ESL WORKSHEET - Childhood memories

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

TALKING ABOUT CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

LinguaHouse

Sep. 17, 2026

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)
Type of language: General English
Tags: Life Stages; Memory, Brain and Mind; People and Places; Challenges; Idioms; Speaking; Vocabulary Lesson; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old
Publication date: 09/17/2026

In this lesson, students develop their conversational skills by talking about what life was like when they were young. They start the lesson by discussing a set of personalized questions to engage with and personalize the topic. They then complete, pre, during, and post-listening tasks in the context of childhood memories. Using sentences from the descriptions, they notice the use, form, and pronunciation of the structure used to. They then practice the language in a variety of communicative activities and games and reflect on their childhood. The lesson finishes with a game to review the vocabulary. (by V. 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 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 in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

ONE
Simon: I had a normal childhood. I grew up in a small city in the United States with my parents and my older brother Pete. He was annoying when we were young. We used to fight like cats and dogs, but now we get on very well. I have mostly good memories of my school days. After school, I used to play soccer with my friends in the park, and in my teens, my friends and I started a band. I used to play the drums, Simon played the bass, and Chris was the singer. We used to practice for hours in Simon’s garage.
TWO
Kat: My dad was a diplomat, so we used to move around all the time. We moved to a different country every three years. It was a great experience to see so many places, and I used to get excited when we found out where we were moving to next. It was a bit difficult saying goodbye to friends, but we tried to keep in touch. We didn’t use to have the Internet back then, so I wrote letters. Overall, I used to enjoy school. I studied hard and got good grades in all my classes except for math. I have never been good with numbers.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/talking-about-childhood-memories. Accessed on September 23, 2026. LinguaHouse.com © 2008–2026. All rights reserved.