Esl games for kids

03.09.202203.09.2022 admin 0 Comments

Esl games for kids

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Practice present simple tense verbs.

Look at the images and make sentences.

Listen and click on the correct images.

Practice making sentences in past tense.

Click and drag the words to match the images.

Click on the words and make questions.

Move the objects to match the prepositions.

Guess the job and practice job language.

Describe the images by making sentences.

Guess the word or phrase as the image is revealed.

Read the sentences and move the clothes.

Listen and move the weather images to the countries.

Find the words to match the images. Practice spelling.

Look at the images and make comparatives.

Look at the image and then spell the word.

Interactive clock to practice telling the time.

Read the description and click on the matching image.

Listen and click on the correct food images.

Reveal the images and click on the words.

Practice future tense sentences with ‘Going To’.

Find the matching pairs of images and words.

Practice making sentences in perfect tense.

Move the clouds to make sentences.

Listen to the numbers and move the monster.

Make conditional phrases to match the images.

Click the words to practice making phrasal verbs.

Speaking practice. Say the vocab items.

Speaking practice. Say the phrases.

Guess the animal by forming questions.

Click the bubbles and construct sentences.

Listen to the words and click on the images.

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Online ESL Games

Below you will find a full list of our online ESL games. These games are great for teaching face to face with an interactive digital board or teaching online classes with Zoom. We will have many more online games coming shortly, so make sure you check back often.

Online ESL Games

Vocabulary Games

ESL Say It! – A simple no prep warmer/cooler or quick break for students. In this activity students have to say a word from a category that begins with a letter.

ESL Wordle – based in the popular English word game but with 8 categories to make the game easier to be played by language learners

ESL Guess Who – Practice describing people with this fun online game.

MIXUP – A simple quick fire vocabulary game. How many words can you guess in 90 seconds?

Word Wheel – Get class started with this fun vocabulary challenge. In this game students try and guess what the nine letter word is while also making words using the letters and the key letter. The team with the most words and points will win!

Learn to tell the time – Practice reading the setting the time with this fun interactive game to practice telling the time.

ESL Scattergories! – A classic quick thinking vocabulary where students need to think of vocabulary quickly to get the most words beginning with a letter.

Scattagories for Kids! – Now play with young learner and lower level students in this simplified version of our classic game.

Name 5! – Name 5! is a simple no prep vocabulary warmer. In this activity students need to say a number of words based on a range of topics. Can your students beat the clock!

5 Seconds! – Students need to say 3 words from a random category in 5 seconds to score a point.

Guess the Word – A fun game to practice reading, spelling and vocabulary. Students read the definition and try and guess what the word is. Ideal for A2 level students. 11 categories of words to practice with.

2 Pictures 1 Compound – Can you guess the closed compounds nouns from the pictures? Practice guessing the compounds nouns with this fun interactive game.

Interactive Board Games – Practice speaking, grammar and vocabulary with these interactive online board games. New board games added regularly.

ESL Vocabulary Fortunes – An online game for teens and adults that is a great way to practice vocabulary on a large number of topics.

Animal Vocabulary Games – Practice animals with these four interactive online games. These fun games are a great way to revise animal vocabulary with your students.

Fruit and Vegetables – Practice vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation with this fun interactive word game.

Animals – Practice animal vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation with this fun interactive game.

Story Dice – Get your students making and telling stories with this fun online story tool.

ESL Countdown – Practice vocabulary and spelling with countdown.

Anagram Word Game – A simple word game. Suitable for teens and adults with an intermediate and above level of English.

Word Unscramble – Practice vocabulary and spelling with this unscramble game for young learners.

ESL Category Generator – Generate categories to get your students practicing vocabulary. Great activity to be used with a ball or in online classes to get students thinking at the start of class as a warmer.

Trivia Quiz Generator – Generate quizzes quickly with this simple tool. Ideal for teens and adults intermediate and above.

Random Letter Generator – Generate random letters from the alphabet with this simple letter generating tool.

ESL Idiom Generator – Generate over 100 of the most common English language idioms. Get students to draw or mime out the idioms as a way to introduce them to the most common idioms in English.

Random Noun Generator – Randomly generate over 200 of the most common nouns in the English Language. Great for Pictionary and other end of the class coolers.

Catchphrase – A quick fire word game where students explain as many words as they can within the time limit.

Pictionary – Automatically generate words from three different levels of difficulty and play Pictionary with your students in a flash.

ESL Boggle – Boggle is a great warmer that can be used in the classroom. With this online version get students writing words to be the top of the class.

ESL Quizzes – Our Quizzes are a great way to end class and practice key vocabulary for a wide range of themes. Check back regularly as we are adding new quizzes regularly.

Speaking Games

Question Unscramble – Practice grammar and speaking by unscrambling these questions which cover 15 different grammar topics.

Would You Rather – A simple no-prep warmer or cooler to get students speaking about what they would rather do in different situations. Ideal for students B1 (lower-intermediate +).

FCE Speaking Practice – Practice FCE Speaking Part 1 and 2 with this interactive tool. There are over 80 part 1 questions and 24 part 2.

ESL Guess Who – Practice describing people with this fun online game.

The Expert – In this speaking game students speak about a topic for 30/60/120 seconds to gain points for their team.

Interactive Board Games – Practice speaking, grammar and vocabulary with these interactive online board games. New board games added regularly.

Movers Spot the Difference – Practice for the Cambridge Movers Speaking exam with this free fun interactive online game.

ESL Brain Teasers – Do you want to get your students thinking? Practice lateral thinking and reading with this brain teasers for all ages and levels.

Describe the photo – Practice speaking about photos for B1 (PET) students.

Story Dice – Get your students making and telling stories with this fun online story tool.

Spot The Difference – Can you spot the differences? Levels 1 – 8 are now available, more levels coming soon.

ESL Odd One Out – An online game that is a great way to practice vocabulary and speaking with young learners. This activity is great to help students practice for the Cambridge Movers exam.

Grammar Games

Irregular Verb Challenge – Practice irregular verbs with your students using this tool. This versatile game can be played in many different ways and is a great routine to master irregular verbs with your students.

Interactive Board Games – Practice speaking, grammar and vocabulary with these interactive online board games. New board games added regularly.

ESL Quizzes – Our Quizzes are a great way to end class and practice key vocabulary for a wide range of themes. Check back regularly as we are adding new quizzes regularly.

Fortune Teller – Practice “yes/no” and “will” + future question forming with your students with this fortune teller.

Scoring Systems

ESL Bomb Game – Bomb is an engaging scoring system that adds excitement to any game.

Football Kick Off – Are your students football mad? Then this might be the game for you. Which team will win in this fantastic football game.

Classroom Car Race – Rev your engines and get ready to win it big with this fun car race themed board game. Ideal to use with your own questions and help keep the score.

American Football Rush – The American football version of our Football Kick off game. A quick no fuss way to gamify your lessons with no printouts.

Wheel of Fortune – Spin the wheel and win points for up to five teams.

Hidden Treasure – In this game students need to answer questions set by the teacher and try and find the hidden treasure before the others. The first to find it wins!

Student Vs Teacher – Who will win in this turn based based game? The student or the teacher?

ESL Battleship – Battleship is another engaging scoring system that will have students wanting more! How quickly can your students find all the ships and win?

Four in a Row (Connect Four) – This classic game can be used in many different ways in the classroom, as a treat, with speaking or while doing revision. Whatever way you use it it’s sure to be popular.

Blockbuster – Gamify your online and face to face lessons with Blockbuster. Use this game to practice vocabulary, word formation or just about any activity. Students work in teams and have to get across the board.

Basketball Shoot – A simple game you can use to gamify you classes. This basketball themed game allows you to use your own material but use this fun game to allow students to use their skill to score a point. Great with mixed ability sports crazy classes.

Rock, Paper, Scissors – Battle your students in an epic match of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’.

ESL Play Your Cards Right – A fun higher or lower game.

Virtual Classroom Horse Race – Bring your students to the horse races with this simple interactive game. Have students choose a horse and see who wins! Great to gamify your class and make everyone have a chance of winning big.

Tic Tac Toe – Play this classic versatile game with our interactive board game and gamify you lessons quickly and easily.

Tic Tac Toe – Dragons vs Unicorns – Play the ultimate tic tac toe battle in class. Who will win? Dragons or Unicorns?

Number Games

Math Skills – Practice addition, subtraction, division and multiplication with this fun online game.

How Many? Counting Game – Practice counting, numbers and ‘there are’ / “there is” with this fun interactive counting game.

Addition Challenge – A quick fire addition maths game that will help your students practice quick thinking with numbers and addition in English or any target language. A fun no prep warmer/cooler for class.

Number Match – A simple multiplication challenge to get students thinking and multiplying in English. A great warmer to get your students thinking and focused!

Count Your Chickens! – A simple counting and Math problem game for kids. Can your students decide how many chickens to put across the fence?

Multiplication Checker – Test your test young learners multiplication skills with this interactive tool

Young Learner Games

Alphabet Game – In this mini game students need to touch the letters of the alphabet in order. Ideal for young learners.

Scattagories for Kids! – Now play with young learner and lower level students in this simplified version of our classic game.

Count Your Chickens! – A simple counting and Math problem game for kids. Can your students decide how many chickens to put across the fence?

Vocabulary Fortunes for Kids – This game is a great way to practice and reinforce vocabulary with young learners. Covering 12 different themes found in most young learner course books this game is sure to be popular with your students.

Animal Vocabulary Games – Practice animals with these four interactive online games. These fun games are a great way to revise animal vocabulary with your students.

How Many? Counting Game – Practice counting, numbers and ‘there are’ / “there is” with this fun interactive counting game.

Movers Spot the Difference – Practice for the Cambridge Movers Speaking exam with this free fun interactive online game.

Spot The Difference – Can you spot the differences? Levels 1 – 8 are now available, more levels coming soon.

Interactive Word Search – Online interactive word search (word soup) puzzles for Young learners with target vocabulary for Cambridge Young Learner Exams (Starters, Movers and Flyers A1 & A2. A Fun way to practice spelling with students in class, on their own or online with Zoom.

Word Unscramble – Practice vocabulary and spelling with this unscramble game for young learners.

ESL Hangman – Hangman is a no-prep way to practice spelling and vocabulary recall with your students.

ESL Picture Reveal – A fun way to introduce a topic, unit or just revise vocabulary with your students. These preprepared picture reveals will save you time and have students reviewing vocabulary in a fun and interactive way.

Memory Match – Review vocabulary with young learners with these interactive memory match game.

Writing Games

Story Dice – Get your students making and telling stories with this fun online story tool.

ESL Writing Prompt Generator – An entertaining way to practice writing with young learners and even teens.
More online ESL games coming soon! (Last updated 4 August 2022)

Online ESL Classroom Tools

Classroom Dice – A simple virtual dice that can be used on any device Date and Weather Interactive Chart (New) – Our no fuss interactive date and weather chart is a great way practice the date and weather each day with your students.

Classroom Soundboard – This tool helps teachers manage classroom transitions with simple sounds that they can assign to different classroom tasks e.g listen to the teacher, change groups, go back to your desk etc.

Cipher Making Tool – Make secret ciphers quickly and easily with our new Cipher tool.

Tell the Time – Practice telling the time with this free online tool for teens and adults.

Story Dice – Get your students making and telling stories with this fun online story tool.

Random Letter Generator – Generate random letters from the alphabet with this simple letter generating tool.

Random Number Generator – Play bingo, practice numbers or pick who goes first, all with this random number generator.

Student Name Picker – A random name selector for you to use in your classroom when choosing a student to complete a task, answer a question, or participate in an activity.

Spin the Wheel – Spin the wheel is a simple way of awarding points to students in a fun and interactive way.

Classroom Coin Flip – Flip a virtual coin to decide teams, who’s first and much more.

Classroom Score Board – Keep score with this interactive classroom score board.

Classroom Timer – Keep a track of time with this handy timer.

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Site Content

Kids ESL Games provides teachers with teaching resources for esl young learners. Find out more and try our free kids A to Z worksheets, games resources, esl grammar games, esl vocabulary games, English activity games, classroom powerpoint games, vocabulary exercises and grammar exercises for kids, printables, phonics pages, esl kids phonics. Kids ESL Games card game templates, esl board games, esl interactive games, text maze worksheets & puzzle printables, jeopardy powerpoints, song worksheets. Teach English as a second language with ease at Kids ESL Games. Please contact us at kidseslgames AT gmail.com or click here to join our mailing list.

Fun grammar games. Interactive grammar games online. English grammar games for classroom learning. Free online grammar games for individual learners or students in the classroom. Teaching has never been so fun for teachers and learners alike. Play our grammar esl games and experience a range of different topics that provide a fresh esl learning experience for kids.

Vocabulary games for kids and vocabulary review games for English online learning. Classroom vocabulary games for high school learners or students in the classroom. Teaching vocabulary games has never been so fun for teachers and learners alike. Play our vocabulary esl games and experience a range of different topics that provide a fresh esl learning experience for kids.

Printable games and A-Z worksheets including interactive board games and card games allow students and teachers to enjoy a fun and vibrant classroom environment. Our printable games come in both pdf and microsoft word, so you can edit them to your teaching needs. Tested and proven these esl printables will enhance learning in the classroom.

Our games easily appeal to young learners as they are based on real experiences in the classroom. So much so, we packed together a rich collection of A to Z games as well as Jeopardy in PowerPoint format.

Our online store allows our customers to buy high quality worksheets, phonics, flashcards, puzzles and survey sets to aid teachers in the classroom. Armed with these esl materials teaching will be fun and fresh for young learners of English. Along with students, teachers will excel in the world of esl learning.

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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.

Alphabet Writing Relay
Divide and line up the students into two teams. Divide the board into two halves and have one student from each team run to the board, write ‘A’, then run to the back of the line. The next student writes ‘B’, etc. The first team to finish wins.

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.

Animal Crackers
Take a big dice and assign an animal to each number. Have the students roll the dice and act like the animal!

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.»

Balloon Toss
Have the students stand in a circle. Toss a balloon to one student and elicit vocabulary or a structure from that student. They must be able to tap the balloon in the air without missing the vocabulary or structure E.g. S1: «My name’s Miki. What’s your name?» (tap) «My name’s Hiro. What’s your name?» (tap).

Basic Flashcard Fun
The teacher simply holds up a flash card and elicits the answer from the students. This can be done in teams with points awarded for correct answers.

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.

Bingo
Bingo can be used with any topic. Blank Bingo sheets can be used, and students can write of draw randomly in the boxes. The winner is the first student to cross out all the numbers/letters etc. on the sheet.

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. «

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.

The 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.

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.

Catch The Fruit
Toss a piece of plastic fruit to a student and ask, «What is it?» Elicit and prompt the correct vocabulary. Gesture the student to throw it back to you and repeat with different fruit and students. For a variation see ‘The Ball’.

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ESL Board Games Interactive

ESL board games are a great way to get your students using new language. They are fantastic to allow freer practice of targeted grammar structures but also to allow more realistic use of language through conversation.

We have created a growing number of online interactive board games that can be used in online classes or in class on interactive whiteboards to allow students to play games in groups or as a class while saving on paper and preparation time.

These interactive board games are ideal to play on online zoom classes. To do so, first open the game you would like to play in your browser. Then in Zoom just click the “Share screen” button and select to share your browser or share your desktop. Students can play in pairs or individually. For larger groups share the URL with students and let them play in breakout rooms.

Grammar Board Games

Can and Can’t – Practice speaking about ability with this board game.

Comparatives and Superlatives – Practice forming comparative and superlative sentences.

First Conditional – First conditional board game where students finish the sentences.

First and Second Conditional – Practice first and second conditional with this speaking board game.

Gerunds and Infinitives – Practice gerunds and infinitives with this speaking activity.

How often do you…? – Practice adverbs of frequency and question forming using this interactive board game.

Imperatives / Orders – Practice imperatives with this board game.

Irregular Verbs – Practice common irregular verbs

Present Simple – Practice the present simple with this speaking focused board game.

Past Simple Regular Verbs – Practice spelling of regular verbs with this interactive board game.

Present Perfect – Practice the present perfect with this speaking focused board game.

Relative Clauses – Practice relative clauses with this speaking focused board game.

Ordinal Numbers – Practice ordinal numbers with this board game.

Past Simple – Practice the past simple with this speaking board game.

Should / Shouldn’t – Practice giving advice using should/shouldn’t

Superlatives – Practice speaking using superlatives with this game.

Used to – Practice speaking about when students were younger

What are you going to do tomorrow? – Practice going to for future plans.

Board games by themes

All About You – Get to know your students with this fun icebreaker board game.

