TB Activities Database

Number: Level: 1
All levels
Name: Chinese Whispers
Materials needed: Nothing, though can be done with word or flash cards
Good for: Questions, Sentence structures, Reported speech
Ckillc' I ktoninn / ^noalfinn
OMIIS. L.I o ici 111 / opcaiMiiu
Put the students in a semi-circle and whisper something to the first student,
Description: who then whispers it to the next & so forth. The last student reports what the first student
said to the rest of the class. Have the students move one seat to
the left/right to change who the first & last students are.

Number: Level: 2
All levels
Name: Materials needed: Chinese Whisper-race Markers, Flash cards or words cards

Good for: Skills: Vocabulary, Sentence structures, Questions, etc Listening / Speaking / writing

Divide the class into two teams & put them in rows. Put a stack of flash cards or word
Description: cards on the floor. Whisper a word to the first students in either row; have
them whisper it to the next student, who whispers it to the next and so forth.
The person at the end of the row gets up and picks up the right flash or word
card/writes the word on the board. Increase the difficulty-level by using questions &
answers (whisper the question, pick up/answer the answer) or
asking the students to put the words in a sentence.

Number: 3
Level: All levels
Name: Running dictation
Materials needed: Cut-up sentences put up in the corridor, question sheet
Good for: Vocabulary, Sentence structures, Questions, etc
Skills: Listening / Speaking / writing
Divide the class into pairs. Assign a runner and a writer for each pair (later you
Description: can switch halfway through so that the runner becomes the writer, and vise
versa). Give the writers the question sheet & have them read the first question to the
runners. Take the runners into the corridor (make sure they come empty- handed, no
pencils or paper), find the right answer and ask the students to repeat it to themselves
once or twice. Then bring the runners back into the room and have them recite the
answer to their respective writers. Make sure
the writers write it down. Have the writers ask the next question, let the
runners back into the hall-way.. Repeat until all the questions has been answered.
 Number: 4
Level: All levels
Name: All change
Materials needed: Chairs in a semi-circle
Good for: Sentence structures, Imperatives, Asking & answering Yes/No-questions
Skills: Listening / Speaking
Model the question/sentence you want used on the board and make sure there are no
Description: spare seats in the classroom. Ask a few example questions and tell the students who
answer "yes" to stand up and change seats. Once you've done enough examples for the
students to understand the activity, grab one of the students' chairs yourself while they're
changing seats (/remove a chair from the game). From here on, it's up to the student
without a seat at the end of a round to ask the next question.

Number: 5
Level: All levels
Name: Dice drilling
Materials needed: A sufficient number of dice, desired questions / Sentence structures on the
board
Good for: Questions / Sentence structures
Skills: Listening / Speaking
Model a question / question form you want used on the board and explain the rules to the
Description: students. A higher number means ask the question, a lower number means listen &
answer the question and a draw means ask the Teacher a question. Play with a student
to begin with, and then have students play in pairs or bigger groups.
Alternatively use one dice and assign a sentence or question form for each side of it.
One student rolls the dice and asks a question/says a sentence to the others in his
group.
Another version is to use one dice, make the students identify the number they rolled and
count clock/anti-clockwise in their groups. The person who gets the number they rolled
has to answer the question and is the next person to roll the dice.

Number: 6
Level: All levels
Name: Question pick-up
Materials needed: Flashcards / Word cards / Question cards / Sentence cards
Good for: Questions
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Reading
Divide your class into pairs. Put cards with questions / flash cards / word cards /
Description: unfinished sentences on the floor in the middle of the classroom. Make one out of each
pair pick up a card, read it and ask it to their partner, who answers/finishes or makes a
sentence. Next they put down the card and pick up a new one.
Alternatively do it with smaller prompt cards in groups.
With higher level classes a stage of the activity can be the students writing their
own questions to use.
 Number: 7
Level: All levels
Name: Conversation cards
Materials needed: Flashcards / Word cards / Question cards / Conversation cards / Unfinished
sentences
Good for: Questions / Sentence structures / Vocabulary / etc
Skills: Listening / Speaking / reading
This is a version of the above that doesn't involve students moving around. Divide
Description: students into pairs or larger groups and put a stack of cards upside down on their desks.
One student takes a card and asks the question / says the word. The other student(s)
answers / makes a sentence. With high level classes, alternatively have the student who
picks the card describe the word and the other student(s) guess what it is.

