Team Hangman

How to play
 Choose one person to be the executioner.
 That person will think of a word or short phrase and mark out blanks (short lines) for each letter of each word.
 Separate words with either a slash, a fairly wide gap, or place words on separate lines.
 Another player will guess a letter. If that letter is in the word(s) then write the letter where it would appear, and
cross out that letter in the alphabet.
 If the letter isn't in the word then add a body part to the hangman (head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right
leg). Drawing an illustration on the board so the students can see their progress.
 The player will continue guessing letters until they can either solve the word (or phrase) or all six body parts are
on the gallows.

HOW TO WIN:
The executioner wins if the full body is hanging from the gallows. The guesser(s) wins if they guess the word before
the person is hung.

HANGMAN EXAMPLE:
Here is an example of a hangman game in progress. The phrase is Happy Birthday, so 5 blank spaces were marked out
for Happy, and below that 8 blank space were marked out for birthday. Three correct guesses were made: A, R and T.
Three incorrect guesses were made: S, E, and M. Three body parts were added for the 3 incorrect guesses.

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Hot Seat/Back to Board
How to Play

 First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large class, any number could be used).
 Sit the students facing the board.
 Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of the class, facing the team members.
These chairs are the 'hot seats'.
 Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they are facing their team-mates and
have their back to the board.
 As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this game.
 Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
 The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using synonyms, antonyms,
definitions etc. to their team mate who is in the hot seat - that person can't see the word!
 The student in the hot seat listens to their team mates and tries to guess the word.
 The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
 Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their place in their team's hot seat.
 Then write the next word…
 This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes. Or if the team sizes are large, you can
restrict how many team members do the describing for each turn.
Stop the Bus
It really gets students focused and working on tasks as a team and can be a savior to fill the last ten minutes of a
class when you have run out of ideas!

How to play:
 Put the students into teams of three or four.
 Draw on the board a table like the ones below and get each team to copy it onto a piece of paper.
 Students simply have to think of one item to go in each category beginning with the set letter.
 Give an example line of answers for the first time you play with a new group. The first team to finish shouts
“Stop the Bus!”
 Check their answers and write them up on the board and if they are all okay that team wins a point. If there are
any mistakes in their words, let the game continue for another few minutes.
 If it gets too difficult with certain letters (and you can’t think of one for each category) reduce the amount of
words they have to get. You can say. “Ok. For this round you can stop the bus with 4 columns”.

For higher levels you can make the columns slightly more challenging…

Or for even higher levels…

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Question Basketball
How to play
 Set up a basketball basket at the front of the room and draw a line towards the middle of the room
 Teacher asks a question/presents a flashcard and the student must answer.
 Students shoot the basketball from the line if they answer correctly, if they don’t they go to the back of the line
 Best to have a preset list of questions for this game, or some flashcards for younger learners

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10’s (Name 10/10 things)
How to play
 The teacher lists categories, whereby students are to name ten things within that category:
 The students write down 10 things they can think of in that particular category.
 The first person/team who completes a list of 10 reads their list.
 Other ideas are added and discussed from the class.
 The next category is read by the teacher and the game continues.

How to Make It
 The teacher can either have a list of categories on paper to read aloud, or the categories can be written on slips
of paper to be drawn at random from a container and read.
 The students use their own paper and writing materials (pen/pencil).

Variations
 The students can work with a partner or in teams.
 The categories can be adjusted to the age and ability of the students, and/or the categories can reflect recent
learning (skills and concepts) in class.
 There can be a limited time per category if you thinks it’s applicable. When the time is up, the person/team who
has the most answers reads their list first.
 The game can be played for points. Points can be awarded in several ways:
 The person/team with 10 correct answers first gets 5 points and no other person/team gets points.
 Each person/team is awarded points to match the number of correct ideas they had.
 Each person/team only gets points for correct answers that were not said by any other person/team and, in
addition, if a person/team names 10 answers before the time is up, they are awarded a bonus of so many points.
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Change Chairs
How to play
 Start with students in a closed circle, with the teacher standing in the middle to begin the game. There should
always be one less chair than participants.
 Depending on what you want to revise the teacher says, 'Change chairs if (you’re wearing trainers).' All students
who are wearing trainers must stand up, and move to another chair and the teacher should sit on one of the
recently vacated seats.
 The person left without a seat stays in the middle and gives the next command, 'Change chairs if you (have
brown eyes)' and so it goes on.
 Adapt for higher levels with commands such as, 'Change places if (you went to the cinema last weekend)', or
'Change places if you (would like to have less homework)'.

Young learners can get very excited with this game so make it clear from the beginning that pushing other students
out of chairs and similar behavior is not going to be tolerated! Be careful to incorporate this activity in the class at an
appropriate time. It is a definitely a ‘warmer’ as opposed to a ‘cooler’ and may be better at the end of a class.
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Run and Slap

How to play
 Put the vocabulary items/flashcards on the board or around the room in any order - jumbled and sometimes a
little bit higher than the tallest child can reach, so that they'll have to jump.
 Form groups. The students have got to recognize the word which the teacher says. They then run to the
board/card and slap the correct word/picture and say the word. The first person in each group to slap the right
word gets a point.
 You can do it with pictures so you put the pictures on the board and call out the English word and the kids slap
the picture.
 The teacher doesn't have to call out the English word, you can get other kids to call out so they're getting
practice speaking too.
 You can also put the flashcards around the room to mix the game up a bit.
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2 Truths 1 Lie
How to play
 Ask all players to arrange themselves in a circle.
 Instruct each player to think of three statements about themselves. Two must be true statements, and one must
be false. For each person, he or she shares the three statements (in any order) to the group.
 The goal of the activity is to determine which statement is false. The group votes on which one they feel is a lie,
and at the end of each round, the person reveals which one was the lie.

