The Grab Bag

of
Health

A Collection of Health-Related
Activities for the ESL Classroom
Canadian Edition

Elizabeth Ganong
Dan Ingram
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Introduction
We wrote this book to give ESL students the skills to talk about health issues in their lives. This
book is not intended to be a source of medical expertise. If your students have health problems,
they should seek medical help. But if your ESL unit on health needs first-aid, the 90 activities in The
Grab Bag of Health is your answer.

How Your Students Will Benefit

The activities are practical, multifaceted and FUN!
The activities are practical. Many of the activities focus on everyday life skills. Your students will
telephone for information, change an appointment, read labels and follow directions. They will
describe a problem to a family physician or pharmacist and query him or her about alternatives.
The activities are multifaceted. During the activities, students develop their reading, writing, listening
and speaking skills in forms that address individual differences in learning styles. They also apply what
they learn through the activities because basic understanding is not enough; your students need to be
able to use what they have learned. While working thoroughly with the material, your students master
concepts. There are also are opportunities for feedback.
The activities are FUN! Students enjoy themselves while they are acquiring the English language. They
feel at ease during the activities and as a result learn more. We often point out the educational
objective of each activity. This helps students who are used to the traditional classroom feel more
comfortable using the activities. They realize they are learning while having fun, a new concept to
some. For the same reason we use the word activity rather than game because some students believe
there is no educational value in a game and respond negatively to the word game.
Students develop everyday life skills, master language skills and enjoy themselves!

How The Teacher Will Benefit

The activities are easy-to-use, multi-levelled, and motivating. The table of contents is a quick reference
to the activities. The themes, objectives and form each activity is presented in, be it a questionnaire,
game board, prompt cards, etc., is easily accessible. The general index and the objectives index at the
back of this book also facilitate the selection of the most appropriate activity for your class.
Many of the activities typically come as complete lessons. You simply photocopy the activity and cut it
into pieces, if required, and you are ready. Introductions and extensions are often provided.
The activities are also adaptable for the multi-level classroom. Normally, preparation for the multi-level
classroom is taxing. But with The Grab Bag of Health the activities generally have suggestions for use
with both higher or lower level students, which eases your planning and allows you to provide
challenging but manageable lessons for all the students in your class.
Looking at ideas in the book is motivating. You can use your own creativity to further develop these
activities and adapt them to your own classroom. In addition, you can use these same concepts to

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create activities related to other themes in your curriculum such as work, shopping and transportation.

Level
The Grab Bag of Health was developed with beginner to intermediate students in mind but all English
as a Second Language students benefit.

About the Authors

Dan Ingram and Elizabeth Ganong met while teaching adult ESL at the Canadian Cooperative for
Language and Cultural Studies (CCLCS) in Toronto in 1992. It was within this LINC and teacher-training
environment that the idea for sharing teaching materials formed. In 1995, they started The Grab Bag,
a newsletter of ESL teaching ideas. Over the past few years they have facilitated workshops at
numerous conferences, including TESL Toronto, TESL Durham, TESL Niagara, TESL Ontario and TESL
Canada.
Dan had his BRE and M.Miss when he was introduced to ESL in Ecuador. When he returned from this
overseas experience he got his TESL Certificate from CCLCS and started teaching in the LINC program
at CCLCS. Dan is currently teaching at CCLCS.
Elizabeth had her B.A. when she started working at Humber College in 1985. There she was
introduced to ESL. After receiving her TESL Certificate from Humber, she taught ESL as a part-time and
session instructor. She also has experience working with Humbers Summer Language Program, and
extensive experience with LINC at CCLCS. Elizabeth currently teaches with the Peel District School
Board. In addition, Elizabeth has her B.Ed, M.Ed, and ESL Part 1.

Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the following people who made this possible: Glyn McDonald, Raymond Ganong,
Marjorie and Ross Ingram, Loretta and Earl Ganong, Elis Lam, Sharon Clark, Lynne Ganong, Peter
Williams, Dale Comer and the staff and students at C.C.L.C.S.
Thank you to VytalNet!

Titles in the Grab Bag Series

The Grab Bag of Socializing (2000)
The Grab Bag of Telephone Activities (2000) (Second Revised Edition)
The Grab Bag of Canada (2001)
The Grab Bag of America (2004)
The Grab Bag of Work (2004) (Second Revised Edition)
The Mixed Bag Volume 1 (2004)
The Mixed Bag Volume 2 (2004)

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Contents
Lifestyle
health warm-up

questionnaire

greeting & responses

prompt cards

Find Someone Who

lifestyle interview

questionnaire & game board

Response Practice

lifestyle responses

sentence completion

Eating Habits

percentage & frequency

writing

Grocery Cart

healthy or unhealthy

discussion

Grocery Shopping

shopping

question & answer

Healthy Shopping Tips

shopping

reading

Daily Food

daily diet

fill in the form & response

10

expressions

sentence match

11

Your Routine

daily routine

sentence completion

12

Your Dentist

the dentist

discussion

13

Dental Role Plays

dentist issues

role play prompt cards

14

Tooth Care

dental hygiene

survey & advice

15

Front & Back

parts of the body

label diagram

16

Head Start

parts of the head

label diagram

18

head & body

label diagram

19

Jellybean Jumpstart
Hi! How are you?

