The ESL Games Manual: Part I (A-E)

Coming over the next few weeks, we present to you The ESL Games
Manual A-Z!

As there are just so many games, we've decided to break it down into
digestable chunks for you to go through, save to your phone and share.
Each week, we'll publish the next section of the ESL Games Manual! 
Alphabet relay - Put students into two teams and have them take it in
turns to write the alphabet. Do this for small letters and big letters. Two
points to the fastest team and one point for the neatest team.

Alphabet Erase relay - As 'Alphabet Writing Relay', but this time, write
the alphabet on each half of the board and have each team race to erase the
letters in order.
 
Alphabet Sculptures - Divide the students into teams and call out a letter
of the alphabet. Award a point to the first team that can form the letter
with their bodies. 

Alphabet Soup - Give each student an alphabet flashcard and have them
skip around the room to the 'ABC Song'. Stop the tape at random and have
the students rush to line up in order, e.g. A-K. 

Alphabet Touch - Call out letters and have the students find and touch
them in the classroom, on posters, etc. 

Alphabet Wave - Give each student a few ordered alphabet flashcards and
play the 'ABC Song'. Have the students hold up the cards that correspond
to the letters they hear in the song. 

Alphabet Shout Out - Randomly choose an alphabet flashcard and award

a point to the first student who shouts out a word beginning with that
letter. 

Action pass - Students sit in a circle. Elect an action master. Have the first
student perform a chant whilst doing the action. Go around the circle until
it reaches the action master who then changes the action and passes it
around.

Assassin teacher - Get all students on one side of the room. Stand out of
the way with a soft ball. Shout out a piece of vocabulary and make them
run from wall to wall doing the actions i.e. animals. As they run across the
room throw the ball into the crowd and whoever is hit first is eliminated.
Alien game - One child stands in front of the class with the vocabulary
cards (e.g., shirt), looks at the written side, notices how many letters there
are in the word and draws the same number of dashes (e.g.,_ _ _ _ _) on
the board. The other children take turns either individually or as team
members, guessing the spelling of the word. Each child says a letter (e.g.,
suh-sock) If the word contains the letter, the child writes the letter in the
appropriate space or spaces. If the word does not contain the letter, the
child draws one part of the alien on the board. The objective of the game
is to spell the word before the alien is completely drawn.

At the party - In this enjoyable speaking task, students learn how to ask
present simple questions about personal information. The class is divided
into groups of four and each student is given a worksheet/role card. The
students are told that they are at a party and that they are going to meet
new people. The teacher then elicits the present simple questions the
students need to ask to complete their worksheet. The students then go
round asking and answering present simple questions to their group
members in order to complete a chart of personal information about each
person they meet.

Ask and tell - Students make Present Continuous and Present Simple
questions, then flip a coin to see whether they will have to answer the
question themselves (tails = tell) or be allowed to ask the question to
someone else (heads = ask). This is more fun that it sounds because many
present tense questions are quite personal and the person who has made
the question will often be dismayed by having to answer their own
question. You can make this more risqué and add vocabulary by
suggesting words and expressions that they can or must include in their
questions, e.g.  “snore”  and  “itchy”.Alternatively, they could roll a dice
to decide which tense they should use in their questions (e.g. Present
Simple if they throw a one, two or three), or the topic they should ask
about (e.g. families if they throw a one).

Actions game - Students walk around their stools in a circle singing the
“Walking, walking” song. When the music stops, the teacher shout out a
word and the students must do the associated actions e.g. “Airplane” –
students hold their arms out and make an airplane noise. 
Are you going to? - In this intriguing teaching activity, students ask and
answer questions about their future plans. Each student is given a copy of
the worksheet. The students read each question in the first column on their
worksheet and then write a follow-up question using going to. When
everyone has finished writing their follow-up questions, the students are
split into pairs. Students ask their partner the questions on their worksheet.
When a partner answers Yes, I am to a question, the student puts a tick
and asks his or her follow-up question. When they have finished
interviewing each other, students tell the rest of the class about their
partner's future plans.

A week in the country - In this productive activity, students use future

forms to plan and discuss a holiday itinerary. Students work in small
groups. They imagine they have invited some English-speaking friends to
spend a week in their country. They discuss and decide on a holiday
itinerary for themselves and their English-speaking friends. The students
complete a plan for the whole week, including where they will go, what
they will do and see, what they will eat, etc. When they have finished, the
students present their plans to the class using future forms.

Accurate endings - Though regular verbs will take the –ed ending to
show they occurred in the past, -ed will not be pronounced the same for
every word. Brainstorm a list of regular verbs and then have your students
sort them into two groups. The past pronunciation of one group sounds
like [d] and the other like [t]. Challenge your students to articulate the rule
which determines which pronunciation to use.

Art Gallery - This is a great activity for reviewing jobs vocab. Draw
enough squares on the board for each S to be able to draw in. Have the Ss
write their names above their squares. T calls out a job and the Ss draw it
(e.g. doctor, baker, musician, etc.). For each S give a score for his/her
picture, and then move on to the next picture. The S with the highest score
at the end is the winner.

Adverbs of Manner game - The class is divided into small teams. The
teacher writes the first part of a sentence on the board, e.g. I was talking...
The teams have five minutes to write as many sentences as they can, using
the phrase on the board plus an adverb of manner. Teams score one point
for each correctly used adverb. The team with the greatest number of
points wins the round. Further rounds are played using different structures.

Adverb animals - The students pretend they are an animal and give
personal information as if they were that animal. The students then have to
guess what animals their classmates are pretending to be. Following that,
students write personal information about themselves, and the class tries
to guess who wrote it.

