There Is City Vocabulary

There Is City Vocabulary Activity: Master Descriptions with Fun, Interactive Practice

Looking for a creative way to teach “there is” city vocabulary? This engaging ESL activity not only helps students practice essential English structures but also introduces them to basic city vocabulary in a fun, hands-on way! Ideal for A1 (beginner) students, this activity focuses on using the “there is” structure with countable and non-countable nouns while incorporating useful quantifiers such as many, several, much, a couple, lots of, and a lot of.

In this activity, students will explore a range of sentence structures, including:

• There is

• There isn’t

• There aren’t any

• There is no

• There are no

They’ll practice applying these combinations in real-world scenarios related to cities, enhancing both their grammar and vocabulary skills. Plus, the activity is flexible and can be played individually, in small groups, or as a full class.

How to Play:

1. City Matching Game: Split students into pairs or small groups. Set a timer and let them choose a city from the worksheet. The challenge is to match as many descriptions to the city as possible. Groups present their descriptions, and the team with the most correct ones earns points.

2. Class Presentation Game: As a class, choose a city and let students take turns picking descriptions to match it. The student who runs out of correct descriptions loses the round.

3. Fast Hands Game: For a quicker, more competitive version, shout out city descriptions, and the first student to raise their hand with the correct answer earns a point.

4. Personalized City Descriptions: Give students 2 minutes to come up with 4 descriptions of a city they’ve been to. Then, they read their descriptions aloud, and the class guesses the city.

This versatile activity encourages teamwork, fosters critical thinking, and enhances both language fluency and cultural awareness. Plus, students can deepen their understanding by thinking of additional descriptions to make the game even more dynamic!

Perfect for:

• Individual practice

• Pair or small group activities

• Large group/classroom fun

With a printable PDF format, this activity can be used in any ESL classroom setting, whether online or in-person.

Alternative Ways to Play the “There Is City Vocabulary” Activity:

1. City Pictionary: Use the descriptions as a basis for a drawing game. One student picks a description and draws the city or its landmarks while the others guess the description based on the drawing.

2. City Storytelling: Students use their descriptions to tell a story about a city. For example, “There are many parks in this city,” could lead to a story about visiting those parks.

3. Guess the City Challenge: Students take turns describing a city using the “there is” structure, and the rest of the class has to guess which city they are talking about.