Sayings Match

Dental

The Body

Parts of the Body

body movements
prompt cards & guessing
Body Moves
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Moving Order
instructions
sequence commands
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20
21

An Ear for the Body

parts of the body

verbal clues & guessing

22

A Head for Letters

parts of the head

visual cue word find

25

Idiomatic Body

body idioms

crossword

26

Idiomatic Match-Ups

body idioms

matching

28

Connected Parts

parts of the body

writing

29

A Healthy Vocabulary

parts of the body

writing

29

health vocabulary

writing

29

asking about injuries

board game

30

explaining injuries

game grid

32

Ouch!

verbs & injuries

fill in the blanks

33

Painful Expressions

expressing pain

game grid

34

types of medicine

reading & writing

35

Remedy Interview

treatment of illness

interview

36

If, When, Whenever

treatment of illness

sentences-match & complete

37

giving advice

prompt cards

40

complete if sentences

game board

42

Calling for Information

getting information

telephone &writing

44

Searching for Information

getting information

internet & writing

45

Changing an Appointment

appointments

scrambled dialogue

46

forms

question & answer match

48

Question Form

health questions

question match

49

Doctor Talk

talking to a doctor

dialogue

50

Medical
Alpha-Health
What in the World!
Phoning In

Traditional or Alternative

If I Were You
Healthy Ifs

Form Information

Question Tag Match-Up

Tag Complete

health question tags

card match
52
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health question tags
complete & extend dialogue
53
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Medical Chats

develop conversations

prompt cards

54

describing illness

scrambled dialogue
& prompts

55

yearly physical

fill in the blanks

57

phoning 911

role play prompt cards

58

ER story

reading & response

59

Map It

directions

map & game board

60

Hospital Locate

directions

map

64

Sign Meaning

hospital signs

match the sign to the need

66

Forming by Problem

defining illness

match

67

different ideas on health

interview

68

research illnesses

internet

69

brainstorm vocabulary

fill in the grid

70

Which Word?

health vocabulary

writing & guessing

71

Opposites Crossword

health vocabulary

crossword

72

Verb Meaning

do, make & take

fill in the chart & writing

73

Before & After

heart attack story

sequencing

74

asthma story

fill in the blanks - grid

76

paraplegia story

inference

80

health story

checklist

81

birth story

sequencing

82

Having a Baby

pregnancy & birth

discussion sentences

83

Preventative Action

osteoporosis story

fill in the blanksT or F

84

sports-exercise-food

question cards

86

Jigsaw Stories

health stories

sequencing

88

True or False

health issues

game board

90

pro/con debate

92

match-up cards

94

Speaking for Someone

Else
Prepositions
Help Is On The Way
A Trip to the ER

Culture Sharing
Health Find
Health Challenge

Living with Asthma

My Friend Jeff
Diabetes
Expectations

Start Talking

health issues
Discussion Wheel
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Advice
giving advice
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The Drugstore
Flyer Search

drugstore products

prompts cards & guessing

96

The Coupon Game

drugstore products

make a game board

97

remedies

field trip & game board

98

count non-count nouns

fill in the blanks

101

What Do You Say?

question/response

dominoes

102

Medicine Cabinet

medicine cabinet vocab

spot the differences

104

Read Carefully

instructions on labels

board game

106

Alternatives

choosing alternatives

discussion

108

safety & sleep patterns

reading & questions

109

personal safety

survey, reading & questions

110

Advice Dominoes

giving safety advice

dominoes

112

Thoughts on Safety

giving safety advice

sentence match

114

Talking Safety

safety issues

discussion picture cards

116

Sunshine Quiz

sun safety

true or false

117

Class Openers

quotes

discussion

118

Mental Health

reducing stress

prioritize list

119

Stressed Out

stress indicators

reading & discussion

120

Unwinding

reducing stress

discussion picture cards

121

In Shape

exercise & verbs

fill in the blanks & questions

122

planning with a friend

dialogue & picture cards

123

At the Drugstore
Ask For It

Safety
Sleep for Safety
Safety Issues

Mental Health

Together is Better

Misc.
Piggyback Songs
Answer Keys & Index

health, food, toothache

songs
125
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Jelly Bean Jumpstart

Preparation:

Get your class thinking about good health with the Jelly Bean
Jumpstart. You need enough jelly beans so each of your students can have one.
Think of health questions that are appropriate for your students.