Number: 8
Level: All levels
Name: Don't laugh
Materials needed: Nothing
Good for: Question forms
Skills: Listening / Speaking
There are a few versions of this game but all rely on the same set-up. Put a few students
Description: at the front of the classroom, facing the rest of the class. Tell these people that no matter
what questions they are asked they have to answer them, that they are not allowed to
laugh no matter what and that if they do, they have to return to their seats. Now, have
other students in class ask questions using either what you have previously modeled or
from the top of their heads.
Here are a few versions of the game:
Yes or No qs = Assign the students at the front an answer (yes or no). No matter the
question the students have to use that answer.
Wh-questions, Tomato = Assign the students at the front a word with which they have to
answer any question they get.
Wh-questions, truth only = Suitable for higher levels. The students has to answer any
questions they're asked truthfully.
•

Number: 9
Level: All levels
Name: Truth or dare
Materials needed: Nothing
Good for: Questions & Imperatives
Skills: Listening / Speaking
As the title says. Tell the class that truth means you have to answer any question and
Description: that dare means being told to do something. Give the students a short while to write
down questions as well as imperatives. The activity itself can be conducted with the
entire class or in groups, as a mill drill or even as part of the attendance.
 Number: 10
Level: All levels
Name: Stand up on yes
Materials needed: Nothing
Good for: Yes or no questions, Imperatives
Skills: Listening / Speaking
This is a simple activity for drilling yes or no questions. Tell the students that answering
Description: yes means they have to stand up whereas answering no means they have to sit down. If
needed, model it a few times. To begin with, ask a few questions yourself and check that
the students understand the activity. Later on, rely on stronger students in class to ask
the questions.

Number: 11
Level: TB1B +
Name: Spot the difference
Materials needed: Nothing / realia
Good for: Prepositions of place, Past & present of "to be"
Skills: Listening / Speaking
First, check that the students know basic prepositions of place and the past & present
Description: forms or "to be". Use it to describe different students' position in the classroom (He or
she is next to / between / opposite him or her). Next, send one or two students out of the
room. While they are waiting outside, switch a few of the students around in the
classroom. Once you've brought the waiting students back inside, tell them to try and
spot what's different from when they left the room.
Alternatively use realia on an EL table or on the floor (for instance, the pen is next to / on
/ under the eraser, etc).
A different version is to present something to the class (say, a student or a thing) and
then send it out of the room. Next have the class describe what you just showed them.

Number: 12
Level: All levels
Name: Guess who / what
Materials needed: Flash cards or word cards
Good for: Adjectives / comparatives / superlatives and other ways for describing people,
animals, places or things
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Writing / Reading
This can be done in different ways and on several topics. For people, have the students
Description: describe a person in class without saying his or her name. The other students listen and
guess who it is. To expand on the activity, have the students write it down first. Later the
results can be switched around between groups or read to the class by one of the
students.
If you want the students to describe a place, an animal or a thing (or even people not in
class) you can put words or flash cards on the board for it.
 Number: 13
Level: All levels
Name: Giving instructions
Materials needed: Desired realia, instruction cards
Good for: Imperatives, Prepositions of place
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Reading
Put realia and a stack of instruction cards on a table in the middle of the
Description: classroom. Check that the students can say where the items are in relation to
one another (for instance the pen is next to / on / in the book). Next, pick up an
instruction card and read it out aloud. Pick one student to carry out that
i —_________ instruction \pui ine nexi 10 ine / put tne unaer ine laoie, eicj ana have him or her pick up
another instruction card. He or she reads it to the class
ana PICKS anoiner siuaeni io carry oui nis insiruciions, eic.

Number: 14
Level: All levels
Name: One-out
Materials needed: Flash cards or word cards
Good for: Skills- Vocabulary, Sentence structures
I ktpninn / Snpakinn
Description: Put four flash / word cards on the board. Explain to the students that one flash /
word card doesn't fit in and that you're not so sure which. The students have to give you
suggestions and tell you why (for instance, "The cat, because the cat doesn't like water",
etc). Can be conducted as a whole-class activity or as a
team game, and can be expanded on by allowing students to choose the flash cards
themselves and have the class guess which one is out.

