Games in the Young

Learners' Classroom
 1 CONCEPTUAL GAMES
Games which develop one or more cognitive

abilities in the child.

¡ Categorise
¡ identify similarities or differences of use
¡ identify property
¡ identify weight (singly or in combination)
¡ understand and express the notion of time.
2 VISUAL PERCEPTUAL TASKS
Games which develop one or more
cognitive abilities in the child.
¡ categorise
¡ identify similarities or differences of use
¡ identify property
¡ identify weight (singly or in combination)
¡ understand and express the notion of time.

but mainly through the visual channel.

also understand
¡ space
¡ size
¡ relative location
¡ colour.
Kim’s Game
3 AUDITORY PERCEPTUAL TASKS

Games or gamelike activities which

concentrate on developing abilities
similar to the above but mainly through
the accoustic channel.
e.g.
¡ Musical Chairs
¡ Simon Says
¡ I went to market and I bought a ......
4 FINE MOTOR TASKS

developing motor skills

¡tracing a route through a maze

¡cutting around a design
¡colouring in
5 ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES
Any activity which aims to develop the child's awareness of
the world of the arts. Drawing, painting, making collages are
good examples
Read and draw:
There were five trees next to our house. The first one was an
apple tree with red apples, the second one, an apple tree too,
but this one had yellow apples.

The third tree was a fir tree and at Christmas we put

coloured lights on it.
7 PHYSICAL PLAY

¡ Includes, running, wrestling, rolling around the

floor, playing hide-and-seek and helps children
become aware of their body, its potential and its
limitations.
8 REPRESENTATIONAL OBJECT
PLAY

¡ This type of play involves the use of small objects

symbolising the real world, such as toy cars, zoo
animals, dolls. Through these, the child can
interact and learn more about the world and its
workings
9 FANTASY PLAY
Any kind of play in which the child steps
out of this world and enters the world of
make believe, e.g. playing house or playing
teacher. These games help the child
consolidate knowledge & awareness of
patterns of behaviour of the adult world,
and the interactive skills that go with
them, rehearsing as it were for a time
when s/he will have to perform similar
roles as an adult
EFL games
¡ a. DESCRIBE & DRAW
Player A describes a
picture to Player B who
listens & draws the
picture.
¡ b. FIND DIFFERENCES or
SIMILARITIES
¡ Players A & B have a
different picture each.
Without looking at each
other's picture, they
exchange descriptions
trying to spot as many
differences or similarities
as they can within a
time limit.
EFL games
a. HAPPY FAMILIES Groups of four players are dealt out four cards
each and by asking randomly, try to collect the four members
of a family to win the game.

b. ROLE PLAY Students enact a part which may be based on a

conversation in their book, a situation outlined on a role card,
a picture showing people in a situation, a series of pictures, a
video sequence, or simply, some instructions given orally by
the teacher.
EFL games

e. PUPPET THEATRE Similar to a role-play, but here children handle a

puppet each and enact a short sketch.

f. FIND THE ORDER Groups of pupils are given the pictures making
up a story. Each pupil has a picture. By describing their
pictures to each other, they try to work out the sequence and
tell the story to other groups.
EFL games

g. BOARD GAMES The pupils play a

board game such as Snakes &
Ladders, or one made especially for
language practice, e.g. the Gift
Game, in which pupils must justify
why they would give a particular gift
to one of the people assigned to
them in order to move along the
board.

h. MAKING BOARD GAMES Groups of

pupils are given a board outline (or
ideas for a board outline) and create
their own board game which they
colour in, make command cards for,
tokens to move around the board
and, depending on their level, write
or record a set of instructions for
other players.
EFL games
i. HIDE YOUR WORDS

Groups of pupils are each

given a set of cards with
words or pictures and
improvise a skit or story in
which these words are used.
When they present their story
or skit, opposing teams must
guess which words they 'are
hiding'
EFL games
j. PICTIONARY A A Snake
member of each
team is called out T Ladder
to the him/her. His
fellow team J Doctor
players shout out
words and must A He is reading
guess the word
within a time limit. F Happy
EFL games

k. RUNNING or WALL
DICTATION A short
or longer paragraph is
stuck on a wall away Miss Raindrop is walking along the
from the class. A street. She is walking with her
runner from each friends. Her friends are running
group runs back and and shouting: “Run! Run, Miss
forth dictating the Raindrop! Run!” But she is a lazy
text to his/her group. girl Miss Raindrop and she is
walking very slowly. “Run!” her
friends are saying. “Hurry! We
must go to the river before the
sun comes out!”
EFL games
l. CIRCLE GAMES
Students sit/stand in a circle and each player adds a new element,
e.g. 1st player: 'I like apples', 2nd player: 'like apples and
oranges', 3rd player: 'I like apples, oranges and bananas' and so
on. Each child must remember everything said by the previous
players.
m. MINGLING GAMES
Pupils move around the class and talk to each other trying to find
their partner in the crowd. Their partner may be someone with
the other half of a picture which must be described, or half a
sentence, or the right building for a job, or the right home for an
animal.
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