All about you - This pair work exercise is great for teaching adverbs of
frequency. Students work alone and choose which adverbs they think are
true for their partner. Students then take it in turn to tell their partner their
answers, e.g. You sometimes sleep before 10pm. The other student tells
them if they are right or wrong. If the answer is wrong, their partner gives
an explanation why, e.g. No, I never sleep before 10pm. I'm never tired at
that time.

Adverbs of frequency ladder game - Either on the whiteboard or on a

worksheet, give students a vertical list of adverbs of frequency with the
most frequent at the top and the least frequent at the bottom, e.g.  “never”,
“almost never”, “hardly ever”, “sometimes”, “often”, “very often”,
“usually” and “always”  from bottom to top. Students ask each other
“How often” questions with the aim of getting the answer that is written
on the next rung up on the ladder. The aim of the game is to climb to the
top of the ladder without making any mistakes, falling back all the way to
the bottom of the ladder whenever their partner gives them an answer
which isn’t written just above them on the ladder.

All kinds of actions - Put a list of actions on the board, e.g. “tapping your
fingers” and “yawning”. Ask students to do any of the actions in any order
they like and at some point shout “Stop!” The students then test each other
on what their classmates were doing at the time the teacher shouted stop
with questions like “Who was polishing her fingernails?” and “What was
Juan doing?”

Animal Crackers - Take a big dice and assign an animal to each number.
Have the students roll the dice and act like the animal! 
Basketball game - Show a student a flashcard. They must say ‘I see a…’
If the student answers correctly they get a chance to throw the ball into the
basketball hoop. Variations on playing the game include putting the class
into two teams to make it more competitive or having the students do the
phonetics dance for the card they are shown.

Blind Toss - Students sit in a circle. Flashcards are placed in the middle
with numbers. Taking turns each student is blindfolded and tosses a
beanbag. The student must call out the word the number of times the
number indicates and the student gets that number of points.
Bounce on the flashcard game - Put all of the flashcards and the sounds
on the floor. Have all of the students stand up in a line, one by one, each
student must shout out the word or sound that I bounce the ball on. If a
student can’t answer or gets it wrong they are out.

Buzzer game – Put students in pairs, one person is the buzzer that makes
the sound and the other person is the person who presses the buzzer. Ask
questions and the quickest team to buzz and get the answer correct gets a
point.

Balloon sentences - Have students in a circle. Write a sentence on the

board. Throw a balloon in the air. The first student to hit the balloon says
the first word of the sentence; the next student says the second word and
so on.

Balloon burst - Prepare some balloons with notes inside them before the
class. Pass a balloon around the room. Each student must sit on the
balloon for 3 seconds. If it bursts they must follow the instructions of the
note inside it  “dance” ,“say the alphabet”,  and so on.

Blanket toss - Take a big blanket or bed sheet into class. Have students
stand up and hold onto the edge. Put a ball in the middle. The aim is to
toss the ball into the air and catch it in the blanket. Each time it flies up
students must say a word or short sentence.

Bulldog - Students line up on one side of the room. Choose one student to
be the bulldog. The bulldog is on hands and knees in the middle of the
room. When you call “bulldog” (or a related word), they must run to the
opposite side of the room without being caught by the bulldog. If they get
caught they too become a bulldog and must try to catch the other students
as they run across the room. If they reach the other side they have to shout
out a piece of vocabulary.

Blocks game – Give each pair ten blocks. One person turns away and the
other hides an amount in his/her hands. That person then asks “how old
are you?” to which the other person must say  “I’m…” When the person
guesses swap roles.
Bounce on the flashcard game - Put all of the flashcards and the sounds
on the floor. Have all of the students stand up in a line, one by one, each
student must shout out the word or sound that I bounce the ball on. If a
student can’t answer or gets it wrong they are out.

Baseball - Spread the baseball diamond on the table or floor, place a pile
of flashcards in the middle and give each child a player. Divide the
children into two teams and get them to choose a name. The teams take
turns to bat. The first child on the batting team puts their player on the
home base and draws a card from the top of the pile. A child from the
pitching team asks a previously decided number of questions about the
card (e.g., she might ask What is it? What colour is it? After answering the
questions (with the help of her team), they can choose to roll the two dice,
and if they get a total of six, or higher, they moves their player to first
base. If they get less than a six, they are out. Instead of rolling the dice,
they can choose to go for a two-base hit and answer questions about
another card. After answering, they can roll the dice. If they get a total of
seven or higher, they move to second base. If they get less than a seven
they are out. Instead of rolling the dice, they can choose to go for a three-
base hit and answer questions about another card. After answering, they
can roll the dice. If they get a total of eight or higher, they move to third
base. If they get less than an eight they are out. Instead of rolling the dice,
they can choose to go for a home run and answer questions about another
card. After answering, they can roll the dice. If they get a total of nine or
higher, they get a home run. If they get less than an nine they are out. As
in baseball each team is allowed three outs before the turn passes to the
other team. If a child gets a hit and would overtake another player from
their team, that player moves to second base. If they get a home run, they
score for every player that is on a base, as well as themselves.

Bingo - Give a bingo card to each of the children. Choose 16 numbers,

write them on individual pieces of paper and put them in a bag or box.
Dictate the 16 numbers and let the children choose which squares to write
them in. Show the red colour card to the children and all say red together.
One of the children take a number from the bag, holds it up and all the
children say what it is. If any child has that number in the red row, they
mark the square on their card. Continue in the same way with the other
numbers, holding up a different colour each time. The winner is the first
child to complete a line. When a child completes a line they must shout
out ‘Bingo!’ and read the numbers aloud.