Variations to try
 An interesting variation of Two Truths and a Lie is “Two Truths and a Dream Wish.”
 Instead of telling a lie, a person says a wish. That is, something that is not true — yet something that the person
wishes to be true. For example, someone that has never been to Europe might say: “I often travel to Europe for
vacation."
 This interesting spin on the activity can often lead to unexpected, fascinating results, as people often share
touching wishes about themselves.
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Chinese Whispers/The Telephone Game

How to play
 Players sit in a circle or stand in a straight line. They need to be close enough that whispering is possible, but not
so close that players can hear each other whisper.
 The first person in the line or circle whispers a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing to
their right. This game is perfect for babies and young learners.
 Players whisper the phrase to their neighbors until it reaches the last player in line.
 The last player says the word or phrase out loud so everyone can hear how much it has changed from the first
whisper at the beginning of the circle or line.
 The word or phrase can only be whispered once, so players must pay close attention.
 Only one player – the first – should know what the word or phrase is. The facilitator of the game may wish to
have the original phrase or word written down.
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Connect 4 or more
How to Play
 One person (if playing with a partner) or one person called on from a team pronounces a word on the grid. If it is
pronounced correctly, a colored circle is drawn around the word.
 The opposing person or one team member pronounces a selected word. Likewise, if pronounced correctly, a
different colored circle is drawn around the word.
 The goal is to get 4 in a row correctly, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
 When one person/team wins, the game is over.
 The class can play with the same words again, scramble the words across a new grid or use new words.
 On the rare instance that there is a draw, begin the game over again or use a new grid.

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Variation
 Vary the words according to the age, ability, and interest of the students.
 Draw a 6×6 grid on the board. Over each column, write words that students typically have difficulty with.
 Right, Light, Clown, Crown, Stay, Stray, Bat, Bath, True, Through, …
 Spit the class into 2 teams: black circles and white circles.
 Draw circles in the grid corresponding with the word the student pronounces. Often times, you’ll hear light when
the student wants to say right, but you must place the circle in the column of the word that you hear.
 This game forces students to pronounce problem words correctly, otherwise they’ll lose.
 Pick students at random to keep the class focused.
 For higher level students you can ask them to make a sentence with the 6 target vocabulary.

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Sentence Showdown
How to Play
 Write a sentence at the top of the whiteboard/blackboard with the words jumbled.
 Write something like, “cat cute that so is” (That cat is so cute).
 Solve this example sentence yourself, eliciting help from your students to arrange the words properly.
 Once they understand the concept, split the class into 2 teams.
 Call on one student from each team to compete next.
 Once a student from each team is in position to write on their side of the board, it’s time to play.
 Write a new jumbled sentence at the top of the board. (or alternatively have a ppt file with sentences prepared)
 While the two students race to write the sentence correctly, encourage the class to help their teammates.
 The first team that writes the sentence correctly gets a point. The team with the most points at the end wins.

Easy: 1 point — “buffalo like smell you a” (You smell like a buffalo).
Medium: 2 points — “forever and me friends be you will” (You and me will be friends forever).
Hard: 3 points — “I’ve heard that’s thing ever funniest the” (That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard).

 Keep the pace of this game fast. Have at least 15 jumbled sentences prepared so the momentum of the game
doesn’t slow. If there’s too long of a lull in-between rounds, the students will get bored.
 This ESL game can be adapted to all levels of English proficiency. For younger learners, use very simple phrases
and sentences, sticking with material they’ve already learned.
 For advanced students, make the sentences difficult, or even introduce them to totally new words and phrases.
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Charades
How to play
 Break the class into 2 teams.
 Fill a hat with a bunch of vocab cut-outs listing jobs, animals, verbs, adjectives.
 Students from each team take turns coming to the front of class to perform a vocabulary word that they draw
from the hat. Their team has 30-60 seconds to guess.
 This is a good activity to act out verbs especially in adult classes, but prepare a preset list of verbs

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Tic-Tac-Toe
How to play
 Break the class into two teams: X’s and O’s
 Draw two tic-tac-toe grids on the board, side-by-side. One grid for reference and one for actually drawing X’s and
O’s.
 Write a response to a question in each square (I’m great, Noodles, America, 24 years old, Green …)
 Teams rotate asking questions (How are you? What’s your favorite food? Where are you from? …)
 Or you can just play the game with one grid where the students practice their pronunciation by saying a word.