Alphabet – Practice the alphabet with the young learner with this interactive board game.

Animals – Practice vocabulary related to animals with this game. Ideal for B1+ (lower intermediate+)

Clothes and Fashion – Practice speaking about clothes and fashion. (Intermediate and above)

Family – Practice family members with this board game.

Food – Practice speaking about food and food vocabulary.

My Favourite – Practice speaking using “My favourite ___ is …”

Sports – Talk about sports and sports equipment.

Shopping – Discuss shopping with this board game for B1/B2.

Travel – Discuss questions around the topic of travel. Ideal for students Lower intermediate and above B1+

Weather – Practice saying what the weather is like with this fun board game.

Ludo Board Game

Irregular Verbs Ludo – Practice the most common irregular verbs with this interactive game of Ludo. This can be played with 2 players or more. Students move their pieces around the board while saying and writing the irregular verbs on the board.

Young Learner Board Games

Alphabet – Practice the alphabet with the young learner with this interactive board game.

Animals – Practice animals with this board game.

Clothes – Practice clothes and accessories vocabulary with this board game.

Daily Routines – Practice daily routines with this interactive board game.

Days of the Week – Practice days of the week with this board game.

Family – Practice family members with this board game.

Going to – Practice going to for future plans.

House and Furniture – Practice vocabulary and speaking with this board game.

Sports – Talk about sports and sports equipment.

Irregular Verbs – Practice common irregular verbs

Jobs – Practice common jobs with this board game.

My Favourite – Practice speaking using “My favourite ___ is …”

Ordinal Numbers – Practice ordinal numbers with this board game.

Transport – Practice different types of transport with this game.

Weather – Practice saying what the weather is like with this fun board game.

Holiday Board Games

Easter – Practice speaking about Easter with this board game.. (Young Learners Pre-A1 +)

Valentine’s Day – Use this board game to talk about Valentine’s Day. B1+

Maths Board Games

Division – Practice division with this fun maths board game.

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Games by Topic

Action Verbs Interactive

Adjectives & Adverbs Interactive

Animals Vocabulary Games Online

Bathroom Vocabulary Games

Bedroom Vocabulary Games

Body Parts Vocabulary Interactive

Christmas Vocabulary Interactive, PPT, Printables

Clothes Vocabulary Interactive

Colors (Colours) Vocabulary Interactive

Comparatives and Superlatives Grammar Interactive

Days, Weeks, Months, Festivals, Year Vocabulary Interactive

Food and Drinks Interactive Games

Fruit and Vegetables Interactive Games

Furniture & Household Words Interactive Games

Halloween Interactive Vocabulary Games

Health Interactive Vocabulary Games

Jobs and Places Vocabulary Interactive Games

Kitchen Interactive Vocabulary Games

Materials Interactive Vocabulary Games

Musical Instruments Interactive Vocabulary Games

Nature and Natural Disasters Interactive Vocabulary Games

Numbers Vocabulary Interactive Games

Past Tenses Interactive Games

Prefixes and Suffixes Interactive Games

Prepositions Interactive Games

Present Simple and Present Progressive Tenses Interactive Games

Question Words Interactive Games

School Supplies and School Subjects Vocabulary Interactive Games

Shapes Vocabulary Interactive Games

Space, Solar System and Planets Vocabulary Interactive Games

Sports Vocabulary Interactive Games

Telling the Time & Routines Interactive Games

Transportation Vocabulary Interactive Games

Weather Vocabulary Interactive Games

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Fun ESL Classroom Games

In this section of Teach-This.com, you will find a large variety of fun and engaging ESL classroom games to spice up your lessons. The games contained in this section will also provide you with a great source of ideas for your classes. These tried and tested games provide practice in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The games are also categorized to help you easily find the type of game you are looking for. There are games for young learners, teenagers and adults. Each game comes with full teacher’s notes and most of the games take very little preparation and are easy to set up and play.

The games can be used to introduce new vocabulary, reinforce a language point, practice words or language structures, teach or practice grammar and improve core skills. You can also use these games to warm up the class when the lesson begins, during the lesson to re-energize the class or at the end of class to finish on a positive note and round off the lesson.

Using games and fun activities in class is an important part of teaching ESL. Playing games is a fun way to help students make connections between words and grammar. These connections quicken the process of building language skills. These ESL games can help both native and foreign speakers of English improve their language ability. Playing games in class also helps to focus attention, improve interaction, increase energy levels and build confidence. Furthermore, shy or quiet students begin to open up and speak English when playing games in class. We are sure you will find our games section a useful tool in improving your students’ English language ability.

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Esl games for kids

This site is dedicated to helping teachers by providing Fun esl games for Classrooms, Powerpoint Game & Templates, Printable Board Games, Interactive Games for Classrooms, Games for ESL Kids & Adults, Grammar Games, Vocabulary Games, Reading Games, featuring Snakes & Ladders, Hangman & Wheel Games. ESL Online Games

Fredisalearns.com : is a multi-level English program for children between the ages of 4 to 12 featuring tons of cartoon animated videos, games, tests and worksheets to teach and review vocabulary, grammar, spelling and communicative skills.

ESL, Math, Science : Games, Worksheets, Videos

Animated English Videos for Kids, Games.

We provide a variety of interactive games and exercises for total esl fun. Our free ESL fun games here include : Snakes and Ladders, Hangman, Spelling games, Wheel of Fortune, TV Games(Betting Game), Mazes, Memory Games, Matching exercises, Sequencing exercises, Picture Quizzes and more. Follow the links below. This site is dedicated to helping teachers by providing fun esl games for classrooms, powerpoint game templates, printable board games, interactive games for classrooms, Games for ESL Kids, Grammar Games, Vocabulary Games, Reading Games

Fun English Activities Online for Kids

Fun English Vocabulary Games, Grammar Games, Sentences Games, Spelling Games, Printable and Powerpoint Games, Games for iPad & Android Devices.

Grammar Games & Exercises

Games for Practising Grammar: Present simple/present progressive games, past tense games, present perfect games, comparative/Superlatives and more.

Games for ESL Classroom Teaching

Vocabulary Games & Exercises

Pronunciation Interactive Exercises

Games to practice English pronunciation, phonetics and phonics.

English Courses for kids

Fredisalearns.com is a multi-level English program for children between the ages of 4 to 12 featuring tons of cartoon animated videos, games, tests and worksheets to teach and review vocabulary, grammar, spelling and communicative skills.

Printable Games, Powerpoint Games & Game Templates

For teachers, these printable and powerpoint games will form the bases of most of your lessons. Easy to play, Easy to customize and create yours. Follow these links below.

Practice a variety of grammar and vocabulary skills using these printable ESL Card & Board Games.

Powerpoint Games for practising English vocabulary, grammar and many language skills.

Game Templates in MS WORD & POWERPOINT FORMATS- Click Here!

Create Games for your teaching using our templates. Very easy with the several video tutorials.

Math Games & Exercises Online

ESL Games World is the ultimate English learning fun lab with lots of interactive exercises for teachers and students of English. This site is brought to you free of charge by the same team that brought you the ESL-galaxy.com, englishmedialab.com and esltower.com. We are committed to making teachers’ & students’ lives a lot easier by providing useful free esl resources for teaching and learning English as a Foreign or Second Language.

We have no doubt that you will find this website a handy tool for your teaching and learning of English. Some of the games include: Wheel of Fortune, Snakes and Ladders, Hangman, Memory Games, Spelling Games, Slot Machine, Word Classification Exercises and a host of others. Watch ESL Games tutorials on how to play»

If you are the type of person who prefers to have games on powerpoint or as printable handouts, we have been thinking of you. We offer board games, powerpoint games and more for the classroom and one to one teaching. They have made my lessons fun and I have no doubt yours will be fun too. Added to the good news are the templates we offer that you can use to create customized games for your classroom and teaching.

It is total fun and highly engaging fun lessons with these resources. Games have the power or eliminating negative emotions and keeping learning total fun.With the absence of the affective filter, learning is much more effective.Visit this page.

We offer a variety of printable ESL board games and card games to help give your students lots of communicative practice. These games are in printable ESL PDF and MS Word formats. All of these games have been used in ESL classrooms and trust me when I say they work great. We have games like the Crocodile Board Games, Pirate Game, Round Table Card Game, Q and A Card Game, Power Cards and more games of our creation. Visit this page.

On ESL Games World we do not only aim at providing you with games for your classrooms. We have taken a step further to offer you free ESL games templates to empower you with the tools to make your own exercises. Create Powerpoint and Printable Games in minutes. We understand that you may not have too much time for planning a lesson. This is why we offer you our most precious game templates for free. Create your own exercises using our highly intuitive game templates. With our templates, creating materials have never been easier. You will create customized games to practice the language focus of your lessons.

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Esl games for kids

ESL Fun Games Online

ESL, Math, Science : Games, Worksheets, Videos

Games for Teaching English to Kids

Grammar Games & Exercises

Games for Practising Grammar: Present simple/present progressive games, past tense games, present perfect games, comparative/Superlatives and more.

Games for ESL Classroom Teaching

Jeopardy Quiz Show, Billionaire, Show down and more. I cannot tell you just how excited I am to offer this new section. 26 New Games for Classrooms!

Vocabulary Games & Exercises

Games for practising English vocabulary: Lots of games by topics and game types.(14 New Games Added)

Pronunciation Interactive Exercises

Games to practice English pronunciation, phonetics and phonics.

Printable Games, PPT Games & Templates

For teachers, these printable and powerpoint games will form the bases of most of your lessons. Easy to play, Easy to customize and create yours. Follow these links below.

Practice a variety of grammar and vocabulary skills using these printable ESL Card & Board Games.

Powerpoint Games for practising English vocabulary, grammar and many language skills.

PPT & Board Game Templates

Create Games for your teaching using our templates. Very easy with the several video tutorials.

Math Games & Exercises Online

Get some cool tools for use in your classroom. There are timers here and gadgets that are useful to both ESL teachers and students.

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ESL Kids Online Learning Games

Fun, educational games for your ESL kids to play!

Below is a selection of fun online educational games. Just click on the image to play the game.

Put the correct alphabet barrel on the cart.В Good for early alphabet learning.

Move the numbers to the correct position on the clock.

Count the pictures and choose the correct number.

Famous ‘I Spy’ game but using color rather than letters.

Type the first letter of each word to score 10 points.В All words in upper-case.

Concentration game based on topics such as: animals, shapes, colors, alphabet letters and numbers.

Count the number of train cars and then count the pictures on each car.В A voice calls out each number.

Race against the clock and rearrange letters to make as many words as possible. Good for older/more advanced students.

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Games4esl

Welcome To Games4esl, your go-to place to find fun and engaging games for teaching English. The activities you’ll find here on Games4esl include ESL activity videos, Online quizzes, PowerPoint Games, Boardgames, and much more. You’ll also find other free resources such as ESL worksheets, flashcards, and PowerPoint lessons to use in your English lessons. All the games for teaching English on Games4esl are FREE to use in your classes. Scroll down to see the full list of resources and English teaching games available.

ESL Activity Videos

Our free ESL videos are fun games you can use in your classes. These games are designed to be used in English lessons and are based on the topics that ESL students typically study. Games include vocabulary guessing games, English quizzes, telepathy games, and more.

PPT Games For Teaching English

Download free PowerPoint games and PowerPoint game templates for teaching English on a variety of different topics. These games are designed for English teachers to use in class with English language learners.

Online Quizzes

Our fun online quizzes can be used when teaching English to review a particular topic or just as a fun activity when you have extra time. Quizzes include English grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, general knowledge quizzes, and more.

ESL Worksheets

Download free printable ESL worksheets on a variety of different topics for teaching English language learners. Worksheets include printable worksheets for kids, activity worksheets, grammar exercise worksheets, vocabulary exercise worksheets, and more.

Printable Flashcards

Download free printable flashcards for teaching English on a variety of different topics for kids and beginner English language learners. Flashcards include both large flashcards for teachers to hold and smaller flashcards that can be used for different card games and activities.

Printable Board Games

Download free printable board games and board game templates for teaching English. Our printable board games are ready to use and are based on the topics that kids and beginner ESL students typically study.

PowerPoint Lessons

Download free PowerPoint lessons for teaching English. These PowerPoint presentations are ready to use and cover a variety of topics that are usually taught to English language learners.

ESL Lesson Plans

Check out our ESL lesson plans page for complete lesson plans on a variety of different topics. Each of the lesson plans comes complete with all the materials you need.

English Exercises

Our English exercises are interactive games for learning English. Activities include vocabulary exercises and grammar exercises for English language learners.

Blog

Check out our blog for useful teaching tips, resources, and activity ideas for teaching and learning English.

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ESL Kids Flashcard Games & Activities

Flash card games and activities for English kids lessons

Adverb Action: Teacher writes on the board an activity like «brush your teeth.» S/He picks one student, they come to the front of the class. The teacher then shows the S a card with an adverb written on it, such as «slowly». The chosen student then does the activity in the way of the adverb. The other students have to guess the adverb. The one who guesses right gets a point and mimes the next action which the teacher writes on the board. To help them you can give them a list of options, if you think they need some help.В (Submitted by Libby McArthur).

Alphabet Soup: Place plastic letters in a bowl. Divide flashcards by their beginning letters. Each student draws a letter from the bowl and then finds the flashcards associated with that letter. (Submitted by Lori Supernaw)

Alphabet Wave: Divide the a-z flashcards among all your students.В Put students in a line and play the ABC song.В As it plays each student must hold up their corresponding alphabet flashcard.

Over 1,500 printable flashcards right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All flashcards are made specifically for teaching English to children.
They are quick to find and easy to print.

Backs to the Board Game: This one is good for higher level kids.В Make two teams and stand one S from each team in front of the board, facing away from it.В Place a flashcard picture on the board (e.g. «hamburger») and the students have to explain that word to their team member (e.g. you can buy it in McDonalds, it’s got cheese and ketchup in it).В The first S out of the two standing in front of the board to guess the word wins a point for his/her team.

Basketball: Students take a shot at the trash can/box/etc.В First show a flashcard to S1.В If s/he answers correctly then s/he can have a shot at the basket.В If the S gets the ball in the basket then s/he wins 2 points.В If the S hits the basket without going inside then s/he wins 1 point.В The person who gets the most points is the winner.В This can also be played in teams.

Basketball Card Line-Up: This game is like basketball game but more educational.В Place 2 lines of several cards.В You need 2 players and a basket far away.В To shoot the basket from far away is hard so the players need to say the card and make their way closer and closer to the basket.В When they feel that they can throw and hit the basket, they make their attempt.

Battleship: Age: 4+, Level: All levels, Target: Vocabulary, Phrases, Listening and Conversation.В Make a grid.В The size of the grid depends on the number of students and the time limits of the class.В Basically the students pick a grid reference, as » A1″ or “ B7”and then you reveal the card.

Bean Bag Toss: Lay out flashcards face down up the floor.В Students toss the bean bag and identify the flashcard it lands on.В (Submitted by Betty).

Concentration: You need 2 sets of flashcards for this game.В Place both sets face down on the floor.В Students take turns in turning over 2 cards (saying the cards aloud).В If the cards match then the S keeps the cards.В If the cards are different the cards are turned back over again in their original places.В The S with the most pairs at the end of the game is the winner.

Concentration 2: Level: requires basic reading.В Make a set of cards.В On half of them put a picture of a theme related subject (for example body parts, food, furniture etc) on the other half put the word relating to each picture (ex. nose, mouth, lips, eye. ).В Laminate if possible.В Place all cards face down on the table.В The first player turns two at a time (or three for the very young) over to match the word to the picture.В If it matches the player can keep the pair if not, the cards are returned and then next player goes.В These cards can also be used so that a child or team simply matches the words to the pictures.

Cross the River: Place flashcards on floor in winding manner.В Each represents a stepping stone in the river, as students must say word/phrase/question/etc in order to step on it and cross the river!В (submitted by Michelle K).

Over 1,000 printable worksheets right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All worksheets are made specifically for teaching English to children.
They are quick to find and easy to print.

Easy Hard: You need at least 20 cards to play which you divide into 2 piles face down:
An Easy and a Hard pile.В Give each team 50 points from beginning.В Pick a student and ask if they would like an easy or a hard card, also ask how many points they would like to risk on knowing the answer: Easy 1-5 and Hard 5-10.

Fast as rabbits: Teacher puts some flashcards on the board. Then a pair of students go to the board facing the flashcards. Teacher says words (from the flashcards) and the 2 children must touch the correct flashcard as fast as they can. The winner is who touches more flashcards first.В (Submitted by Paco Santos Juanes).