Battleships – Students take turns in firing shots to attack the enemy fleet.
On a student’s turn they must call out a letter and a number. The opponent
must check their grid and then say ‘hit’ or ‘miss’ The first team to sink
their enemies fleet wins.

Brainstorm - Have Ss in small groups or pairs brainstorm as many jobs as

they can in 2 minutes - they need to write down (as a group) on a piece of
paper. Then get each group to change papers. Write some questions on the
board for the Ss to discuss, including: Which job would you most/least like
to do? Which job is the most dangerous / safest? Which job has the
highest / lowest salary? Which job in the most exciting / boring?  Etc.
Finally, collate all of the group answers on the board to find out overall
which jobs were chosen for each question.

Bounce and answer - Ss need to bounce the ball. The teacher shows
pictures to Ss .Ss need to answer questions and bounce the ball at the same
time. The questions can be “Is it....? Are they....? What is it?” Etc…

Blow the Balloon - The teacher will blow a balloon up when the balloon
becomes bigger the students will say the word loudly. If the balloon
becomes smaller, they will say the word quietly.

The Ball - Throw the ball to a student and ask that student a question. The
student answers and throws the ball to another student asking the same
question. E.g. "Can you...?", "Yes, I can. / No, I can't." "Do you like...?",
"Yes, I do. / No, I don't."

Bluff - The object of the game is to be the first student to get rid of all
his/her cards. Divide the students into small group and deal flashcards to
each student. Player 1 chooses a card from his/her hand and throws it face
down on the table saying, for example,  "I have (a cat)". Player 1 may be
telling the truth or bluffing. If player 2 has a 'cat' in his/her hand then
there's a good chance player 1 is bluffing. Player 2 should say  "No, you
don't". If player 1 was bluffing, player 2 gives player 1 a penalty card
from his/her hand. If player 1 was telling the truth then he/she gives player
2 a penalty card from his/her hand. Continue until one student is out of
cards. 

Beat The Clock - Time the students as they race to put alphabet, days of
the week, or month flashcards in order. Have them try again to see if they
can beat their fastest time. 

Blindfold Conversation- Arrange the class in a circle and choose one

student to stand in the circle with a blindfold on. Spin the student and tell
him/her to point. Tell the student to guess the name of the student he/she
is pointing at by talking to him/her. E.g. "Hello. How are you? Do you
like...?" 

Bomb - Pass a ball, object or a flash card around a circle of students.

When the timer rings, the student holding the ball must answer a question,
make a sentence or say a word. 

Bear, gun, man - Instead of playing rock paper scissors shoot we can
play  “bear, gun, man”  each action has a corresponding action. When T
counts from 1 to 3, Ss should do one of those three actions at once. Bear
can eat person, person can hold the gun and the gun can shoot the bear.
Carl, Carl, what do you have? - Students line up at one end of the
classroom and I stand at the other with my back turned. The students shout
“Carl, Carl, what do you have!” I say “I have a truck” to which everyone
shouts out “He/she has a truck”, the person with that card must creep up
and put it in my hand, when I feel it I must then chase them back to the
starting point.

Clusters - Play any music and have the students walk, skip, jump, hop, etc
around the room randomly. Stop the music and call out a number in
between 1-8. The students must quickly get together in a group or groups
of that number, and the odd students must sit out until the next round.
Curling – Draw a small circle and three bigger ones around it. The object
of the game is in teams to get the closest to the small circle. Each team can
try to knock blocks of other teams out of the way.

Catch the ball and answer the questions - First, the teacher gives each
kid two points. Then the teacher throws 2 balls at the same time, kids need
to answer the questions and catch the 2 balls. If a ball touches the floor,
minus 1 point.  

Chinese whispers – One child thinks of a sentence and whispers it to

someone, this sentence gets whispered around the classroom until the last
child says the sentence. If the sentence is correct every student gets a
point.

Chase game – Half the students have a flashcard each and stand at one
end of the room and half the students stand at the other end of the room
with no flashcards. If I say a word, whoever has that flashcard must say it
and take a step forward. If I say the magic word the ones without
flashcards chase the others and try and catch them before they touch the
wall.

Catching the Alphabet - Write the alphabet on the board. Throw a bean
bag to someone and say a word beginning with the letter A. This person
must catch the bean bag, say a word beginning with the letter B and then
throw it to another person. This third person says a word beginning with
the letter C and so on.

Charades - Bring a student to the front of the class. Show them a

flashcard or word without anyone else seeing it. Have the student mime
the action and the rest of the class try to guess the vocabulary.

Crossing the lake - Draw a big lake on the floor. Lay out flashcards as
stepping stones. Have the students start on one side of the ‘lake’ and take
turns to cross to the other side. When they step on a card they must say the
vocabulary. If they can’t then they ‘fall into the lake’ and have to start
again. Add drama by creating a story of sharks and crocodiles lurking in
the water.
Catch it/drop it - Get the students in a circle with one in the middle of it.
Give the one in the middle a ball and tell the others to cross their arms.
The ball holder must look at a student and say either “catch it” or “drop it”
before throwing them the ball. If they say “catch it”, the student must
unfold their arms and catch the ball. If they say “drop it”, they should
keep their arms crossed and make no attempt to catch the ball. If they
make a wrong move or fail to catch the ball at the right time they are out.
Another variation is to have the student in the middle saying a word and
certain words are linked to drop it and some to catch it and students should
do the corresponding action for the word said.