Number: Level: 15 TB3A +

Name: Materials needed: Liar Liar / Have you ever... Pen & paper, questions (optional)

Good for: Present perfect

Skills: Listening / Speaking
Assuming you have introduced present perfect for experiences, go over "Have
Description: you ever.." as a question form and either have the students think of their own questions
or supply them with ready-made ones. Have them ask you the questions; give true
answers to all apart from one. Afterwards, tell the students you lied and ask them what
about. Let them guess and allow them to ask you additional questions ("How was it? /
What did it feel like", etc. if any comes up, put them on the board. If none, this is a good
opportunity to teach some) Divide the class into groups of four or five and tell the
students to write down their answers to the questions; however, for each group one
student has to lie for every question (It shouldn't be the same person who lies for each
question). Also tell the students to think of the answers to any potential questions they
might be asked
Once the students are done, tell the students to ask questions and try to find the liars in
the other group.
 Number: 16
Level: All levels
Name: Find your partner
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Opposites, related words, past vs. present tense verbs, etc
Skills: Listening / Speaking
Assuming you've introduced what you want to use this mill drill for, give students a card
Description: each and explain that they have to find their opposite adjective /
present or past form of their verb / related word by standing up and asking "Are
you ?"
To extend activity, give several word cards to each person. To make it competitive, tell
the students that if they ask the question, they get the other person's card. If they're
asked first, on the other hand, they have to give theirs
up. i ne person witn ine most caras xowara ine ena or me activity is tne winner.

Number: Level: 17 TB3A +

Name: Materials needed: Good Snake story Flash cards / Word cards Linkers, Grammar, Vocabulary
for:

Skiiis: Listening / Speaking Give the students a word or a flash

card each and explain to them that you're going to make a story together. Each student
Description: has to continue the story using the word on the flash card they have. Start yourself and
continue until everyone has contributed toward the story. As a follow-up activity you can
ask the
Number: students to think of an ending to the story in pairs or make the students create in their
own story in smaller groups.

18
All louok
Levei. Name: Materials needed: Mil ICVClO
Where's the doctor Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Jobs, Work-places, Questions
exilic- I ktpninn / Snpflkinn
OIMII9. Give each student a copy of a job flash card. Mime that you're sick and ask the students
what you need; hopefully they'll tell you something along the lines of "a doctor". Start
Description: asking a few students "Are you a doctor?"; deliberately avoiding the student who has the
doctor flash card. Most likely they'll understand the gist of the question and say no. Ask
the students what the question was and put it on the board. Elicit proper answers at this
point (i.e. "Yes, I am / No, I'm not"). Now practice the question more with a few different
students, adding "What's your job? / What do you do?" Again, ask the students for the
question, put it on the board and introduce a proper reply ("I'm a ..."). Practice these two
questions yet again with other students, adding "Where's the
Hnrtnr?" Uara intmrlii^ "TH Hnrtnr ic at tho hncnitsl " AcW arnnnH a fpw
O P

UUUIUI f • MCIV) lilllUUUv/C NIC UUUIUI 19 al IIIC IIUo}Jllal. . MSA dlUUIIU a ICW
more times, this time locating the doctor.
Ask the "doctor" to leave the room for a minute, during which you switch the flash cards
around and make another student the doctor. Ask the student to come back inside, tell
him he needs a doctor and have him go through the same procedure. To add an element
of competition, have two people trying to find the doctor. To vary the vocabulary in the
questions, ask the searching students to find a different job (i.e. "Are you a fire fighter?",
etc)
 Number: 19
Level: TB3A +
Name: Snake story, written form
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Linkers, Grammar, Vocabulary
Skills: Reading / Writing
Give each student a paper and explain to them that you're going to write stories. Have
Description: each student write a first sentence on their respective pieces of paper. Next, tell them to
pass their papers to the left. Tell the students to read the first sentence and write a
second sentence on their new papers, and then pass them on to the left / right. Continue
until all students have contributed to each story. As a follow-up activity you can put the
stories up around the room and have the students vote for the best of the class.

Number: 20
Level: All levels
Name: Letter Tile Scrabble
Matenals needed: Letter tiles
Good for: Spelling
Skills: Reading / Writing
Divide the class into teams of appropriate size. Give each a set of letter tiles in a
Description: particular color & name the teams after their colors (yellow / green / red). Using letter
tiles, spell a word on the floor in the middle of the classroom and give yourself (team
teacher) as many points as letters you used. Show the students how they have to use
letters that are already on the floor to spell new words. That done, allow each team to
add words in turns. If they misspell or can't think of a word in good time, they have to skip
a turn and let another team have a go. The group with the highest number of points
toward the end of class wins.

