Hangman English Activity

An oldie but a goodie, hangman is a classic activity that can act as a quick time
filler or a chance to reinforce key words for students in the process of learning
English.
Choose a word and draw lines on the blackboard to represent each of the
letters that makes up the word. Ask a student to guess a letter, if they are
correct then write the letter in the corresponding space on the black board and
if they are wrong then draw another part of the hangman picture.
Keep asking students to guess letters until they know the word or the hangman
picture is completed. If they successfully guess the word they win but if the
hangman picture is completed then you win, easy but fun.
If the hangman imagery is a little intense then feel free to change the picture
to something more suitable, I've used a hot air balloon with strings that get
erased in the past and that worked well.
ESL Classroom Activity - Fun English Games.
Tic Tac Toe
If you're looking for an easy activity to finish the last few minutes of an ESL
class while reinforcing some of the things the students learnt then give this fun
tic tac toe game a try.
Draw a large noughts & crosses table on the whiteboard/blackboard and
explain to the students that they will be playing you, the teacher, in a classic
game of noughts and crosses.
The difference with this version of tic tac toe is that there isn't alternative
turns, you will instead be asking the students questions relevant to what they
have been learning, if they answer correctly then they can draw a 'O' but if
they are wrong then you can draw an 'X'.
Ask a range of students questions until either they or you have a line of three
consecutive O's or X's. It's a simple activity but a fun way to finish the class,
especially if the students win

Final Class Auction

Having a final class auction is a both a fun classroom activity and a great way
to wrap things up with your students, this is always my favourite class of the
school year.
I usually do the class in 2 parts, the first involving a team quiz where the
students get given fake money depending on how well they did in the quiz, and
the second involving the auction itself.
You might like to give out the fake money evenly or based on a different
method but if you choose to do a quiz you'll find plenty in our quiz section.
Once they all have some fake money to work with you can either let them bid
individually or as groups (perhaps the teams they were already in if you did a
quiz).
Before the class I usually go out and buy 5 or 6 cheap prizes including anything
from candy to stickers and small toys, it's up to you what to choose but it often
depends on the age of your students (older students might not be so keen on
stickers for example).
I also like to throw in a few 'duds' to keep them on their toes, the older
students tend to find it hilarious when their friends win 'mystery bags' with
terrible prizes in them.
Stand at the front of the room with a countdown of how many items are left in
the auction written on the whiteboard/blackboard and start the bidding at a
small price to get things rolling. Let the students raise their hands and call out
their bids in English until someone bids a price that no one else is willing to
match, after they hand over the fake cash the prize is theirs!
Continue until all the prizes are gone remembering to give yourself enough
time to gather up all the fake money before the class ends.
Fast Answer Race
Put your ESL student's mental reflexes to the test with a fast answer race. This
simple classroom activity involves two teams of students racing each other to
correctly answer your questions.
It's a good activity for learning opposites (antonyms) and parts of the body.
While you can play the game using whatever type of questions you would like
to, I'll be using opposites in this example.
Split the students into two lines however you wish, this can be boys v girls,
young v old or simply those who sit on the right side of the classroom v those
who sit on the left.

The students at the front of the line have one chance to listen to the word you
say and correctly say the opposite word before the opposing student can do so.
If they are correct then they can sit back down at their desk while if they are
wrong or too slow then they have to return to the back of their respective
team's line.
Continue this process until one of the teams has everyone sitting back down at
their desk, they are the winners! Make sure the other waiting students remain
quiet to keep the game fair and feel free to play more than one round to give
the losing team a chance to improve. You can even introduce a points system
where the winning team gets an amount of points equal to the number of
students left in the other team's line.
Here are some examples of the opposites (antonyms) I use:
fast - slow
happy - sad
heavy - light
good - bad
high - low
hot - cold
in - out
north - south
on - off
new - old
left - right
tall - short
true - false
east - west
yes - no
up down
How Many Words Can You Make?