Activity:

The students work in groups of four or five. Give each group a small
bag of jelly beans. Each bag should have different colors of jelly beans. Tell each
student to take a jelly bean, but dont eat it now. They can eat it after the
activity.

Show the students the questions that you have prepared. Each question has a
color assigned to it. (See example below.) The student with the orange jelly bean
can either ask everyone the orange question, or that student can answer the
orange" question. It depends on how much time you have.
After you finish, you can discuss a few of the questions and answers as a class.
You can also use the jelly beans as a lead-in to a discussion about junk food.

Colour

Question

orange

What makes you relax?

green

Do you prefer to exercise alone or with someone? Why?

black

What book or movie has changed your life?

yellow

Whats your favourite green vegetable?

purple

Are you a morning person? Why or why not?

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Hi! How Are You?

Preparation:

Before class, copy enough of the responses on the

next page so that you have one per student. Put these in a bag.

Introduction:

Put great, okay and not good on the board.

Together, create suitable dialogues using each response.

For example, (for Not good),

A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

Hi! How are you?

Not good.
Whats the matter?
I have a headache.
Thats too bad. I hope that you feel better soon.
Thanks. And how are you?
...

Create three dialogues. Divide the students into pairs and ask them to practice the dialogues.

Activity:

Tell the class to form two lines with the each line facing the other, thus forming pairs of
students. Ask each student to select one word from the bag. Each pair should have a conversation
based on the responses they selected. After the conversation is finished, the first person in one of
the lines moves to the end; now everyone has a new partner. With the new partners, they start the
conversations again. Continue the process until the students have had enough practice. If you have
a large class, you may want to make four lines.

For additional practice, repeat the process with a new word from the bag. You could also give each
student a new word half-way through the activity.

Cultural note:

Discuss use of Hi! How are you? as a greeting rather than as a conversation
starter for acquaintances.

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super

awful

not bad

terrible

good

so-so

not very good

alright

terrific

couldnt be better

fantastic

a little
under the
weather

not that great

fine

excellent

pretty good

very good

not so good

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Find Someone Who...

4

12

13

________

________

________

________

doesnt eat
junk food

feels
fantastic

drinks eight glasses

of water a day

doesnt watch too

much television

11

14

6
________

________

________

________

goes swimming
twice a week

visits the dentist

once a year

doesnt
smoke

goes for a walk

every day

10

15

________

________

________

________

flosses and brushes

his or her teeth daily

doesnt drink too

much coffee

doesnt feel
tired

doesnt drink
soda

16

________

________

________

________

doesnt often
get headaches

plays a sport
once a week

works out
regularly

has a physical
once a year

Activity:

Give each student a copy of the grid above. Using Do you? questions, have the
students interview each other. For example, student A asks student B, Do you workout regularly?
If student B replies, Yes, I workout regularly, student A writes student Bs name in the space. If
student B answers no, student A doesnt write student Bs name in the space. Student A moves
on asking other students the question until he/she receives a yes response and writes that
students name in the space. Student A continues with the rest of the questions.

Extension:

Use the completed interview grid as a game board to practice agreeing and
disagreeing with too and either. The students work in pairs. They start at the space which is
numbered one. The first player rolls the dice and moves that number of spaces. Then the player
reads the sentence in that space. If the player rolls five, he or she reads, Miriam feels fantastic. In
addition, the player comments about himself or herself. For example, he or she says, and I do too
or but I dont. If the first part is negative (e.g., Faduma doesnt smoke.), then the second part
could be, and I dont either or but I do. The players continue around the board until they reach
has a physical once a year.

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Response Practice
Instructions:

Read the statements. After each one, write a response

about yourself. Use and I do too, and I dont either, but I do or but I
dont. Share your answers with a partner.

Statements

Responses

1) Luis takes the stairs instead of

the elevator
2) Mario plays soccer twice a week
3) Mirjana always washes her hands
before she eats
4) Joe doesnt exercise without
warming up first
5) Lenka doesnt often get sick
6) Khadra gets enough sleep
7) Tram doesnt eat much meat
8) Hussein takes good care of himself
9) Delia doesnt eat sweets
10) Raj doesnt sit around all day

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Oft
en

Usu
al

Alw

60%

80%

100%

ly

Rar
e

ays

Som
eti
me
s

40%

ly

0% 10% 20%

N ev
er

Se l
do m

Eating Habits

Instructions:

Use the pictures below to help you write sentences about what you eat and drink. For
example, I often eat fish.

1.

8.

2.

9.

3.

10.

4.

11.

5.

12.

6.

13.

7.

14.

fries

ice cream

fruit

vegetables

chicken

beef

pork

fish

cheese

rice

eggs

milk

bread

pizza

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