Crab challenge - Get the students to push themselves off the floor, facing
the ceiling, on their hands and feet (in a crab position). Have them drill
vocabulary or ask them questions. If their body touches the floor they are
out.

Chair maze - Use chairs to create a big maze in your classroom. Place
flashcards around the maze. Get the students on their hands and knees.
Shout out vocabulary, they must crawl through the maze, grab the card and
shout out the word.

Colors game - You must touch so many things of a certain color in just
___seconds. You can even add more colors. For example the first few
rounds will be “Touch three  pink things  in six  seconds”, the last few
rounds will be  “Touch two blue things and three green things in eight
seconds”. After they have competed as a whole group, have the students
compete one on one.  

Circle game – I will lay cards all around the classroom and they will grab
the card when I call for that specific card when the music stops playing.
When there is only one card left in the room, I will put the lone card in the
center of the circle, I will then say variations of the word, if a child
touches the card when I have not said it in the correct form they must sit
out. Continues until I say the correct word and a child grabs the card.
Circle slap game – Different cards on each stool, students run around the
circle, when the music ends, they slap their hand on a stool. I pull a word
out of the jar, if it’s their word they must spell it

Chopstick spelling - Choose five or six flashcards. Dictate all the sounds
in these words in a random order (e.g., e, ch, p) The children write these
sounds on pieces of paper. Each child tears up their piece of paper tearing
around the sounds they have written. Divide the class into teams. The
children from one team put all their pieces of paper in a pile, and mix
them up. Put a central table in a place about the same distance from each
team. Put all the flashcards in a place where both teams can see them.
Give each of the teams chopsticks. The children on one team take turns
picking up one of the pieces of paper with the chopsticks and racing with
it to the central table. The objective of the game is for their team to spell
each of the pictures on the flashcards.

Counting cards - Divide the class into groups of three, four, or five
children. One child in the group is the hippopotamus. The child who is the
hippopotamus has a pile of vocabulary and plural cards. The first time, the
game should be played with the picture sides face up, but it’s best to
change quickly to playing with the written sides face up. One of the
children calls out a number, e.g., seven. The child who is the
hippopotamus counts out seven cards (the other children count with
him/her), stops on the seventh card, and says What is it? or What are they?
The child who called out seven has to read the card, using the pattern It’s
a…or They are…If they answer correctly, they take the card. The next
child calls out another number. After all the children have had a turn, a
different child becomes the hippopotamus.

Concentration - Spread the concentration cards face down on the table or

floor. Use two of each of the occupations ending with –er. The children
take turns turning over two cards. As they turn over a card they read it
aloud. If the cards are the same, they keep them. If they are different, they
turn them over again and leave them in the same place. The child who gets
the most pairs of cards is the winner.

Circle mime - The children sit in a circle as a class or in groups. One

child stands in the centre of the circle and mimes and occupation. The
other children try to guess the occupation by asking Are you a…? The
rules of the game are as followed, a) the child who guesses correctly gets
one point and trades places with the child who is miming. b) If three
children’s guesses are incorrect, the whole class asks What do you do?
And the child who is miming answers I’m a…Nobody gets any points. The
child in the centre then mimes a different occupation. c) the child in the
centre can’t mime an occupation that has already been mimed. d) It is
probably a good idea for a child who wants to make a guess to raise their
hand. When this happens the child miming immediately stops miming.

Clothes guessing game – I say what someone is wearing and as soon as

the students know who it is they must race to the co-teacher and whisper
the answer.

Clothes game – To teach ‘what are you wearing?’ Put the students into

two teams and give each team a bag of clothes. The students must race to
put the clothes on one team member (doing up all the buttons) and then the
person who is dressed must say what they are wearing. Fastest team to do
this wins.

Clothes line - String the clothes line up, making sure that the students will
be able to reach it. Attach your target flashcards to the line. Divide the
students into teams and call out a flashcard. Students race to pull down the
correct card.

Can/can’t definitions - One student make’s can/can’t statements about an

object, animal, real person, etc like “I can break it with my
hands” and “It can float”  until someone works out what they are talking
about.

Can/can’t twenty questions - This is like the game above but asking
questions like “Can I see one now?” and “Can you buy one in a
supermarket?” and guessing the object from the answers.

Class story - In this amusing class activity, teams work together to make
up a story in the past simple tense. The class is divided into four teams.
The teacher takes three word cards and writes them on the board. Team
players then take it in turn to make up a story in the past simple tense
using the words on the board. The players can say anything, but they must
keep talking until they use one or more of the words. Every word used
scores one point, so in any one turn a team can gain between one and three
points. When a student uses a verb, it must be in the past simple tense.
Once a player has completed their turn, the next team plays and continues
the story. The team with the highest score at the end wins.

Continual nagging - Students take turns complaining that they did all the
work to prepare for something like a party or presentation, e.g.  “While I
was making the sandwiches you answered your mobile three or four
times” or “While I was cleaning the tables you were staring at pretty
women out of the window”. The other person should also say they their
action was more useful than it seemed, e.g.  “Actually, I was waiting for
the delivery van to arrive so that I could bring the paper plates upstairs”,
or retaliate with a worse accusation like“While I was typing up the
PowerPoint document, you were playing poker on your computer”.

Classroom survey - This delightful ESL activity enables you to teach

comparatives and superlatives in a personalized manner. Students answer
six questions and write the answers in a table. The students then work in
groups of six and ask the same six questions to their classmates. The
students' answers are also noted down in the table. When the table is
complete, students write sentences comparing the information in the table
using comparatives and superlatives.