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Pictionary
How to play
 Prepare a list of vocabulary words that the students should be familiar with.
 Break the class into 2 teams.
 One student from each team comes to the front of class to draw.
 Teams guess what their teammate is drawing.
 Enforce a strict hand-raising rule, otherwise all hell breaks loose.
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Word Relay/Word Chain
How to play
 Break the class into 2-3 teams, each team forms a line to the whiteboard.
 The first student in line writes a word. The next student in line writes a word that begins with the last letter of
the previous word.
 Turtle, elephant, turn, neighbor, read, draw, … until every student from a team has written a word.
 The first team to write a chain of 10-15 words wins the round.
 Make the game difficult by changing the variables (4-letter words only, nouns only, 5-letter words only, etc.)
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Tongue Twister Showdown
How to play
 Prepare a list of tongue twisters and print off two copies of each one. Have at least 15 tongue twisters prepared.
 Cut out each tongue twister onto a slip of paper, each with 2 copies.
 Break the class into 2 teams.
 Have one student from each team come to the front of class.
 Hand each student the same tongue twister and allow both of them to try to pronounce it correctly.
 The student with best pronunciation earns their team a point.

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Musical Statues
How to play
 Students move around while the music is playing then freeze into a statue when the music stops.
 Tell them to remain like a statue until the music starts again.
 Randomly stop and start the music. Surprise your child by varying the amount of time you play and pause the
music, and give different instructions like run, walk, crawl, hop etc.
 This activity is a great warmer or filler for baby classes, and you can even try to put your students of by getting a
hand puppet or cuddly toy to try and put them off!
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Bingo
How to play
 Give every student a bingo card or get them to make their own on paper/desk/whiteboard
 Call out the definition, word, phrase or question or describe the word/noun etc. instead.
 Students must then identify the word or picture on their bingo card and cover the space
 If a student has all words covered diagonally, across a row or vertically in a column, they shout BINGO.
 If a student claims they have BINGO and they are incorrect, they are disqualified from that round.

People Bingo – Alternative way to play

 Students create a bingo sheet.
 Each square has a different life experience on it (has a sister, owns a pet, plays a sport etc.)
 Students walk around the room and ask classmates if they have or haven’t done one of the given experiences.
 If the student meets the criteria they sign the square that applies to them.
 You can set a time limit to see who can fill out the most squares first, or see whoever can get BINGO first
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Pin the sticky ball on the donkey
How to play
 Download a picture onto the whiteboard of your classroom ensuring the projector blind is up
 Split the class into 2 teams, and have 1 student from each team face-off by answering a question, or saying the
word of the picture on a flashcard
 The student who answers correctly first is blindfolded (use a tie or facemask), spun around and given a sticky-
ball to stick on the board
 The aim of the game is to stick the sticky ball closest to the donkey’s backside.
 You can mark the students attempts by using a whiteboard marker so everyone can see their attempt
 After each student has had a turn to face off, the team with the closest attempt to the donkeys backside will be
the winning team
 This game is perfect for babies and much younger learners

Page 7
Taboo
How to play
 Make a list of vocabulary items you want to review, five to ten words per student
 Write each word on separate small squares of paper. Fold up each square and put them in a large easily
accessible container such as a box or a hat.
 Put students into groups of four or five and get them to think up team names, write them on the board.
 The first group elects a team member who comes to the front of the class where the box of words is.
 The player takes a word from the container and tries to describe it to their teammates without actually saying
the word or using their native language.
 If the word is successfully guessed by the team then students put it to one side. If not the word goes back in the
hat and the player takes another.
 After 90 seconds sound a buzzer, count how many words were successfully guessed and mark them up on the
board under the team name.
 Continue until every team member has taken a turn (or two) in the describing role.

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Balloon Volleyball
How to play
 This energetic game helps students to revise categories of words.
 Divide the students into four teams and create a large space in the classroom.
 Divide the space in two with a row of chairs. This acts as the volleyball net.
 Explain that the students are going to play in a balloon volleyball tournament.
 Invite two teams to play first. Have each team stood spread out on either side of the net.
 Give one student a balloon. You stand by the net and act as umpire. Start the game by calling out a category you
wish to revise, e.g. frequency adverbs.
 Every time the balloon is hit, either to another player or over the net to the other team, the student hitting the
balloon must say a word from the category. If the balloon hits the floor, a word is not said or a word is repeated,
the opposing team scores a point.
 Play for a couple of minutes, changing the category each time a point is scored.
 After another couple of minutes, repeat the game with the other two teams. The two teams with the most
points then face off in the final round of the balloon volleyball tournament to decide the winner.
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SUMO Flashcard Game
How to play
 Split the class into 2 teams
 2-6 students come up to the front of the class. Give each student a card which they hold in place on their back,
don’t let any student playing see any of the cards. Students use hands to hold flashcards behind their back
 The 2 students face each other and do a Sumo Wrestler pose. Teacher or the class chorally say 123 GO!
 Then they try to see the other persons’ card without using their hands by maneuvering around them
 Once a student has seen the other player’s card, they call out the answer.
 The first team/player to eliminate the opposition team are the winners.

