20 Autumn ESL Lesson Plans and Worksheets for Adults, A1 to C1 (Free Options Inside)

Autumn is the easiest season to teach: the topic is outside the window. A beginner can look out, see rain and say something true about it. It also runs across every level, from weather and clothes at A1 to idioms at B1 and participle clauses at C1.

This page collects every autumn and Thanksgiving lesson on ESL LAB, 20 in all, sorted by level from A1 to C1, with three free worksheets first. Every lesson takes 60 minutes. The full lesson plans come with a Quizlet set and a Miro board for online classes.

Levels in this post:Free firstA1-A2A2-B1B1-B2B2-C1ThanksgivingBy month

Free autumn worksheets to print today

These three are free and need no plan. The worksheet is a complete vocabulary class; the two PDFs come from this blog and add speaking to any lesson below.

Words to Describe Autumn is the one to start with at A2-B1. Students already know cold and nice; this worksheet gives them crisp, misty and overcast and, more usefully, the nouns each word goes with: crisp air, an overcast sky, light drizzle. Open the class with one card from the autumn speaking cards and the new words have somewhere to go.

Everything else on this page is a Pro lesson or worksheet. Where a lesson pairs well with a free one, the paragraph under its level says so.

Pick a lesson in 30 seconds

Worksheets are print-and-go practice: exercises on one set of words, with an answer key. They work as a second class in the same week or as homework after a full lesson.

Beginner (A1-A2)

Two autumn choices with a lot of support, plus two Thanksgiving lessons further down. For a free warm-up, the weather board in the no-prep autumn games works from A1.

Ask an A1 class what October is like and you get cold, and that is the whole answer. Autumn Vocabulary fixes that with twelve words and the verbs that go with them, so students can say the leaves are falling instead of pointing. Cottage Life is the lesson to follow it: a short vlog about a cozy day in a cottage, with the same words in real routines.

Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)

The widest choice: idioms, food, festivals and opinions, each with a clear language goal. The free pick here is Words to Describe Autumn.

Autumn Idioms is one of the most-read autumn lessons on the site, and the one to choose for a group that likes to write. Pumpkin Recipe works because the cook shows each amount as she names it, so a pinch of and a handful of stop being a word list. It also doubles as a Halloween lesson: the other ideas for that week are in 12 Halloween ESL lessons.

Unpopular Autumn Opinions is the lesson for students who are tired of hearing how lovely the season is. They read a writer who complains about hot drinks and sweaters, then write their own comment, which gives them real practice in disagreeing politely.

Intermediate (B1-B2)

The biggest set: three worksheets and four lesson plans. Students at this level know the basic words, so these lessons teach which combinations exist and what native speakers actually say.

October Blues has the best reading in the set: a Norwegian town that gets no direct sun for months and found a way to bring the light down. It also teaches the hardest grammar point here, separable and inseparable phrasal verbs. Phrasal Verbs for Autumn Weather is the worksheet to give as homework after it.

Hoa Hoa Hoa is a song lesson built on the Twilight soundtrack, and it is a strong pick for a gloomy November evening class. Summer Nostalgia is the one for the first week back in September, while summer is still close enough to talk about.

Advanced (B2-C1)

Two lessons for students who want precise words and longer texts. If your group finds them slow, the B1-B2 worksheets above work as a quick review.

Living Seasonally is the most demanding lesson on this page. Students collect exact words like foraging and russet and combine flat sentences with participle clauses. It wants a class that will sit with a text. Weather Forecast is the lighter choice: weather is the first topic of small talk, and this lesson gives advanced students the phrases for it.

Thanksgiving lessons for late November

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the US, so these lessons fit the week before it. They teach food, gratitude and traditions, so they work in classes where nobody celebrates the holiday too.

For a mixed group, All Kinds of -givings is the safest choice: it covers Friendsgiving and solo celebrations, not only the family dinner. Turkey Recipe pairs well with Pumpkin Recipe from the A2-B1 list, because both teach cooking words through a video recipe.

For the activities around these lessons, our Thanksgiving ESL activities post has a free printable pack with vocabulary, idioms, question cards and a Taboo game.

Find a lesson by grammar point

If your course book has reached one of these points, the autumn lesson next to it teaches the same thing with seasonal material.

Plan your autumn, month by month

For a class with no screen and no prep, the no-prep autumn weather games use only the view from your window.

All the lessons in one table

Start with the free worksheet or one of the free PDFs. If your students enjoy them, the lesson at their level is the next step.