Crystal Maze game - Split class into two teams. A member from each
team is called up and they must ask each other the question previously
learnt in the lesson e.g. “What’s your favourite food?” to which they both
reply with an answer from the learnt vocab e.g. honey, cheese. The teacher
then proceeds to throw the flashcards in the air and the first student to find
their opponent’s answer wins.

Comparative geography - You can use this simple game to teach

comparative and superlative structures to your students. Students are
divided into small teams. The class names as many adjectives as they can
and you write them on the board. Next, the students name ten countries.
These answers are also written on the board. The students then have ten
minutes to make as many comparative and superlative sentences as they
can, using the adjectives and countries listed on the board. You can play
more rounds by asking the students to name other categories such as
sports, animals, famous people, etc.

Comparison game - This fast-paced speaking game is a great way for

your students to practice comparative structures. The class is split into two
teams. One student comes up from each team. The two students are given
two things to compare. One student starts by making a comparative
sentence about the two things. Then, the other student makes a
comparison. This continues until one student cannot make a comparison,
makes a grammar mistake or is too slow to answer. The winning student
gets a point for their team. 

Can you hear the room? - In this variation on  'Do You Know Your
Room?', when students have their eyes closed the teacher or a student
changes the room or their position in a way you can hear e.g. cleans the
whiteboard. With their eyes still closed, students have to guess what has
changed.

Car Race - Arrange the flash cards in a long line with starting and
finishing points. Give each student a counter. The first student throws the
dice and moves. The student must say the word on the flashcard he/she
lands on. If the student makes a mistake, he/she goes back to his/her
original place. Add colored paper between cards to represent  'Take
another turn', and assign a crash number e.g. #4 on the dice which means
the student must return to the beginning. 

Commando - The teacher is the commando and gives commands to the

class and/or individual students. This is a great energy burner as well as
review of actions colors, numbers or anything else you can throw in.
E.g. "Jump 10 times", "Touch your (body part)", "Touch (classroom
object", "Turn around", "Stand up / Sit down".

Conversation Relay - Line up the students in two teams and have the last
student in each team tap the shoulder of the student in front and have a
conversation E.g.  "What's your name?", "How are you?". The student
answering then starts the same conversation with the student in front, and
so on. When the conversation reaches the front, the student at the front
must run to the back and continue the procedure. The first team to get all
the students back in their original positions wins. 

Comparatives game - Draw a big circle on the ground, divide students

into two teams, name them team A and team B, each team chooses one
animal flashcard,  whichever animal is bigger can stand in the circle but
both students need to make a sentence comparing the two animals if the
first student in team A stands in the circle, the next student in team B and
the next student in team A need to compare with each other , the student
with the biggest animal always stands in the circle and the person standing
at the end is the winner.

Clap game - If I clap hands, and say  “AAA”, the students need to stamp
their feet and tell me the sound “aaa”. If I stamp my feet and say the
sound “bbb”, they must clap their hands and say “BBB”.

Catch - Put the students into two teams and have 2 students sit face to
face, (For example work in pairs A and B)A shows the index finger ,   B’s
palm facing A’s fingertip.  To make the shape of the letter T. Teacher
says: “Bumble bee”,  students say“BZZZ…” When the teacher says
“catch!” B need to catch the A’s fingertip quickly.  

Counting game – Students are placed in pairs and each student has five
number cards, 1 to 5. When the teacher says 1, 2, 3, go, both of them will
show one number from 1 to 5. The winner is the first person to shout out
the number of what those to numbers make when you add them together.
Duck/goose game – Students sit in a circle and one person walks around
the outside saying a word and patting each student on the head as he/she
says it. When he/she changes to the second word the person who gets
patted must chase the other person around the circle and try to catch them.
If the person sits down first then the other person starts saying the words.

Domino game – Put the tables together and put four dominoes standing up
anywhere on the two tables. I ask a question to a student if they get it right
they can put another domino on the table, if they get it wrong I can take
one away. At the end the dominoes are pushed over, if they all fall down
the student win, if they don’t then I win.

Dots game – Put students in pairs. One person asks a question and the
other person answers, if they get it correct they may connect two dots
(only vertical or horizontal). If they close a box they write the first initial
of their name in the box. The winner is the person with the most boxes at
the end. 

Draw a picture of a man and a woman - Give them names and illicit a
conversation between the two people. Write the conversation down on the
board. 

Days of the week march - You'll need a fairly long classroom with space
for everyone to march up and down (or space outside). T stands at one end
of the room against the left wall. Line the Ss up alongside T and T
says "Go!". As you all march together, T starts calling out the days in
order ("Monday", "Tuesday", etc.). Ss repeat each day (T:"Monday"
Ss:"Monday"). March along at a slow pace, but smartly (backs straight,
arms swinging). At certain points T suddenly shouts "Stop!". Everyone
must stop and be EXACTLY in line with the T. If someone is out of line
order them back in line and then continue marching where you left off.
Turn around each time you reach the end of the room and continue the
march. Once finished start again, but this time walk briskly. You can do it
the final time running! This is even more fun when there are tables, etc, in
the room that the Ss need to climb over/under. After a few lessons you
shouldn't have to chorus the words - just get the students to chant together
as they march.

Dear diary  - Writing about their day is a good way for your students to
practice the written form of the simple past. Have students write about
what they did yesterday paying particular attention to transitions of time
(next, then, after that, finally, etc.).

Draw me a monster - Class game to review body parts. Write draw me a

monster on the board and start by drawing an oval for a head. Explain the
class are mad scientist and must create a monster together. Each student
comes to the front to draw a body part and must saw ‘I’m drawing the
(arm/leg etc) before they get the marker. Translate word such as tail,
wings etc and review colours. Introduce competition by splitting class into
team and challenge them to create the best monster.

