Games & Activities for English Kids Camp (Beginner ESL)

I recently taught a three-day English camp to elementary grades 1 & 2 (combined) and grades 3
& 4 (combined). It wasn't really a 'camp' but additional English classes held in the gym during the
school break. Here are some ideas I used:

Greetings (or Introductions) with Ball-Catching

Have the students make a circle. Pick a student and say "Hello Kenji, how are you?". Throw
Kenji the ball. Kenji then does the same thing to another student. If they don't drop the ball, add
more balls.

Blindfolded Fukuwarai with Obstacle Course

This is a combination of two activities. Put students in groups of 3. At the end of the room (or
field), draw a large circle on the chalk board or whiteboard. If you are outside, lay a hula-hoop on
the grass. Tell your students that this is a face, and that they will have to draw the eyes, nose,
and mouth, while blindfolded. Teach your students 'up', 'down', 'right', left'.

Put them, in groups, on the other side of the room/field. In between them and the circles, place a
bunch of obstacles (e.g. a vacuum, ropes, chairs, etc.). Blindfold one of the students in a group.
Spin him around 4 times and face him in a random direction. Tell his partners that they'll have to
give directions to the student so he can get to the circle and draw the first body part (eyes).
Review giving directions ("Go straight. STOP. Turn right. Turn left." etc). When ready, blindfold
one person from each group and have them start. If they touch an obstacle, make them go back
to the starting point.

Once they get to the circle at the other side, give them a marker (or a ball if you are making eyes
in a hula-hoop on the ground) so they can 'draw' the eyes. Once done, unblindfold them, and
have them go back to the start. Blindfold the next kid, who will be responsible for drawing the
nose. Continue until the face is drawn. When done, compare faces and have a good laugh.

Banana Olympics

I found this activity on another site. Basically, it's a relay race involving bananas. Put the kids in
groups of 3 or so. Give each group a banana. Have them do a series of races to one end of the
gym (or to a determined spot about 4 meters away) and back. Variations include:

1. Run with the banana in your armpit to the line and back. Then hand it to your partner.
Once everyone has gone, give a point to the winning group.
2. Run with the banana between your ear and neck (telephone style).
3. Walk with the banana balanced on your head.
4. Walk with the banana between your knees.
5. Crawl with the banana on your back.

Et cetera. In the end, I regretted using real bananas because they got smushy and got in the
clothes (and in the hair!) of a few of the little kids. It was fun though =). If you use real bananas,
use the relays in which the banana is likely to get smushed towards the end.

Spelling Words with Body

We didn't do this but there are probably several great activities that involve children using their
bodies to make the letters in the English alphabet. For example, you could put the students in
groups of 4 or so, and see which group can spell their names out using their bodies the fastest.
There are probably other (better) ideas.
 What Time is it Mr. Wolf

Put the students behind a line at one end of the gym (or area). You, Mr. Wolf, should go to the
other end of the gym. Turn your back on them. Have them ask you "What time is it Mr. Wolf?"
Turn your head, take a look at them and say "6 o'clock" (or whatever time you want). If you say 6
o'clock, that means the students must take six steps towards your end of the gym (and you).
After answering, turn your head back and face the opposite direction. Let the students ask you
again. Repeat the process, making the kids step closer and closer towards you. Finally, when
you think they are close enough to tag, respond to the question with "Lunch time!!" and then turn
around and try to tag one of the kids. If they kids succeed in running back to their start position
without being tagged, they are safe. The kid who is tagged must be the wolf next.

There is also a version of this game where the kids are "safe" if they manage to get to your side
of the area (to the wall, or past a certain line) before "lunch time" is called out.

Obstacle Course

We built a circular obstacle course in the gym for the kids to run around. We used a balance
beam, a vaulting box, etc. To make it more educational, I put flash cards that they had studied
already (e.g. weather, colors, fruit) in the course. The kids had to say the flash cards when they
walked on it.

Duck Duck Goose

This is a traditional kids game. Have the students sit on the ground in a circle, facing inwards.
Walk around the outside of the circle. Each time you pass a student, tap him or her on the head
and say 'Duck.' At some point, pick a student and say 'Goose' instead of 'duck.' The goose must
then stand up and try to tag you. Your goal is to run around the circle and sit down back in the
goose's place before the goose tags you. If you succeed, you can sit and the other student
becomes the one who stands and says "duck, duck, goose."