Working individually or in groups, students try to make as many English words

as they can from the letters that make up a word of your choice.

Write the word on the whiteboard/blackboard and give them 5 to 10 minutes

(or however long you feel they need) to finish before checking that their words
are valid and spelt correctly. Whoever makes the most words wins!
Alternatively you could assign points depending on the length of the words
created, i.e. 2 points for 2 letters words, 3 points for letter words etc.
Here's an example of words that can be made from the letters in 'English':
7 letters: shingle
6 letters: single, sleigh, hinges
5 letters: shine, hinge, sling, lines
4 letters: legs, sigh, line, sing
3 letters: his, leg, she, gel
2 letters: hi, he, in, is
Cat Dog Counting Game
If you've got a few minutes to spare then this counting game is always a good
time filler.
Explain to the class that they will simply be counting from 1 to 40, one at a
time from one end of the class to the other. The only catch is that they must
replace all multiples of 5 with the word 'cat' and all multiples of 7 with the word
'dog'. A multiple of both 5 and 7 (i.e. 35) must be replaced by 'cat-dog'.
It might sound easy but once you get the speed up it can be easy to make a
mistake. It can be difficult for native speakers of English to keep track of the
numbers but it's even tougher when English isn't your first language.
Get started and see how far your class gets before they make a mistake, can
they make it to 40? If the activity is too easy for them then feel free to make
any number that includes a 5 or a 7 also require the word 'cat' or 'dog',
increase the goal to 100 or just give them less and less time to say the next
number. You can also try eliminating students that make a mistake in order to
find your classroom's Cat Dog Counting champion!
Just to be sure, this is how the basic version of the game should go:

1, 2, 3, 4, cat, 6, dog, 8, 9, cat, 11, 12, 13, dog, cat, 16, 17, 18, 19, cat, dog,
22, 23, 24, cat, 26, 27, dog, 29, cat, 31, 32, 33, 34, cat-dog, 36, 37, 38, 39, cat.
Countries of the World
Countries of the World is a fun ESL classroom activity that helps students
remember the English names of various countries from around the world.
Split your class into teams of between 4 and 6 students and number each
team. Give them space on the whiteboard/blackboard to write the names of as
many different countries as they can, one team at a time.
Let a student from the first team come to the front and write the name of any
country in the world, a member of the second team then comes to the front
and does the same, the catch is that they can't repeat a country already used.
The game gets progressively more difficult as the number of countries left
available runs out. If a team can't think of a new country then they are out of
the game, while the others continue until there is only one team remaining, the
winners!
You can be lenient on spelling but make sure they don't have access to any
maps or geography books which could lead to an unfair advantage.
If the game takes too long or the students find it a little easy then feel free to
play the game in a similar fashion to the Animal Alphabet Relay, where the first
letter of each country chosen is removed from the alphabet, i.e. if the first
team chooses Australia then 'A' is erased from the whiteboard and other
countries starting with 'A' such as Austria and Angola can't be used.
Linking Letters and Words

Linking Letters and Words is a quick and easy classroom activity that will
challenge your ESL students to think of a range of English words as fast as
possible.
You begin by saying a word, the first student will then think of a new word that
begins with the last letter of your word, the following student will do the same,
taking the final letter of the previous word and using it as the first letter of a
new word.

For example if the first word is car then the next word could be red, followed
by, dog, golf, food and so on.