Double duty review - How much do your students remember from class
yesterday? Find out by asking them to tell you what you did in class
yesterday using the simple past.

Deception - This enjoyable guessing game teaches students how to use the
present perfect to talk about experiences. Students begin by writing down
twelve present perfect sentences about things that they have and haven't
done in their lives. Some of the sentences should be true and some should
be false. When all the students have finished, they are given true and false
cards. Next, the class is split into teams. Each team plays against another
team. A student reads one of his or her sentences. The opposing team's
players each put down a true or false card, depending on whether they
think the statement is true or not. Then, the student reveals the answer.
The opposing team gets one point for each correct guess. Then, one
student on the other team says one of their sentences, and so on. This
continues back and forth with one team giving a sentence and the other
team guessing whether it is true or false, until all the sentences have been
used. The winning team is the one with the most points at the end.

Do you know the room? - Students try to spot what you have changed in
the room since last week, while they were having a break or while their
eyes were closed. They can then take turns challenging each other. 

Definitions - This is one of the most well-known games to practice

defining relative clauses. Students are given a list of words or expressions
and have to describe which one they have chosen without saying which
one it is until their partner guesses, e.g. “This is a thing that you use to
open bottles of wine with?” (without saying “cork” or “screw”) for
“corkscrew”. You can tell them that they must use defining relative
clauses or just see if it comes out naturally from the game.
Electric shock - Form a long line of all your students. Tell them to hold
hands. You stand at one side and tell them that you are going to put your
finger in an imaginary power socket. When you do this you will act out
the shock and say a phonic or word. Shake your arms up and down to
create a wave effect through the class, each student saying the sound or
word as the ‘shock’ travels down the line.

Eyesight game - The teacher asks them to say one kind of words (like
animals, instruments, places…), the students need to stand up and say the
words, but only one student every time, if more than one students stand up
at the same time, they are out. Otherwise, the last student is out. In the
end, the winner can get some points.

Either side - This game can be used in the units about

numbers/months/days of a week. It’s called what are my neighbors? Ss
will sit in a circle, starts from the T, T will say a name and a
number/month/day, then pass the ball to the S, S who catches the ball
should say the neighbors of the number/month/day in 5 seconds, otherwise
should be an elephant and spin around 5 times in the middle of the circle.
eg. Daisy, January, then throw the ball to Daisy, Daisy should catch the
ball and says December, February in 5 seconds
Fly Swatter game – Cards are laid around the room and students must hit
the correct card with the fly swatter. Team members who are the quickest
will receive points for their teams.

Flashcard Drop game – Four compounding sound flashcards are placed

on the floor. Students line up and each student takes it in turn to recite
vocabulary from the flashcard held by the teacher. If recited correctly, the
teacher hands the flashcard to the student who then drops it from standing
height over its corresponding compounding sound flashcard. If the
vocabulary flashcard lands on the compounding sound flashcard then the
student receives a star.

Four corners game – Using the four words that the students are finding
the most difficult to say, put one in each corner of the room. I count to ten
and the students must creep quietly into one of the corners. After 10
seconds, I say a word and whoever is in that corner must answer a
question and then sit down. The winner is the last person standing.

Flashcard review – Add a horse, mouth, bomb card to the flashcards you
are reviewing and have the students to do actions if these cards come up.

Finger game - There are two palms on the e-board, each palm has five
fingers that have some actions behind them. At the beginning of the class,
the teacher can choose one of the students to select one of the fingers.
Then he/she must do the action that is behind the finger.  

Fast flashcard collecting - Reveal flashcards to the class one by one. The
first student to say the word on the card successfully keeps the card. The
student with the biggest collection when all the cards have been handed
out wins.

Five Rings game – Draw five rings on the floor and write a value in each
the students must answer a question and then slide or throw a block on the
floor to try and get it in one of the rings. The team with the most points at
the end is the winner.

Finding a roommate - For this speaking task, students have to establish

their own criteria for a compatible roommate. The students then ask and
answer present simple questions to their classmates to find the best
candidate. Each student has to find a compatible person to share an
apartment with by asking a range of present simple yes/no questions and
completing a survey form. When they have finished their survey, they add
up the check marks to see which classmate would be their most suitable
roommate.

Film review - Students can choose a favourite film, cartoon or television

series to review. They should talk about the main plot, actors and
actresses, provide a synopsis and tell why they have chosen that particular
movie. Once they have discussed and edited their movie review, they
would have to present in front of the others, and hand over a copy of the
edited text to the teacher to be corrected. They may also include pictures
to make their movie review more interesting.

Fifty-fifty - In this entertaining guessing game, students write true and

false sentences about themselves using adverbs of frequency. Students
then play a true/false card game and try to guess the correct answers.
Student complete six sentences about themselves using various adverbs of
frequency, three of which are true and three of which are false. Then each
student is given a set of true/false cards. Students take turns to read one of
their sentences to their group. After they have read their sentence, the
other students in the group must guess whether they think the sentence is
true or false. Each student chooses one of their cards and places it on the
table. If they guess correctly, they keep their true/false card. If they guess
incorrectly, the student who read the sentence takes their card. The winner
is the student with the most true/false cards.

Find someone who… - This productive speaking exercise teaches students

how to construct  ‘Have you ever...?’questions. Students walk around the
classroom and ask questions to their classmates using the present perfect
tense. When a classmate answers Yes, I have, the student writes that
person's name on their worksheet. Then, they ask a follow-up question in
order to gain more information. When everyone has finished, the students
tell the class what they found out.