Number: 21
Level: All levels
Name: Grammar auction
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Grammar
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Reading / Writing
Divide the class into an appropriate number of teams and give them a total of 100 points
Description: each. Then write a sentence with a simple grammatical mistake on the board. Ask the
students whether it is right or wrong and how sure of it they are in percentage (50%
sure / 75 % sure & so on). Tell them to write it as well as the correct form (if they think it's
wrong) of the sentence down on a piece of paper. Check each teams' sentence &
number; if they are correct, give as many points as the number they wrote. If they're
wrong, take the same number away from their points tally. Tell the students that you are
going to write more sentences on the board that might be right or wrong; they can bet
points on either, though if it's wrong they have to say why. From now on do not use
percentage, just numbers.
Using appropriate grammar from the course, this can be a good revision activity for any
TB level. It can be expanded on by making the teams put up their own sentence (right or
wrong) toward the end of the game.
 Number: 22
Level: All levels
Name: Playing cards
Materials needed: A deck of cards
Good for: Questions & Answers
Skills: Speaking / Listening
First, introduce the symbols and values of the card. Depending on the size of your class,
Description: do not use a full deck (only two or three symbols, only numbers / face cards). Give each
student a card. Next, explain to them that you'll call out a random number. The student
who has it has to stand up and answer a question. Next, that person has to call out
another number and ask that person a question, and so forth.

Number: 23
Level: Communicative Crossword
Name: All levels
Materials needed: Crossword sheets
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Reading
Make a crossword word sheet with only half the clues on the first sheet and the other half
Description: of the clues on a second sheet; say, clues for down on sheet A and clues for across on
sheet B. Elicit questions to use and divide the class into pairs. That done, let the students
try to solve to solve the crossword by asking each other for the clues.
Alternatively leave only one clue on each person's crossword, with an empty crossword
and blanks for the clues. Ask the students to stand up and ask other people in class for
their clues in order to solve the puzzle.

Number: 24
Level: Lower levels
Name: Spelling bee
Materials needed: Students
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Writing / Reading
Put a word on the board. Ask a student to come up and write a word that starts with the
Description: final letter of the first word. Next student writes a word that ends with the final letter of the
second word, and so forth. Alternatively do a verbal version where the students listen
and say it instead of writing it down.

Number: 25
Level: All levels
Name: Four corners
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Sentence structures, Adverbs of frequency, Expressing opinions, etc
Skills: Listening / Speaking
Put four or five word cards on the floor around the room; preferably not too close to one
Description: another. Ask the students a question and tell them to go to the word card that would be
an appropriate answer for them (For instance, if you're practicing expressing opinions,
the question could be "What do you think about swimming?" and the options might be "1
like", "1 don't care for", "1 hate" and "I'm crazy about"). Make sure they not only go to the
word card but also give you an answer.
To make it slightly more difficult, have one of the students asking the questions. To make
it even more difficult, have the students at each option ask each other a question about it
(Why don't you like it? / Why do you do it? / How many times a week do you.., etc)
 Number: 26
Level: All levels
Name: Two sides, preferences
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Yes / No questions, Sentence structures, Giving reasons
Skills: Listening / Speaking
This is slightly different version of the activity above. Tell the students that one side of the
Description: classroom means yes and the other one means no. Ask them a few Yes/No - questions
and have them choose which side of the classroom to go to. Alternatively give the
students two options and tell them to go to the one they prefer (for instance city vs.
country-side).
To up the difficulty level, make some of the students ask the questions. To make it even
more difficult, have the students at each side ask each other why they chose /
answered what they did.

Number: 27
Level: All levels
Name: Categories
Materials needed: Whiteboard, Pen & paper
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Reading / Writing
Divide the students into teams and put a few categories they should be familiar with on
Description: the board. Ask for a letter from the alphabet. Tell the students that you want a word from
each category starting with this letter. Conduct a practice round together first. Then
explain that each word is worth one point as long as no other team wrote down the same
word, that only one word is allowed for each category and that they only have two
minutes to write them down. Play it for a few letters of the alphabet, checking up on what
each team has written at the end of each round. The team with the most points toward
the end of the game wins.

Number: 28
Level: All levels
Name: Crazy Sentences
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards, pen & paper
Good for: Vocabulary, Grammar
Skills: Reading/Writing
Divide the class into groups of two or more and put a mixed stack of flash cards in the
Description: middle of the room. Ask a student from each team to pick up a certain number of flash
cards at random. That done, ask the students to write a
sentence using all the words they got. Once they are done, put back the flash cards
and ask someone to mix them up. Do it for a couple of rounds. Alternatively this activity
could be used as a follow-up to either categories or Tutti Fruti (i.e. using the words that
the students came up with in either of those
activities).
 Number: 29
Level: All levels
Name: Pictionary
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards, Whiteboard
Good for: Vocabulary, Structures
Skills: Speaking / Listening
Divide the class into teams and bring two students to the white-board. Tell them to be
Description: quiet, either show them a flash card or whisper a word to them and ask them to draw it
on the board. The first team to guess what the picture is gets a point.
To increase the difficulty level, use words that consist of two or more simpler words and
tell the students that they may only draw individual parts of the word (for example,
hairbrush. The student may only draw hair & brush). Alternatively do a backward version
where the rest of the class see's the picture and has to tell the drawers what it is in
English. If competitive, the first drawer to finish a decent illustration of what he heard
earns a point for his team.