The catch is that students have to think quickly and not repeat any word that
has already been used, if they repeat a word or are too slow then they are out
of the game.
If it's a little easy for your class then you can introduce further rules such as
making the words all part of one topic. For example the words might have to be
related to sport, starting with bat, tennis, soccer etc.
Truth or Lies
This fun ESL classroom activity is played in a similar way to Rows and Columns,
with the difference being that rather than answer standard questions, students
must listen to a statement from you and decide whether you are telling the
truth or lying.
Ask the students to stand up at their desks and find a student who will go first
(or alternatively ask for a volunteer). They need to listen carefully to your
statement and decide if you are lying or telling the truth.
If the student is correct then they can choose either their row or column to sit
down with them, if the student is incorrect then nobody gets to sit down.
Continue the game until everyone sits down.
Feel free to adapt the game to suit your students and teaching style.
Here are some examples of statements I use when playing this game of truth
and lies (throwing a few funny ones in there is always a good idea):
I live on the moon.
Today is the day after yesterday.
I am older than you.
Tennis balls are square.
I wear shoes on my hands.
Hours are longer than minutes.
All girls have short hair.
We are not outside.
I have blonde hair.
Tokyo is in Japan.
I am friends with Tom Cruise.

Unscramble Words
This ESL classroom activity involves a fun anagram game where students
unscramble jumbled words that you write on the whiteboard/blackboard.
Prepare a range of scrambled words (something related to what you've been
teaching in your class works well) that can be put into easy (1 point), medium
(2 points) and hard (3 points) categories. Split the class into groups of around 4
to 6 students and have a student from the first group choose a category.
Once you have written the scrambled word on the whiteboard/blackboard the
team of students have around 1 minute to come up with the answer (while the
rest of the class stay silent). Continue the process with the other teams while
keeping track of the scores.
To change things up a little feel free to let other teams guess the anagram if
the original team are unsuccessful in their 1 minute, giving them the chance to
take each other's points.
As well as having 3 categories of difficulty you might like to have different word
categories ready to go such as animals, clothes, body parts, fruit and sport.
You can find a large number of examples in our word scramble section but here
are a few of the animals I use:
Easy (1 point)
bird - drbi
dog - dgo
cat - tac
lion - olin
Medium (2 points)

frog - rgfo
myoekn - monkey
tiger - greti
eagle - leeag
Difficult (3 points)
elephant - tpnlehea

giraffe - gfriefa
donkey - oendyk
crocodile orcdcielo
Guess the Action
Help ESL students remember a range of important English verbs with this fun
classroom activity where they attempt to guess the actions performed by their
classmates.
The game plays like a simple version of charades where a student receives a
secret word and tries to act it out to the other members of the team.
Before you start you'll need to make small pieces of paper with a range of
secret words written on them. You can use any type of words you want but I
find verbs are best for this type of game so that's what I'll be using in this
example.
To make the game interesting you can have easy words (worth 1 point),
medium words (worth 2 points) and hard words (worth 3 points).
Here are some examples of words I use:
Easy (1 point): Eating, sleeping, running, singing, flying, cleaning
Medium (2 points): Laughing, studying, looking, throwing, talking, cooking
Hard (3 points): Thinking, pointing, lifting, climbing, opening
Split the class into teams and ask a student to choose easy, medium or hard.
Give them around 20 seconds to act out the word in front of their group (while
other teams stay quiet). Continue the process with the other teams while
keeping track of the scores and see who wins!
You might like to let other teams guess the word if the original team are
unsuccessful in their 20 seconds, giving them the chance to earn extra points.
One Part Drawing
One Part Drawing is a fun ESL classroom activity which is great for reinforcing
keywords related to parts of the body as well as clothes and accessories such
as glasses and hats.
To get started, split the classroom into teams, preferably into columns or rows
so you don't have to move desks around and they can easily pass sheets of
paper between each other. If there's plenty of whiteboard/blackboard space
then you can use that but sheets of paper work fine otherwise.

The aim of the game is for each student in the team to draw one part of an
animal, person or character, combining their efforts to hopefully produce
something resembling the real thing. The students must listen carefully to the
part you say at each point, quickly drawing it and passing the drawing on to
the next student so they can do the same. You then judge the completed
drawings at the end of each round and award points to the teams who did best.