Fortune telling - Activities such as palm reading and Chinese horoscopes

are included in many TEFL books such as Reading Games, and although
there can be a confusion of tenses (does seeing a line on someone’s hand
count as present evidence and so give you the confidence about their
future to use “going to”?) this does make the predictions/ hopes/ plans/
arrangements distinction quite clear and can also bring in other skills such
as reading. One variation that can be done with authentic texts is to read
out horoscopes from last week and get students to guess which one is
about them. They can then write similar ones and check next week if any
came true. Even less preparation and materials is needed for Delphic
Dictionary”, where students choose three words at random from a
dictionary and their partners make up a story about their future from those
three words, e.g. “You will discover COPPER in your back garden and
become WEALTHY, but it will poison your water and so you will grow a
LUMP on your back like the Hunchback of Notre Dame”.

Find the Space Alien - Good for practising asking the question 'where
are you from?'  but you can adapt to other questions e.g.  'How are
you?', 'what do you like?'  Two students leave the classroom. One student
is selected to be the space alien, when asked where they are from they say
they are from outer space. The two students come back in the class room
and race to find the space alien.

Fashion Show - Have each student stand up one at a time and elicit from
the class what he or she is wearing. 

Flash Card Act Out - Choose one or more students to come to the front.
Show a flash card or whisper a word, and have the students act it out.
Reward the first student to guess the correct answer. This can be used with
many subjects (e.g. sports, actions, verbs, animals, etc.) 

Flash Card Walk - Arrange the flashcards in a big circle. Play some
music while the students walk around the circle. When the music stops,
call out a flashcard, and the student standing next to the flashcard wins.

Follow The Leader - Students line up behind the teacher and follow the
teacher's actions. Use as a review for identifying and chorusing classroom
objects or acting out actions. Give the students a chance to lead. 
Guessing game - Someone thinks of an object and the students must guess
what it is. For example student one says'what’s big?' and the students in
turn guess.  'The gorilla is big.' The student says yes or no

Go fishing – Make fishing rods using chopsticks, string and magnets. Put
paperclips on the flashcards. Make sure you have two of each flashcard.
Teacher says a flashcard and the students go fishing to pick up the correct
flashcard. Whoever picks it up first and says it correctly gets a point for
his or her team.

Grab the skittle game – Students are put into two teams and each person
is given a word (If the word is farmer then one person on each team will
have a person with the word farmer.) Myself and the co-teacher will say a
word in turn that the students must repeat out loud, when the co-teacher
says a word in Chinese the people who are designated that word must try
to grab the skittle to get a point for his/her team. Another variation is to
say phrases or words and all the students repeat them after you. When a
magic word is said all the students try to grab a skittle, whichever team
has the most skittles gets a point.

Guessing game – One student goes outside the classroom and I give a
flashcard to one of the students who then sits on it. The student enters the
classroom and has three chances to guess who has the flashcard by
saying  ‘He has a truck’  etc…

Give me - Shuffle your flashcards and hand them out to the students faced
down. If you have more students than different flashcards make some
copies beforehand. Stand at the front and say ‘give me…’ the student(s)
with the relevant card should come forward and give it to you. You could
integrate a points system for this activity.

Get it, say it - On either side of the classroom put three  or more
flashcards. Have a student from each team sat on the floor in the middle of
the room, back to back. When you say a sentence with one of the flashcard
vocabulary in it they jump up and race to the right card, hold it in the air
and say the full sentence or just the vocabulary depending on ability.
Guessing game - In teams. I'll follow Team A; my co-teacher will follow
Team B. I and my co-teacher will ask our teams'What is it?' Individually,
the team members will say  'it’s a/an...'  If they guess the word that I and
my co-teacher have pre-decided that team wins. After doing this twice, we
will allow a student from each team to ask 'What is it?'

Gun range game – Line up half the skittles on one side of the room and
half on the other. Each team fires at the other team’s skittles if they get a
question correct.

Guessing game - Divide the class into groups of three, four, or five
children. Give each group about seven plural cards and let the children
look at them. One child in each group hides a card (e.g., behind their back,
on their head, in their book, etc…) Starting on their left, the other take
turns guessing what the card is, using the pattern Are they…? The child
who has the cards answers  Yes, they are or No, they aren’t. If the first
guess is correct, the child who guessed correctly gets seven points. If the
second guess is correct, the child who guessed correctly gets six points
etc…

Guess when the routine action happens - One student asks a question
that the people answering don’t know the answer to but can make some
kind of guess about like  'When do I brush my teeth?'  or 'When does my
father get home?'  Another student should answer in a full sentence like
“You wash your face at 6:20”. If their guess is wrong, they follow hints
like 'No, I wash my face (much/ a little) earlier/ later', until they get
exactly the right time. As well as using personal information like this, the
game can also be played with information that the students asking the
questions have been given on worksheets such as routines of famous
people, people in particular countries, averages of people of various ages
in their country, or people with particular jobs. The same game can also be
played with days of the week or year with hints like   'British people have
fireworks. They wear coats and hats. They drink hot drinks' for  'On the
fifth of November', with the same kinds of earlier/ later hints if they get the
day wrong.

Guess the person from the routines - One person gives hints like 'This
person gets up at 4:30 in the morning',  'This person often wears
boots' and  'This person likes animals' one by one until the people listening
guess who is being spoken about (a farmer in this case). They can describe
people they know (grandfather etc.), people with particular jobs, or
particular nationalities. Classes with more imagination can also do it with
a page or magazine full of pictures of people, using their imaginations to
come up with sentences like 'This person lives in California'  and “This
person is married” until someone guesses which picture they are speaking
about. Students will probably need some help such as suggestions for
verbs they can use.