Number: 30
Level: All levels
Name: Tutti Fruti
Materials needed: Whiteboard, Pen & Paper
Good for: Spelling, Meta language (optional)
Skills: Reading / Writing
Somewhat similar to the activity above, this game is more of a filler than educational of
Description: nature. Divide the students into teams and draw a grid on the
board with numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5. Ask for a letter of the alphabet and tell the
students that you want a word for each number (as in a word with so and so many
letters) that's starting with that letter. Give one point a word. The group with the most
points at the end of the game is the winning team.
Alternatively use Meta language points instead of numbers and ask for, say, a
verb, a noun, an adjective, a preposition and an adverb starting with that letter.
Give one point for each word. The group with the most points at the end of the game is
the winning team

Number: 31
Level: All levels
Name: Telephone numbers
Materials needed: Students
Good for: Telephone English, Dialogues, Numbers
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Writing
Put your birth-date on the board. Ask for the students to do the same. That done, model
Description: calling on the phone and explain to the students that their birthdates now are their phone-
numbers. Pretend to dial one of the numbers on the board (preferably that of a strong
student in the class), reading it out loud as
you do, and say start talking to him / asking him questions / ideally doing a dialogue
you've previously introduced. When you finish the dialogue, ask the student to call
someone else in class. Repeat as few times you want or until all students have
participated once.
Consider following up by making students write their own telephone conversation in
pairs.
 Number: 32
Level. MM levels Pass the flash cards
Name:
Materials needed: Nothing / White-board and markers
Good for: Vocabulary, Questions, Sentence structures, etc
CLFIHC'
OKIIIS.
opeaKing / Listening
This is a conversational variant of pass the parcel. Divide students into pairs and model
Description: questions you want the students to use on the board. Give a flash card to each pair and
have them ask each other about for however long their
language level allows them to. Stop them at an appropriate time and make them pass
their flash cards to the left / right. Give them a reasonable amount of time to ask about
, """"IS- 7: their new flash card until you switch them around again, etc etc.
uan De aone just as wen wun topics or worci caras at mgner levels.

Number: 33
Level: All levels
Name: Word association
Materials needed: Students, flash cards / Realia
Good for: Vocabulary & Categories
Skills: Speaking / Listening
Asks the students to stand up in front of their chairs. Explain to them that you'll
Description: tell them a category and that they have five seconds to tell you a word from it. If they
can't think of a word they have to sit down.
With higher levels, alternatively have to think of something they associate with a word
and why.

Number: 34
Level: All levels
Name: Spelling relay
Materials needed: Markers / Word cards
Good for: Vocabulary & Spelling
Skills: Reading / Writing / Listening
Description: Divide the class into teams and spread out two sets of word cards at one end of
the room. Tell the students a word and ask them how to spell it, though make it
clear that only one person a team may stand up and that they may only get one
letter at the time. When a student has fetched a letter he or she must sit down
and let another person sit up. The first team to spell the word (on the board,
using bluetak, or even on the floor) is the winning team.
Make them pick up the letters using chopsticks for laughs and upped difficulty.
Alternatively use the board and a marker a team.

Number: 35
Level: All levels
Name: Spin the bottle
Materials needed: Empty bottles
Good for: Asking and answering questions
Skills: Listening / Speaking
Description: Model the question forms you want used and place an empty bottle in the
middle of the classroom. Spin it once and ask the student who the bottle is
pointing at. Once they have answered the question, have them spin the bottle
again and ask whoever the bottle chooses for them. Can be played as a whole- class
 NUmKer: 36
Level: All levels
Name: Battleships
Materials needed: Battleship grids
Good for: Vocabulary / Questions / Ordinal numbers
Skills: Listening / Speaking / Reading / Writing
This is a classroom version of the actual game that can be done either individually in
Description: pairs. Provide each student with a grid and a set of vocabulary items you want them to
use. These vocabulary items are the "ships". First have the students place their ships,
then pre-teach the question / phrase you want them to use and put them face-to-face.
They have to find where on the grid their opponent's items are (A1, C5, etc).
Alternatively use a small grid (three or four columns) and assign a category to each
column (for example in the living room, in the bedroom and in the kitchen). First have the
students fill out the grids with items for each category. Next, put the students face-to-face
and pre-teach an appropriate question (for example "Do you have a in the kitchen / living
room / bedroom?"). First to guess what their opponent wrote for one or all categories is
the winner.