For example, you might tell them to draw a monkey. With each team ready to
go, say the first body part, which might be "tail!" the first student then has
around 10 seconds to draw a monkey tail somewhere on the paper before
passing it on to the next student in the team. "Ears!" might be the next part,
the mouth, arms and so on. Mixing up the body parts adds to the fun so feel
free to announce them in any order you please.
Change the order after each round so whoever started the first drawing finishes
the next or allow them to move around as they please between rounds. A good
idea is to allow the last person to draw "anything!" to give them a chance to
complete a possibly disjointed picture.
Here are some examples of things I got my Japanese ESL classes to draw:
Animals: monkey, giraffe, cat, dog, panda, koala, tiger
People: yourself, Ichiro, Harry Potter
Characters: Pikachu, Super Mario, Anpanman, Minnie Mouse, Doraemon,
Sponge Bob
And here's an example of the order I would get them to draw the parts in:
Monkey: ears, tail, mouth, arms, legs, body, head, nose, anything
Giraffe: neck, legs, body, eyes, nose, ears, head, anything
Harry Potter: broom, glasses, legs, arms, body, clothes, head, anything
World Travel Trip
Help ESL students improve their listening skills while they learn the names of
different countries from around the world with this fun classroom activity.
Before you start you'll need a number of small pieces of paper (one for each
student in the class) with a different country written on each one. Here are
some of the countries I use:
France, Australia, Italy, Greece, USA, Japan, England, Mexico, New Zealand,
China, Germany, Switzerland, Iraq, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Egypt, South

Africa, Ireland, Russia, Belgium, Korea, Argentina, Morocco, India, Spain,

Canada, Nigeria, Scotland, Thailand.
Hand out the pieces of paper to the students (one each) and let them read
which country they have. Explain to them that you are going on a world travel
trip and each one of the students is a destination on your journey.
You will read out clues to the next location and it's up to the students to listen
carefully and raise their hand when they think it's their country that the clues
are referring to. Pretend to fly across the room, check the students piece of
paper to make sure they are the intended destination, read out the next clue
and continue on until you've been to every country in the room.
Make sure you organize the order beforehand as well as the clues that you will
read out. The type of clues you use depends of the level of your class but here
are some examples of clues I use:

France - Eiffel Tower

Australia - Kangaroos
USA - Statue of Liberty
Brazil - Famous for soccer
Egypt - Pyramids
South Africa - Animal safaris
Forming Sentences with Words
This fun ESL classroom activity involves students using a range of English
words to form sentences that make sense.
Before you start you'll need to cut out a number of small pieces of paper,
enough for one per student and preferably more. After this, write a range of
different words on the pieces of paper remembering that you'll need a wide
variety to ensure it's actually possible for the students to form correct
sentences.
That means using everything from adjectives to nouns, verbs and adverbs etc.
Here are a few examples of words that will probably come in handy:
a, it, the, she, is, we, of, house, car, fast, slow, blue, went, live, happy, up, to,
he, sister, will, no, yesterday, who, go, food, dad, see, run, small, am, I, rabbit,
movie, meet, but, think, can, space, fly, because, so, there, on, should, under,

here, be, my, red, eat, not, today, tree, school, why, really, please, yes, quiet,
off.
It's a good idea to make to make multiple versions of important words and feel
free to throw a few funny ones in there too.
Randomly hand out the pieces of paper to the students so they each have one
word. Tell them they have around 5 minutes (or however long you decide) to
form sentences with other students (they don't need to worry about
punctuation).
Once they think they have formed a correct sentence they should let you know
so you can check it, if it makes sense, those students can sit down.
The other students continue to try and form sentences until they are successful
and sitting down, the 5 minutes has elapsed or there are just no more
sentences that can possibly be made.
Record the number of students who were unable to be part of a proper
sentence and try to beat it in future rounds. Remind the leftover students that
some words can be harder to use than others so they shouldn't feel bad.
Rows and Columns
Rows & Columns is a handy ESL classroom activity that can be played a
number of different ways depending on class numbers, your student's level of
English and the type of questions you want to ask.