Getting around town - Have groups of three or four students work

together to create a map of a fictional town. The map should include
typical buildings like a school, library, police station, grocery store and
homes. Have students discuss where each of the buildings should be
located on the map using prepositions of location. Once the maps are
finished, have each group present theirs to the class. Their classmates can
then ask them why they put each building where they did. For
example, 'Why is the school next to the library?'  The group who made the
map should answer their classmates’ questions.

Get out and about - Get your students out of the classroom to freshen up
your grammar lessons. Take a short walk outside your school, and have
students take notes on what they observe. When you come back to the
classroom, have your students share what they experienced on the walk
using the simple past.

Good and bad days - As a class, brainstorm what makes a day great, and
then make another list for what makes a day bad. Have pairs of students
ask each other questions and give answers about a day in the past. For
example, one student might ask, 'Did you spill your coffee yesterday?' The
other would answer, 'No, I didn’t spill my coffee yesterday.' This is a great
way to practice questions and negative use of the simple past.

Green card - A more romantic version of The Alibi Game is to get

students to pretend to be a couple and make up the story of when they first
met. The other students then question them separately on the details of
that first moment, e.g. what perfume she was wearing and who was
standing near them.
Grab - Use Lego. Spread out the Lego and call out '(Five!)'. The students
should take five blocks, join them together to make a pattern and hold
them up. Next say  'two blue, one yellow' and other combinations to 5. 

Grab It Relay / Race to Touch - Lay the flashcards on the floor at one
end of the room, and have the student’s line up in teams at the other end of
the room. Call out a flashcard and have the first person in each team race
to grab the card. Those students then go to the back and the next students
race to grab the next flashcard the teacher calls. 

Golden touch - The teacher will write some letter combinations on the
whiteboard. Invite two students to stand in front of the whiteboard. The
teacher whispers a combination, the other students repeat loudly. The
students at the front must point to the correct combination on the board.
Hide the flashcard game – One student goes outside and another hides
the flashcard. When the student re-enters the room the students say the
word quietly if they are nowhere near it or shout it loudly if they are close.

Horse race - Put the students into pairs. Have one being the horse and one
being the jockey (i.e. riding on their back). Place flashcards around the
room. Call out words and have them race each other to grab the right card
and shout it out. Be sure to make the bigger students the horse.

Hurricane - Students are standing in a circle. One is in the middle

spinning around with their arms stretched out and pretends to be the
hurricane. You then shout out a sentence such as 'all the girls switch' or  'if
you like football switch'. The students who your sentence applies to must
switch positions by running through the middle. If the hurricane catches
one of them they then become the hurricane.

Hot seat – Split the class into two teams. Have one person from each team
come to the front and sit down. I hold a flashcard up behind their heads
and their team must give them hints as to what it is. The first person to
guess gets a point for their team and is able to change places with another
member of their team. The loser stays on until they get an answer correct.

Hitting letters - Write letters and double-letter sounds on the board, or

dictate these for the children to write on the board. It should be possible to
make plural words from the letters or sounds you choose. Either you or the
children draw fun shapes around each of the letters or sounds. Divide the
children into two or more teams. The teams take turns throwing the ball at
the shapes on the board. When a child from one of the teams hits one of
the letter or sounds, they write it on a section of the board allocated to
their team. Each team collects letters or sounds, and tries to make plural
words out of them.

Holiday romance - In this fun writing task, students create a story by

inventing answers to past simple questions. The language focus is on past
simple regular and irregular verbs as well as holiday vocabulary. The
students write a story about a holiday romance by inventing answers to
questions. Students sit in a circle in groups of five or six. Each student
answers the first question on their worksheet by inventing details and
writing the answer in the space provided. The student then folds the paper
and passes the paper to the person on the right who answers the next
question. This continues until all the questions have been completed.
When everyone has finished writing, students read their stories and choose
the best one for their group. The stories are read aloud to the rest of the
class and the class votes for the best story.

How do I do it? - Teach your students to associate adverbs with actions

with this fun class activity. Students come up to the front of the class and
pick up an activity card and an adverb of manner card. The student then
performs the activity in the manner shown on the adverb card. Students
must try to guess the activity and adverb and make a grammatically
correct sentence in order to win points for their team.

Have you ever? - In this amusing teaching activity, students create

present perfect questions. The students then play a true or false card game
where they ask and answer questions using the present perfect and past
simple. Students work in teams (A and B) and create present perfect
questions from verb cards. After that, Team A starts and picks up one of
Team B’s verb cards. Team B then asks a player on Team A the
corresponding ‘Have you ever …?’ question. The player answers Yes, I
have, regardless of whether it’s true or not. Team B then asks three
follow-up questions using the past simple. After the three questions have
been asked, Team B decides if the player’s answer is true or false. The
player then reveals the truth. If Team B is correct, they win a point. The
team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Hangman - Use review words from past lessons. The teacher chooses a
word and writes the appropriate number of spaces on the board. Students
guess a letter one by one. If the student guesses correctly, write that letter
in the space and give the student another turn. If they guess wrongly, start
drawing a hanging man and have the next student guess a letter. Let the
first student to guess the word take the teacher's place. You may prefer to
draw a hanging spider (Spiderman?) instead.

Hot Potato - Play like 'Pass It'  using a time limit for added motivation.
Set the timer for 10 seconds. When the timer goes off, the student holding
the flashcard must say the vocabulary / structure.