Number: 37
Level: All levels
Name: Jeopardy
Materials needed: Whiteboard, Appropriate questions and answers
Good for: Questions and answers
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Writing / Reading
Divide the class into teams and explain to them that you will tell them a sentence. They
Description: have to think of a question to which the sentence could be an answer. If they're first to
answer correctly they earn points for their respective teams. The sentences can be
supplied verbally, one point an answer, or you can draw a proper grid on the board with
topics and difficulty levels (more points for more difficult questions) and let the winner of
a round choose next topic and difficulty level.
To expand on the activity, follow up with a final round where each team thinks of a
sentence to tell the class. Other teams have to guess the question form and bet however
much of whatever points they collected over the first stage of the game. If they're right,
they get their points. If they're wrong, their points go to the team that wrote the question.

Number: 38
Level: All levels
Name: Logic Puzzle
Materials needed: Cut-up clues, Grid sheet (optional)
Good for: Vocabulary, Prepositions of place, Grammar
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Reading / Writing
Divide the class into groups, draw a 3 x 3 grid on the board and provide the students with
Description: nine vocabulary items. Tell them each vocabulary item has a place in the grid and that
they have to find it (assign a relevant name for the grid; a field for vegetables, shelves in
a toy store for toys).
Next, give the each group a set of clues (These should be prepared before-hand and
should not tell you the exact location of an item, but rather its relationship to another item
in the grid). Make sure that each student gets at least one or two. Tell them to read the
clues to their group in order to figure where each item belongs in the grid.
This is just an example of a communicative lateral thinking activity. Plenty more can be
done with some time and preparation.
 Number: 39
Level: All levels
Name: Guess the outfit
Materials needed: Students, flash cards (optional)
Good for: Yes / no - questions, Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
Put the students in two rows, back to back, and model the question "Are you wearing..."
Description: + relevant answers. Students have to guess what the person behind them is wearing.
Switch students around a few times to extend activity. Throw in adjectives to make it
slightly more challenging (i.e. "Are you wearing a green sweater?", etc)
Can be done with body parts or adjectives as well, or even with flash cards that the
students are holding.

Number: 40
Level: All levels
Name: Dominoes
Materials needed: Domino cards, EL-table (optional, the floor can be used)
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Reading
This is another activity that requires quite a bit of preparation. Make a set of domino
Description: cards for however many teams you want in your class. Randomly put either pictures and
written forms of vocabulary, items associated with one another or words and definitions
on them (or any other alternative you can think of). Set up the activity by having the
students look at the cards and match them to the best of their ability in their groups (this
is a basic activity in itself). Once they're ready to start, explain to them that the point of
the game you're about to play is to get rid of as many domino cards as possible. They
can only put down cards in turns and if they make a mistake, they have to wait until the
next turn. Start by putting a card down on the middle of the table. If the first team can
match one of their cards to either end of yours, they may. If they haven't within a
reasonable amount of time, move on to the next team. The group with the least amount
of cards toward the end of the activity is the winning team.

Number: 41
Level: All levels
Name: Guess the outfit
Materials needed: Students, flash cards (optional)
Good for: Yes / no - questions, Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
Put the students in two rows, back to back, and model the question "Are you wearing..."
Description: + relevant answers. Students have to guess what the person behind them is wearing.
Switch students around a few times to extend activity. Throw in adjectives to make it
slightly more challenging (i.e. "Are you wearing a green sweater?", etc)
Can be done with body parts or adjectives as well, or even with flash cards that the
students are holding.
 Number: 42
Level: Lower levels
Name: Game-show
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
This is a simple way of drilling vocabulary. Put flash cards of words you have introduced
Description: on the floor or the white-board so that the students can't see them. Ask them where
something is. They turn a flash card around; if they're right, they keep it, if they're wrong,
they put it back. Go on until every vocabulary item has been found.

Number: 43
Level: All levels
Name: Memory
Materials needed: Flash cards and Word cards
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Reading
First, divide the students in pairs and give them a set of flash cards and word cards a
Description: pair (ideally the flash cards and the word cards are on different colored paper). Tell them
to match the pictures to the words. That done, tell them to put the cards upside down and
mix them up. Now, tell them to take turns and pick up one flash and one word card. If
they get a match, they keep it. The person who got the most matches at the end is the
winner.
Can also be done as a whole-class activity with flash cards and word cards on
the floor.