Flashcard Fun: Hold up a flashcard and elicit the answer from a S.В Students can win the flashcard if they answer correctly.В The S with the most flashcards at the end is the winner.

Four Corners: Teacher hangs a flashcard (4 in total) in all 4 corners of the room. One S is chosen to stand in the middle with his/her eyes closed and counts to ten while the other students scramble to one of the four corners.В At the count of ten, the S in the middle shouts «STOP» and picks one corner by naming it’s corresponding flashcard. The students in that corner are «out» and must sit down. Continue game until only one student remains; he/she is then «it» (the counter in middle).В (Submitted by Sister Soco).

Lots of free lesson plans to print right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All lesson plans are made specifically for teaching English to children.
They are also accompanied by lots of materials.

Give Me Game: You can use with flashcards or objects.В Elicit the different flashcards you have.В Then place all the flashcards around the classroom.В Once the students have collected the flashcards (they’ll probably do their best to hide them in their pockets, etc.) teacher says «Give me a (bus)».В The S with the (bus) flashcard should approach the teacher and hand it to him/her: «Here you are».В Avoid having the flashcards thrown back to you as they can go anywhere and takes a long time to finish this game.

Guessing Question Game: This is good practiceВ for asking simple questions. Teacher hidesВ any flash card behindВ his/her back andВ studentsВ try to guess what the object is by asking questions: «Is it a dog?», «Is it a ball?», «Is it a book?»,В etc. until they guess the flashcard.В (Submitted by Nagwa).

Hint Animal Game: As a review of animals flashcards, teacher holds some cards without showing any to the students.В Then the teacher tells the kids that they are going to receive 3 hints, so they need to listen carefully. For example: 1. I am yellow. 2. I have long hair. 3. I am strong. Who am I? Well, a lion of course!В You can make it in deferent levels depending on how much English you use or which vocab you use.

Jump On It: Spread out flashcards on the floor and have students stand at one end of the room.В Shout out a card and the students have to find the card and jump on it. The first S to do this wins a point.В Variation: Make 2 teams for a relay race.В The first 2 students try and jump on the flashcard first to win a point for their team.В В В

Downloadable songs to pay in your lessons available right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All songs are made specifically for teaching English to children.
Just download and play in your lessons.

Karuta: Lay flashcards on a table or the floor, picture side up. Teacher calls out the word/phrase/etc. and students compete to be the first person to grab or touch the card. If they touch it, they keep it. Game continues until all cards have been picked up. (Submitted by Blythe Musteric)

Keep the in Order:В Each student has a set of cards (pictures with names) similar to the teacher. The teacher places his/her cards in a particular order in two or three rows, and so do the students following instructions. Teacher starts calling the cards in pairs so that the two cards named change positions. Make a few changes in this way (donВґt let students see the changes, they must follow them only by listening carefully). Afterwards, the teacher calls a student to say the cards in order. If all the cards are well placed the student can lead a new game. Students love the game and learn a lot of vocabulary.В (Submitted by Amparo AndrГ©s)

Lightning Flashcards: Teacher stands at front of class with flashcards.В Students form two teams standing in a line.В Two students go first and face away from the teacher. Teacher says 1.2.3. What is it? and students quickly turn around and the first S to call out the correct answer wins a point for their team (good for review of vocab).В (Submitted by Laurie Pich)

Line True or False: Put a line of tape on the floor and designate one side «True» and the other «False».В Hold up a flashcard or object and say its word.В If students think that you have said the correct word they jump on the True side, if not they jump on the False side.В Incorrect students sit out until the next game.

Musical Flashcards: Students walk around some flashcards in a circle as some music is playing.В When the music stops teacher shouts out a flashcard and the students must race to step on that card.В The first S to step on it keeps the card (1 point) and the game continues.

Musical Chair Alphabet: Place chairs in the form of musical chairs with alphabet flashcards placed on them. Start the music when the music stops the students pick up their flashcards and have to read the sound on the flashcard. The child who is unable to read is out of the game. (Submitted by Farah Najam)

Over 1,500 printable flashcards right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All flashcards are made specifically for teaching English to children.
They are quick to find and easy to print.

Ostrich Game: This game is really good fun.В You need some clothes pegs.В Pair up students and peg a card onto each S’s back.В Both students face each other with hands behind backs waiting for teacher to shout «Go!».В At this point they must try to discover his/her partner’s hidden flashcard without letting their partner see theirs.В When the S finally sees his/her partner’s card s/he has to shout it out to become the winner.В The students look like ostriches when playing this game.

Over-under: В Line up the kids in two teams. Give the two kids at the front each a flash card. When you say go, the first in line says the word and passes the f/c over their head, the next kid says the word and passes the card under between their legs, the next kid over, then under, etc. The last kid in line races to the front to hand the f/c to the teacher and says the word. The first team to do so gets a point.В (submitted by Sarah Litwin-Schmid).

Paper Rock Scissors: A good vocabulary game.В Teach students the new vocabulary (E.g. clothes, colors, animals, etc.).В Spread the flashcards in a row on the floor. Divide students into two teams. Have students walk on the cards from the opposite sides repeating the vocab just learned. When they are standing on the last card from their end the teacher says «1. 2. 3» and the students have to put their hand in front in the form of paper or scissors or the rock. Scissors cut the paper, paper covers the rock and rock break the scissors. Repeat the activity with each student from different teams.В The winning students can play again.В (submitted by Reena Unterreiner-lal). В

Pass: Sit the students with you in a circle.В Teacher holds up a flashcard or object and says its name (e.g. «Pen»).В Teacher passes it on to the next S who also says its name and passes it on to the next S.В Variations: change directions, speed rounds, have many objects going round at the same time.

Pictionary: Good for reviewing vocab.В Pick a S and show him/her a flashcard picture or whisper a word into his/her ear.В The S draws the picture on the board and the first S to guess the picture gets to draw the next picture.В This can also be played in teams with a point system.

Picture Recognition Game: Have all the students stand at one end of the room and the teacher in the middle.В Hold up one picture flashcard and students come forward and whisper the word in the T’s ear.В If correct they can go over to the other side of the room.В Students can have as many guesses as they like.

Free printable resources for ESL KidStuff teachers.
Take a look here.
Certificates, attendance sheets, lesson records, lesson plan tamplates.
Just print and use in your lessons.

Quick Peek: Teacher holds a flashcard with the picture facing towards him/her.В Teacher quickly shows it to the students for a quick peek.В The S who guesses the card wins a point.

Race Track: Lay out the flashcards like a race track with a start and finish line.В Students play in pairs or teams.В S1 rolls a dice and moves a counter along the track.В The S must say the flashcard landed on and if wrong must move back to the original position.В Variation: put in some ‘throw again’ cards (e.g. brightly colored cards) and a nominate a ‘crash’ number on the die (e.g. if a student throws a 6 they crash and must stay where they are and miss a turn).

Roll that Dice: Split class into 2 to 4 teams. Place flashcards on board and number them.В Younger Students: Teacher says: Point to the ______. S should point to that card. If correct then S rolls dice for points. If incorrect S gets help from team.В Older Students: Teacher says: What’s picture number 4? S says the vocabulary word. If correct then S rolls dice for points. If incorrect S gets help from team.В (Submitted by Tania Bibbo).

Rope Jump: you need a rope for this one!В Have students stand behind each other in a line.В Hold a rope (have a S hold the other end) at a height that the students should be able to jump over.В On the other side of the rope spread out some flashcards or objects and a box.В Call out the name of one of the flashcards/objects to the first S.В S/he has to jump over the rope, pick up the correct flashcard and put it in the box.В For other rounds you can hold the rope down low, so students have to crawl/roll under.

Shopping: This can be used with a wide range of flashcards (food pictures work well).В Gather all the students and show them all the flashcards you have.В Ask a S «What do you want?» (or maybe «What would you like?» to higher levels).В The S should reply (e.g. «a hamburger, please»).В Teacher then says «Here you are» and the S finishes with «Thank you».В At the end collect the objects by playing the ‘Give Me’ game.

Slam: Sit the students in a circle and place some flashcards in the middle of the circle.В Tell students to put their hands on their heads.В Teacher shouts out the word of one of the flashcards and the students race to touch it.В The S who touches it first get to keep the object.В The S who has the most flashcards at the end of the game is the winner.В

Slow motion: Teacher holds a pack of flashcards with the pictures facing towards him/her.В The last card should be turned around so it is facing the students but is hidden as it is behind the pack.В Slowly pull the flashcard up inch by inch so the students can only see part of the flashcard.В As the picture is slowly revealed students try and guess what it is.В The first S to guess correctly keeps the card (for 1 point).В Variation: To make it a little more difficult turn the flashcard upside down.В В

Snap: You need 2 sets of flashcards all shuffled together.В Sit the students in a circle and deal out all the cards to the students.В S1 places down a card in the middle of the circle and says the word aloud, followed by S2 placing his/her card down to form a pile.В At some point 2 identical cards may be placed on top of each other and the students race to slam the pile and shout «Snap!».В The S who slams last takes the pile.В Students should try and lose all their cards.В The last S left with all the cards is the loser.

Speed lines: Have the students in two lines facing the teacher.В The first students in each line are the players.В Show a flashcard and the first student to correctly name it is the winner.В These two students then go to the back of their respective lines and you repeat the process with the next two students.В If both students say the name of the card together let them quickly Janken to decide the winner.В A very important ingredient is the speed.В Have lines of unequal number so that on progressive rounds the students are playing with different people. This way you don’t have to worry about pairing slower students with quicker ones.

Spin the Bottle: Sit students in a circle with a bottle in the middle.В Teacher spins the bottle.В When it stops spinning the S it is pointing to is shown a flashcard and asked to say what it is.В If the answer is correct then that S can spin the bottle.В This is a good vocab review activity.

Over 50 printable cut & paste craftsheets right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All craft sheets are made specifically for teaching English to children.
Just print and use in your lessons.

Tic Tac Toe: Place 9 flashcards (representing words, phrases, questions, etc) face down and numbered (or letters of alphabet) on a large taped grid on the floor.В StudentsВ call out number or letter to see flashcard. S or team with correct response claims that space with an X or O.В (submitted by Michelle K).

Touch: Place flashcards around the room and have students run around the classroom touching the flashcards that teacher orders them to do (e.g. «Touch the car» «Touch the bicycle» «Touch the bus»).

Tornado: Supplies: flashcards (pictures or questions on one side, numbers on the other), ‘Tornado Cards’ (flashcards with numbers on one side and a tornado picture on the other).В Stick the numbered cards on the board with either pictures or questions on the back (depending on the age group) facing the board. Also include 6 Tornado cards and mix them in with the picture cards. Students then choose a number card. If they answer the question correctly then their team can draw a line to draw a house. If they choose a tornado card then they blow down their opposing teams part drawing of a house. The first team to draw a house wins.В (submitted by Sally Lloyd).

Up and Down: You need 2 sets of flashcards for this game.В Give each of your students a flashcard from one set.В Teacher keeps the other set.В Arrange the students so that they are all sitting down.В Teacher holds up one flashcard and the S with the same flashcard stands up and says the word and then sits down again.В Play the game at a fast pace so that students are standing up and sitting down rapidly.В Variation:В Give each S 2 or 3 flashcards.

Uncover: В After the vocabulary has been thoroughly taught sit and slowly expose a flashcard until someone can guess what it is. Reward everyone as they will tend to guess at the same time. (Submitted by: Gregory Stein)

Vanishing Flashcards Game: place a number of flashcards in front of the students.В Give them a few moments to memorize the pictures and then tell them to close their eyes.В Take away one of the flashcards and then tell the students to open their eyes again.В The first S to guess the missing flashcard can win that flashcard (for 1 point) and take away a flashcard in the next round.

Vocabulary Tunnel: Make a tunnel for students to crawl through. Teacher stands at one end and holds up a flashcard for the first S to say.В After the S says the correct word, s/he can go through the tunnel.В Then hold up a flashcard for the next S.В (submitted by Kim Horne).

Window Game: You can only do this if your classroom has a window that you can stand outside of and look into the classroom (don’t try this on the 10th floor!).В Model first: stand the students in front of the window and go out of the room.В Wave to them through the window and silently mouth some words (so it seems like they can’t hear you through the glass).В Look at a flashcard and then mouth the word a few times.В Go back in and the S who first tells you the word you were saying can have a turn.В В

Over 1,500 printable flashcards right here on ESL KidStuff.
Take a look here.
All flashcards are made specifically for teaching English to children.
They are quick to find and easy to print.

Zoo Game: This is a fun activity for young learners on the topic of animal noises.В After teaching the animals and their noises sit each S in a different part of the classroom and assign them as different animals (to make it clearer you can give each S a flashcard of the animal they are representing).В Walk around the room and talk to each S, who can only reply as an animal.В E.g. Teacher: «Hello Yumi», S1:»Moo! (cow).В Teacher: «What’s your name?» S2: «Roar!» (lion).В Teacher: «How are you, Kenta?» S3: «Bow-wow!» (dog).

Free printable resources for ESL KidStuff teachers.
Take a look here.
Certificates, attendance sheets, lesson records, lesson plan tamplates.
Just print and use in your lessons.

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ESL Games for Kids and Interesting Teaching Activities for Children

Each week, we try to add new ESL Games for Kids to the already extensive list of other interesting ESL teaching activities for children available on this page. If you value good English language games, ESL games for kids and other craft ideas for children as part of a balanced ESL experience for your children, then you’ve found the right website at TEFL Lemon.

Come to this page if you teach ESL to kids and need free TEFL teaching resources. Playing good ESL games with your children is an essential part of not only their English learning and acquisition, but it is also better for the fun of your class and you’ll enjoy teaching English with your kids more, too! If you have some fun classroom ideas for kindergarten and primary levels, or classroom ESL games for kids to share with us, then please message us at TEFL Lemon and we will publish your English teaching games for children and will credit you for your ideas!

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67 Free ESL Games To Teach English Like An All-Star

67 Free ESL Games for Teaching English

This list of free ESL games will add a bit of fun to your classroom. The best part? All you have to do is: Download. Print. Teach.

If you’re looking for ESL games for children, they’re at the top of the list.

ESL games for adults are at the bottom.

Use it today in your classroom.

Just a reminder that no need to ask for permission is required.

1. Simon Says

“Simon Says” is good for teaching imperatives and filling a class with energy.

It’s a classic in classrooms. And kids absolutely love playing it.

2. Snakes and Ladders

This game requires a game board and dice:

The first one to the top wins.

3. Numbers Board Game

For students just learning numbers:

The first one to the end wins the game.

4. Talking Time Bomb

First, think of a topic. If the topic is “fruits”, they have to think of as many fruits as possible without repeating the same one.

One student starts with the ball. As soon as they think of a fruit, they can pass the ball to the neighbor.

If it takes them longer than 5 seconds to think of a fruit, they are eliminated.

5. Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-tac-toe is a classic game that all kids eventually learn.

6. Group Charades Ideas

Charades is a game where you act something out without using any words.

This makes the game easier.

7. Your Dream Dog

What would your dream dog be?

Would it be small, big, loyal, soft, caring, funny, fluffy, smart, energetic, lazy, or playful?

One of the best ESL games for adjectives.

8. Detective Clues

Students pretend to be detectives by walking around the room in search of clues to a puzzle.

The first team that solves the puzzle wins.

9. Halloween Maze

This ESL game is designed for Halloween.

Kids have to find their way out of the Halloween made.

But don’t crash into any of the pumpkins!

10. Alphabet Story

Kids have to come up with an imaginative story.

But the only catch is:

The first letter of all their sentences in their story has to be in alphabetical order from A to Z.

11. Einstein’s Riddle

This is actually a pretty tough riddle to solve.

It takes a bit of logic and common sense because it’s believed Einstein himself made it up.

Solve the nationality, color, pet, drink, and hobby.

12. Connect the Dots

For anyone learning numbers, connect the dots is a great game to get started.

13. Cultural Dictionary

14. Your Superhero

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Students learn new vocabulary and superlatives.

Best of all, they have fun doing it.

15. What’s in the Box?

This is the equivalent of 20 questions.

A twist you can make with the game is when the student guesses correctly, they get the item.

16. Business Cards

This is a nice ice breaker type of game at the start of the school year.

17. Satisfaction Game

One of the ESL games where you describe emotions.

What makes you angry and sad?

Share with your partner. Then, share with the class.

18. Spot the Difference

There are two pictures that look almost identical. But they’re different.

What are those differences?

Try to find all 10 of them.

19. Rhyming Word Search

It’s a word search puzzle with a bit of a twist.

20. Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are surprisingly a lot of fun in the classroom.