It can be used to cover things learned in previous lessons, to reinforce key

ideas or simply as a fun time filler at the end of a class.
Have all the students stand up at their desks and find a student to answer the
first question (or alternatively ask for a volunteer). Ask the student a question,
it can be true or false, multi choice or anything related to what theyre
currently learning.
If the student answers correctly they can choose either their row or column to
sit down with them, if they answer incorrectly nobody gets to sit down.
Continue the game until everyone sits down.
Its always fun to see which of their friends the students will keep happy when
choosing either their row or column. You can control the game as you see fit by
giving lower level students plenty of chances and asking bright students more
difficult questions.

To make things more challenging you can introduce a penalty system where a
wrong answer forces both the row and column of that student to stand up
again. There are a lot of variations to this activity so feel free to adapt it your
students, classroom and teaching style.
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
You can probably guess from the title what this ESL activity is all about. Split
your classroom into groups (I use 4 groups of 10 but it can be easily changed to
suit how many students you have) and then have them take turns answering
true or false questions until they choose to stop and 'bank' their money or until
they get a question wrong and lose everything. If you have a full class of 40 (4
x 10) then write the following prize money scale on the whiteboard (if there are
only 32 (4 x 8) then take out maybe the $500 and $500000).
$0
$500
$1000
$5000
$10000
$25000
$50000
$100000
$250000
$500000
$1000000
Ask the first student a question (usually very easy) and if they get it right then
move on to the second student in the group and ask if they would like to
continue or 'bank' the $500, the questions I use slowly get harder but in
general they are relatively easy (it's more fun that way, plus they're 50/50 so
they always have a chance). During these questions they aren't allowed any
help from other students (unless they're using a lifeline, which I'll get to soon).
A few examples of the easy questions I use (for Japanese students learning
English):
Doraemon has no ears - True

There were 5 members of the Beatles - False

Anpanman's weakness is water - True
I have 4 arms - False
We live on the moon - False
The sun is hot - True
I have around 50 ready to ask them but I don't find it hard to think of new one's
on the fly if I run out during the lesson.
To add to the fun, give them 2 lifelines that they can choose to use at any stage
during their teams turn (they can only use each lifeline once per round).
Phone a friend - Call someone else in the team and ask them for help (feel free
to make them pretend that they're actually talking on a phone for laughs).
Ask the group - Let the team discuss what they think is the best answer.
That basically wraps it up, with 4 groups it takes around 15mins to get through
1 round. Keep track of how much money each team puts in the bank and you
can add it up to see which team wins.
I've had a lot of fun with this game as the students really get into it, they put
pressure on each other to try just one more question and its always funny
when they play it safe and 'bank' money rather than taking a risk. Have fun
and enjoy this ESL classroom activity!
Classroom Pictionary Activity
Pictionary is a great game that is perfect for adapting into a classroom English
activity. There are a number of different ways to play but the following is what
worked best for me and my ESL classes in Japan.
Make 4 sets of 10 cards (4 sets of 5 is fine if you don't feel you need so many),
set 1 is for easy words, set 2 for medium, set 3 for difficult and set 4 for very
difficult. Write words of your choice on the cards depending on the level of the
students you teach.
I tended to use objects for the easier categories and ramped it up to verbs and
adjectives for the more difficult categories. Here are some examples of the
words I used:
Easy: book, car, tree
Medium: movie, snow, light

Difficult: open, shout, slow

Very difficult: surprise, clean, throw
Split the class into around 4 or 5 groups and have a student from the first
group come up and choose a category, with 1 point on offer for a successful
'easy' drawing up to 4 for a successful 'very difficult' drawing.
Once the student sees the word they have 1 minute to draw on the blackboard,
remembering to follow Pictionary rules such as giving no verbal clues and not
drawing letters and numbers. The remaining students in the team try to guess
the word (while the rest of the class stay silent).
Continue the process with the other teams while keeping track of the scores. To
spice things up a little feel free to let other teams guess the word if the original
team are unsuccessful in their 1 minute, giving them the chance to take each
other's points.
Line Up According To...
This is a great ESL classroom activity that works particularly well with classes
that are normally a little shy and reserved, sometimes you need to get quiet
students up and out of their desks to get them relaxed and feeling confident
enough to use their English language skills.