Page 8
What’s Missing?
How to play
 Split the class into teams
 Place target flashcards on the board/floor/table with the picture facing up. Students sit in their teams so they
can see all the flashcards.
 Tell the students to close their eyes or go to sleep (be careful of cheating and deduct points from each team you
catch looking).
 When the class have their heads down, eyes closed, take away one or more of the flashcards. Then, tell the
students to wake up/open their eyes.
 The first student to spot and say the missing flashcard wins that round and gets a point for their team.
 Repeat the process increasing the amount of cards you take away.
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Teacher Says/Simon Says
How to play
 Make up actions for different vocabulary words. If your theme is sports then make up actions for “play soccer”
“go swimming” “play baseball” etc.
 If your theme is animals make up actions for “act like a dog” “act like a bunny” “walk like a turtle” etc. Actions
can be made for almost any theme.
 The students stand in a line. The teacher calls out a command like “Teacher says act like a bunny.” All the
students follow the command. If the command is not preceded with ‘Teacher says’ the students should not
perform the command.
 Any students who perform the command when ‘Teacher says’ was not said, is out and sits down. The last
student standing is the winner.
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Scattergories
How to play
 This works best for intermediate students.
 Divide the class into teams of 3. Pick 10 categories (examples: Cities, Food, Famous People, Cars, Countries,
Household Items, Animals, Languages, and Types of Clothing).
 Pick a letter (like "A") and start the timer. Each group has 2 minutes to come up with a word in each category
that starts with the letter "A".
 Teams get a point for each word that they come up with. However, if two teams write down the same word (for
example, two teams write down "apple" under the category of food) nobody gets a point.
 This is where the challenge of finding unique words comes in!
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Flashcard Frogs
How to play
 Split the class into 2-4 teams
 Have one student from each team stand at the back of the room
 You’ll show a flashcard and whichever student answers correctly first gets to jump forward as far as they can
 The first student to touch the whiteboard gets a point for their team
 Once every students had a turn the team with the most points win
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Hide the Flashcard

How to play
 One student steps out of the classroom and make sure the door is covered so that they can’t see into the room
 Choose another student to hide one of the flashcards from the context of the lesson anywhere in the room
 Invite the student outside of the classroom back into the room to ‘find the flashcard’. The rest of the class give
cues to the ‘finder’ by saying the vocab word loud when close to the flashcard, and softer when far away
 Give the ‘finder’ 1 minute to search and put the timer on the board so that students don’t get bored

Page 9
20 Questions
How to play
 Pick something/someone for your students to guess what it is (something simple and easy at first so that the
class can understand the rules/procedure of the game)
 The students get to ask 20 questions in which you have to reply Yes/No to try and figure out what the person or
thing is (is it a boy? Yes. Is he a singer? No. Is he from UK? Yes and so on etc.)
 Help the class in phrasing the questions and prepare a PPT slide on the board to assist them in this
 The students want to start with more broad questions and eventually work down to more specific ones after
being able to frame an idea of what your answer could be
 After you’ve had a few rounds with students you can open it for the students to pick something
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Boggle – Vocab Game
How to play
 Split the class into 2-3 students per team (maximum 3)
 Write some words on the board (good ones to use are Manchester United, Absolutely Amazing, Incredibly
Beautiful, Vocabulary and Pronunciation)
 Get students 5 minutes to form as many new words from the words written on the board. The students can use
each letter in the words/phrase once to form new words (3 e’s and 1 m in Manchester United for example)
 For example, c-h-e-s-t, m-a-n, s-t-a-r, etc. (in Manchester United) can all form new words.
 This is a good activity for a cooler and if you need to fill some time at the end of class.
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Ring Toss
How to play
 Split the class into 2 teams
 Set up the peg in the middle of the room and have one student from each team stand on opposite sides
 Each student gets 5 rings to try and toss onto the peg
 The student who gets the most of the 5 hoops onto the peg gets to answer a question, and earn the amount of
points as they have rings on the peg (3 successful throws = 3 points, 1 successful throw – 1 point etc.)
 If the students tie get them to do rock, paper, scissors
 If the student answers incorrectly the opposing student can answer to ‘steal’ the points from the other team
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Running Dictation
How to play
 Choose a short passage, dialogue, sentence, or even questions and put them up around the walls of the
classroom (or even the floor you are teaching on)
 Put the students in pairs or small groups. The aim is for one of the students in each pair to walk (or run!) to read
the passage on the wall. They remember some of the passage and walk (or run!) back to their partner
 They quietly dictate what they remembered to their partner, who writes it down. They then swap roles
 Over several turns they will build the whole passage. This means they really do have to run back and forth
because students will only remember three or four words at a time
 The winning pair is the team that finishes first - although you need to check for mistakes. If there are mistakes
(grammar or spelling), they must keep walking to check!
 A good idea is to teach them punctuation vocabulary beforehand if you want them to use the correct
punctuation in English
 Be mindful of the noise that students will make outside of the classroom as others classes will be studying too
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Fill In The Blank - Song Sheets

How to play
 Print of a song lyric sheet from the internet that has gap fills for the students to listen to a song and then
completing the lyrics – ensure that the song is appropriate for the level you are teaching (great for warmers)
 In class go on YouTube, get the song (no lyrics on screen) and have the students complete the sheet

Page 10
Jeopardy
How to play
 Play individually or in groups.
 Pick a category and a point value
 Click on the chosen box for the question. ($100, $200, $300, $400, $500)
 Students must give the answer in the form of a question before clicking again. The teacher may want to set a
time limit for answering the question.
 To see if a student or group is correct, click again for the answer.
 Click the “Back to Board” button on the slide to return to the main board.
 If the student or team is correct, they are awarded the point value of the question. (Click the “Score” button
located on the main board to add the point value to the appropriate team score.)
 The dollar values disappear after each question.
 Continue until all questions have been answered. The team with the most points wins.