21. Talking Bingo

These Bingo cards have questions on them.

22. Pushy Salesperson

You have to try and push your partners to buy the item. But the catch is:

It’s something that no one wants to buy.

What are some of its selling features even though it’s obsolete or isn’t working anymore?

23. Ultimate Christmas Present

This is a great Christmas game:

But it doesn’t have to be just you. It could be the gym teacher or any of their favorites.

24. Smush It

Minimal pairs are two words that sound the same. But they’re different.

25. Maze Directions

One student closes their eyes while the other gives directions.

From start to the end of the maze, can you make it through without touching the lines?

26. Comic Books

This activity is a comic book with empty bubbles.

Students fill in the comic book to their liking.

Check how different everyone’s story is from each other.

27. Dream Job

Students find their dream job by answering questions in the worksheet.

Depending on their answers, one of the dream jobs is a thief.

It’s always funny for students when it’s their dream job.

28. Elephant in the Room

This gets students moving.

29. Hometown Newspaper

If you’re teaching abroad, kids love looking at a foreign newspaper.

The first thing that surprised them was all the color.

Ask them about the headlines, weather, and sports in your hometown.

30. Famous Foreheads

Each student writes a famous person’s name on a sticky note and sticks it on their neighbor’s forehead.

They have to ask questions about the person on their head.

Eventually, they can figure it out. But only if they ask the right questions.

31. Would You Rather

Students walk around the class asking questions from the worksheet.

Depending on their response, they mark an “X” on the game board.

The first one to get two lines wins the game.

32. Celebrity Interview

For this ESL game, you put yourself in the shoes of a celebrity.

Get students to pick a celebrity of their choice.

If they can’t think of questions to ask, this worksheet can help guide them through it.

33. Dice Questions

Each side of the dice represents who, what, when, where, why, and how questions.

In groups, they think of questions depending on their roll of the dice.

34. Christmas Crossword

This crossword puzzle has questions related to Christmas.

If they can think of the answer, they fill it in the squares.

This is especially helpful for spelling and vocabulary.

35. Like or Dislike

How well do you know your classmates?

36. Famous Politicians

There are 8 historical figures that students have to match in the worksheet.

It’s not just a description and the name.

But they also have to put a name to the face.

37. Talktastic Board Game

This ESL game gets students talking with a board game.

38. World Record Holders

This is a quiz-style game where students think of superlatives.

The three categories are:

39. Famous Landmarks

This is a twist to the matching game.

40. Why Learn English?

If you’re teaching abroad, I think “Why learn English” is a question all students have on their minds.

This is why the classroom will have to think about the benefits of learning another language.

Finally, you can go through all the benefits in an open discussion.

41. What’s the Question?

There is a list of topics where you have to make questions for. But it can’t be just any question.

It has to be specific so that the only answer to that question can be that.

42. Roses are Red

A good poem can take someone’s breath away. Let’s see if your students can take yours away too.

They have to finish the classic “Roses are red” poem.

This is ideal for Valentine’s Day.

43. Reverse Quiz Show

Jeopardy is the game show where you come up with answers to challenging questions. But this is the opposite.

44. Teacher Quiz

Before class, you scatter clues and answers around the clues.

45. Types of Sushi

This worksheet shows the most popular types of sushi rolls.

Can you think of the varieties of fish in English?

This is great if you’re teaching in Japan.

46. Shout It

You want your partner to shout what’s on your card.

But you can’t show them the card and you can’t say the word on the card.

There’s a word at the top that they also can’t say, which adds to the challenge

47. Rhyme Time

This is a brainstorming activity where you split the class into four groups.

They have to think of as many rhyming words as possible.

The team that can think of the most rhyming words wins. Double-check they are actual rhymes though.

48. Pizza Recipe

Students give step-by-step instructions on how to make a pizza.

Which ingredients would they add?

This also teaches imperatives and transition words.

49. Picture Rhymes

Each picture has two words that rhyme.

Can they find all the rhymes?

If you want to give an extra challenge, can they make their own rhyming picture?

50. Phone Emoticons

There are hundreds of emoticons on your phone, nowadays.

This game is all about describing emotions through emoticons.

Which emoticon best describes how you are feeling right now.

51. Text Messages

Students become a translator for a common text message conversation between them and their parents.

They can have a bit of fun and make their own story if they want.

52. Minimal Pairs Pictures

This one includes /r/, /l/ and /th/ sound, which can often be challenging for students.

53. Metropolis Markdown

This is like “pin the tail on the donkey” but with maps. We don’t recommend a blindfold either.

Find the city on the map by marking the number.

How far away are you from the actual location?

54. English Shiritori

This is a popular game in Japanese culture where you have to think of a word that starts with the ending letter of a word.

The only downfall in English is that there are a lot of words that end with “e”.

55. Know Your Flags

How well do you know the flags of the world?

Students have to match the flag with the country.

The first group to finish correctly is the winner.

56. Country Outlines

Students have to think of the country, just by seeing the boundary outline.

Once they have them all complete, they can try and draw a boundary for another country.

57. Compound Words

Each picture shows a compound word. Can students guess what it is?

After they finish the first section, can they draw or a compound word of their own?

58. Christmas Untangle

This is a surprisingly difficult activity where students have to untangle letters to make a word.

Each word is a Christmas word so that’s a good hint.

59. Capital Cities Crossword

This is a crossword puzzle for capital cities.

More specifically, the capital city for that country has to go in the squares.

This is especially useful for geography and spelling.

60. Timeless Timelines

In chronological order, can you put the items in the right order?

Starting from the earliest, kids will learn the history of famous people and inventions.

61. Birthday Match

You have to match the person or event with the correct birthday.

If you want to get them moving, you can even hang the birthdays on the walls and assign students into groups.

62. Blindfolded Directions

Make sure you’re in a safe environment for this one because you don’t want anyone to get hurt.

63. Cultural Differences

Make a list of all the cultural differences between the West and East.

Then, go through all the differences as a classroom.

Are these differences fading away? It makes a good group discussion topic.

64. Green Screen

This takes a bit of time and setup. But it’s also a lot of fun and gets students talking.

65. Multi-purpose Items

This is a brainstorming activity where you have to think of the multiple uses of an item.

It’s creative, imaginative, and a bit wild for students to come up with ideas.

66. No Subtitles

This is the most difficult out of all the ESL games on the list.

Basically, you’re a voice-over actor.

After starting a movie on the TV, students will have to say anything at the same time the actor or actress is speaking.

67. 101 Free-Talking Topics From a Hat

This activity sheet has 101 free-talking topics.

Monitor them closely to make sure they are talking in English.

ESL Games: More Resources from Us

We hope you enjoy these 67 free ESL games that you can use today in your classroom.

We’ve tested them out and they are among the favorites for students.

If you’re looking more from us, be sure to check out our other ESL games, activities and worksheets:

ESL Games: External Resources from Other Websites

If you still haven’t found what you’re looking for, there are more great options out there including:

Do you have anything to add? Which ESL games do you like that maybe we missed? Or what’s your favorite from our list?

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ESL Vocabulary Games: 10 Classroom Activities To Make Learning English Fun

If you teach English to kids you probably know that young learners get bored easily. So, how do you get young learners interested in learning vocabulary? The best way is through fun and exciting ESL vocabulary games and activities. That’s why we put together this list of the best ESL vocabulary games to get your students excited about learning English.

For more classroom game ideas, check out our other post, 10 Fun Guessing Games for Young Learners.

Top 10 ESL Vocabulary Games

1: Pass The Ball

This classic classroom game is incredibly fun and a great activity to get your students motivated and energized. It’s also a fun way to introduce or review vocabulary with students. All you need is a soft ball and some flashcards.

Students will pass the ball around the class and when the music stops, the student with the ball must answer a question from the teacher. For example, if you are teaching vocabulary to do with colors, the teacher might ask ‘What color is it?’.

Another way to play is, when the music stops, the student with the ball can ask the question and all the other students must answer. This way all students get to practice the vocabulary while playing the game.

2: Line Bingo

This ESL vocabulary game is a great alternative to regular bingo. Most textbooks these days come with small picture / word cards at that back that students can use for this game. If you don’t have these cards, visit our flashcard page where you can download and print these ‘student cards’ for free.

Give each student or pair of students one set of vocabulary cards. Ask them to place them in a horizontal line in any order they want. Once students have placed their cards in a line, the game can begin.

The teacher should say one of the words and if that word is on the left end or the right end of the line then students can turn that card over. If the card is in the middle of the line, students cannot turn it over.

For example, if you are teaching the present progressive / continuous tense you can ask students to shout out ‘What are you doing?’. Then the teacher can answer using one of the words on the card (e.g. ‘I am painting.’). Then students should look at their line of cards and check if ‘painting’ is on the left or right end of their line.

The first student / pair of students to turn over all their cards is the winner. To make this vocabulary game more fun, invite your students one by one to the front of the class to choose the next word.

3: Hot Seat

This simple no prep game is a great way to get students to utilize all their existing vocabulary while learning new words at the same time.

To play this game, you can divide the class into 2/3 teams or you can just play as a whole class. Choose one student to sit in the ‘Hot Seat’. This is a seat at the front of the class facing the other students.

Then from behind the student in the hot seat, show the other students a word from the lesson. The other students must try to describe what the word is without saying the actual word. And the student in the hot seat must guess.

Kids absolutely love this game and it is a great way to review vocabulary that your students have learned that lesson.

4: ‘1 2 3 Go!’ Game

For this vocabulary game you can use flashcards or you can simply write the words on the board.

Put the flashcards (or write the key words) on the board in a line. 6-8 words is the best. When the teacher says ‘ 1, 2, 3, Go!’ one student must jump up and shout the first word. Then another student must jump up and shout the second word. Then another student must jump up and shout the third word. And so on until all 6/8 words have been called out.

Any student can jump up and say any word at any time, but if 2 students jump up at the same time, then they lose.

This game can be played as a whole class, or if you have a large class, divide the class into teams.

5: Matching Games

These PowerPoint Games will test your students’ memories. Matching games are simple to make and great for reviewing vocabulary.

Divide the class into 2 teams. The aim of the game is to find two matching words / pictures. The teams will take turns choosing TWO numbers. Click on the square to reveal the word beneath. If the two words are the same, then that team gets a point. If they are different then click on red circle to hide the word again.

The game becomes more and more fun as it progresses because students start to remember where they saw the words. Download ready to use matching games and a blank template here.

6: The 4 Corner Game

This no prep classroom game is great to review vocabulary and as a listening activity.

Assign a word to the 4 corners of the classroom. Then, choose one student to come to the front and close their eyes. Then the other students have 5 seconds to move to one of the corners of the classroom. After the time is up, the student at the front will choose one of the words while keeping his/her eyes closed. The students standing in the corner with assigned with that word are out, and must sit down.

The game continues like this until one student is left. That student is the winner, and can be the next student to come to the front and close their eyes.

TIP: Many students moving around the class can be quite dangerous. For safety, instruct students not to run and make sure there are no bags, coats, books, etc, on the floor that the student can trip on.

7: Printable Board Games

Printable board games are easy to prepare and a great way to get kids talking using the vocabulary from that lesson. Download many printable board games and board game templates, and find detailed instructions on how to play them, here.

8: Hangman

If you’re not familiar with hangman, its a game where the teacher would think of a word and then draw a line for each letter of that word. Then students must try to guess what the word is by guessing letters of the alphabet.

In the traditional hangman game, if students guess wrong too many times, then the teacher would draw a man hanging from his neck on the board. Even though it is just a stick figure drawing, the idea seems quite gruesome and maybe not appropriate for children. That is why we made a fun alternative to hangman, ‘Save The Teacher’.

Think of a word and draw lines on the board corresponding to the letters in that word. Then ask students to guess letters of the alphabet to try to guess what the word is.

If students guess wrong, play the video and the fuse will get closer to the rocket. Pause when you see the pause sign and ask students to guess again. If students guess wrong too many times, then the rocket and the teacher will blast off into space.

Don’t worry, at the end of the video the teacher is okay and just went for a fun ride.

9: Hidden Picture Games

These PowerPoint games are easy to make and a great way to introduce or review vocabulary. Download ready made hidden picture games and an editable template here.

Click on the color shapes to make them disappear. As the shapes disappear the picture beneath is slowly revealed. When students are ready to guess what it is, they should raise their hand and guess while using the target language.

For example, if you are teaching vocabulary about animals, when the student guesses they should say ‘Is it an (elephant)?.

10: Whisper Game

This is a very fun classroom game and all you need is a board and chalk / a pen.

Write many words from the lesson on the board (at least 10). Then divide the class into two teams and ask them to make two lines in front of the board. Give the student at the front of each line a board eraser.

Next, the teacher should whisper one of the words to the students at the back of the lines. Then those students should quickly whisper the word to the next student in line, and then that student should whisper to the next student, and so on down the line.

When the word is whispered to the student at the front of the line, he/she should quickly run to the board and erase that word. The quickest one to erase that word wins a point for their team. Then change the student at the front and play again.

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ESL Kids World

An ESL Children’s Resources Site!

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We offer a rich variety of grammar games according to grammar topics. Grammar games include : Basketall, Football, Walk the Plank, Fling the Teacher, Teacher Invaders, T.V Games and more to help practice grammar.

ESL Fun Grammar Games & Exercises

Games for learning & Practising Grammar: Present simple/present progressive games, past simple games, present perfect games, comparative/Superlatives and more.

ESL Fun Vocabulary Games & Exercises

Games for learning & Practising vocabulary: Animals, Body Parts, Colours, Countries, Food & Drink, Jobs, Numbers, Places & Landmarks, Planets & Space ad much more.

ESL Fun Powerpoint & Exercises

Powerpoint games for learning & Practising English: Birthdays, Family, Festivals, Animals and much more. Online Jeopardy Powerpoint for English practice.

ESL Fun Classroom Games & Exercises

Classroom Games ideas for learning & Practising English: Jenga, Hangman, Simon says, Hot seat and more for English practice.

ESL Fun Classroom Board Games & Templates

Board Games for learning & Practising English: Snakes & Ladders, Ship Attack, Football and more templates for English practice.

Game Ideas: Games for Classroom Teaching

The artistic nature of kids brains has them ready-made for games and fun activities. Our games easily appeal to young learners as they are based on real experiences in the classroom. Tested and proven to work, these games are a rich addition to your lesson plans.

A
Alphabet sentence spelling
Write a sentence on the board. Use any grammar or vocabulary point and have the students spell the sentence whilst passing a ball and sat in a circle. Include a time limit depending on the length of the sentence. For example: The boy is running. This should take twenty seconds! It is a team game against the clock and the teacher. Students must spell the sentence correctly and then say the sentence as a group within the time limit to win the point. If they fail to do so the teacher wins.

B
Bingo
Bingo can be used with any vocabulary point. Provide a blank Bingo sheet and have the students write or draw randomly in the boxes. When completed, the teacher or another student will call out the target vocabulary used in the game. The winner is the first student to cross out all the numbers or letters on the sheet.

Basketball Bonanza
Students will ask questions in a clockwise manner. The grammar or vocabulary point can be anything. For example: What do you do in the morning?В В В В В В I have my breakfast. The first student to answer the question after the teacher says вЂbeginвЂ™ gets to stand up and throw the ball into the basket. They can answer a further question to attain an extra throw of the ball, but if they are wrong they lose both these chances.

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Esl games for kids

English language games are not just a time-filler; there is real value in practising your current grammar or vocabulary topic in this way. Not only does it force students to process language at speed, but the way they break up the class will leave students refreshed and invigorated for the next piece of work.

Of course to achieve the maximum amount of value from a game you need to find something well-suited to your class – and the way we organise our resources will allow you to do just that. Maybe you want specifically want ESL games for advanced students, or ESL games to practice the present perfect? Simply filter below by student level, or your current target language.

Our website offers a wide range of ESL games for adults and kids alike, and many are suitable for any age group. However, if you’re looking specifically for ESL games for kids, click the ‘kids’ filter, and the page will only display games suitable for kids.

Whether it be a warmer, a fun way to review specific grammar or vocabulary, or just a time-filler, we’ve got what you’re looking for. Check out our activities, projects, and conversation ideas too! Here’s a list of fun ESL games for your English classroom.

If you’re teaching adults, take a look at our article on the 15 Best ESL Games for Adults.

Looking for interactive online ESL games? Check out our interactive section.

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68 ESL Games to Level Up Your Class + Help Your Students Learn English

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We’ve put together seven different categories of ESL games to learn English with 67 in total – no matter if you’re teaching in Japan or Jersey, there is something in here for you.

