Basic Games and Activities

    Below is a list of different games and activities for the classroom. I have drawn this list from my own experience in different classes, things I have learned from fellow teachers or in seminars, from resource books or any and all of the above. Many I didn't come up with myself and some I have either used myself or conducted in class but not all. Ideas like these can be helpful for teaching, especially for language learning or speaking based courses

Different Miscellaneous Language Learning Activities

Warm Up/Cool Down Routines

• Create some type of routine to begin a class, session, lesson or portion of the class to transition. Could be a song, cue, physical motion, Word of the Day, Poem of the Day, quote, etc.
• To-Do List for the class that day. Write on the board what activities you will cover

Activities To Work On Pronunciation

• Tongue Twisters
• Songs, Poems, Children's Nursery Rhymes
• Riddles
• Anagrams, Palindromes, etc.

Semantic Web (Brainstorm)

• Write a word or topic on the board. From that word draw lines into subcategories or just other words as they come up. Draw lines to see how those words relate to other words.

K-W-L Chart

• K - Know, W - Want To Know/Learn, L - Learned. A useful activity for readings or for different units.
• Also can make similar charts of Pro's & Con's, Venn Diagrams, etc.

I Spy...

• Everybody knows this one. Think of something in a room, say "I spy something...", the other players have to guess what it is.

Call My Bluff/Two Truths, One Lie

• Many different ways to do this, could invert to Two Lies, One Truth. Say three statements, allow the Students to ask as many questions as they like or in a set amount of time. Then have them vote on which they think is the odd one out and then reveal.

My Partner's Biography

• Have the Students divide into pairs or small groups. Have them ask either a set of questions or as many as they can for a certain set of time. Then have the Student(s) introduce their partner without the partner talking, could be to complete a set of questions or to talk for a set amount of time, such as 2 minutes.

Numbers Game

• Write a set of different numbers that have some type of significance to you. Have the students guess what they mean. Also for students to do and have their classmates ask them.

Find A Person Who...

• Draw a grid either on the board or on a piece or pieces of paper. Write different things for the students to ask other students about. Review who did or didn't do different things. Also good for an icebreaker.

Simon Says

• Everybody knows this, if Simon Says, the players must do the action, if you don't say Simon Says before the direction the player is eliminated until there is a winner.

Hangman

• This can be used to review more basic vocabulary, to work on more uncommon spellings or to kill time.

Words from Words

• This can be used to try to get the students to recognize different words in the Target Language. For example, write a word like 'international' and see how many words they can make from it without using the same word (in, at, art, ton, etc.).
• Other games like this can be Boggle, there are simulators online, or other similar wordsearches.

Who Am I?

• Either the Teacher or Students write on pieces of paper the names of relatively well-known people. The participants draw a name randomly, place it on their forehead and have to ask questions to guess who the person is.
• Similar to 20 Questions, variation on a theme.
• Also can use a Guess Who? game template or make your own with other people.

Vocabulary Envelope

• Useful to review vocabulary from different units. Keep a running list of vocabulary. This could be in a physical manner, like writing the vocabulary on pieces of paper and putting them in a box or envelope. Can use to make a game or to draw randomly and see if the Student remembers what they mean, like flashcards

Post-It Mania

• Set a certain time limit. Have the Student(s) write on Post-It's either names or descriptors of things in a given area. This is especially useful to review vocabulary in a classroom or different adjectives. Can mark points for how many the Ss come up with and can cancel out if two groups write the same word.

Prepositions: Listen and Draw

• Have an image or draw one on a piece of paper. Don't let the Students see it. Describe out loud the image and have the Students draw it on their own piece of paper. When finished, show the Students the image and see how they differ.

Memory

• Also helpful with combining written words and images, also with synonyms, antonyms, homophones, irregular verbs.

Cat Dog

• Good for younger students to practice numbers. Have the students count up but replace numbers with 2's with Cat and 5's with Dog (one, Cat, three, four, Dog,...).

Telephone/Whisper Down The Lane

• Have either the Teacher or a Student think of or write down a phrase. Then have each student, in a line, say what they hear to the next student until it circles back to the last Student who says what they heard to the class.

Categories

• Good to reinforce different descriptors. Similar to I Spy, "How many things in this room are (round, green, soft, etc.)..." . Could also do as a written exercise as well as speaking.