For best results download a ppt editable version from the internet, there are so many templates that are free and
easily downloadable. Perfect for teen/adult classes

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Duck Duck Goose - Flashcard Game
How to play
 Students sit in a circle and the teacher starts by walking round the outside of the circle tapping the students on
the head saying "duck"
 When the teacher says "goose" the student whose head was touched must jump up and chase the teacher
round the circle. The teacher must sit down in the student's spot before being tagged.
 If tagged, the teacher must continue tapping heads. If not, the student walks around the circle touching heads.
 It might be easier to use vocabulary like "cat, cat, dog" or similar, or even "duck, duck, dog" to practice
awareness of 'u' vs 'o' and 'g' vs 'ck' sounds.
 Another method to play is using the flashcards related to the context of the lesson
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Slap the Desk

How to play
 Position the students desk in a circle and write a word on each students desk using a board marker
 If the lesson is about animals for example each student will have the name of an animal on their desk
 One student is positioned in the middle of the circle with a slapper
 The aim is for students to call out another word before the student in the middle is able to slap their desk
 There are 2 rules for the students sat in the circle…
(1) Students cannot say the word either side of them to their left or right
(2) The students cannot say the word of the person who has just said their vocab word.
 The person in the middle is trying to ‘slap the desk’ of the last word that was called out by the other players
before they can call out another players word
Page 11
Bowling
How to play
 This is a great game to review previous lessons
 Split the class into 2 teams, pick 1 student from each team to face-off against each other
 Ask them a question or show them a flashcard and the first student to answer correctly gets to bowl
 Have 6 pins and a ball, the student will get 1 point for each pin knocked down and 7 points for a strike
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Two Letter Board Race

How to play
 Split the class into 2 teams and get them to line up at the front of the class - draw a line for them to stand behind
 Write two letters at the top of the board (good variations I+N, A+T, O+S)
 Students will be timed (2 minutes per round) and will have a relay race in producing the most words containing
the two given letters
 1 point if the word contains one of the letters, and 2 points if the word contains both. The maximum number of
points for a word is 2.
 For example, if the letters are I+N, nose would be worth 1 point, sit would be worth 1 point, and sing would be
worth 2 points. Most points after 3 rounds wins!
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Fun Facts
How to play
 Depending on the context of your lesson, find 10-20 interesting facts on the internet related to the context of
the lesson (learning about technology, find facts on phones, cars etc.)
 You will then alter some facts so some are false while others are true (change percentages, dates, amounts,
names, etc.) Divide the class into teams and give each team a whiteboard and pen.
 Have the questions/facts prepared on PowerPoint slides and have everyone guess whether the fact is true or
false. For every correct answer they receive 1 point.
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Alphabet Game
How to play
 Draw a large grid on the board. Check out the example below.
 Put the class into 4 teams and draw a few feet back from the board
 One at a time, one student from a team comes up and throws a sticky ball at the board
 If they hit a letter, they will be asked a question and the answer will start with the same letter as where the
sticky ball landed (e.g. if they land on ‘G’ a question could be “what is something you wear to help your eyes see
well?” – answer: Glasses)
 Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) are worth 50 points, while consonants are worth 25 points
 If they land on a +points or –points square they just gain or lose the points – no question is given
 If they miss the board completely, that team will lose 10 points

U G E S C (+)25 Z
W D L H P A T
(+)50 A B (+)100 (-)100 D M
F J G (-)100 (+)100 K Y
N S I F B (-)50 Q
X T (-)25 O E R V

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Draw It Relay
How to play
 Divide the students into two teams.
 Whisper a flashcard to the first member of both teams and have them run to the board and draw the picture
quickly
 Award points to the fastest team that finishes first
 Encourage your students not to worry about the quality of their drawings. They don’t have to be perfect!
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Clusters
How to play
 Play any music and have the students walk, skip, jump, hop, etc. around the room randomly.
 Stop the music and call out a number between 1-8
 The students must quickly get together in a group or groups of that number, and the odd students must sit out
until the next round.
 This is a great activity for teaching or reviewing numbers and actions to young learners
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Crazy Train
How to play
 Students line up behind the teacher in a choo choo train line.
 Give commands such as "faster", "slower", "turn left", and "stop". "Jump 10 times", "Touch your (body part)",
"Touch (classroom object", "Turn around", "Stand up / Sit down"
 You can also get a student to be the leader, but they need to be confident enough to give commands to the class
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Concentration / Memory
How to play
 Have the students sit in a circle
 Spread out the flashcards (2 sets) face down
 Students take turns flipping over two cards and saying the vocabulary
 If the flashcards are a match, the student keeps the cards
 If they are different, they remain face down. The student with the most pairs is the winner
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Alphabet Soup
How to play
 Give each student an alphabet flashcard and have them skip around the room to the 'ABC Song'.
 Stop the song at random and have the students rush to line up in order, e.g. A-K.
 Great for baby classes and letter recognition
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Alphabet Shout Out

