Only for teacher

Compiled by Dedi Ruswansyah 2010

Games for the Classroom

Speaking & Listening Skills

I-Spy

Students can lead this very simple game where they think of something that they
can see in the classroom (or wherever you are) and the others have to guess
what it is. Students give a clue by saying the first letter, for example, if they are
thinking about the clock on the wall, they would say, „I spy with my little eye,
something beginning with C.‟ A quick game that gets the students thinking about
the vocab relating to their immediate environment.

Class Secrets

Get the group together and ask for a volunteer to leave the room. Once they‟ve
gone, think of a „secret‟ about that person, for example, it‟s their birthday, or
they‟re having an affair with the college principal. That kind of thing. When they
come back in, they have to guess the secret truth about themselves by asking
questions. The rest of the group give clues. A great icebreaker, this one always
raises a laugh.

Simon Says
A party game that works well with English students as a way of practising
listening to and understanding commands. The teacher says a number of simple
commands, such as, „Put your hands on your head‟, „Stand on one leg‟ or „Start
humming‟, and the students have to do what you say – but only if you have
prefaced the command with „Simon says...‟. If you don‟t say „Simon says...‟ and
the student follows the command, they are out, and the game resumes until there
is a winner.

Party Invitations

The whole class sits in a circle. Tell them that it‟s your birthday next week and
that you‟re planning a birthday party. They are all invited... but on one condition.
They must bring you a present, and it must be something that you really want.
Each student in turn tells you wha t they will bring to give you on your birthday.
You will either tell them that they can come, or that they are not invited. This
depends on what they offer to bring you. The item they‟re going to bring must
begin with the same letter as your first name. If it does, they can come; if it
doesn‟t, they can‟t. For example, if your name is Lucy and they offer to bring „a
lemon‟ as a present, they will be welcome. If they offer to bring „a bottle of wine‟
they will be given short shrift! This game is hilarious, as some students will twig
onto your „unspoken rule‟ fairly early on, while some won‟t get it at all, however
obvious you make it!

Something’s Different
Get the whole class together. Ask one of them to leave the room, then get the
remaining students to change five things about the classroom. For example, you
could put a chair on a table, or get two students to swap jumpers, or anything –
so long as it‟s not too subtle. Then bring the student back in and get them to
guess what changes you have made.

Whispering Trees
Get the students standing in a line. Stand at one end and whisper a short phrase
or sentence in the ear of the student next to you. For example, you could say,
„My dad once met Bernard Cribbins in a bus queue in Dover.‟ Each student
repeats the phrase to their neighbour until you get to the end of the line, when
the last student tells the class the sentence they heard, and you can reveal what
the original sentence was. A good game for practising listening and speaking
skills.

What’s Going On...?

Probably better for an intermediate or advanced class, this one. Prepare twenty
questions, based on what is happening in the news (be it local, national or world
news). You could include spelling questions too, and questions about different
members of the class, for example, „Which country does Louisa come from?‟
Split the class into two teams and you‟re ready to play. Give five points for a
correct answer, and bonus points at your discretion for any extra information that
the students give in their answers. If the first team doesn‟t know the answer,
hand it over to the other team for a bonus point.

My Butler Went To Meadowhall

The title refers to Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield. The game is really
just a version of My Grandmother Went To Market. Students sit in a circle, away
from desks and paper, and so on. Tell the students that you teach because you
love it and don‟t need the money as you are actually rather well off. In fact, you
have a butler who goes up to Meadowhall every Friday to go shopping for you,
and he buys you lots of different things. This week, however, you can‟t decide
what to buy, so you are asking the students to help you. You are going to make a
list. Start with saying, „My butler is going to Meadowhall on Friday and will buy
me... (think of any item that you can buy in a shop).‟ The next person has to say,
„Your butler is going to Meadowhall on Friday and will buy you...‟ whatever you
said, plus an item of their own. The list goes around the circle until the last
person has to remember the whole list of items. Students usually give prompts if
their fellow students are struggling. A good vocabulary game, as well as being
fun and a test of the memory. Plus they get a laugh thinking about your
(imaginary – unless you really have one...?) butler.

What’s In The Bag...?

Have a „lucky dip‟ style bag, or box, which you can use from time to time for this
quick activity that draws the class together in mutual curiosity. Put something
different in the bag (or box) each time, for example, a paper clip, or an orange.
Students take it in turns to feel inside the bag (or box) – without looking – and
then describe what the object feels like and what they think it is. This activity can
easily be handed over to the students for them to facilitate among themselves,
even using items that they have brought in from home.

The Yes/No Game

An old favourite from TV, this is great for practising question and answer forms.
Get students up to the front of the class one at a time and ask them questions,
about themselves, the weather, the school or college – anything. The student
must reply verbally but cannot say the words „Yes‟ or „No‟. If they do, they are
out. Ask someone to act as the timer (and as the „gong‟ or „buzzer‟ when each
player slips up and is out), and write the times for how long each student
managed to go without saying „Yes‟ or „No‟ on the board. If the students get the
hang of this game they could play it in pairs, with one asking the questions and
the other answering, before swapping over ro les.

