Holiday likes and dislikes

Olia | Jan 25, 2026Jan 23, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on holiday activities are to:

• discuss holiday plans and preferences;
• practise common holiday expressions;
• explore phrases to express preferences followed by gerund and infinitive; 
• watch a video with kids sharing what they like doing on holiday.

With this lesson, students explore a word search, review prepositions in holiday-related collocations (go on holiday, have plans for your next holiday, be on holiday) and watch a short video about things to do on holiday. They practise phrases for holiday activities (e.g. spend time at home, have a picnic, sleep), talk about their likes and dislikes and discuss the things they did in their childhood. Students practise more phrases for likes and preferences (e.g. dislike, would like to, want to), exchange viewpoints and work in pairs to discuss people’s preferences and holiday plans.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on holiday activities starts with a warm-up. Students find words in a word search connected to ‘holiday’ (e.g. sun, games, swim). After that, they choose the correct preposition to create phrases in questions about holidays (e.g. When do you usually go on/for holiday?). Moving on, students watch a video where kids share their favourite holiday activities. They say which question from the previous task the children answered. Afterwards, students watch the video again and say which people (e.g. neighbours, mum, dad) the children talk about. Following that, they complete pairs of holiday activities (e.g. go swimming, play with a dog, spend time at home) with verbs. Then, students watch the video again and tick the activities from the previous exercise that are mentioned. They also add one more activity from the video that wasn’t mentioned previously.

VOCABULARY PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION

In this part of the ESL lesson on holiday activities, students complete sentences about their likes and dislikes (e.g. I don’t really like…). They use the target vocabulary from the lesson, applying the correct form of the verbs and adding details. After that, they discuss the activities from the previous task, focusing on their experiences. Moving on, students complete sentences about more activities with the correct form of verbs (e.g. do, doing, go, going). The sentences contain more phrases for likes and preferences (e.g. dislike, would like to, want to). They then answer holiday questions from a previous exercise. Students use the target phrases from the lesson and give details. Finally, they work in pairs. Student A chooses a group of people from a list (e.g. three students who study languages) and says what they enjoy, prefer and dislike doing in their free time. Student B says what they would like to do on their next holiday. Next, they swap roles.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson on holiday activities also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students correct the mistakes in sentences about holiday likes and dislikes. They then add one more activity in each sentence. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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