How to play
 Randomly choose an alphabet flashcard and award a point to the first student who shouts out a word beginning
with that letter.
 Perfect for reviewing, expanding on vocab, or letter recognition
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Spin the Bottle
How to play
 Use a bottle to ask each student questions (really good for warm-up activities)
 The teacher spins the bottle and asks the student it points to a question
 First ask basic warm-up questions and then move on to target structures or review structures

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What’s the time Mr. Wolf
How to play
 Have the student’s line up against the back wall.
 The teacher should stand with his/her back turned to the class
 The students must ask the teacher "What time is it, Mr. Wolf? (or teacher's name if easier)
 The teacher answers with a random time, e.g. "It's four o'clock" - the students take four steps toward the
teacher. The students should move the corresponding number of steps.
 If the teacher says "It's lunch time!” the students must run to safety at the back wall.
 The teacher chases the students and if tagged, the student must sit out until the next round.
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Spelling Game
How to play
 Put a name or word on the board and have teams or individuals make as many words as possible from those
letters, e.g. Brad Pitt = bat, rat, bad, at, etc.
 Set a time limit of 2-3 minutes per round, and have no more than 2-3 students per team
 Good phrases to use are Manchester United, and Absolutely Amazing
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Capture the Flag/Run and Get It

How to play
 Divide the class into two teams and have them stand in two lines at opposite ends of the room
 Assign each team member a number from one to however many players you have
 Place the flashcards in the middle of the two teams
 Call a number and a flashcard, e.g. "Student three - rabbit"
 The students assigned that number must run into the center and touch the flashcard and shout "rabbit". The
member who touched and called first can take the flashcard to their side
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Go Fish
How to play
 Have students choose two flashcards each
 Have the students hold the flashcards face up but not to show anyone
 Choose a student and ask "Do you have a cat?" If the answer is yes, they have to give you the flash card
 Have each student ask other students questions. A student with no cards is out
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Flash Card Act Out

How to play
 Choose one or more students to come to the front of the class
 Show a flash card or whisper a word, and have the students act it out
 Reward the first student to guess the correct answer
 This can be used with many subjects (e.g. sports, actions, verbs, animals, etc.)
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Follow the leader
How to play
 Sit the students in a circle
 Ask one student to step out of the room, and elect a leader from the remaining students in the room
 The leader will then start some sort of movement for the rest of the students to follow (e.g. rubbing their heads,
clapping their hands, stamping their feet etc.)
 Once the student returns from outside, and without knowing who the leader is, will walk around the room and
try to guess who the leader is. The leader should change actions every minute or so.
 The guessing student has 3 chances to figure out who the leader is

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Pass The Bomb
How to play
 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
 There are lots of digital 1, 2, or 3 minute bomb timers on YouTube which you can use
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4 Corners
How to play
 Get 4-6 flashcards and stick them around the room to the walls, spread out – not in the same place
 Teacher will sit by the teacher table so they can play/pause music to start/stop the game
 Students will wait for music to play, and move around the room until the music stops
 When the music stops students pick a flashcard and go to stand by that flashcard
 Teach will call out the name of one of the flashcards, any student stood under that card is out and sits down
 Game continues until there is a winner (when only a few students are left playing, 1 student per flashcard)
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Silent Ball/Alphabet Ball
How to play
 Have all the students stand in a circle, and give them a ball/dice/soft toy to pass around the room
 There are 2 ways to play this game –
(1) Silent Ball: If you are trying to calm down a class of young learners, then simply pass the ball/dice/toy to each
other in silence – if anyone makes a noise whilst passing, they are out. If they make a bad pass they are out too
(2) Alphabet Ball: Start each round with a letter of the alphabet that has been chosen by a student. The class will
begin by passing the ball/dice/toy around the circle, as a student catches the ball they will have to produce a word
for the chosen letter (A – apple, ant, angry etc.) If a student makes a bad throw, or drops the ball – they are out. If
they take longer than 5 seconds to answer, they are out.
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Alphabet/Word Relay Race

How to play
 Split the board in 2 and then split the class into 2 teams
 Write a word vertically down the board, same on both sides (for team 1 and team 2)
 Then stand a whiteboard marker for each team (red and blue) in a circle towards the back of the classroom,
make sure the pens are standing in an upright position
 Students will race to take the pen from its standing position, then run to the board to write a word for the first
letter of the word you wrote vertically on the board
 E.g. if the word is classroom the first student will produce a word beginning with ‘c’ and will be awarded 1 point
for each of the letters in that word (cat = 3 points, card = 4 points etc.)
 The student must then return the pen to its standing position in the circle before ‘high fiving’ a teammate for
them to write the next word – the next player cannot write a word until the pen is standing, not falling over
 The team with the most points once finished are the winners – you can set a time limit too to speed things up
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(1) Bluff
Team Vocab Definition
How to play
 Divide the class into two teams
 Each team will be given a list of words with which they may not yet be familiar
 They then prepare three definitions for each word – one is true, the other are made up by the students
 Taking turns, the team writes its word on the board and then announces the three definitions
 After a given period of time, the opposing team must choose which definition they think is correct
 The team will get a point for choosing the correct definition, or should they fail and choose the wrong definition
the points will revert to the opposing team

