click!
Click here to explore my store where 99% of materials are forever free!
All the materials except lesson plans and 30+ page interactive activity books will be free FOREVER! Why? Because sharing is caring, and 2020 hasn’t been kind to all of us.
Don’t forget to leave a review when you download materials! It’s just a minute of your time, and it means a lot to me.
P.S. The store and the freebie library are not the same things – the freebie library has some extra materials like conference presentations and webinar recordings which are not available in the store ✨
The subscription link for the library is below my bio in every post. ?
Thank you for sharing your material, you are very creative. Your students are lucky to have you. Is it possible for any of your game to be altered by us, so we can use it with our material? I loved your board game, very colorful, and engaging. If not, I understand. I would love to join you on your master group, which I understand I have missed now, please let me know when the next one comes. Have a great day.
Hello, Nami!
Thank you for the compliment! I am glad you enjoyed the materials.
Unfortunately, I worked really hard on them and I need to keep them completely my own because I will use them on my upcoming online teaching platform.
I will also add the templates to my store so these detailed ones will not be free in the future.
If you are eager to have the board game, contact me via the contact page and I can share it with you but please do not share it with anyone else.?
I will let you know when the next cohort of the masterclass starts!
Alice