Number: 44
Level: Lower levels
Name: What's missing
Materials needed: Flash cards / Word cards
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
This is yet another way to cover vocabulary. Put a set of vocabulary items on the board
Description: or the floor and give the students a moment to look at them. Next, tell
the students to close their eyes for a second. While they're not looking, remove
an item and ask the students what's missing.

Alternatively write a list of vocabulary on the board and give the students a minute to go
over them. That done, take them off the board. Now ask the
students what the words were.

Number: 45
Level: TB1B +
Name: Interviews
Materials needed: Pen & paper
Good for: Questions & answers
Skills: Speaking / Listening / Writing
This is a role-play activity that can be done on a variety of topics. Depending on what
Description: you're doing, set up a relevant context (radio interview, job interview, TV interview, etc)
and divide the class into interviewers and interviewees. Depending on their level, you
can have each person think of individual questions and answers at this point. That done,
pair up each interviewer with an interviewee and get started.

To extend activity, switch pairs around after a few minutes.

 Number: Level: 46 All levels

Name: Travel Poem

Materials needed: Pen & Paper
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening
Assuming you've taught your class the senses, bring them on a walk around school and
Description: talk about what your senses register in different rooms. Next, divide the class into pairs
and tell the class that you'll give them ten minutes to walk about on their own. Over these
ten minutes they should choose a few places in the school and write down what they can
see, hear, smell and perhaps even feel there.

Once your students have finished, you can ask the pairs to swap papers around and give
them five to ten minutes to find which places the other groups wrote about. Alternatively
bring them back into the classroom, have students report

what they wrote (as a whole-class or pair to pair activity) and the listeners to guess which
room they're talking about.

Number: 47
Level: All levels
Name: Hangman
Materials needed: Whiteboard
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
There are plenty of variations of this filler. You can do the classic version,
Description: asking your class for letters to work out the sentence you want on the board.
Alternatively you can ask them questions for each letter; having figured out the answer,
the students put the initial letter of the answer keyword into the puzzle. Another version
is to only think of a word. The students have to ask questions in order to guess the verb.
Every question as well as every wrong guess adds a
line to the hangman drawing.
Each version can be done by a student.

Number: 48
Level: TB3A +
Name: Materials needed: now wen QO you Know me R Prepared questions & answers
Good for: Questions & Answers
Skills: Reading / Speaking / Listening Thte activity renuires a hit of oreoaration You need a set
of cards for each
groups with relevant questions (whichever question forms you want to use, though it is
Description: perhaps better for conditional practice) and three possible answers.

Model with the whole class by reading one of the cards (question and answers) out loud.
Tell the students to guess what your answer will be. Give the student who first guesses
the right answer your card. Now, divide the class into groups of three or four and give
them a set of cards each. Tell them to put them in a stack upside down. The students
have to draw cards in turns and read them to their groups. The listeners have to guess
which answer they'd choose and collect as many cards as possible.
 Number: 49
Level: All levels
Name: Question match
Materials needed: Questions cards, Situation cards
Good for: Past simple, Questions
Skills: Reading / Speaking / Listening
Prepare a few sets of cards (as many as how many groups you want) with simple
Description: situations on them and cards with questions on for each individual student. Each
question should match with one of the situation cards. Divide the class into pairs of four
and five, give each group a stack of situation cards and each student a set of question
cards. Start the game by turning up a situation card. If any student has a relevant
question (for instance, "What did you eat?" for "1 went to dinner last night.") they may put
their card on the table. Tell the class that the first person to lose all of his or her cards is
the winner.

Number: 50
Level: All levels
Name: Fashion Show
Materials needed: Nothing
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
This is a good way to review clothes and accessories. Elicit what a model does or
Description: perhaps even show the class a video clip of a catwalk show. Next, tell the students that
you're going to have a fashion show in the classroom. Model first. Then assign one
student to be a reporter and another to be a model; have the reporter describe the
model's outfit as he or she walks around the room (to up the class participation, have
listening students ask questions; "Where was it made", "What is it made of") That done,
the model becomes the reporter and another student stands up to be the model.

Do until each student has participated at least once. Alternatively divide the class into
groups and have each group prepare their own show.

