ESL WORKSHEET - Describing a vacation (holiday)

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

DESCRIBING A VACATION (HOLIDAY)

LinguaHouse

May 8, 2026

Level: Starter (A0-A1)
Type of language: General English
Tags: Travel and Leisure; Seasons and Months of the Year; Types of Holiday; Past Tenses; Speaking; Vocabulary and Grammar; Pronunciation; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; 13-15 Years Old
Publication date: 05/08/2026

In this lesson, students develop their conversational skills by describing a vacation using the verb to be in the past. Using a picture and prompts, the students identify and personalize the topic. They then learn about different types of vacations and identify a set of adjectives before practicing the language in a variety of student-centered activities. The students then develop their listening skills by hearing three people talking about a recent vacation. From the descriptions, they focus on the use, form, and pronunciation of was and were and practice using the structure in a variety of tasks. They then consolidate and personalize the language in a productive interview task. There is an additional speaking task which focuses on yes/no questions and a final describing game to review the lesson. (by Victoria Aitken)

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio 1 in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio 2 in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio 1 in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio 2 in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPTS

Audio 1 - Task 5
Conversation 1
Tim: Hey Jerry, How was your vacation in Greece?
Jerry: Hi Tim. It was wonderful, thanks.
Tim: Was the weather nice?
Jerry: Yes, it was hot, so I was at the beach every day.
Tim: It sounds great, and was the food good? I love Greek food.
Jerry: It was delicious and the seafood was cheap.
Conversation 2
Amy: Brian, you are back! How was New York?
Brian: It was good. It’s an interesting city and the people were really friendly.
Amy: Where did you stay?
Brian: In a hotel in Manhattan. It was nice but expensive. Luckily it was only for a few days, so it was OK.
Conversation 3
John: Suzi, how was the camping trip?
Suzi: It was terrible. The weather wasn’t very nice. It rained every day, and I was cold the whole time!
John: Where did you go?
Suzi: We went to France. The park we camped in was beautiful.

Audio 2 - Task 7
The city was /wʌz/ interesting.
The hotel wasn’t /ˈwʌz.ənt/ very good.
The people were /wɜr/ friendly.
The sights weren’t /wɜrnt/ very interesting.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/describing-a-holiday. Accessed on May 8, 2026. LinguaHouse.com © 2008–2026. All rights reserved.