GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

ENGLISH
GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

Warm-up games
TEACHER’S NOTES
This set of six image-based games is recommended for teenagers or adults

CONTENTS: 1 WHAT IS IT?

2 FLAGS
3 FEELINGS
4 WHERE IS IT?
5 SIGNS
6 MEMORY TEST

Each page includes a thumbnail of what the student sees for each game, so you only need to
have this ‘Teacher’s notes’ file open or printed. There are several discussion and activity ideas
for each game, but of course you can also adapt them to your group or invent your own!
 WHAT IS IT?
Individually or in teams, players have 1-2 minutes to identify what’s in each picture. It can be used as
just a quick warm-up, or be followed up by talking about the senses (see discussion ideas below).

Answers:
1 old key
2 sangria
3 lily pads
4 chick peas 1 2 3

5 cows
6 Russian doll
7 butterfly
8 sunflower
9 pasta
4 5 6
10 stapler
11 vintage car
12 tomato peels

7 8 9

10 11 12

Discussion ideas: ACTIVITY: 

Each player chooses an image and
• Describe the textures, colours, sounds and tastes
speaks about it for one minute without
associated with the images. Eg. What would that
stopping. It can be anything related to
sangria taste like? (cold, sweet) What would that
that image; a description, an anecdote/
butterfly wing feel like? (soft, silky) etc.
memory, a completely made up story,
• Other adjectives to associate with images: etc. Eg. (chick peas) On the weekend I
moist, wet, smooth, dry, rough, heavy, bumpy... made hummus, this is how I made it...
• Which pictures were easiest/hardest to identify?

ENGLISH GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
 FLAGS
Some of these are pretty challenging! You can also physically cut out the names of the countries,
Consider giving more points for the digitally cut and paste from this list, or simply say the country
more difficult ones. names, and players try to figure out which goes with which flag.

Answers: Poland Ukraine

1 Somalia
2 United Arab Emirates Soloman Islands Indonesia
3 Russia
4 South Africa Seychelles Somalia
5 Ukraine
6 Thailand United Arab Emirates Sierra Leone
7 Sierra Leone
8 Pakistan South Korea Pakistan
9 Chile
10 Poland
Estonia Chile
11 Indonesia
12 Jamaica
Russia Switzerland
13 Nigeria
14 Soloman Islands
15 Estonia
Romania Jamaica
16 North Macedonia
17 Romania Thailand Nigeria
18 South Korea
19 Seychelles South Africa North Macedonia
20 Switzerland

Discussion ideas: ACTIVITY: 

Bring in coloured pencils
• Has anyone been to any of these countries? Whether it’s or markers. Individually
represented in the picture or not, how many countries has each or in teams, have players
player been to? Compare as a group. design a flag for their
• Players describe their own country’s flag (if it’s not in the picture). group, for their workplace
Do they feel it’s a good representation? Why or why not? or for their family and
• Discuss flag design. What makes an attractive flag? Which flags in present it to the class.
the picture do students like best and why? Ask players to describe
any other flags that they think are attractive.

ENGLISH GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
 FEELINGS
There are no right or wrong answers for this activity, and is has endless possibilities. To start, players
can take turns describing the people in the pictures. Ask them to come up with names, ages and
nationalities for each person (writing them down).
1 2
4 5
Discussion ideas
• L ook at the pictures and brainstorm
as many feelings as you can
associated with them. What about
the people’s expression and/or body
language makes them look like
they feel a certain way? Talk about
possible reasons why the people feel
that way. Write down the feelings
and categorise them.
•H  ow good are you at figuring out
how people feel? How important is
it? Discuss emotional intelligence.
•D  o you tend to show your true
feelings, or hide them?
ENGLISH
GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
3
6
ACTIVITY 1: ACTIVITY 2:
Imagine that some
of these people are
In partners, players choose
connected. Choose
one of the people in the
three of the pictures
pictures and have an
and make up a story
interaction (2-3 minutes).
about how they are
connected/related. It could be the boy and his
How do they feel, and father and the conversation
why? Share the story they appear to be having,
with the group, and or people from different
answer questions pictures with the identities
about it from other that were invented earlier
players. having a chance encounter.
Try to involve some of the
feelings dsicussed in the
interaction.
GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
 WHERE IS IT?
This is a great activity for teams, but it can also be done individually. Players have 1-2 minutes to identify
as many places as they can. Give one point for the country and two if they know the city as well.