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(2) Bluff
Individual Vocab Definition
How to play
 Another variation is to split the class into 2 teams
 The teacher will call out a word, and ask the students on 1 team to stand if they know the definition of the word
 Each student that stands represents a potential point that team will receive
 However, the opposing team will choose 1 of the standing opponents to tell everyone the definition of the word
 If the student correctly defines the word, their team will receive a point for each student that is standing up
 If the student gets the definition wrong, or was bluffing, the points will revert to the opposing team
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Compound Noun Scramble

How to play
 Create a list of easily recognizable compound nouns
 Split the two words that make each of the compound nouns you’ve chosen and scramble the words
 Create a new word list with all of the separated compound nouns in several rows on the whiteboard
 Students will work on their own/in teams to match all of the words on the board to the regular compound nouns
 The first student or team to finish matching all of the original compound nouns are the winners
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Pass the Board
How to play
 Usually a good activity for Grammar and Vocab Bank corrections in teenager/adult classes
 Split the class into 2 teams and write a number of each desk of the students for both teams (if there is an uneven
number of students, the final player on the smaller team will have 2 numbers)
 Give each team a whiteboard and a board marker
 Using vocab/grammar banks/pre-made question list on ppt – pick a question, and ask a certain student to
answer it (e.g. I want question 3 answered by student No.8)
 The students then pass the board to the requested student, and whichever team answers first and correctly wins
a point for their team
 This activity is also very effective in teaching grammar rules, and structures, but you will need to prepare a ppt
file with some slides showing some basic questions/examples/gap-fills/multiple choice questions

Picture Description
How to play
 Download some pictures with a lot of things that can be described in the photo
 Split the class into teams and give one student from each team a whiteboard and marker
 Show the first picture and have the teams start writing down what they can see/describe/depict from the image
on the board – 1 point for every noun/adjective/verb, and 3 points for every sentence produced
 Time each round for each photo – no more than 3 minutes maximum
 For teenage students this is a good activity for teaching/expanding on adjectives and sentence structure
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Flower Vowel
How to play
 At the top of the board draw a circle with 5 petals coming from it like a flower
 In each petal, write one of the 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U), in the circle you write one consonant
 Whatever consonant you write in the circle (e.g. B) students will race to write a 5 words (e.g. Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu
(Battery, Beautiful, Bicycle, Boat, Butter)
 Split the class into small teams and have the students work together to produce words for review/new words
 Very good as a cooler for Everybody Up 5/6 students
 You can also write a 6 word sentence in each of petals and in the center, where the students have to put the
sentence back together again in the correct order