1. Scavenger Hunts

What camper doesn’t love a good scavenger hunt? It’s part of the ritual of camp, and
it’s simple to make sure your students are getting some language practice while searching.
They probably won’t even realize they are learning when you try these fun versions of the
typical list and seek.

 Description hunts: Rather that writing out a list of items for your students to find, try writing
item descriptions instead. You can write simple descriptions (i.e. This piece of metal holds papers
together. = paperclip), write your clues more in riddle form (i.e. Inside this box is gold for the taking,
but there are no locks or keys to open it. = an egg) or do a combination. The point is that your students
get some reading comprehension practice when they figure out what you are describing by your clue.
 Adjective hunts: If you want to focus on a certain part of speech, like the wonderful
adjective, try giving your students a simple list of descriptive words rather than nouns to be found.
They will then have to find something each adjective could be describing. If you do this version, be
sure to include some adjectives your students might not already know to increase their vocabularies in
the process. Try words such as “spherical,” “musty,” “submerged” or “rustic.”
 Vocabulary hunts: A language-twisted scavenger hunt doesn’t have to be complicated. On
your list of items to find, simply include some words that are a part of your current vocabulary unit as
reinforcement for your students.
No matter what type of scavenger hunt you do, consider making it a photo scavenger hunt,
where students take pictures of the items they find rather than bringing back the items
themselves.

2. Theme Tag

When I was a kid, I loved playing TV tag in gym class. The rules were very similar to
traditional tag. One person was it, and that person ran around trying to tag someone else who
would then become “it.”

In some versions of tag, players have a base that they can run to and be safe. In this version,
you could be safe anywhere as long as you could name a television show.

Right before “it” tagged us, we would drop to one knee and call out a TV show. If you did
this before “it” could tag you, you were safe. If “it” got to you before you called out your
show, it was now your job to chase the other players.

We called the game “TV tag,” but you can use any theme at all: colors, animals, sports, etc.

The game gets played the same way; players must drop to one knee and call out an item in
the chosen theme to be safe from “it.”

What makes this game great for ESL students is that you can choose any theme you want,
and whatever it is, your students will learn new vocabulary words in that category. After they
have played the game once, you can easily change up the theme for each game. Your students
will have fun running around and not even realize they are hearing and learning new and
unfamiliar words. (And they won’t need to carry a dictionary to do it.)
3. Backyard Scrabble
Have you seen the homemade versions of Scrabble that use your entire backyard as the
playing board? They are so fun! Your students will think so, too, when they play this classic
word game under the bright summer sky in your very own Backyard Scrabble game.

To make your game, first make your letter tiles out of cardboard or card stock, or print them
out and laminate them. You will want your letters to have some sturdiness. Each letter should
be about the size of a standard piece of printing paper.

Since the yard, field or open space is your “game board,” you’ll have to eyeball your rows
and columns, keeping them as straight as you can. You won’t have lines on the ground to
guide you where to put letters. Just do your best. It’s okay if things get a little (or a lot)
crooked.

You also won’t have the double word and double letter spaces you’ll find on a traditional
Scrabble board. So you’ll have to decide for yourself if you want to keep score. I think the
fun is in playing rather than winning, so I often pass on keeping score when my ESL students
play Scrabble—either inside or outside.

Other than that, you’ll play according to the traditional rules, swapping letters only at the
expense of losing your turn and making sure each word played connects with another word
already on the board.

Your students will learn new and unusual vocabulary (especially if you play, too), and I
guarantee they’ll have a great time.

4. Go for a Hike

How well can your students follow directions? You’ll know if you send them on a hike with
written directions.

If you are familiar with geocaching, you’ll have an idea how this hike will work. Hide a small
prize for students to find. But instead of giving them latitude and longitude coordinates as
you would with geocaching, give them a set of written directions to find the prize.

They will have fun searching, while getting some reading practice in the process.

5. Caption That

I don’t know about you, but I love to take fun pictures of my students. When you have kids at
camp, you will have plenty of opportunities to take pictures of fun and interesting activities.