Keep in mind that some (not all) of the games we’ve listed here require materials that may not come standard with every classroom – equipment such as internet connections, computers, plenty of paper, dice, cards, and other aids.

ESL Games for Kids

Many of the best games for kids incorporate a plethora of physical activity to exorcise all pent-up energy from hours in the classroom (this is especially true in Asia, where kids spend 12 or more hours in a classroom almost every day).

So, getting your students moving around throughout the day will give them a positive way of expending energy while learning and reinforcing the lesson. If you start playing more physically active games with your youth classes, you just might see lower incidences of bad behavior and higher test scores.

ESL Games for Adults

Don’t let anyone tell you that ESL games are just for young learners. Adults love games too – depending on the game, sometimes perhaps even more so than children.

Many adult students, in fact, retain more information that is processed during an energy-intensive game than information presented during lectures, writing, or small group activities.

You don’t need to make your adult students run and jump around to reap the benefits either – simply standing up and walking around the room will do the trick.

If your class is particularly drowsy after lunch, save these activities for then to help prevent your students from falling asleep.

We’ve got more ESL icebreakers here if you need them!

ESL Vocabulary Games

Consistent repetition drives home vocabulary. In fact, it’s commonly believed that a learner needs to use a word at least seven times before it sticks.

On its own, repetition is boring and monotonous. Why not turn it into a fun game? Vocabulary ESL games are great because there are usually fewer rules to learn which means games start quickly and the students are engaged more easily.

We particularly like incorporating these games into a test review session or if your lesson plan revolves heavily around new vocab words.

Several of these games are competitive, which students of all ages appreciate as they get the shot to outshine their peers and feel personally invested in the outcome of the activity.

ESL Games With Flashcards (for Vocab)

When properly utilized, ESL flashcards are a great way to boost students’ vocabulary.

If there is a particular subject you are working on, or there is some supplemental vocabulary related to your core lesson plans, vocabulary drills with flashcards can be a fun and engaging way to work with the language.

Have your students pair up, giving each pair a stack of vocabulary cards. Depending on how many cards you have for each group, set the time to about one or two minutes (longer time if the stack of cards is large, shorter time if it is small).

You can have the students write the names of the image or concept on the back of each card, but make sure the word is not visible from the front!

Then, as quickly as they can, have the students work together showing the image while their partner is trying to guess the word in English. When the timer is up, stop everyone, have them count how many cards they guessed correctly, then have the teams switch roles.

You can give this activity a competitive edge by offering prizes for the team with the greatest number of correct cars at the end of the time.

Here are several free flashcard resources that you can use for various common ESL topics.

ESL Classroom Games

The good news about these ESL games is that they are appropriate for any age level. They also incorporate features of the classroom, such as the whiteboard or walls of the room and therefore require less prep than other ESL activities on this list.

These games, best of all, require minimal preparation or materials beforehand. If you value your prep time, these are for you!

ESL Online Games

If you’ve got a computer lab or projector, it’s easy to find and play ESL games on any subject with a few keystrokes. There are tons of free web resources such as Games to Learn English that you can use to find engaging online games specifically designed for ESL.

In addition to the advantage of having so many options on the web at your fingertips, many of these online games are also highly adaptable, so customizing them to fit the preferences of your students and the current content you are teaching is easy.

ESL Conversation Games

While all of the games listed previously foster interaction between students to some degree, the following ESL game options in this section are really focused on speech and conversing with one another.

Increasing your students’ speaking time can sometimes be a tough goal and can be even tougher if you have one student who loves to talk and participate for every five students who love to sit in the back in silence.

To combat this common classroom issue, use an ESL conversation game to break up the class and mix your talkative students with your quiet students. Having the focus not be on just one speaker at a time can really help all your students increase time speaking in the classroom while practicing within the structure of a well-crafted game.

ESL Grammar Games

Grammar is arguably one of the most difficult things to simultaneously teach AND keep interesting. Luckily incorporating games into your lesson plan can be a perfect way to liven it up.

You can choose to play some of these games at the end of a lesson to really bring home the concept you were teaching. If your students already know some of the material, these games could then be played at the start of a lesson as a review and warm-up activity to prep them for your lesson.

Interactive ESL Games

Here are the top interactive ESL games to incorporate in your lesson plans (assuming you have access to computers and the web). For the second game below (online vocab test) you can make a competition out of the content by dividing the class into two or more teams.

ESL Games for Teens

Unfortunately, the majority of the games for use in the ESL classroom are designed with primary-level learners in mind. If you teach teenagers, this means that locating game ideas that actually stand a chance to be effective in your classroom requires wading through pages of material intended for younger students.

Some games that work for young students work in classrooms with adolescents and some do not – the ones that engage teens best tend to foster a greater leeway for creativity and abstract conceptualization, such as the ones featured below.

Here are a few teen-specific ESL games that are likely to grab and hold your students’ attention.

ESL Games for Kindergarten

In the five-year-old mind, learning is either synonymous with “fun” or it does not occur at all. At this age, students are simply not yet capable of “buckling down” for rigorous academic work.

There is a reason that teachers of young learners sometimes feel sapped of energy after a particularly challenging lesson; to reach kindergarten-age students effectively, you must engage with them in an energetic way.

Accordingly, you’ll want to include a healthy smattering of games if you have classes at this level. Here are a few of the best:

ESL Games for Speaking and Pronunciation

As a foreign ESL teacher, chances are good that you’ll be asked to heavily focus your lessons on speaking and pronunciation – based on the assumption that yours is immaculate as a native or native-level speaker.

The sounds of the English phonetics are markedly different than those of many language families throughout the world. Each native tongue will have its unique phonetic idiosyncrasies that translate poorly to spoken English. The responsibility for helping your students develop in this regard is likely to fall on your shoulders.

Instructing your students in proper pronunciation, indeed, may be one of the most challenging aspects of development for your students. Here are some of the best games to aid the process.

ESL Games for Beginners

ESL games should be a part of any beginner’s curriculum as tools to pique students’ interest in English learning by making it fun and stimulating.

With a limited English skill set, the options for games with beginning students are a bit more limited than with more advanced learners. Nonetheless, you have a plethora of great ideas available to you on the web.

Here is a sampling of the top ESL games for beginners.

Want more? Here are some of the best online resources we found for ESL Games:

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12 Low-Prep ESL Games for Teaching Online

Who doesn’t love playing games? Whether you use them to practice ESL vocabulary or simply break the ice with your students, games always make English classes more fun and engaging. Check out the following 12 great ESL games for teaching online that you can play with your young students and teenagers – or even adults – that require minimal to no teacher preparation. (And for even more game ideas, enroll in one of our Bridge Micro-credentials in Teaching English Online, such as Games and Activities for the Online Classroom: Young Learners.)

If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate. You can explore our online TEFL courses to get started!

ESL Games for Teaching English Online to Young Learners

Find Something…

This ESL game for teaching kids online is great for improving students’ listening and thinking skills and for reviewing vocabulary.

How to play

Ask the online student to look around his or her room and find something of a certain color. For example, you can ask the student to find something that is pink. Give the student a minute or two to look around the room for an object that’s pink, such as a hair bow or a marker.

Alternatively, you can ask the student to look for something that begins with a specific letter. For instance, he or she can find an object that begins with the letter P, like a pillow or a pen.

Variation

You can ask the student to find something in your online classroom. This object, of course, will have to be visible on your screen where your student can see it without you having to move the camera around. It can be an object, a word, or a picture in your background.

Hidden Objects

This online ESL game is an effective and fun way to practice vocabulary and listening or reading comprehension. You can use this free online ESL game for reviewing nouns, adjectives, and even prepositions of place.

How to play

Before the class, find or prepare a photo with many different objects (e.g., a messy room, a crowded beach). Share this image with the student, along with a list of ten objects which they have to find.

You can also describe the items in more detail (for instance, “look for the big, red balloon”).

When the student finds an object, you can either enable remote mouse control so he or she can circle the object or ask the student to describe the location of the item. For example, he can say, “The cat is between the bed and the nightstand.”

Variation

You can do a person hunt and ask students to look for specific people instead. For example, “Look for the tall man in a white T-shirt” or “Where is the boy riding a blue bicycle?”

Objects Pictionary

This is a great online ESL game to practice vocabulary words.

How to play

Choose an object in the room that is not visible to the student. Then, draw this on the virtual whiteboard. As you draw, the student must guess what it is, just like in the popular game Pictionary.

To make the game more challenging, you can set a timer for one minute. The teacher and student can also switch roles so the student draws the pictures and the teacher guesses the objects.

Variation

Another way to play this game is to act out the target word instead of drawing it. This variation offers a fun way to integrate TPR (Total Physical Response) into your lesson.

Learn about TPR and other teaching methods in the

Missing Object

This game, featured in the Bridge Micro-credential course in Games and Activities for the Online Classroom (Very Young Learners), is great for teaching and reviewing vocabulary with students and only requires using realia from around your home or office. You can see a demonstration of how to play in the following video:

How to play

Gather a handful of objects (around five or six is good) and set them up on a tray so your students can see them all. Go over what’s on the tray by asking students what each object is called. You can also discuss the objects in greater detail (describe their appearance, ask about their function, etc.) to extend the activity.

With the tray out of view of the camera, remove one object. Show students the tray and see if they can figure out which object is missing. Once they guess correctly, put the object back on the tray, and secretly remove a different one. Play as many rounds as you want!

Variation

Instead of a tray with realia, you can also use pictures of objects that you tape up to a whiteboard. Alternatively, you could even use virtual props/images with software like ManyCam.

Odd One Out

This catchy ESL game helps your young students recall vocabulary and practice their listening skills and also keeps them concentrated!

How to play

Call out a list of five objects, with all but one having something in common. For example, call out banana, apple, orange, peach, carrot. Ask the student to identify which one doesn’t belong in the group. Depending on the student’s level, you can also ask him or her to explain why the object is different from the rest on the list. For example, in the list above, carrot is the odd one out because it’s a vegetable and the rest are fruits.

Variation

For more advanced students, you can use similar-sounding words or various parts of speech (i.e., boot, food, room, moon, hot). You can also use pictures instead of reading the list out loud.

Tell Me 5

This game is good for practicing speaking skills and vocabulary.

How to play

List categories on the board such as colors, food, transportation, zoo animals, etc. Then, ask the student to choose a category. If the student chooses the food category, the teacher can say, “Tell me five vegetables” or “Tell me five desserts.” The student must think of five items in less than one minute.

Variation

You can also write five letters that the items in the category should start with. For example, “Tell me five vegetables that start with T, L, C, E, and K.”

Word Chain

This simple but fun online game for teaching English is excellent for building up vocabulary and checking pronunciation.

How to play

Provide a category. Then, the first student has to say any word in that category. The next player needs to say another word in the same category, but the word must begin with the last letter of the previous word. Let’s say, for the food category, if Student A says “tomato,” Student B could say “orange.”

If a student takes too long to think of a word, they must forfeit and take a challenge. For instance, they must sing a song or talk about a topic for two minutes.

Variation

For higher-level students, you can do sentence chains by using the last word of a previous sentence as the first word of the next sentence.

ESL Games for Teaching English Online to Teenagers (or Adults)

The Bragging Game

This activity not only helps your students expand their vocabulary and practice using comparative and superlative adjective forms but also helps them to be more creative.

How to play

Start by saying a simple sentence. For example, you could say, “I live in a house.” Then, the student has to “brag” by saying something greater or more exaggerated than your sentence but still within the same topic, such as, “Really? I live in a bigger house, with a pool.”

Continue this bragging game by going back and forth trying to top each other’s claim (for example, you could then counter with, “Well I live in a mansion with a pool and a jacuzzi!”). The circle ends when a person cannot think of anything to top the last example.

Variation

Instead of using the regular comparative forms, you can make it more challenging by using the “as/adjective/as/noun” form. For example, if someone says, “My best friend is as clever as a fox,” the next person could brag, “Really? Well, my best friend is as intelligent as Albert Einstein.”

Classmate Speculation

An interactive activity for reinforcing grammar, speaking, and listening skills, this guessing game challenges how much you and your students know about each other!

How to play

Provide a verb that students can easily make sentences with. Then, think of information about your student using the given verb and start the sentence with the phrase “I think that you…”

Let’s say the verb is “like.” You could say, “I think that you like chocolate.”

The student says if the information you said about him or her is true or not. If it’s true, you get a point. The first person to get five points wins.

Variation

You can also prepare sentence starters for a variety of topics and target grammar or vocabulary. For example, if you wanted to practice the past tense with your student, the sentence starters could be “I think that you traveled…” or “I think that you ate…”

Sentence Maker

This game is best for reviewing vocabulary or grammar concepts that you’ve taught in previous classes.

How to play

Write a list composed of 15 words with mixed parts of speech (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions). Then, ask the student to choose any word from the list and make a correct and logical sentence with it. You can encourage students to be creative and have fun with their sentences to keep the game interesting. Provide a point if the sentence contains the word and is grammatically correct.

Circle or cross out the first word that the student previously chose so it can’t be used anymore. Afterward, choose two new words from the list and let him or her make a new sentence using them. Give the student two points for a grammatically correct sentence containing these two new words, then circle or cross them out from the word list.

Then, the student must choose three new words from the list and create another sentence. Follow the criteria for the previous rounds.

The game ends when the last remaining five words are used in a sentence.

Variation

Alternatively, you can also show a picture and ask the learner to describe something in it using only three words. Then, raise the word count.

Tic-Tac-Toe 2.0

This classic game adds a twist to your regular vocabulary and grammar practice exercises.

How to play

On the virtual whiteboard, write nine verbs arranged in a 3×3 grid. Then, ask the student to choose a symbol (X or O) and put their mark on any verb on the grid. Then, the student must make a correct sentence using the word he or she chooses.

The next player has to choose a box to mark and similarly make a sentence. If you’re playing the game one-on-one with your student, you can use the verb to make questions for him/her.

The first player to mark three boxes in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row wins.

Variation

You can personalize this game in many different ways! You can use question words, for instance, or challenge your students to various speaking tasks.

ESL Jeopardy

This ESL game for teaching online, which is inspired by the popular TV game show of the same name, is effective for reading comprehension, vocabulary, and even math skills.

How to play

Before class, get the game set up on your whiteboard.

You can also use Google Slides to create your gameboard. Here’s how:

When you’re ready to play, explain the categories and points to the student. Then, ask the student to choose a category and a number of points. (You can have the student use the language from the TV show: “I’ll take ‘name three’ for 50 points.”) Ask the student the corresponding question. He or she earns the points if the answer is correct.

If you’re playing with more than one student, another player can “steal” the question if the first student doesn’t answer it correctly by attempting to answer the same question.

Variation

Instead of questions, you can use photos to reinforce vocabulary, especially for beginner students.

Источник

ESL Classroom Games | 130 Awesome Activities

We have compiled a list of our favorite games for ESL classroom teaching. This is a long and comprehensive list that has taken us years to gather so we have split it up into different sections. Looking for online and interactive ESL games? You can check out our FREE online resources for teachers here.

Vocabulary ESL Classroom Games

There are a few short forms in this list

Dictionary / Pictionary

Students make their own dictionaries, using pictures from magazines or their own drawings. Can be organized alphabetically or by theme.

Bring Me

In teams, pick one S on each team to be the statue. T says “Bring me…” (10 pencils, 6 erasers, etc) and students get it and give it to their statue until one team’s statue cannot hold any more objects.

BINGO

Can play with any category, Ss can draw Bingo cards or can print out. See Head Teacher for Bingo sheets.

Free Crossword

Draw a grid on the whiteboard, and students fill in with some words (in same category, spelling pattern, whatever). Fill in the remaining spaces, and students can solve the word search on the board.

Stop the bus!

Write categories on board, then a letter. Race to write a word for each category starting with that letter. When you finish, shout “stop the bus!”

Make a word search

See above, but give a grid worksheet to students to make their own word searches. They can give word lists to help or make it harder without. Students can trade sheets to solve.

Mastermind (like the game)

Think of a 4-letter word. Students guess one word, write it on the board. Write next to the written word – “O” for correct letter in correct position, “X” for correct letter in wrong position, nothing for wrong letters. Keep going until students find patterns and guess correct word.

A-Z Words

Students must quickly give words in alphabetical order, can go in a circle or random order. Variation: Students have to say a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word, e.g. ‘apple’ ‘egg’ ‘goat’.

Collocations

On board, write word with blank either before or after. Elicit collocations (word or phrase commonly used with another word or phrase). Eg. _____ TV (colour TV, portable TV) or Pencil _______ (pencil crayon, pencil sharpener)

Scattergories

Think of 5 topics (animals, sports, jobs, etc.). One student starts to say the alphabet until another student says stop. Then all students write one word for each topic, beginning with the last letter said. When someone has all five words, all students stop writing. Each student gets 5 points for each word, or 10 points if no one else thought of that word.