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The Otherside
How to play
 This activity is great for 6-9 year olds and serves as a decent warmer
 Draw a line in the center of the room and sit on the stool (also in the middle of the room)
 The aim of the game is to say something that facilitates part of the class having to cross to the otherside, (E.g.
boys, girls, students wearing glasses, long hair, black shoes etc.)
 The students who match your description have to move to the other side of the line you have drawn without
being touched by the teacher.
 If the teacher touches a student, that student will be out
 The teacher cannot stand up from the stool and has to keep their eyes closed
 When there are only a 1-2 students left they are declared the winners
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Bang!
How to play
 Have the students stand or sit in a circle and write a category on the board (e.g. animals, transport, food etc.)
 You will then stand in the circle of the circle and quickly point at one of the students
 The student you point to has to duck fast (as if they are dodging a bullet) and the 2 students to their left and
right will race to say a word from the chosen category on the board – the slowest student of the 2 is out
 If the students you point to does not duck or accidentally tries to answer then they are out
 Once there are 2 students left, they are the winners. Change the category after each round
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Sticky Darts
How to play
 Draw a large dartboard on the board (5 circles, each circle is worth points ranging from 1-5, outside the circle is
minus one, point -1)
 Split the class into two teams and have 1 student from each team (equipped with a whiteboard and marker)
faceoff against each other at a time
 You can have them either answer a question, unscramble a word, or fill-in the missing letters of a word
(depending on the level) in order to determine who gets the to throw the sticky ball at the dartboard for points
 E.g. if your vocab word is ‘phone’ you can have them unscramble (hnpeo) or fill-in missing letters (_ho_e)
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Pyramid Game
How to play
 Draw a large 5-layered pyramid on the board. The first layer should have 3 spaces
 The second/third/and fourth layer should have 2 spaces, and the fifth layer has one space
 Each layer of the pyramid is worth different points.
 The first layer is worth 100 and each layer goes up by an additional 100 points – 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500
 You will then write yourself an answer key (I usually make three answer keys to play three rounds of the game)
 Fill in the spaces of the pyramid with different words, easier words on the bottom and more difficult words
further up the pyramid
 Split the class into 3 teams and have 1 person from each team stand with a whiteboard and marker in front of
their team with their back to the board
 The teams will then try and describe the words on the pyramid (no Vietnamese/No spelling) to their teammate
with the whiteboard
 When they correctly write a word they will be hold it up above their head and you as the teacher will erase the
corresponding word from the pyramid and write the teams number (1, 2, or 3) in the space
 After all the words are gone you will add up all the points each team has earned
 After three rounds the teams with the most points wins!
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Battle Board
How to play
 Draw a 5x5 grid on the board, number the squares 1-5 vertically and A-E horizontally
 Split the class into teams, each team starting with 5 lives
 You will have to write an answer key for yourself, filling each square with a symbol that represents a rule/action
Here are the different symbols and their meanings:
 2G - ‘2 Guns’ the team that picks this square can take 2 lives from one team or take 1 life from 2 teams
 1G - ‘1 Gun’ the team that picks this square can take 1 life from any team
 Bomb - the team who picks this square loses 1 life
 Angel - The team that picks this square gains a life
 Shield - The team that picks this square gets a shield that protects them from attacks by other teams.
However, if a team picks a bomb, they won’t be protected. They will lose their shield as well as a life
 Present - The team that picks this square has to gift another team with an extra life
 Zombies – When this square is chosen any team that have lost all their lives get to come back into the game
and will receive 2 lives
 You can use this activity as a review for Everybody Up classes with flashcards or with teenagers and adults using
vocab or trivia questions
 Playing the game you can allow teams to take a turn each and answer individually, or have all teams compete
and race to answer the question first
 The teams will answer questions (either with flashcards or trivia questions) and if the team answers correctly
they get to pick a square on the battle-board
 A team wins if all other teams have lost their lives or if all 25 squares have been chosen and their team has the
most lives left
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Bring Me…
How to play
 Basic game that I usually on play with lower level Everybody Up students
 Split the class into 2 teams and have one student from each team stand up and join you at the front of the class
 You’ll ask the students to ‘bring you’ something from around the room and whoever can bring it back to you first
wins a point. E.g. “bring me 3 crayons” – “bring me 4 pencil cases” – etc. etc.
 You can also use flashcards and put them around the room, just instead the students listen for the vocab word
 Make sure there are 2 or more of whatever you are asking for, to reduce the risk of students arguing/fighting
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Colour Conquer
How to play
 Typically to correct vocab/grammar banks or as a review with flashcards
 Draw a large grid on the board and split the class into 2 teams
 The game is played like connect 4, except using a sticky ball
 Pick a question or show a flashcard and whichever student answers correctly first gets to throw the sticky ball at
the board and claim that square for their team color (red vs blue)
 1 point for correct answer, 4 points if your team can get 4 squares in a row (alternatively you can play until a
team reaches four in a row and end the game)
 Also if a team lands on a square owned by the other team, then that square is converted
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True or False
How to play
 For reading lessons, make a pre-set list of questions about the reading text
 Split the class into teams of small groups with a maximum number of team member at 3
 Give the class a few minutes to read the text and remember as many details about the text as they can
 After the set time to read and remember is up, all students close their books
 Ask questions or have prepare ppt slides with the questions on, the first team to answer correctly wins a point

Page 18
Team Countdown
How to play
 Split the class into teams (maximum 3 per team) and have students from each team faceoff at the same time
 For each round each team will alternate control of which 9 letters are selected for the game (there must be at
least 3 vowels and 4 consonants chosen every round)
 The aim is for a player to make the longest word possible using the 9 letters provided within a minute
 Points are given based on the amount of letters used in the longest word a player has come up with
 Additionally, the team that has control of the chosen letters will be able to double their score if their team
member comes up the longest word
 E.g. if 1 team has control of the letters and their team member wins the faceoff, then that score is doubled
 However, if team 1 has control of the letters and the opposing team member from team 2 wins the faceoff, then
their score is doubled
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Capture Cube
How to play
 Draw three lines on the floor (two at both ends of the room and one in the middle of the room with a circle
drawn in the center)
 Place a foam dice a the center of the room and split the class into 2 teams
 Choose 3 students from each team to stand at opposite ends of the room (6 total)
 Pair students from opposing teams by giving them a mutual vocab word (e.g. each student on a team gets a
different vocab word, but the same three vocab words are used for both teams)
 The teacher will then shout out one of the vocab words and the student on each team assigned that word will
run to the center of the room to try and grab the cube
 If a student can grab the cube and run back to their side of their room then they’ll earn a point for their team
 However, if their opponent tags them before they make it back behind their line, then the other team steals the
point instead
 If a student steps over the middle line before someone grabs the cube then with will forfeit the point
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7 words
How to play
 Played similarly to hot seat
 Split the class into 2 teams and bring 4 desk to the front of the classroom in a grid of 4 so that team 1 and 2 are
sitting side by side, facing each other
 One student from each team will have their back to the board and their teammate will have to describe the 7
words you write on the board
 Students will race to describe the words to their teammate the best they can without speaking Vietnamese,
spelling, or saying any part of the word
 The students with their backs to the board have to write to their answers on a mini-whiteboard and hold it up
above their head when they think they have the answer
 If they correctly guess one of the 7 words, you cross that word out
 When all 7 word are guessed, you add up the students score to their team total
 Once every student has had a turn to play, the highest team total wins
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Page 19