Number: 51
Level: All levels
Name: Dictation
Materials needed: Pen & Paper / Dictation Handout
Good for: Vocabulary
skiii^- Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening
Prepare a story handout with omitted words. Explain to the students that you're going to
Description: tell them a story; they have to listen, follow the storyline on the handout and write down
the missing words. Repeat the story twice or thrice to give all the students a fair chance
of finishing the activity.

Alternatively divide the class into pairs and give each student one half of the complete
story, the other half with words left out. The students have to read their half of the story
to their partner, who has to listen and try to fill in the gaps on his copy. As they move on
to the second passage of the story they switch roles.

For a simpler version, skip the story and use simple vocabulary only.
 Number: 52
I AIIAI'
LCVCI. All levels
Name: Question gap fill
Materials needed: Prepared handouts
Good for: Vocabulary, Question production
Skills: Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening
Similar to a pair dictation, prepare two separate handouts with, say, two different parts of
Description: a story. Each part of the story should have words left out as well as question prompts in
brackets. The students have to look at the question prompts, ask their partner and write
down his or her answer. Once finished, have the students read the results - most likely
it's a rather hilarious story.

Number: 53
Level: All levels
Name: Gist hand clap
Materials needed: Book listening, Hands >.>
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Listening
This is a good activity for gist-listening. Put words or flash cards you've taught on the
Description: board. Tell the students to clap their hands (or any other simple action you'd rather have
them do) when they hear one of the words. Concept-check first by telling them words to
see whether they do it or not. That done, play the listening. Afterwards, ask the students
how many times they clapped and what the words were.

Number: 54
Level: All levels
Name: Put the lyrics in order
Materials needed: CD (optional), Cut-up lyrics
Good for: Listening
Skills: Reading / Listening
Give the students a cut-up version of the song lyrics you want to use and tell them that
Description: ■ you're going to listen to a song. Next, start the CD / start singing and have the students
try to work out in which order to put the sentences. Be prepared to sing or play the CD a
couple of times before they get it all right.

A good follow-up to the activity could be to actually sing the song.

Number: 55
Level: All levels
Name: Ispy
Materials needed: Pen & Paper
Good for: Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking / Listening
This is a simple way to review vocabulary. Originally you tell the students the initial letter
Description: of a thing you see ("1 spy, with my little eye, something beginning with..."). This is a good
enough activity with lower level students. For higher level classes, have the students
describe the item they're seeing or thinking about using more advanced language.
 Number: Level: 56
Name: Materials All levels Bingo Pen & Paper Vocabulary
needed: Good for:

Skills: Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening This is a basic activity

that's good for reviewing vocabulary. Hand out grids to each student (5x5,4x4 or
Description: however big or small you want) and tell them to write a word in each square. It's best to
limit the vocabulary to a category or two (food / adjectives for people / etc). Tell the
students to listen to the words you call out
Number: and check them if they are on their grids. When they get: a full row (down, across or
diagonally) they call out "bingo".
57 TR9R +

Levei. Name: Materials needed: 1 UC.LJ ~

Good for: Murder game Prepared sentence prompts Past continuous
Clfillc

oKIIIS. Reading / opeaKing / Listening Tell the students that there

was a murder at EF last night. According to the police investigation the murder
Description: occurred at about 5 PM. Now, tell them that they, as students at EF, are all suspects.
All but two of them.

Assign two students to be police officers and send them out of the room. That done,
hand out answer prompts to all the other students. Two of the students' answer prompts
have a logical flaw to it (eat breakfast, for instance); these students are the murderers.
Tell the students that when the police ask them
Number: questions they have to answer what they have on their paper.
1 ouol'
Now, let the police officers back in and elicit what to ask the suspects ("What were you
doing at 5 PM yesterday?"). Have the police walk around and question the class (as well
as write down the answers, if you so wish) until they've found the robbers. It will probably
take them several turns.
58 TB2B +

Level. Alibi game None

Name: Materials needed: Good Questions and Answers Reading / Writing / Speaking /
for: Skills: Listening This is a good follow-up to the activity above. Establish who the murderers
are and ask the class how sure they are about it. Then tell the class that the murderers
Description: have an alibi. Teach what an alibi is and tell the murderers to leave the room in order to
get their stories straight.
While the murderers are sorting out their stories, setup the rest of the class to be a court.
Divide it into two groups and tell them they'll interrogate each murderer in turns. If
needed, elicit a few questions they could ask. Tell them to write down the answers and
try to find any differences to the murderers' stories. Next, let the murderers in and have
the groups interrogate them for five minutes each. Toward the end of the activity, have
the entire class report what they found out and say whether the murderers are guilty or
not.