Don't Just Stand There, Strike A Pose

• Useful to practice giving and receiving directions, prepositions or verbs. Could start out by modeling, tell the students to move into a certain pose and then move from that and on and on.

Basic Recipe with Paper

• Have the student describe how to make an easy food. Instead of real food, have the Student(s) physically act out the steps with pieces of paper.
• Recipes are also helpful to review imperatives and impersonal 'you'.

The Never-ending List

• This can be used to test memory and for categories. For example, begin with something relevant to a topic, such as school materials, and start with "When I came to school, I brought my... pen" Then the next Student says the same cue adding something to the list. Go around adding things to the list eliminating as someone messes up until one person is left.

Ideal Roommate/Partner/(other thing)

• Have the Student(s) write a list of attributes for some type of scenario, looking for a roommate on Craigslist, Idealista, whatever, and what they want or don't want. Could also be used for a kind of speed dating, house hunting, etc.

Feelings & Pictures, also Emojis

• Can use images, pictures or emojis to review emotions and feelings, also having the students draw their own.

Comic Strips

• Many different activities can be used with comic strips or cartoons. One could be to use comics with blank word bubbles and the students have to write in what the characters are saying. Then the Teacher could show what the original dialogue was, if there was any. Another idea is the New York Times Cartoon Caption Contest format. Another is to take a comic strip, divide the slides randomly among teams of students. The students cannot show the other teams their slide but have to describe it verbally to the other teams. Then they have to guess in which order they go in. This is best with comics without dialogue and for higher level students.

What's Going On In This Picture?

• Part of the New York Times <https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture>, the idea can be used with any image. Find an image, have the Student(s) describe it and have them try to guess what is actually happening in the picture or where it came from. Can also be used to test the Students' knowledge of popular culture or current events.

Desert Island Activities

• Write a list of a certain number of things you would bring on a desert island and why.
• Sinking Boat Activity: Another activity is to give a list of different tools, like 10. The boat the group of Students is in is sinking and they have to get rid of one or two of the tools and why.

Speed Review of News Articles

• This activity works best with groups of four Students. The idea is to have four different articles about a given topic. The Students are split up into different groups and given a certain amount of time to quickly read the article, say 3 minutes. They then tell someone from another group about the article in less than a minute, summarizing the key points. They then take turns going down a line reviewing all the articles. Then the Students from a given group present to the class the article. This can get a bit confusing but it can be good for students to try to concentrate on larger ideas and key information.

When Did You Last...?

• This is a good speaking exercise for lower levels. This can also be good for talking about certain types of events in the past like past holiday seasons. Have a list of different activities and ask Students "When did you last... (go to a restaurant)?" or what have you, then ask follow-up questions. Students can continue by asking other Students.

And Then The Phone Rang...

• Have an open-ended story to get the Students to think creatively about what could happen and why. Could also do in different groups. Start with something happening, like "He was watching TV and then the phone rang." Have them come up with circumstances surrounding what is happening, then give some type of clue, like the letter M or the number 11.

Catch The Murderer

• Better for higher levels and for longer allowance of time. Divide the class into 3 groups, police, subjects and the jury. Give enough time to prepare for questions, responses, alibis, etc. Can make up a story about the person who died, can have as much or as little information prepared as desired. This can focus on the past tenses, past simple, continuous, perfect, etc.

Ruckzuck (adapted from the British Council)

• Divide the class into groups of 5 people. Out of 5, 4 are sent out of the room. The one left is Player 1, Player 1 is given a word. Player 1 must describe it to Player 2 until they get the word. Player 2 cannot describe the word in the same way to the next player. Each smaller group is given a limited amount of time for the whole group to guess the correct word.

Phrasal Verb Dicing

• This is useful to help Students become familiar with different English phrasal verbs and their uses. This is also helpful to do sporadically or from time to time. Write a common phrasal verb on the board or piece of paper then write different prepositions to see if they make sense and explain to Students the different meanings. Or, for a more structured activity, write two lists of equal amounts of verbs (like go, come, get, give, take, put) and prepositions (like back, away, off, over, up and out) where each combination has a valid meaning. For example, 6 verbs and 6 prepositions or adverbial particles, then write numbers 1-12 on pieces of paper, have the Students draw from the two lists randomly. The groups of Students have to give a sentence that properly explains what it means.