The game involves groups of students lining up in order, depending on the

criteria you choose, whether it's their birthday, height or any number of other
options.
Begin by splitting your classroom into teams, if there are 30 students in your
class then 3 teams of 10 should work well. Explain that they must line up in
order using only English to communicate with each other, teams caught
cheating will be disqualified from that round (giving them a little leniency of
course).

When a team finishes, the person at the front of the line puts their hand up and
you walk down the line checking that they are indeed in the correct order. You
can alternatively assign each team with a captain who is in charge of
organizing the team, making sure they don't cheat and signalling to you when
they have finished.
Give one point to the first successful team and start the next round using
different criteria, here's some I use:

Height
Shoe size
Birthday
Time they woke up this morning
Time they went to bed last night
Number of brothers and sisters
Number of pets
Number of times out of the country
For fun you can try a round where they're not allowed to communicate verbally
at all, limiting them to just hand movements and physical gestures. Add up the
final points at the end of the game and see which team wins!
Odd One Out
Odd One Out is a fun ESL classroom activity played in a similar way to Rows
and Columns, with the difference being that rather than answer standard
questions, students must listen to 4 different English words and decide which is
different from the others.
Ask the students to stand up at their desks and choose someone to go first (or
alternatively ask for a volunteer).
They need to listen carefully to the words you say and decide which is the odd
one out. If the student is correct then they can choose either their row or
column to sit down with them, if the student is incorrect then nobody gets to sit
down. Continue the game until everyone sits down.
If your students have good English, are finding it too easy or you just want to
challenge them then you can make them give the reason behind their choice as
well as the answer.
Here are a few examples of odd one out questions that you might like to use:
John, Steve, Matthew, Kate - Answer: Kate (because it's a girl's name)
Brother, Mother, Friend, Daughter - Answer: Friend (because they aren't family)
Summer, Winter, Spring, March - Answer: March (because it's a month, not a
season)

Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Brazil - Answer: Brazil (because it's a country, not a
city)
At times there can be more than one answer that you might not have thought
of so feel free to accept different answers if the student has a good
explanation.
Sentence Betting
Sentence betting is a fun ESL classroom activity that students are sure to enjoy.
The basic premise of the game involves students reading sentences written in
English on the whiteboard/blackboard and betting fake money on whether they
think it's a correct sentence or not.
Split your class into teams of around 3 or 4 students and hand out an even
amount of fake money to each team, you can keep track of their totals on the
whiteboard/blackboard without needing fake money but it makes the activity a
lot more fun if they have something physical to work with.
Give each team a piece of paper and write the first sentence on the
whiteboard/blackboard. Here are a few examples (remembering to omit the
correct/incorrect part):
Correct: I want to buy a new computer.
Incorrect: Yesterday I will go to the library.
Correct: I love playing basketball after school.
Incorrect: You're photo is beautiful.
Give them around a minute to discuss the sentence in their groups before
asking them to make their bets on the piece of paper you gave them. Let the
students know that if they're unsure about a sentence then they should
probably bet less money.
It's also a good idea to make the maximum bet half of what they currently have
so they can't lose all their money. For example, if you gave each team $10000
then the maximum bet would be $5000. A typical bet might look like this:
Correct sentence: $5000
OR
Incorrect sentence: $3000
Collect the pieces of paper and hand out the winnings/collect the losses equal
to how much they bet. Play as many rounds as you like, get each team to count

their winnings at the end and see which team finishes with the most money.
You might like to keep track of this on the whiteboard/blackboard as the game
progresses.
Animal Alphabet Relay
Test your ESL class on how well they know the English names of different
animals with this fun classroom activity.
Begin by writing each letter of the alphabet on the whiteboard/blackboard and
splitting the class into groups of 4 to 6 students. Explain that one member of
each team will come to the front and say the name of an animal while erasing
the letter it begins with.
For example, if the first team says "tiger" then they erase the letter 't' and
other animals beginning with 't' such as turtle can't be chosen. A member of
the next team will then do the same, and so on until a team can't think of the
name of an animal that begins with one of the remaining letters. The last team
remaining wins!
Make sure as many students as possible have a turn coming to the front and
saying the name of animal and keep an eye out for students using books or
other resources who are trying to get an unfair advantage.
To speed things up a little you could let students erase not only their starting
letter but also one more, which definitely makes things more difficult for the
teams that follow afterwards.
What Will You Bring on Vacation?
What Will You Bring on Vacation? Is a fun ESL Classroom Activity that will
challenge both your student's English ability as well as their problem solving
skills.
Tell your class that you are taking a (well earned) vacation to a destination of
your choice (Hawaii, Brazil, France, anywhere is fine). You are taking an
important object with you and if the students can figure out what makes it
important then they will be able to join you on this most awesome of vacations.
All the objects must be related in a way that you have decided previously and
not shared with the students. For example, you might decide that all students
bringing sports equipment can come on vacation, "I'm bringing a soccer ball on
vacation, what will you bring?" If a student says "I will bring a book" then
unfortunately they can't come but if they say "I will bring a tennis racquet"
then they can come!

Once you have told the students the object you are taking, it's time for the first
student to make their guess. Begin with them standing up and allow them to sit
down once they have chosen an acceptable object. It may take a while before
they start catching on but if they listen hard then they'll eventually realize what
kind of objects will be accepted.
Make the first round easy so they get the hang of it and then increase the
difficulty, if you have a large class then you might need to let them choose 1 or
2 friends to bring on vacation (i.e. sit down) with them to make the activity
move faster.
Here are some examples you might like to use:
Object has to be a type of food - Acceptable objects include bread, banana,
pasta, pizza, ice cream, egg, sushi etc
Object has to use power - Acceptable objects include computer, ipod, tv, hair
straightener, microwave etc
Object has to be small - Acceptable objects include key, pen, pencil, ring, pin,
coin etc
Object has to have four letters - Acceptable objects include book, shoe, star,
desk, seat, rice, milk etc.
Parts of the Body Memory Race
This fun ESL classroom activity is a good way of reinforcing the names of
different parts of the body for students studying English.
Split the class into two lines in a manner you see fit, this might be by last
names, girls v boys, old v young or simply those who sit on the right v those
who sit on the left.
The students standing at the front of the line have to watch your movements
carefully as you stand in front of them and quickly point to a part of your body,
this could be anything from your feet, hands, ears, mouth, nose, elbow, fingers,
teeth, hair, shoulders, knees etc.

The first student to correctly say the name of the body part can sit back down
at their desk while the other student must return to the back of their respective
line.
Continue this process until one of the teams has everyone sitting back down at
their desk, they are the winners!

Make sure the other waiting students remain quiet to keep the game fair, give
them only one guess each and feel free to play more than one round to give
the losing team a chance to improve.
You can even introduce a points system where the winning team gets an
amount of points equal to the number of students left in the other team's line
Simon Says
Simon Says is a classic game that works really well as a fun ESL classroom
activity.
Tell the students to listen to the instructions you will give them, they can follow
your actions too but at some stage you will try and trick them so they have to
be very careful not to get caught out.
Have everyone stand up and begin the game, for example you might start by
saying "Simon says, hands on head" while placing your hands on your head.
The students should follow your instructions, quickly putting their hands on
their heads. If they don't do it correctly or are just too slow then they are out of
the game and should sit down (you might want to be lenient on students
making mistakes during the first round).
Continue the game with those remaining, slowly increasing the speed in an
effort to catch them out. At any point you can try and trick the students by, for
example, saying "Simon says, hands on ears" while placing your hands on your
shoulders. Anyone who puts their hands on their shoulders is out of the game.
It's a simple, fast activity that is great for improving listening skills and is
especially fun for younger students who love moving around.
Drawing Instructions
This fun ESL classroom activity will test how well your students give
instructions in English.
The aim of the game is for one student to describe a simple picture or series of
shapes to another student who will draw the picture on the
whiteboard/blackboard without looking at it. That means they'll need to listen
hard to what the other student is instructing them to draw.
You can split the class into pairs and have them all do the activity at the same
time but I think it works best as a quick activity to start or finish a lesson that
everyone can enjoy together.
Begin by finding 2 volunteers, one who will give the instructions and the other
who will attempt to draw the picture. Have one student face the

whiteboard/blackboard while you show everyone else in the class the picture,
it's a good idea to start with something simple like random shapes rather than
a complicated scene that is difficult to explain let alone draw.It's then up to the
other student to give instructions in English, such as:
"Draw a large circle"
"Draw a small square inside the circle"
"Draw a horizontal line that touches both sides of the circle"
It's always fun for the other students watching, especially when things don't go
to plan. Give the volunteers a few minutes to finish the picture before
comparing the original picture to the finished product, how close were they?
What were some instructions that could have possibly worked better?
Find some new volunteers to draw the next picture and play again!
Describe an Object
Enjoy this fun ESL classroom activity and help students become comfortable
using a range of important English adjectives. Students have to describe a
random object while being careful not to use its name.
Before you begin you'll need to make small pieces of paper with the names of a
range of different objects written on them. You can use any type of objects you
want but it's a good idea to separate them into categories such as easy (worth
1 point), medium (worth 2 points) and hard (worth 3 points).
Split the class into teams and ask a student to choose easy, medium or hard.
Give them around 30 seconds to describe the object (only words, no actions) in
front of their group without naming it (while other teams stay quiet). If they say
the object's name or their team can't guess correctly they get 0 points but if
their team guesses correctly then they get however many points their object
was worth.
Continue the process with the other teams while keeping track of the scores
and see which team wins!
You might like to let other teams guess the object if the original team are
unsuccessful in their 30 seconds, giving them the chance to earn more points.
If the students are finding it easy you can write some words next to the object
that the student isn't allowed to use when describing it. Here are a few
example objects you might like to use:
Ball - Can't use round, bounce or sport

Food - Can't use eat, delicious or snack

Computer - Can't use keyboard, screen or Internet
Money - Can't use cash, coins or credit
House - Can't use home, roof or room
Pen - Can't use write, ink or pencil
Sun - Can't use big, hot or sky
Moon - Can't use night, bright or light
Mountain - Can't use climb, big or hill
Window - Can't use glass, wall or look
Car - Can't use drive, wheel or license
Tree - Can't use leaves, nature or roots
Shoes - Can't use feet, socks or toes
Camera - Photo, picture, take
Two Truths and a Lie
This simple activity will help students get to know each other a little better
while helping improve their English at the same time. Give students some time
to think of two truths and one lie about themselves, with the aim of surprising
classmates when they guess which one is the lie.
It makes it more fun if they think of facts that may trick or surprise others so
encourage them to be creative.
There are endless options but here are a few examples:
I have two sisters.
I can't swim.
I am a black belt in karate.
My favourite food is chocolate.
I am taller than my dad.
I have never been skiing.

The next part can be done as a class or in smaller groups of around 6 students.
The first student says their two truths and one lie (in any order) while the
others students listen and then guess which statement is the lie (usually by a
show of hands).
Give everyone a turn and if it goes well you might want to have another round
to give students the opportunity to think of more creative ideas now that they
have the hang of it.