Tic Tac Toe

Draw a 9 square Tic Tac Toe board and in each square put a picture. Teams must say the name of the picture before they can put an X or an O. Or, before they put an X or an O, T asks them a question about the picture and they must answer correctly. Variation; teacher can write a question in the square or a command (say 6 long a words/ 7 colours etc.)

Calendar

Draw a grid for a month with days and numbers. In teams, students pick a square by saying day and date, eg May fifteenth. Then must answer a question to win the square. Trying to make a pattern, line of 3 stars, or whatever. (tic tac toe style)

Circle game

Use vocab cards. Ss stand in a circle T stands in the middle and shows one S a card. If they say the word right, they remain standing. If they get the word wrong, they sit down. Continue around the circle. Last one standing wins.

Switch sides

Ss sit on one side of the room. Use vocab cards. One S must try to read the card. If they answer correctly, they go over to the other side of the room. If they do not answer correctly, show the card to another S. The last S is a monkey.

What’s missing?

Draw stuff on the board (words, pictures, letters, etc.) or place objects on the table. S leaves the room. Others remove something. S returns, class asks “What’s missing?” Ss guess. Can practice short questions/answers. Is it…? Yes/No.

Two lines

Use vocab cards. Ss make two lines. You show a card or ask for a word from the front two Ss. The first S must say the word correctly to go to the back of the line. This process is repeated until the first person to read is back at the front. The first team to do this wins the round.

Word Association

The teacher starts the game by saying a word, such as “Hotel”. Ss must then follow with associated to the previous word. If S can’t answer (5 second limit) he or she must stand up. The last student seated is the winner. If the association is not obvious, the student is asked to explain the association

Pass the Paper

T writes something at the top of scrap pieces of paper and gives one paper to each student. Set goal for the number of words, yell “GO” and students write until you yell “Stop, CHANGE” and they pass the paper to the person next to them in a circle. Continue faster and faster.

Brainstorm chains

Students write lists of words for a category (short A, animals, adjectives etc); cut up and make paper chains.

Word Pictures

Write sentences or stories subbing pictures for some words, then another students fills in the words.

Colours with Lego

Teacher asks for “Give me a green Lego” then students add what is asked for to a basket, or remove.

Steps game

Use vocab cards. Ss line up against the wall in the back of the class. T tells them to take one step forward. You ask them for a word or show them a card. If they answer correctly, they can take one step back to the wall. Steps can be increased to two or three steps forward, requiring as many steps backward to finish the game.

Flash Card Circle

Sit in a circle. Pair students up and give each pair 5-10 flashcards. 1 S1 asks ‘what is it?’ Or ‘Is it a ________________?’ (‘yes, it is/not, it isn’t’) S2 answers. When the pair is done the flashcards rotate to the pair on the right.

Musical Ball game

Have students sit in circle with a ball and music ready to play. Teacher calls out a category (animals/months…). Play the music and students pass the ball. When the music stops the person with the ball says something from that category. This ESL Classroom Game is great for warm-ups or for classes when you are trying to figure what level the students are at and what they know.

Board Race

This can be used to teach almost anything: students race to the white board and write the word/ 1 st letter/ last letter/ draw a picture that the teacher says. Variation: 2 teams write the alphabet on the board and have to fill in a word for each letter of the alphabet, you can use a category (e.g. fruit, animals, English movies)

Memory

The 1 st students says ‘I like tigers’ 2 nd student says ‘I like tigers and monkeys’ and so on each student adds another item to the category. If the students cannot remember they are out- or if they repeat and word. Any category can be used (e.g. sports/ food/ animals/ clothing).

Accuracy Ball Throw

Write words on WB. ex. long A words. S line up in 2 teams behind a table. First 2 Ss have balls. T says a word. ex. cake. Ss throw balls and whoever is closest gets a point.

Ladders

Ss sit in two rows facing each other with their feel touching. The T gives each pair a word and when their word in called out, they must race down the row, around the outside and back down the middle. The first one sat back down gets a point for their team.

Pairs with ABC Flashcards (practice plurals)

Like normal pairs but if the S turns over a pair, they must state the singular and plural to get the cards (ex. 1 girl, 2 girls)

Odd Man Out

List 4 words (on board, in notebook, wherever) and students choose the odd man out, and give the reason why. E.g. man cat dog bag (dog doesn’t have short a sound) Snake leg pencil eraser (eraser isn’t long)

What’s this?

Draw part of a picture on the WB. Ask “What’s this?” Each S gets one guess per round. Draw more and ask “What’s this?” Ss must say “Is it a…?” When a S guesses correctly, they can draw.

Descriptions Games for ESL Classrooms

“I’m a Martian”

Tell students that you come from Mars and know nothing about life or things on earth. Choose an everyday object (pen, book, shoe, etc.) and ask students “What is this?”(“It is a pen”). Students must talk about the object and explain what it is used for, when and where you use it, etc.

Magazine Photos

Provide random magazine photos to each student. Give few minutes for the student to make up a story for the picture, being as creative as possible. You can specify the tense (what happened?, what is going to happen? What is happening?). Students must tell the story to the class and classmates will ask follow-up questions.

Close your eyes and draw

Ss close their eyes and draw what T describes, then take turns describing things for classmates to draw.

Draw my picture

Find a picture (magazine, photo, textbook). Students ask questions to get mental image of picture. Can either have students draw what they think, describe what they think, or show the picture to see how right/wrong their image was.

Draw and pass

Every S gets a blank paper and T gives directions e.g. “draw a big head”, then pass the paper, “draw long, straight hair”, then pass the paper. Continue until students have their original paper and they can name the creation. Have students call out the directions.

Art Critic

Place random pictures around the room. Ss look at each and write down words to describe it (colour, shape, emotion, etc.). Make a class list for each picture of general observations. Then each student chooses one of the pictures and writes a detailed description, including a story of what’s in the picture, and a title.

Haiku

Students write a poem that has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 again in the last. (Obviously, you can make your own rules.)

Connecting letters

Students write sentences where each word begins with the first letter from the word before.

Ex: Jesus says suckers suspect telepathic communications shower rejoice.

Monsters

Use monster flash cards, first the teacher describes one monster and the students guess which one. For advanced students they can pick and describe their own monster, and other students have to guess which one they are describing.

Variation: for younger students, teacher holds up the flash cards and asks ‘how many (body part)’ ‘what colours is it’s (body part)’

Variation: line up against wall, each Student has a card and moves forward when card is described. “I’ve got 3 red eyes” etc

Give me…

Have flashcards of different colours with letters on them. Distribute them randomly. Start off by saying, “Give me the red R.” S gives the teacher the red R. Then they say, “Give me colour letter.” and so on.

ESL Spelling Classroom Games

(Crocodile) Hangman

Hangman, but with steps to an alligators mouth (or any animal students think of). Teams: get points for guessing letters, lose points if no letter. (Wheel of Fortune rules)

Boggle

T draws up a 4*4 grid and fills with random letters. Ss have 10 minutes to write as many words from the grid as possible. Can be different rules. Beginner: any letters any amount of times. Advanced: letters must be adjacent to previous letters in the word. Give points for the length of the word.

Spelling Game

In teams each S has the letters of a word in mixed up order. They get in order to make a word, and say word: team with shortest time wins.

Spelling race

Teams race to spell a word as T says it. Points for the fastest correct spelling.

Flash Spelling Race

Students spell the word the teacher says in teams using ABC flashcards. First team=3 pts, second team=2 pts etc.

Scrambled words/sentences

Good for warm up. Give scrambled words (banana = nbaaan) or sentences on board and students must unscramble in teams or individually on paper

How Many Words?

T provides a long word on the wb and students must find as many other words with the letters of the first word (eg. CHRISTMAS- sit, cat, most, etc.)

Direct Spelling

Spell words on WB with letters that actually spell that word (eg appull for apple) and students correct the spelling.

Fast Words

Ss is arranged into rows. The first person in each row is given a marker. The blackboard is divided into sections per team.
T calls a letter and the students must write as many words as they can, starting with that letter, in the allocated time. Next, the second member gets the marker and goes to the board and the teacher calls out a new letter. The team with the most correct words is the winner.

Final Answer

Two teams, one S from each team comes to the board. Teacher says a word and kids write it on the board. They check with their team to see if it is right. When finished they raise their hand, and give their final answer

Last letter

T says a word to the first S. S must say a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word. In a circle or can choose by throwing a ball.

Wheel of Fortune Spelling Game

Like in Hangman, a puzzle (word or sentence) is written on the WB. The alphabet is written across the top of the WB. Consonants are worth 100 points, but vowels cost 200 points. In teams, students must correctly guess a letter to earn a guess of the puzzle. Each turn they get one letter and one guess only. If they solve the puzzle, their points from that round go into their Totals pot.

Letter/Animal Match

Good for beginning Ss. Write the A,B,C’s on WB. Give each S an animal flashcard. Must match the animal to the letter. If you put sticky tac on the backs of the flashcards, the Ss can put them directly on the WB.

Active ESL Classroom Games

Cat, Cat, Dog (Also known as Duck, Duck, Goose)

Ss sit in a circle, one S walks around the outside and says ‘cat’ to each S. When the S says ‘dog’ next to one S, they chase them around the circle to sit down first. Can be used for any two words e.g. colours, shapes etc.

Lion and Sheep

Ss stand in a circle and hold hands. One S is inside the circle (sheep). One S is outside (lion). The aim is for the lion to catch the sheep. The circle must try to stop the lion from getting inside or out. If the lion gets in, the sheep must say a word from a chosen category to be let out, and vice versa. When the lion catches the sheep, the game is over.

Ss sit in a circle and count to 21 in order. S number 21 chooses a number (0-21) and replaces it with an action. Continue until all numbers are replaced with actions.

The Famous Ball Game

Ss line up along one wall. Decide on a category – e.g. colours – T shouts a word and Ss must run across the room if the word is a colour. T throws the ball as Ss run from one side to the other. If a S is hit they are out. Last S wins.

Variation: Boys are colours, girls are animals, face each other. T says a sentence, “I like red dogs” boys and girls race across avoiding being hit by ball. As students are “out”, they can take turns saying sentences, too.

Maths game

Lay two sets of number flashcards out on the table (0-20). T says sum (‘what is three times 2?’), Ss must hit the correct number flashcard first.

Team task race

In teams: Ss race to the board, T assigns a task (e.g. draw a cat, spell a word, etc.). Each team that completes the task correctly gets one point; the first one done gets two.

Reading card game

Throw a stack of word / flash cards onto the floor. Ss run and pick up a card, run over to you and say the word. If they say the word correctly, you slap their hand, they drop the card and run out to get another card. Variation: put the cards down in one long line. From this one line, the Ss run to pick up cards.

Simon Says

Can let Ss give the directions.

Hopscotch

Arrange flashcards around the room, Ss hop from flashcard to flashcard and pronounce words/numbers along the way. Shortest times win.

Bus Game

Make seats into rows for each team. T holds up flashcards or writes words on the board. Two Ss in front call out the word. First to get it goes to the back of the bus, rest of the kids shift forward. First team to complete cycle wins.

Grab

Two teams. Each team sits against one wall. Flashcards are in the middle face up. One S from each team runs to get the correct card. Team that gets it gets a point.

Reading and Pronunciation Game

Two teams at the back of the room. T writes a word they do not know on the board. When Ss think they know the word, they run to the board. First to touch board can say word.

Bowling

This is just a fun game in which the class is split into two teams, each team lines up and gets a cup which they must try to knock down with a ball. Every time the ball hits the cup the team gets a point. Team with most points wins.

Variation; Use plastic bottles, on the bottom of two write DANCE and SING a SONG. On the rest of the bottles write numbers 1-9. On the white board write 1- say 7 animals, 2- clap your hands e.t.c. (Using any categories you like). Two teams play against each other for points; whichever team knocks over the bottles the other teams must carry out the commands/ assignments.

Be a…

Action game where the teacher calls out an animal/ vehicle/ profession and the students all act it out. – This is good with energetic younger learners. Variation: Teacher holds up animal/ vehicle/ profession flash cards and students call out the word and then do action.

Verbs

Teacher says a verb (such as: run/ hop/ skip/ walk e.t.c.) and students act it out ‘everybody (verb)’.

Touch Game

Teacher says ‘touch _____’. Students race to touch what the teacher says. This is good for teaching colours/ body parts/ classroom vocab/ clothing- basically everything that you can see in your classroom.

Chair Game

Students put the chairs in a circle –one less chair than students. The person without a chair stands in the middle and says ‘I have _____’ ‘I am wearing ____’ ‘I (don’t) like _____’ ‘I am _____’ ‘I come from _____’ ‘My birthday is in ______’ e.t.c. If the sentence is correct for the student they must get up and swap chairs. The person without a chair then says a sentence. The aim of the game is not to be in the middle.

Ball in the Bag

Give Ss a shopping bag. Have them stand by a large box of plastic balls. Say, “Give me # colour balls.” Ss put the correct number and colour of balls in the bag.

Silent Ball Throw

No English is spoken but it’s a good calm down or camp game. S stand in a circle and pass a ball around. If they drop the ball, they are out. If they speak, they are out.

Beach Ball Keep Up

Good for really young Ss. Keep a beach ball or balloon in the air by hitting it. Everytime it is hit, count. When the ball hits the ground, start over.

Relay Races

Write instructions on the WB. Split students into teams, first to complete wins. Good for prepositions.

Harry Potter

2 Ss are Voldemort. Other Ss are HP. Vs must freeze HPs by touching them. HPs can unfreeze HPs by touch. When Vs freeze all HPs game is over. No English but a good reward.

Sleeping Lions

No English but used to calm Ss down. Ss lie down pretending to be sleeping lions. If they move or laugh, they are out.

Boxball/Football

Ask Qs to get a shot at the goal. Let Ss run after a while.

Communication Games

Find someone who…

Ss mingle around the class to find other Ss who have done certain things (e.g. ‘find someone who watched TV yesterday’). Ss must form questions in English and get a name for each question.

Paper conversation

Students have a conversation using only scrap paper. Instruct them “do not speak, find a partner, have a written conversation”. After a few minutes, students can continue their conversation orally.

5 things

Students work in pairs and find 5 things they have in common. Can either ask questions (do you have a sister?) or make statements (I have a sister, do you?).

2 truths and a lie

Students write 3 statements about themselves, 2 are true and 1 is false. Students share their statements and class guesses. T can write up guesses in chart on board.

Chain reaction

Ss sit in a circle. First S asks question to second S. Second S replies, then asks third S etc.

Scruples

Make situation cards e.g. ‘Your friend has stolen a car. Do you call the police?’ Divide the class into 3 groups: A yes team, a no team, and a panel of mediators. The mediators draw a card and read it, the yes and no teams make and present arguments for and against. The mediators decide which is the stronger argument.

I Spy

‘I spy with my little eye, something that is …’ (colour / shape etc.) or can use first letter of the word.

Telephone Game

T or S whispers a phrase or sentence to the next S and it is whispered to each student one by one. Last student must say the sentence. Two sentences can be sent around the circle in opposite directions.

Telephone Game (rows)

Ss in two lines, the sentence is whispered to the first student, who passes it down the line. The last student must run to the whiteboard and write the sentence. For lower levels, words can be used.

Flashcard Pix (higher level class)

Using flashcard pix from Elementary Communication Games or any other fairly random yet evocative pix to inspire students to write a short creative story in past/present or future tenses. Or each student gets one picture in a related series, says a sentence, and next continues the story.

Who Am I?

One S thinks of a person / animal / place. Other Ss ask yes / no questions to find out what / who it is. Can limit the number of questions.

Variation: ‘What’s my fathers job?’ Students ask questions such as ‘does he work in an office?’

Who Am I? (Individual)

Ss write the name of a well known person on scraps of paper which are shuffled and handed out (students cannot look at their papers). Papers are taped to each S’s back. Ss roam the class asking yes/no questions of their classmates. Set a limit of questions (3-5) for each student so they don’t stay with the same classmate the whole time.

R and S Chain

Ss in team lines. T writes a word on a mini whiteboard and shows it to the first S in line. They read the word and repeat it to the next person in line, gets passed down and the last person has to write it on the board.

Guess who

1 Student is blind folded, he spins around, when he stops the person in front of him must answer a question (from the blind folded student) e.g. ‘how old are you?’ The blind folded student then has to guess the student that answered the question.