When you do, print out your pictures and post them on a bulletin board. Then put some sticky
notes nearby for your students to use when writing funny captions to go with each photo.

Students will love both writing their own captions and reading captions that their fellow
campers have written. At the end of camp, compile your photos and captions into a
photobook with your favorite desktop publishing program. Then make copies for each
camper to take home to remember what a great time they had.

7. Puppet Plays
If your students like arts and crafts, take some time one day to make puppets. You can use
one of these ideas, the simple paper finger puppets here or one of your own.

After the puppets are complete, have groups of students come up with a puppet show for the
other campers. You can have them write out the script or improvise. Either way, they will get
in some language practice while entertaining their audience.
8. Nature Impressions
If your students like being in the great outdoors, try making impressions of items they find
in salt dough or art clay.

Have students choose items such as branches, fern leaves, rocks, etc. and make impressions
of them in a ball of dough. After the impressions have dried, see if everyone in the group can
guess what their classmates used to make each of the impressions.

Heads up, this is a great time to use modal verbs or adverbs of frequency. (i.e. It could be a
twig. It is most likely a pebble.)

9. Campfire Songs

What camp would be complete without a campfire and a guitar or two? You can use this time
to get in some language practice too, by strategically choosing the songs you sing.

Try singing some grammar songs (such as those from “Schoolhouse Rock”) or songs that
teach specific vocabulary. Take popular songs and rewrite the lyrics so they teach and/or
review what you want your students to know.

Here’s a head’s up: If you are planning on singing around a fire in the dark, switch the print
settings so you have white words on a black background. That way students will be able to
hold them up to the fire and still see the words on the page.

2) Sentence Race
Preparation & Materials: Chalk/ Writing utensils. List of words to be used. Water balloons
(optional).
Instructions: Make sure there is a space for students to write on, either a whiteboard or a
ground for chalk. Call out one or two words at a time. Example:  Duck & Cowboy!
Each team has to race to try and come up with a grammatically correct sentence using those
two words.Whichever team can correctly write their sentence and then raise their hand and
first, will win a point for their team. Each team must be able to read their sentence out loud.
Example sentence: I know a cowboy who likes duck.
There’s a couple ways you can adapt this game. You can put students in lines, and have them
come up two at a time to compete, or just have students stay with their whole team during the
activity.

3) Crazy Verb Relay

Preparation & Materials: Containers for paper slips. Open space.
Instructions: Set up an area where students can race against each other. Designate a clear
finish line. Have the students write down simple action verbs (run, hop, skip, fly, crab-walk).
Then have them write down adverbs (slowly, lazily, quickly, angrily, sadly). Put the adverbs
in one hat, and the actions in another.
Two students will come up at a time. The teacher will pull out a paper from each hat. The
students must race each other to the finish line, but they can only move using the verb and
adverb that was pulled out of the hat.
4) Keep it up Game
Preparation & Materials: Have questions prepared, and a ball to pass around. Your
questions can relate to something you’ve covered recently in school, or the theme of the
camp.
Instructions: Everyone stands in a circle. The teacher will toss the ball into the air. Students
must keep the ball in the air in any way they can. If the ball hits the ground, the student
responsible must answer a question with a complete correct sentence in order to stay in the
game. If they answer incorrectly, they are out. The object of the game is to be one of the last
three students standing.
5) Scavenger Hunt
Preparation & Materials: Scavenger Hunt Worksheet. Students must have cameras/cell
phone cameras.
Instructions: Create a worksheet that has a list of items on it that students must find.
Students must take a selfie with each of the items on the scavenger list. Try to keep the items
on the list open-ended, as this will require more critical thinking and will get the students to
delve deeper into the language.
Here are some examples: 
1. Take a picture with something round.
2. Take a picture with someone whose name begins with ‘J.’
3. Take a picture of something you can eat.
Whichever team can finish the list first, or whichever team can get the most items, will be the
winning team. Be sure to have the students explain each picture to you when they come back,
as this will increase the communication practice.
6) Question Jenga
Preparation & Materials: Jenga Game with questions written on each block.
Instructions: This game is best done in a small group. Perhaps 5-6 students. Students play
the game of Jenga. Each time they pull a block out of the tower, the block will have a
question written on it. The student then must ask another student the question written on the
block. If the student answers the question correctly, then they get a point for their team. The
questions can be as simple as, “What color shirt are you wearing?” 
7) Flashcard Circle Duel
Preparation & Materials: Topically related flashcard set. Open Space.
Instructions: Students will sit in a circle. In the middle of the circle is a pile of flashcards.
Two students will play at a time. The two students will stand up and face each other on
opposite sides of the circle.
The teacher will call out one of the flashcard terms. The students must run all the way around
the circle, and then go through the flashcards to find the correct word. Once they find the
right word they must say it correctly, or use it in a sentence for a point for their team.
When the students understand how the game is played, then you can add some new
challenges to bring some excitement to the game!
8) Elbow to Elbow
Preparation & Materials: Open Space. Students need to be in pairs.
Instructions: After students get into pairs, the teacher will call out different body parts.
Students must match their body parts to those of their partners. As you add new body parts,
the students have to make sure that their body parts stay touching. The game gets more
difficult as you call out more appendages.
 Ex: Wrist to wrist! Elbow to Elbow! Knee to Knee! Hip to Hip!
This is a pretty fun big group game. If you want to add a competitive element you can
eliminate pairs who lose their balance or aren’t able to match the commands.
A Few Last Tips for a Successful English Camp
 
