Top 10 Online Teaching Props Every ESL Teacher Should Try

Teaching English online comes with its challenges—but the right tools and digital props for online teachers can make your lessons feel just as lively and engaging as an in-person classroom. Whether you teach young learners or teens, adding online teaching props to your lessons can boost interaction, build comprehension, and make your students want to participate.

In this post, we’re sharing 10 tried-and-true online teaching props and tools every ESL teacher should try—plus practical ways to use them across different platforms (Zoom, Koala Go, Voov, and ClassIn).

What Are Online Teaching Props?

Online teaching props are digital or physical items that support learning in a virtual classroom. Think of them as your online version of flashcards, puppets, star charts, or sorting mats.

They help:

• Grab and hold students’ attention
• Provide visual scaffolding for vocabulary and grammar
• Encourage participation through interaction or play
• Reward and motivate students in real time

Best of all? Most of them are free or already built into your lesson platform—or into the Florentis Learning curriculum.

Top 10 Online Teaching Props for ESL Teachers

1. Interactive Spinners

(e.g., Wheel of Names, Florentis Word Bug Spinner)

Use spinners to:

• Choose vocabulary words or questions
• Decide who goes first in group classes
• Review categories like foods, animals, or routines

They add instant fun with very little prep. Great for 1:1 or small groups. Want to gamify your ESL classes even more? Discover 5 easy tricks to make lessons fun in our gamification post.

2. Virtual Reward Charts

A simple 5-star system or sticker tracker on your screen can go a long way to motivate students. With tools like Florentis Learning, rewards are already built in—no extra slides or downloads needed.

🎨 Want variety? Change your reward theme weekly—stars, gems, emojis, dinosaurs… the possibilities are endless.

3. Drag-and-Drop Activities (With a Co-Browser)

Drag-and-drop tasks are incredibly engaging for young learners. These interactive props for ESL learners help boost participation. Students can:

• Sort foods by meal type
• Spell words using letter tiles
• Complete sentence frames
• Match vocabulary to images

But not all platforms support drag-and-drop natively. That’s where a co-browser helps.

What’s a Co-Browser?

A co-browser lets you and your student interact on the same screen at the same time. Instead of just screen sharing (where only you click), a co-browser allows the student to click, drag, and play too.

Florentis Learning lessons are designed to work beautifully with a co-browser—especially in Koala Go —so students can interact with spelling games, sorting activities, and sentence builders directly in the lesson.

📌 Using Zoom or Voov? You can still share the lesson and let the student guide you: “Put the apple with breakfast,” and you move the pieces. This still builds verbal participation and keeps them engaged.

4. Digital Whiteboards

Zoom, Koala Go, Voov, and ClassIn offer built-in whiteboards that let students:

• Circle or underline answers
• Draw pictures for vocabulary review
• Practice spelling or handwriting

Let your student use drawing tools to show their thinking—not just say it.

5. Puppets (Yes, Even Real Ones!)

Puppets bring energy and fun to online lessons—especially with shy students or beginners. These teaching props for kids help keep younger learners engaged.

You don’t need anything fancy. Try:

• A simple hand puppet
• A popsicle stick puppet with a printed face
• A sock puppet with googly eyes

Use it to model conversations, introduce vocabulary, or ask silly questions. Kids will often talk more to a puppet than to a teacher! Curious how to craft your own puppet teaching tools?✨ Check out our guide on why you should use puppets in online teaching (and how to get started!)

🧵 Tip: Let your puppet “make a mistake” and have the student correct it. Great for grammar practice!

6. Built-In Props in Koala Go and ClassIn

Some platforms come with their own built-in interactive props. Here’s how two top options compare:

🎮 Koala Go

• Confetti, stars and gems
• Interactive whiteboards
• Clickable tools such as a dice

Koala Go is fun and flexible, great for younger students who love to move and play.

🏫 ClassIn

• Built in games and activities including quizzes, dice, virtual science experiments etc.
• Trophy reward system
• Timers

ClassIn works especially well for teachers who run multi-student classes or want more formal lesson structure.

✨ Florentis Tip:

Even if your platform has built-in tools, many teachers love that Florentis Learning includes props within the lesson slides themselves such as built in stars. Quiz questions have rewarding sound effects. That means:

• No separate reward trackers
• No uploading new games
• Everything is ready-to-go in one place

7. Soundboards or Reward Effects

Keep a tab open with fun sound effects—claps, cheers, dings—to celebrate effort or correct answers. It’s a quick win for classroom energy and engagement.

8. Flashcard Tools

Use tools like Quizlet, Wordwall, Quizizz or the built-in visual slides from Florentis Learning to:

• Introduce new vocabulary
• Play quick memory or matching games
• Practice pronunciation with visual prompts

For more engaging vocab practice, see our Top 5 virtual ESL vocabulary games to keep students involved.

9. Interactive Backgrounds

Use Zoom’s virtual backgrounds (or Koala Go’s environments) to create a setting for storytelling, role play, or conversation.

Ideas:

• A grocery store → Shopping vocabulary
• The beach → Weather or seasons
• A jungle → Animal and habitat words

Let students find things, describe what they see, or practice giving directions.

10. Timers or Countdowns

Use animated countdowns to pace speaking games, manage quiet tasks, or build urgency.

Try:

• Online Stopwatch
• A built-in timer in ClassIn

🧠 Bonus: Let students choose the timer theme—pirate, rocket, rainbow!

ESL Classroom Props by Platform: At a Glance

Platform	Built-In Props	Works with Florentis Drag-and-Drop	Custom Reward Tools Needed?
Koala Go	✅ Stars, confetti, gems, dice, whiteboard	✅ Yes – ideal with co-browser	❌ No – props built in or in slides
ClassIn	✅ Trophies, timer, floating tools	✅ Yes – excellent shared control	❌ No – lesson tools + platform props work well
Zoom	❌ Limited (whiteboard only)	✅ Yes – use remote control in share screen	✅ Yes – add props into slides or use PDF tools
Voov	❌ Minimal props, has whiteboard and ability to upload custom backgrounds	✅ Yes – teacher-led dragging only; have students draw a line	✅ Yes – embed into lesson slides

Final Thoughts

Online teaching props don’t have to be complicated or high-tech. Start with a few tools that feel fun and manageable—and let your students guide you from there.

Florentis Learning makes it easy by building interactive props for teaching English online, rewards, and visuals right into each lesson. So you can spend less time prepping—and more time connecting with your students.

🎁 Try it for free with our Sample Lesson Pack:
🔗 Download here