Shopping

Have various food flashcards on the WB. Give Ss 5-10 dollars. Have them properly ask to buy a certain item. Have Ss switch roles from shopper to shop-keeper.

Question Bounce

Using either common questions or creative, interesting questions (depending on level) Ss ask each other questions. First S asks second, who answers then asks third, etc… bouncing.

Questions Challenge

2 students ask each other questions in turn until one is stumped, then the winner challenges the next player.

20 Questions

S have as many questions as there are students to guess what the T is thinking of. Good practice for Does it have? Is it? Can it? question and answer structure.

Fortunately/unfortunately

Students make up a story by adding sentences, moving from good to bad luck with fortunately and unfortunately. Can give students a topic or starting point. E.g. Yesterday we went to Bangkok. Fortunately, we had air-con tickets for the train. Unfortunately, we lost our tickets. Fortunately, my mom bought us new tickets….

Memory Games

Word code

T writes a paragraph on the board, and read it together as a class. Erase the verbs and replace with a star. Class reads the paragraph again, with the missing verbs. Next replace the adjectives and replace them with a circle; the class reads again saying the missing verbs and adjectives. Continue to remove the nouns, adverbs, etc. replacing them with different symbols, each time having the class read the entire paragraph. Be sure to write a key to the symbols (*=verb, 0=adjective). When all the words have been replaced with symbols, have them write the whole paragraph.

Memory Sentences

Ss sit in a circle and T starts with “I’m going shopping. I’m going to buy a pencil. The next student says “I’m going shopping. I’m going to buy a pencil and a notebook” and the game continues around the circle.

Many variations: qualities in friends, ‘if I was a millionaire…’; ‘on a perfect day…’; on a deserted island; ‘if I was president…’; ‘___ makes me happy’;‘I want to learn about…’ etc.

Music Listening

Play a song, or part of a song, 2-3 times, then have students write down what they can remember.

Sentence Story

Ss write a story (T or Ss can record on paper or whiteboard) with each student contributing a sentence. When finished, read the story aloud once, and then hide or clean the whiteboard. Students must retell the story from memory. Make it harder by having them retell the story in reverse.

Try a Memory Game Online

Acting Games

Ed/ ing

Students work in pairs. Give each pair ‘_ed’ / ‘_ing’ combination (e.g. bored / boring). The pair acts out a skit – one student is bored, the other is boring. The class guesses which is which.

Darling If You Love Me

In a circle, try to make each other laugh by saying “Darling if you love me, won’t you please smile?” students reply a) laugh b) “Sorry I don’t love you.”

Charades

Many variations: actions verbs; shapes; emotions etc.

Ha Ha Ha game

Good warm up that gets students laughing: 1 st student says ‘ha’ second student says ‘ha ha’, third says ‘ha ha ha’ and so on. If a student laughs they are out.

Card and Dice Games

Reading card game

Ss are dealt word cards and can look at them. Go around in a circle and put a card down and say the word on the card. Ss have three chances to say the word the correct way. If they cannot they pick up the pile of cards that have accumulated on the floor. Variation: Ss are not allowed to look at their cards beforehand.

Uno cards & Jenga

Each colour is assigned a category (e.g. phonics, countries, animals etc.). Speaking Thai= pick up a card.

Go Fish

Deal out 3/5 cards to every student (can use playing or uno cards) students go around in a circle asking ‘do you have a ______’ students answer ‘yes I do’ or ‘no I don’t’. Or ‘do you have any ____?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then the student must pick up from the pile of cards in the middle. The idea is to have the as many pairs as possible.

Variation: if the students are speaking Thai, they must pick up an extra card.

Snake Game

Draw a snake on WB with divisions, then write in verbs, pronouns or any grammar point. Teams roll the dice to move, then must say a correct sentence using grammar to get the spot.

Name # Vocab

Choose category, roll dice. If roll 7, name 7 of category item.

Classic Concentration (Pairs)

Using double or paired flashcards, distribute 24 or so cards face down on the floor. Ss turn a card and say “fish” or “It’s a fish.” Then must find the first card’s partner by remembering previously turned cards. Good for vocab or “It’s a ….” vs. “It’s an…”

Have you seen my banana?

Like go fish, the idea is to get as many matches as you can. Use a deck of cards (or flash cards which have at least 2 of every object). Deal all the cards out evenly. The students go around in a circle asking ‘have you seen my ________?’ students answer ‘yes I have’ or ‘no I haven’t’ (if the students have the card they must hand it over). Then that student asks the next, and so on. The game continues until 1 student has no cards left. The student with the most pairs wins.

Dice

Divide numbers into different categories. A good alternative from when Ss get tired of Uno cards. Also can be used for grammar, give one die a subject (1= you, 2=we), and another a verb (1= like, 2= have) and students roll the die and make a question.

Phonics

Board race

Ss in two lines face the whiteboard. T says a word, Ss must race to the board and spell it, draw it, write the first/ last/ middle letter, write short/ long vowel- everything!!

Spelling basketball

The Ss can be in 2 or 3 teams. One person from the first team must spell (or read) a word, then they throw a ball (can be wadded paper) in a basket (can be the bin). They get one point for correct spelling/reading, and one for making a basket. Then the first person from the second team goes, etc.

Swatter Game

Targets words are written randomly on the white board. Two students come up and are each given a fly swatter. T calls out a word and the first S to swat the correct word is the winner.

Variation: 1) Students are only allowed one hit.

2) Students on team can say up/ down/ left/ right, and spell the word but no touching or pointing and speaking Thai is 1 point for the other team.

3) A, B, C Teacher says a word and students slap the letter it begins with. For younger students (when first teaching the letters) write the letter you are teaching, and the previous 2 on the board, elicit words which begin with the letters –write on the board in lists, keep these lists on the board when playing the swat game (to help with recognition of the words).

Phonics Train

Ss make flashcards relating to the phonics sound they are learning. ex. short A,I,O,U,E draw a picture and write the word. Ss to form a line. The first S calls the sound and takes one step forward. The remaining Ss take turns to step forward and say the word on their flashcard. The train can weave around the room.

Around the World Reading

Ss sit in a circle, and one S is selected to begin. They stand with the person on their left, and they race to read the word on your flashcard. The loser sits down, and the winner goes to the next person on the left. The object is to travel all around the circle back to their original seat.

Down! Pass! Pick Up!

Students are dealt cards with letters or word endings on them. When you say Down, they all put one card down, with Pass they pass it to the person on their left, with Pick up they pick up the card from the right. The object is to use all your cards to make words.

Pronunciation circle

Students must correctly pronounce an entire list of words to win.

Flashcard Slap

2 sets of alphabet cards are handed out to Ss (they can’t have doubles). One S calls out a letter, and the others race to slap it if they have it. Fastest slap wins. For variations (higher level), Ss have to say a word beginning with the letter, a sentence with that word or a question with that word.

Flashcard Grab

One or two sets of alphabet cards on the floor. Two lines of Ss. T calls out a letter and the first 2 Ss race to grab it first and bring it back to T. May have to say or spell a word with the letter. For categories, S race to grab the letters to spell a word in the category and bring it back to the teacher.

Tongue Twisters

Write (or Ss write) tongue twisters and have contests for pronunciation and speed.

Steps game

Use with phonics or vocab cards. Ss line up against the wall at the back of the class. T tells them to take one step forward. T asks Ss for a word or shows them a card. If they answer correctly, they can take one step back to the wall. Steps can be increased to two or three steps forward, requiring as many steps backward to finish the game.

List Races

In teams, students must list as many Long O or whatever words as they can in a certain time period. The lists are then written on WB and repeats are crossed off until the team with the most original, correctly spelled list is the winner. Can also have them divide their lists by spelling rules (O_E/OE/OW) or Rhymes (Toe/Tow).

Vowel Cards

Divide students into teams of 5. Each S has a, e, I, o, or u. T. says words with long or short vowels (example: cat) and first student to hold up the correct letter (a) must spell the word for a team point.

Letter race

Place different letters around the room. Teachers says a word and students run to the letter that the words start with.

Identify the sound

Good to play as the students are leaving. Teacher calls a word and students identify the sound – e.g. ‘cat’ ‘short A’, depending on what has been taught (can use first/ last letters e.t.c.) The student who identifies the word correctly leaves first.

You can check out our Phonics Alphabet activities online here.

Mini Whiteboard Games

-Give a question to Ss and they write their answer on the whiteboard

-Providing a word in a category (rhyming, same vowel sound, animals, etc.)

-Correct a sentence or a word

When students are ready, “1, 2, 3, UP!”

Write words on mini whiteboards, kids run from the back, touch correct word, and pronounce for a point.

Call out a short vowel. Allow Ss one minute to write it down and give points for each word they list with that vowel sound.

The End

If you stuck around this long, congratulations and Thank You. We hope you enjoy some of our ESL classroom games. If you do like some of them, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have a ton of fun videos for ESL students K-6. You can check out our YouTube channel here.

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Scattagories for Kids!

This version of Scattergories is designed especially for kids or lower level English learners. This simple no-prep warmer/cooler is a fun way to get students thinking in class. Simply choose a letter and then start the timer. Students have 2 minutes to think of a word for each of the eight categories. The winning team is the group with the most answers!

How to use Scattagories for Kids!

How to play

ESL Scattergories! – Want to play this game is higher level students? Try out other version of this game

Discover more of our interactive online young learner games.

Alphabet Game – In this mini game students need to touch the letters of the alphabet in order. Ideal for young learners.

Animal Vocabulary Games – Practice animals with these four interactive online games. These fun games are a great way to revise animal vocabulary with your students.

How Many? Counting Game – Practice counting, numbers and ‘there are’ / “there is” with this fun interactive counting game.

Movers Spot the Difference – Practice for the Cambridge Movers Speaking exam with this free fun interactive online game.

Spot The Difference – Can you spot the differences? Levels 1 – 8 are now available, more levels coming soon.

ESL Hangman – Hangman is a no-prep way to practice spelling and vocabulary recall with your students.

Memory Match – Review vocabulary with young learners with these interactive memory match game.

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10 Fun ESL Games and Activities for Teaching Kids English Abroad

Increase student engagement and satisfaction through these 10 ESL games and activities.

Games and fun activities are a vital part of teaching English as a foreign language. Whether you’re teaching adults or children, games will liven up your lesson and ensure that your students will leave the classroom wanting more.

This list of ten classic ESL games every teacher should know will help get you started and feeling prepared. Having these up your sleeve before stepping into the classroom will ensure your lessons run smoothly, and, should things get a little out of control, you’ll be able to pull back the attention of the class in no time.

Want to jump right into the list? Here are the top 10 games we think your students will love:

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1. Board Race

There isn’t an EFL teacher I know who doesn’t use this game in the classroom. Board Race is a fun game that is used for revising vocabulary, whether it be words from the lesson you’ve just taught or words from a lesson you taught last week. It can also be used at the start of the class to get students active. It is a great way of testing what your students already know about the subject you’re about to teach.

How to Play:

2. Call My Bluff / Two Truths and A Lie

The game is excellent for practicing speaking skills, though make sure you save a time for after the game to comment on any mistakes students may have made during the game. (I generally like to reserve this for after the game, so you don’t disrupt their fluency by correcting them as they speak).

With older groups you can have some real fun and you might be surprised what you’ll learn about some of your students when playing this particular EFL game.

How to play:

3. Simon Says

This is an excellent game for young learners. Whether you’re waking them up on a Monday morning or sending them home on a Friday afternoon, this one is bound to get them excited and wanting more. The only danger I have found with this game is that students never want to stop playing it.

How to Play:

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4. Word Jumble Race

This is a great game to encourage team work and bring a sense of competition to the classroom. No matter how old we are, we all love a good competition and this game works wonders with all age groups. It is perfect for practicing tenses, word order, reading & writing skills and grammar.

How to play:

5. Hangman

This classic game is a favorite for all students but it can get boring quite quickly. This game is best used for 5 minutes at the start to warm the class up or 5 minutes at the end if you’ve got some time left over. It works no matter how many students are in the class.

How to play:

6. Pictionary

Pictionary can help students practice their vocabulary and it tests to see if they’re remembering the words you’ve been teaching.

How to play:

7. The Mime

Miming is an excellent way for students to practice their tenses and their verbs. It’s also great for teachers with minimal resources or planning time, or teachers who want to break up a longer lesson with something more interactive. It’s adaptable to almost any language point that you might be focusing on.

This game works with any age group, although you will find that adults tire of this far quicker than children. To keep them engaged, relate what they will be miming to your groups’ personal interests as best as possible.

How to play:

8. Hot Seat

This is one of my students’ favorite games and is always at the top of the list when I ask them what they want to play. I have never used this while teaching ESL to adults, but I imagine it would work well.

Hot Seat allows students to build their vocabulary and encourages competition in the classroom. They are also able to practice their speaking and listening skills and it can be used for any level of learner.

How to play:

9. Where Shall I Go?

This game is used to test prepositions of movement and should be played after this subject has been taught in the classroom. This game is so much fun but it can be a little bit dangerous since you’ll be having one student in each pair be blindfolded while the other directs them. So make sure to keep your eyes open!

It is also excellent for the adult EFL classroom, or if you’re teaching teenagers.

How to play:

10. What’s My Problem?

This is a brilliant EFL game to practice giving advice. It should be played after the ‘giving advice’ vocabulary lesson has taken place. It is a great way for students to see what they have remembered and what needs reviewing. This game works well with any age group, just adapt it to fit the age you’re working with.

How to play:

These games will keep your students engaged and happy as they learn! Remember, these are just ten on the hundreds of different EFL games that you can plat with your students. As you get more confident in the classroom, you can start putting your own spin on games and eventually make up your own.

Whatever the age of your students, they’re guaranteed to love playing EFL games in the classroom. An EFL classroom should be fun, active and challenging and these games are sure to get you heading in the right direction.

This article was originally published in October 2013; we redesigned and updated this article in May 2018.

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Kids ESL Speaking Games & Activities | English Speaking Games Children

Let’s be real. Teaching English to kids sometimes isn’t easy. They are often not that interested in speaking English to each other, or to you! That’s why you’ll need a variety of speaking activities for kids to keep things fresh and interesting.

Check out these fun ESL speaking games for children that are engaging, interactive and student-centred. Your students will love them and keep coming back for more of these speaking games for kids.

Kids ESL Speaking Activities and Games

A variety of fun, engaging speaking games for kids is the key to success. Keep on reading for my top picks for speaking games for kids that are proven to work in the ESL classroom.

Best Kids ESL Speaking Games

If you’re looking for some fresh new ideas for Kids ESL speaking games, you’ve come to the right place. Here are my top games that I like to use in my own classes. These ESL activities for children are guaranteed to make your life easier because you can plan interesting, engaging and fun lessons without spending a lot of time on it.

I know you’re tired of searching around on the Internet for the good stuff, right? Search no more for kids speaking activities.

Try out some of these kids ESL speaking games in your classes today! Your students will be happy, engaged and learning English. You’ll be able to plan your lessons quickly with a few top-quality ESL activities in them. Let’s get to the best TEFL talking games for kids.

#1: Password

Password is a fun ESL speaking game that is challenging, interesting and fun. It makes an excellent way to review some vocabulary that you’ve taught at the end of the class. You can also use this a warm-up at the beginning of the next one. I love to review vocabulary with my students and this is a great way to do that.

Check out this post for more details: Password ESL Speaking Game.

#2: Disappearing Text

If you’re looking for a fun filler activity that helps students remember vocabulary and sentence structure, try out this game. You write up a full sentence on the board, and gradually erase it, word by word. The challenge is that students have to remember what disappeared and say it back to you. It’s also an excellent way to catch any sort of pronunciation mistakes that your students might be making.

#3: Charades Kids Speaking Game

If you’re looking for a fun ESL game for a party or activity class, you’ll need to try out charades. It’s a sneaky way to review some vocabulary as well and is probably more beneficial for the students than just playing Uno or something like that. I love to review in a fun, engaging way and this ESL game does just that.

More details about how to set this activity up: Charades ESL Speaking Game.

Speaking activities for primary students

#4: Find Someone Who Speaking Bingo

If you want to have some fun and help your students get to know each other at the beginning of the semester, you’ll need to try out this version of Bingo. It’s one of my favourite Kids ESL speaking games and I use it in most of my classes. It’s a nice variation on traditional Bingo because the kids are up out of their seats, moving around and talking to their classmates. It actually requires students to be active, instead of being very passive as they usually are in traditional Bingo.

#5: ESL Board Games

Quick tips: have a small prize for the winner in each group to make it a bit more fun. To “roll” the dice, it can be pretty loud with actual dice. I get each group to use two coins instead. 2 heads =5, 1 head, 1 tail = 3, 2 tails = 1.