Answers:
1 Porto, Portugal
Historic district on the Douro River
2 Kauai, Hawaii, USA
 nicknamed ‘The Garden Isle’
3 Cape Town, South Africa 1 2 3

stadium built for 2010 World Cup

4 Hong Kong, China
Bank of China building
5 Glenfinnan, Scotland
 Viaduct running since 1901
6 Stockholm, Sweden 4 5 6
 Gamla Stan (the old town)
7 Salento, Colombia
near Bogota
8 Dorset, Canada
250km north of Toronto, Ontario
9 Chinchón, Spain
7 8 9
Old town and bull-fighting ring
10 State of Victoria, Australia
The 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road
11 Chefchaouen, Morocco
known for blue buildings
12 Jaipur, India
Hawa Mahal Palace 10 11 12

Discussion ideas ACTIVITY:

Choose one of these
•H as anyone been to any of these places? Share experience(s). countries. Their Ministry
• What languages are spoken in these countries? How many of Tourism has hired you
people live in them? What is the cuisine and culture like? to create an ad to promote
Is there much tourism? Why or why not? tourism there (for the
•W hich photos are most appealing, from a photographic point purposes of this exercise, in
of view, and why? How interested are you in photography? a Covid-free world!). Pitch
•O ut of these 12 places, which five would you most like to visit? an idea for a slogan and ad
Rate them from 1-5 and compare with the group. campaign for this country.

ENGLISH GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
 SIGNS
In an ESL class, consider using this as an opportunity to practise ‘must’ and ‘mustn’t’.

Answers:
1 no taking pictures
2 no food or drink
3 no mobile phones 1 2 3 4

4 caution
5 no dogs
6 no smoking
7 no shopping carts
8 poison 5 6 7 8

9 no touching
10 fires permitted
11 no alcohol
12 falling rocks
13 no littering 9 10 11 12

14 wear a mask
15 entry forbidden to pedestrians
16 caution – deer crossing

13 14 15 16

Discussion ideas: ACTIVITY:

• Which signs are you familiar with? What do they
mean and where might you see them?
• Discuss some of the rules represented in the
signs. For example, littering; How prevalent
is littering where you live? What are the
consequences? What should the consequences
be? Are dogs/pets allowed in stores and
restaurants where you live? Should they be?
Draw a new sign in front of the group – it
could be something funny like a smily
face with a line through it. Students must
guess what the meaning could be (ie. No
smiling - Passport office).
Then, players/students draw their own
sign(s) and the others have to guess what
they mean. It could be a sign with a rule
for around the office or their home.

ENGLISH GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING
 MEMORY TEST
Players have 30-60 seconds to study the page. Individually or in partners/teams, they must try to
remember as many objects in the picture as they can, writing them down. This activity works equally
well in an online class or in person.

Answers:
umbrella, laptop computer, chili pepper,
sneaker/running shoe, tennis ball, fish, eye,
monkey, lipstick, cogs, tomatoes on plate,
paper airplane, badminton racket, hand, sad
face, star, camera, maple leaf
________________________________

So that the ‘winner’ is not just who can

remember the most items, here are some other
questions you can ask to really test memories:
• Which images are photos? (not graphics)
shoe, tennis ball, lipstick, tomatoes,
badminton raquet, camera
• How many objects are there? 18
• What colour is the umbrella handle? gray
• What colour is the star? plaid
• Which object is blue-green? paper airplane
• How many objects are round or have a round
shape in them? 5 – tennis ball, eye, tomatoes,
badminton racket, camera, sad face
Show the picture again. Which items did
everyone remember? Are there any that no one
remembered? Why could this be?

Discussion ideas: ACTIVITY 1:

• How good is your memory?
Compare short-term and long-term.
• What can we do to maintain our
memory as we get older?
• Does anyone know anyone who is
struggling with memory loss?
Talk about your experience.
Have the group close their eyes. One by one, ask players
to say what someone else in the group is wearing.
ACTIVITY 2:
Divide group into partners. Players take turns speaking
for one full minute about what they did the day before.
The other person then has to repeat what they said,
remembering as many details as possible. (It’s a good
idea for the teacher to model this exercise first).

ENGLISH GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING