Games for the Elementary EFL Classroom

by Jeffrey Walter Intensive English Teacher Training Program Korea National University of Education

CONTENTS

Games list and features Game descriptions Websites Copyable sheets Battleship Bingo Word search blank Monkey Student Fight popular answers

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ABC 123 Basketball Battleship Bingo Blindfold Directions Buzz (3-6-9) Card Slap Categories Chain Game Charades Cockroach Game Dice Game Duck, Duck, Goose English Tennis Fly Swatter Game Fruit Basket I Fruit Basket II Go Fish Guess the Card Hangman Hot Seat I Spy Jenga! Ju-mong! Line Quiz 1 Line Quiz 2 Lotto! Memory Cards Monkey Game Musical Ball Picnic Pictionary Rock, Scissors, Paper Scrabble Sentence Scramble Simon Says Spelling Bee Student Fight Telephone Game (Whisper) Tic-Tac-Toe Touch Something Unscramble Word Search Yes / No Jump

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ABC 123 Randomly choose a letter and roll the die. You have to write that many words that start with that letter. First team to pass through ALL students wins. Basketball Answer / ask a question and get a shot to put the ball in the box. 1, 2, or 3 points for distance. Battleship This game uses a grid system on paper. You can use letters and numbers like the original game, or change to vocabulary words. First, each student places his/her ships on the board. Then students rotate turns by saying the corresponding grid (ex. Tennis, 6). Student B says hit or miss (also You sunk my ship!). Continue until one student has no more ships. Bingo Bingo can be used with numbers, pictures, or words. Blindfold Directions Put students in pairs or small groups. Blindfold one student. Other group members must give directions (turn left, go straight) to navigate through the classroom (move desks and chairs to make it difficult.) Buzz (3, 6, 9) The counting game. Students start counting but clap (or say buzz) instead saying the numbers with 3, 6, or 9. Card Slap Students play in small groups. Cards are laid on the desks in front of students. Teacher says a vocabulary word and students must slap / grab the correct card. WARNING: This game can get violent, but you can avoid this by giving every student his/her own cards. Categories Teacher chooses a category (ex. fruit). The first student names something from that category (ex. Apple), followed by the next student and so on. This goes until someone repeats a word or cannot think of one. To make it go fast, you can use a clapping rhythm. Sample categories: fruit, animals, colors, jobs, food, drinks, sports, weather, countries, things at school, things that live in water, body parts, clothes, feelings. Chain Game Start with any English word on the board. (ex. clock). The first student must write a word that starts with the letter k since clock end in a K. (ex. kite). The next student must write a word that starts with E and so on. The team with

the most correctly spelled words wins. Alternative: the team that finishes first wins. Charades (pronounced /sh-rdz/) Teacher gives student a vocabulary word. Student mimes (acts out) the word for students to guess. Cockroach Game This game uses a short dialogue (ex. A: Do you like soccer? B: Yes, I do. Do you like baseball? A: No, I dont.) All students start as cockroaches and move up to chickens, then monkeys, then students, and finally, teacher. Students must do the corresponding animal motion for each animal as they walk around the classroom to find another student of the same level (i.e. chicken and chicken). YOU CAN ONLY TALK TO SOMEONE OF THE SAME LEVEL. Do the dialogue. When finished, play rock, scissors, paper. The winner moves up one level (ex. From chicken to monkey) and the loser moves down (ex. from chicken to cockroach.) When you become a teacher, you must do the dialogue with the teacher and win rock, scissors, paper to sit down. Dice Game Answer / ask a question and roll the die. You can either add up the points or move a piece along the path. Duck, Duck, Goose For young learners. Students sit in a circle on the floor. One student walks around tapping each student on the head and saying duck. One time, the student says goose instead and runs around the circle. Meanwhile, the tapped student must stand up and run THE OTHER DIRECTION and try to beat the other student to the vacant spot. (Be careful when they pass each other!) You can change the vocabulary (cat-cat-dog, red-red-blue, hot-hot-cold). English Tennis Similar to Categories (above), but students are in two teams and have to hit the ball back by saying a word in the category. The winning team scores points as in tennis (ex. 30-15). Fly Swatter Game Two students stand in front of the board with fly swatters. Teacher says a word or sentence and students must hit the picture or word with the fly swatter. A good way is to have words written on the board, but have the rest of the class call out the vocabulary word when you show them a picture. Fruit Basket I Students sit in chairs in a circle while one student stands in the middle of the circle. Assign each student one word from the target vocabulary, but re-use words so that 3-5 students have the same word. The student in the center yells

one of the words. Students who are that word must change seats while the student in the center must find a seat. The student left with no seat starts the game again by saying a word. The student in the middle can also yell Fruit Basket! which means ALL students must change seats. Fruit Basket II If the group is small, have students sit at their desks in a circle and assign each student their own word from the target language. Teacher says a word. The student whose word is called must say any new word before the student in the middle touches his/her desk. This continues until the standing student beats the seated one. At that point, they switch positions. Go Fish Make cards for vocabulary or use regular cards for number practice. Put students in small groups and each student starts with about 5 cards. Students need to collect the whole set of 4 by asking other students, Do you have any [vocabulary]s? Students can only ask IF THEY ARE HOLDING THAT CARD ALSO. (So students can remember who has certain cards.) If the student who was asked has that card, they must surrender ALL of that type, and student A plays again. If they dont have the card, student B replies Go Fish, and student A takes a card from the lake. Guess the Card Place one vocabulary flash card in a folder for one student. The class must guess what card is in the folder by using the grammar and vocabulary (i.e. Do you like soccer?) The correct student changes places and starts with a new card. Hangman You can use words, phrases, or whole sentences! The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. Hot Seat Student holds a flash card above his/her head so that only the class can see it. The class must give clues until the student correctly guesses what the word is. (Ex. Its a fruit. Its red. An apple!) I Spy Student looks around, chooses an object and says I spy something that starts with a(n) [first letter of object]. Other students guess and the winner chooses the next word. Jenga! Each correct answer earns a turn at Jenga. Ju-mong! Answer / ask a question and take a turn at archery.

Line Quiz 1 All students line up in two lines. Teacher asks a simple question to the first two students. The first to answer correctly sits down while the other goes to the back of the line. Line Quiz 2 Students in one row stand up. Teacher asks a simple question and the first to answer correctly sits down. Continue with the same row until only one student remains standing. Then students from that COLUMN must stand up and continue the game. Lotto! Students choose number from a given range (ex. 1-20). Teacher randomly calls the numbers as in the lottery. Winner matches the most numbers. You can also have students randomly pull numbers from a bag. Memory Cards A memory game. You can match word-word, picture-word, present tense-past tense, etc. Monkey Game (Cars, Planes, etc.) This is a racing game and the units can be for monkeys, cars, planes, etc. Each correct question gains one space. I also like to add Rock, Scissors, Paper for an extra chance. Musical Ball Students pass a ball around the class while music plays. When the music stop, whoever has the ball has to answer a question. Picnic A memory game about what to take on a picnic. First student names something to take (any noun is ok.) Example: elephant. The next student says the same thing plus his/her new item. Example: elephant, computer. This continues and the list grows larger and larger. Pictionary (picture + dictionary) Teacher gives one student a vocabulary word. The student draws a picture of the word for students to guess. Can be done as teams and with a timer. Rock, Scissors, Paper This can be used to enhance any activity. Scrabble Scrabble can also be used to make words for spelling games.

Sentence Scramble Write words on the board that must be put in order correctly to make a sentence. One point for a correct answer the group has. Simon Says Teacher says Touch your toes or some other order. Students only do the action if the leader says Simon says first (ex. Simon says touch your toes. Great for body vocabulary! Spelling Bee A spelling bee is a spelling contest. It can be done like Golden Bell, but students who are eliminated need to keep practicing too. Student Fight This works well as a 2-day activity. One day, ask students lots of simple questions (i.e. Whos your favorite teacher? Name something red.). Have them give ONE answer only. Add up the answers and you will use the most popular answers for the game. To play, ask the question to a student. If it is a correct answer, that team receives those points. Then the other team gets a chance. Continue playing until all answers are used. Telephone / Whisper game Students form lines. Teacher whispers a sentence to the 1st students in line, who then whisper it to the next and so on down the line. The final student must say the sentence correctly to the teacher. Tic-Tac-Toe Divide the class into two teams. A correct question / answer and you can mark an X or O on the board. Touch something! Teacher says Touch something [color or adjective] and students run to touch something of that kind in the classroom. Example: Touch something red! Word Search http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ Word searches are great for spelling and students who like quiet, individual work. You can also have students make their own word search, and then exchange with a classmate! Excellent for reading and writing. Yes / No Jump Teacher asks a question and students must jump / run to the correct side of the room.

Ball Toss Conversation This isnt a game but its a fun way to get students speaking. One student tosses the ball to another student and asks a question. The student who caught the ball answers it and then tosses the ball to a new student and the fun continues.

Websites for games: http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Games http://www.eslkidstuff.com/gamesmenu.htm http://www.teflgames.com/games.html http://genkienglish.net/games.htm http://www.tefl.net/esl-lesson-plans/index.htm (worksheet maker too!) http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/games.html http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj//FLClipart/default.html FOR CLIP ART PICTURES!

Student Fight Answers

Name something red Fire truck Apple Blood Post office Pepper Strawberry Whale Turtle People

Name something tall Apartment building Giraffe Mountain Elephant

What is a popular subject at school? Korean P.E. Math English Art

Name something that swims Fish Shark

Name a job Doctor Teacher Police officer Taxi driver Nurse

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