Check out this short video where I explain how I use ESL board games in my own classes.

#6: Chain Spelling

A fun way to review key vocabulary words is to play chain spelling. Not only is it great for review but it also has the added advantage of requiring absolutely nothing in the way of preparation or materials. It’s always nice to have a few of these in the back pocket, right?

Want to know more? Here are the details you need:

#7: ESL Presentations for Children

If your students are a bit older and more advanced in their English skills, then you might consider incorporating some presentations into your classes. Even simple ones that require speaking for 30 seconds to 1 minute can be a valuable exercise.

There are plenty of topics and ideas for presentations to choose from here:

#8: Would You Rather ESL Speaking Game for Kids

If you’re looking for a quick speaking activity that’s ideal for a warm-up, then consider trying out Would you Rather? For example, would you rather break your right arm or left leg?

The way it works is that students have to choose between two options and then explain why they made that choice. Students can make their own questions for a partner or you can make a list for them to ask each other. Want to know more? Find out all the details here:

#9: ESL Pronunciation Activities and Games

A big part of English speaking is pronunciation. After all, you can know the word but if you can’t say it correctly, your conversation partner won’t be able to understand you.

The good news is that there are lots of ESL speaking games for kids that deal with this important area. Check out some of our top choices here:

#10: Hot Potato Speaking Activity for Children

If you want to create a bit of a buzz in your classes, then consider trying out one of my favourite kids’ ESL speaking games. It’s exciting, can be used for a variety of topics and is an ideal way to get your students to speak English.

The way it works is that students have to pass around an object of some kind and then when the music stops, or the timer goes off, the person holding it has to do a speaking task of some kind. Learn more here:

#11: Telephone ESL Speaking Game for Kids

I love to share games and activities that require absolutely nothing in the way of preparation or materials. Telephone is one such activity and the even better news is that you can tailor it to whatever theme, grammar point or vocabulary set that you want.

Have some fun with your kids today with this speaking, listening and pronunciation game:

#12: Running Dictation

#13: Likes and Dislikes

A very common grammatical structure for kids to learn is like/dislikes and I find that it usually goes over very well. Most kids have strong preferences for foods, sports (more ideas: Sports ESL Games) and people they either like or don’t like which makes it a great conversation activity for kids.

Here are some of the best ideas for how to get the conversation ball rolling:

#14: Draw a Picture

This is a fun speaking activity for children that you can try out in your classes. The way it works is that one person has a secret picture that they need to describe, using English to their partner who draws it. Things like monsters or aliens work quite well for this purpose.

It’s fun, interactive and ideal for working on both speaking and listening skills. The results are usually hilarious too! Learn how to do it here:

#15: Flashcards Talking Game for Kids

In my opinion, flashcards are one of the most underutilized ESL teaching tools. They can be used for so many purposes and there are lots of talking games that can be played. To find out some of the ways to use them in your classes, have a look:

#16: More Ideas for Teaching Young Learners on Let’s Talk TEFL

#17: Dialogue Substitution

In most ESL textbooks, new vocabulary or grammar are introduced through a reading passage. But, maybe your students are kind of like mine and just blow through them without really paying attention to what they’re reading. Of course, it’s not their fault. It’s that they don’t really have a reason to pay attention to what they’re reading.

Instead, a better way is to remove some of the words. Then it turns it from strictly a reading activity to one that’s focused on meaning, as well as conversation because students have to listen to what their partner is saying.

Have a look at this English speaking for kids activity:

#18: Picture Prompt

An excellent way to get the conversation started with kids is to use some pictures. Then, depending on the level of the students, you can elicit some words, ask what the people are doing, or get students to relate their own lives to the picture in some way. Here are some more ideas:

#19: How to Teach Kids New Words

#20: Animal ESL Activities and Games

If you want to get kids speaking English, then talk about animals! Young learners love this and I find that this unit is one of the best in terms of engagement and interest.

The good news is that are so many interactive and fun things you can do related to this unit. Here are some of the best ideas:

ESL speaking games for children

#21: Typhoon

This is a fun review game that students of all ages love. It’s best for the class before an exam of some kind and for smaller classes so that everyone can participate.

Whenever I play it, the students talk about it for weeks and keep asking me to play again! Try it out for yourself:

#22: ESL Basketball Challenge, a Talking Game for Kids

This basketball game is one of the most fun speaking games for kids and I’m sure your students will love it as much as mine do. It’s ideal for reviewing vocabulary or simple grammatical structures. Learn more about it here:

#23: Vocabulary Quiz for Children

#24: Classroom Expressions and Phrases

I love to spend time at the beginning of the semester teaching classroom English. It just makes the rest of the course go that much more smoothly if students are able to understand basic directions in English, as well as ask to go to the bathroom, etc. Have a look here at some of the activities I use to teach this:

ESL Activities for Kids FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about fun ESL games and activities for children. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

How can I sound like a native English speaker?

How can I teach ESL to kids?

It’s possible to teach ESL kids in an engaging and interactive way by using some of the following ideas:

How do you deal with difficult ESL students?

You may run across difficult ESL students occasionally. Here are a few tips for getting back on track.

How can I teach ESL to beginners?

Teaching ESL to beginners can be a little bit difficult but keep in mind the following things:

How can I make English fun for kids?

It really is possible to make learning English fun for kids. Just be sure to include lots of songs and chants into lessons, always set the context for new grammar and vocabulary, encourage movement in the classroom and be sure to use a variety of interactive and student-centred ESL activities and games.

Like These Kids ESL Speaking Games for Children?

Did you find these kids ESL speaking games useful? Then you’ll need to check out 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+). It’ll make your lesson planning easier, guaranteed.

I wrote the book because I was so sick of searching around on the Internet for some fun, engaging and awesome ESL games and activities but finding only junk. I wasted so much time that it was ridiculous! This book has 39 ESL activities that you can actually use in your classes to add some variety and keep your students engaged and interested in your lessons.

How are the Speaking Activities Organized?

Each activity starts off with a brief overview so that you can see, at a glance whether or not it’s the right one for your students. Then, it gets into the detailed, step-by-step instructions that start off with the prep you need to do before class (usually very minimal), then what happens during the activity with the students, and then some optional follow-up.

Of course, don’t forget to read the teaching tips. They’ll help make the speaking game even better. And, they’ll also help you to avoid some of the most common things that can go wrong with each specific one.

Where Can I Get it?

Does it sound like the book of speaking activities for kids that you need in your life? It probably is if you teach English to kids!

You can get the book on Amazon, in both digital and print formats. The (cheaper!) digital book can be read on any smartphone, tablet, Mac or PC simply by downloading the free Kindle reading app. It’s some ESL teaching awesome, guaranteed!

Have your Say about these Speaking Games for Kids

Do you have a go-to speaking activity or game for kids? Any tips or tricks for doing it the awesome way? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Fun speaking activities for kids

Last update on 2022-08-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She’s taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

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17 Fun ESL Vocabulary Games for Adults and Kids

What are your methods for teaching vocabulary?

Drills? Flashcards? Yuck! Boring!

While these can certainly be effective, they can be a quick way to lose your student’s attention if you spend too much time on them in a class.

Join our mailing list to receive a free ESL teaching resource every week.

So what can you do then? The answer?

Play some fun ESL vocabulary games with them!

In this huge listicle, you’ll find 17 great ESL vocabulary game ideas (suitable for adults, teens, and kids) with detailed instructions to include in your lessons.

ESL Vocabulary Games for Kids… AND Adults, too?

Games are a great way to get your students to engage and use the language without fighting for their attention every few minutes.

Well, that’s great for children I hear you saying, but what about adults?

Well, as surprising as it may sound… Adults enjoy having fun too!

In fact, a number of the games here are what adults often play while socializing with friends or family anyway so they may already be familiar with them in the native language.

That being said, while some of these vocabulary games can be great for adults, this isn’t the case for all of them.

Some games on this list can be a little silly and adult students would most likely feel more than a little patronized if they were to play them. The same could be said for some games which may be too “boring” for children.

For that reason, this list also has information about the appropriate target student. It mentions:

Make sure to read each game carefully before trying it in your class. Make a note of any realia/resources you may need and if possible practise how you will run the class so there aren’t any surprises in the classroom! Let’s get started.

1. Whispers

This game can get difficult because some mistakes creep into the message which can lead to a message which is vastly different at the end than it is at the start.

Once the message reaches the end, the final person reveals what they think it is. This often results in hilarity!

This game trains the students to be able to understand messages in situations that aren’t so clear. It also trains them to try to understand a sentence using context. As long as the students can form sentences then they will be ok with this game.

2. Describe It

With “describe it” the idea is to give a student a word. This can be anything you want really but nouns and verbs are going to be easier than things like adverbs and prepositions. Once the student has their word, they then have to describe it without using the word itself!

Whoever manages to guess this correctly then gets to go next and you can keep going until everyone in the class has had a turn.

The benefit of this game is that it forces students to use synonyms/antonyms that they might not use usually. It also helps them to develop the skill of using the language to try to express something even if they don’t have that particular word in their vocabulary.

This game is a little more difficult than the others and is better suited to intermediate to advanced learners. Coupled with the fact that you may lose some attention from children, this is better aimed at adults.

3. Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are a fun way to practise new vocabulary!

In case you don’t already know what they are; A tongue twister is a sentence (or several) that is very difficult to say (usually due to a sequence of similar sounds).

An example of this would be “she sells seashells by the seashore”.

These are both great fun and extremely useful as they can be used to train pronunciation for new vocabulary. They are effective with adult students but due to their silliness, it’s no surprise that kids love them!

While there are already plenty of tongue twisters out there, you will likely have to create your own, specific to the vocabulary you are learning. (hint – don’t try to cram all of the TL into one sentence, pick one new word for each tongue twister.)

To add a more competitive element to it, (besides just saying the sentence without mistakes) you can time the students and get them to try to go faster and faster each time!

4. I went to the supermarket…

You can choose to either reset the game once the list can’t be remembered or… for a more competitive element you can choose to reset the list minus the student who couldn’t remember. You can then repeat this until there is a “definite winner”.

As this game is more to do with memory and doesn’t necessarily involve complex vocabulary, it is suitable for students of all ages and levels.

5. I Spy

Keep going until everyone has had a turn to play. This game can be fairly simple if there are common words such as “pen”, “book” etc.

However, if you really want to bring more of a challenge, then bring some props with you or load up an image on a projector with many items.

This game is good when learning basic vocabulary and is better suited to beginners and more specifically children.

6. Word Association

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

The rules are simple. You have to be able to explain why a word is related. You also can’t repeat a word that has already been said! To make this one harder you can also include a timer.

7. A-Z Categories

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

In this game, the teacher picks a category such as (fruit, countries, languages, etc). The idea is then for the students to think of something for each letter of the alphabet.

You can then continue until all of the letters have been completed. Some beginners will be fine with something like “food” but some categories can be more difficult so bear this in mind when picking a topic.

You may also want to consider cultural backgrounds. “Countries” is a good topic because although they have different names in different languages, they are known by everyone. However, a topic like “bands” can become more difficult as students may want to pick their local favourites which might not be known by others.

8. Match

Student level: Beginner to Pre-Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children

For this game, you need two sets of cards. The first set of cards will have pictures of various things (e.g ball, house, etc), the second set will have the vocabulary on. As you probably have guessed by now, the student’s aim is to match the pictures up with the vocabulary.

This one is for children. It works especially well with complete beginners because the explanation needed is minimal, demo the game to them and they will take to it like ducks to water!

9. Word Grab Race

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

To set this game up you again need a collection of cards with the vocabulary on. Mix all the cards up (while still being able to see them all.) Next, divide your students into two teams. A student from each group will have their turn first.

When the teacher says the word, the chosen student from each team has to run to the front and find the correct card with the word on from the pile. Once they have brought it back to the group both teams will then switch the active player.

This is repeated until all of the cards have been captured. The team with the most at the end wins.

To make this harder, instead of the teacher saying the word you could show a picture (on a screen) or hold up an object. This forces the students to use the vocabulary and understand what it means.

10. Hangman

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

Hangman takes a little bit of explaining but… once your students understand it then they will love it!

The basic point of hangman is for the students to guess a word (picked by the teacher).

They take turns guessing a letter each. If the guess is correct (the letter is in the word) then the teacher will write the letter on the board, if the guess is wrong then a part of “the hangman” is drawn.

The students need to guess what this word is before the picture of the hangman is complete. If they guess it correctly before the hangman is complete then they win, if not then they lose.

If you want to include the students further then whoever wins the round can have a turn at drawing the hangman in the next round.

This game is fun regardless of age, group size or ability (as difficulty can be altered by using harder or easier vocabulary).

11. Stand up / Sit Down

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

To add a competitive angle to this you can have the ones who get it wrong lose the game and leave the round, repeat this until there is a winner. Alternatively, if everyone is very good then you could do the last student to stand up / sit down lose that round.

This game is ideal for children, they love getting involved and moving around. It is a great way to win pre-schoolers back if you find you have lost their attention part way through a class.

12. Spelling Throw

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

The idea of this game is to get the students to spell a word out one letter at a time, each student takes it in turns saying each letter though which is what makes it difficult.

This continues until the word is complete. Again, like with the other games you could do a knockout rule where if a student gets the wrong letter then they are out of that round (repeat until there is a clear winner).

If this game is slightly too easy for the students then you can introduce a timer system where they will only get a few seconds to answer, if they don’t answer in time then they are also out.

This game is best suited to children, they will enjoy using a ball to interact with. It is also more suited to beginner levels (especially when learning how to spell.) Keep this one away from adults or advanced students unless you want to hear some patronized groans!

13. Draw It

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

Great fun with children and adults alike. Similar to “describe it”, the idea is for the student to express a chosen word without saying it. The difference here is that we are now drawing instead of describing.

Obviously we will need something to draw with for this. Pen and paper would work fine if we are struggling for resources but it would be better to use something bigger so it’s easier for the students to see, so try to grab a whiteboard!

Once you have a chosen student, tell them the chosen word (without anyone else hearing), they then have to draw it. The other students have to guess and the first one to get it right can then have their turn. Keep going until everyone has played at least once.

The advantage of this game over “describe it” is it can be a lot easier for beginner students to draw something than to try to think of a way to describe it in English. That being said if your students are advanced, they may benefit more from the added difficulty of “describe it”.

14. Word Search

Student level: Beginner to Advanced
Type of lesson: Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

These take a little longer to prepare but when it comes to actually playing, they are as easy as they come.

For anyone that doesn’t know what a word search is, you basically have a grid of squares. Inside each square is a letter. At first glance, it will appear as if you are staring at a giant mess of random letters. However, there are words hidden inside this mess that must be found.

Although this game could, in theory, be done in groups, it is one that is better suited towards individual students. It can be hard for some students to wait for their turn without shouting out that they’ve found one (especially true with children!).

The great thing about a word search is that they are very easy to play. Even if you use advanced vocabulary, the ability to look for a word is still the same so this game is suitable for students of all levels.

15. Synonyms

Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Adults

With synonyms, the point is to give a student a word, and they have to give you a synonym for that word in return. (E.g. teacher says scalding, student says hot). For this, you will need to do some research and make sure you know some synonyms for the TL of that lesson.

This game is dependant on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.

16. Shiritori

Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Adults

The classic Japanese game – Shiritori! You need very little to play this game, which makes it ideal as a backup activity as well.

This game is dependent on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary, so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.

17. Charades

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults

In case you haven’t played charades before, this is how to play:

This is a great game for beginners as it works better with beginner vocabulary (run, sit, 4 etc.)

Beware, you may struggle with more complex vocabulary… (try acting out the word situational!)

18. Vocab Bingo

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults

Prepare Bingo sheets with grids and add one word to each square. Select the grid size (from 3×3 to 6×6) and the words according to the level of English of your students and the expected duration of the game.

Write all words you’ve added to the sheets on a list; maybe add some more. Call out the words in random order, and have the students mark the words when they hear it.

They can use a pen, or better: put little items on the squares. This is more fun, and you can reuse the sheets.

The first person to mark each word on his sheets wins.

You can make this ESL vocab game a bit harder: Don’t call out the exact words in the squares, but synonyms, or opposites, or any kind of related words (for example when you call “rain”, they have to mark “umbrella”).

Conclusion

So, there we have it, 18 games for you to try in your classes.

Make sure to pay attention to the suitability for each game and most importantly practise these before you get in the classroom.

Hopefully, these will also have sparked your creative juices so you will be able to think up some of your own.

Remember to keep it fun, educational and engaging!

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