 Be sure to provide a couple of water breaks, especially if the weather is hot and there are a lot
of physical games outside.
 Have a couple of back-up games ready to go. Sometimes games and activities fail. These will
ensure you have a fail-safe plan.
 Be ready to adapt your activities on the spot. Sometimes the instructions might be too
complicated, or we might have to adjust the activity to fit the needs of the group. Expect this, and try
to preemptively think of ways you might adapt the activity.
 You might not get through everything that you schedule. And that’s fine, don’t try to rush
through activities just to get through everything on the schedule. If there are things left over in the
schedule, then that just means you were over-prepared!
 Explain things slowly and clearly, and use lots of personal examples.
 Breaking students into small teams, and using a point system is a good way to keep the
motivation high and the camp fun.
 Remember to have fun! 
Water Balloon Toss
You only need to throw the term “water balloons” into the classroom and your students' eyes will
twinkle in excitement. While it’s already incredibly fun to simply throw water balloons around the
room, the activity has to involve English.

To do this, set up two small blackboards (6”x 6” works well) and prepare several markers. Next,
fill the water balloons and split your class into two teams. To play the game, the teacher yells out
a word and two students from each team run to the blackboards and write the word on it. The
first student to be done yells “Finished!” and if the word was spelled correctly, they can throw a
water balloon at the other student. You can also add more rules, for example, the target isn’t
allowed to move but if they do, the thrower gets a second chance to throw or something to that
effect.

At the end, you can also do a K.O. match between the best players of each team. The winning
team then gets to throw all the remaining balloons at the losing team.

The Flyswatter Game

Another great activity for teaching English summer camp is the Flyswatter Game. It’s very easy
to set up and always gets the kids going and laughing. To play the game, simply write a couple of
English words onto the board and give a flyswatter to each team. Again, split the class into two
teams and have one student from each team come up to the board. Once the students are ready
to play, you yell out a word from the board. The first student to hit the correct word with the
flyswatter wins a point for the team.

This game is ideal for practicing reading speed. To make it a little more difficult, you can write the
words in all sorts of directions to make it harder for the students to read them.

Also read: Online or In-Class - Which TEFL Course Should You Take?

Powerpoint/Computer Games
A quick Google search reveals a multitude of powerpoint games online. You can download them
and then run them on the computer in your classroom. Some games also allow you to customize
the content to suit your students level, for example. Games like Jeopardy or Family Feud are
great for review lessons and you can find many available Powerpoint versions online.

Also read: Top 5 Icebreakers for New TEFL Teachers

Board Games
Kids love board games - that’s not a secret. A lot of schools have a collection of board games
already that you can use and if not, they might be willing to purchase some for summer camp.
Games like UNO, JENGA, Twister or Scrabble are very popular for English lessons. If your
school can’t provide board games, you can also find some resources to make your own online.