Audio Pictures

Get the students into pairs, then give one half of the pair a picture from a
magazine, for example, a man wearing a hat and coat and playing the piano.
They have to describe what they can see, in detail, without showing the picture to
their partner, who draws a sketch based on the description. At the end of the
description they compare their pictures, before swapping roles. At the end of the
session the whole class can see how close all the drawings were to their
originals. A good activity for practising communication and listening skills, and
giving descriptions.
Our Living Photo Album
Ask each student to bring in one or more photographs of something that is
important to them, that you can keep to put into a class photo album. Give them
time to prepare a two-minute talk about their photograph, which could be, for
example, of a place, or a family member or an event that has touched their life.
Then sit in a circle with all the students and your „living photo album‟ will come to
life, as each student in turn explains why their photo is important or memorable to
them. You could make a display with the pictures, or literally fill an album with
them that everyone can enjoy looking at. Explain that you will give the photos
back at the end of the course (or even at the end of the week). This is a good
activity to help a relatively new group get to know each other.

Reading and Writing Skills

Ace Anagrams
Students at all levels enjoy puzzling over this game. It‟s also a good way to get
them looking in their dictionaries. Your students suggest nine letters at random,
either vowel or consonant, which you write on the board. (Or you could have
cards with them on if you‟re really organised!) In small groups the students have
five minutes to come up with as many (real) words as they can from the original
nine letters. The team with the most words spelt correctly gets a point, and the
next round begins.

Hangman

Another good letters-based game. It‟s good because students can get up and
lead this one just as well as the teacher. It‟s also good because it‟s quick and can
pull students together for a quick bit of group work just before going home. Think
of a word or phrase and draw a number of dashes on the board that corresponds
to the number of letters. The other students suggest one letter at a time. If they
are correct you have to fill in the letter on the board in its correct place. If they are
incorrect you draw part of the hangman shape. Students can take a guess if they
know the word. The person who guesses correctly steps up to the board to think
of a word for the next session.

What Time Is It On...?

A good one for testing telling the time, and as a general reading comprehension
using realia. Select a page from the Radio Times, or any English language TV
guide and photocopy it so that each student can have a copy. Split the group into
two teams and ask them questions based on the programme information given in
the TV guide. For example, you could ask, “What time is „The A-Team‟ on?”, and
“What time does „The A-Team‟ finish?”, before moving on to more complex
reading comprehension questions such as, “What is the name of the actor who
plays „Mr.T‟ in „The A-Team‟?” Get the students to nominate a „runner‟ from their
team who runs and writes the answers on the board. You can even get them
drawing clock faces as an answer, or writing the answer using the twenty four
hour clock. Note: questions need not be „A-Team‟-based!

Board Game Boffins

As a project, get the students working in pairs or small groups to design a new
board game. They have to form a games „company‟, and then plan the concept
and design of their game. After that they have to actually make a working
prototype, which they test out, and which is then tested along with all the other
ideas in a games tournament. Each company has to explain the reasons behind
the design choices that they made in constructing their game. The students then
all vote for their favourite games in categories such as: „Most playable game‟,
„Game most likely to make a $million‟, „Best design and construction‟, and so on.
You could use the board game template on page 73 as a starting point.

Ten Things

Get your students to leave the building and go out in small groups or pairs with
the task of writing down „Ten things you can see at...‟ various places near to your
school or college. For example, they could write down ten things you can see
at... the leisure centre, the shopping centre, the sports stadium, the post office,
the doctor‟s, the bus station, the railway station, the market, the funfair, and so
on. Ask them to make sure that their spellings are correct before coming back to
you with their list(s). Of course you could always make it „Fifty things you can see
at...‟ if your group are particularly gifted – or if you just want to get rid of them for
the whole morning...! When they come back, discuss together what each group
has found.

What Shops Sell What...?

This is a similar exercise to „Ten Things‟, in that the students leave the classroom
in pairs or small groups and go around town for a couple of hours. They have to
write down the proper names of as many shops as they can, along with a brief
description of what you can buy at that shop. For example, „Marks and Spencer –
clothes and food‟, „Debenhams – clothes, gifts, and perfume‟, until they have a
list of around twenty shops. When the students get back they could write
sentences about the shops, for example, „At Marks and Spencer you can buy
clothes and food.‟ It motivates students to go into and look around shops t hat
they may walk past every day but have never visited. You could always set the
list of shops for your students to visit, ensuring a variety of types. Of course, it
gives an opportunity to practise shopping vocab wherever you happen to be
teaching.
 Vocabulary Building

Name And Explain

This is a good game for practising spelling classroom words and getting students
to talk about their immediate environment. Split the class into two groups and
give each group a pack of sticky labels. Their task is to write labels and stick
them on twenty different things in the classroom. Spellings must be correct, and
at the end of the game students must give you a tour of their labelled items,
explaining what each object is.

What Is It...?

Get the class into two teams. Take one student from each class out of the room,
give them both a whiteboard pen (or chalk stick, or marker, etc.) and give them
the name of a book, TV show (for example „The A-Team‟), film, or famous
person. They have to run back into the room and draw clues on the board, while
the other students try to guess the name that they have been given. They are not
allowed to write any words. Students love this game, and it gets rather loud as
the students get more involved. Make sure your students are aware of the
cultural references that you want to give them. The game can be played just as
well using vocab sets such as, furniture, food, animals, and so on.

What Am I...?
For this game you will need to put a sticker on the back of each student, with a
noun written on it, for example, apple, chair, Wednesday, bathroom, or bottle of
tomato ketchup. The students have to mingle with one another and ask questions
to find out „What am I...?‟ Students can only reply with either „Yes‟ or „No‟. Once
they have found out what they are, they report to you and tell you what they are
and what questions they had to ask in order to work it out. They could then go
and write down the different questions. This also works when you use celebrity
names instead of nouns – as long as all the students are aware of exactly who all
the celebrities are. You could also use specific vocab sets such as countries („Am
I north of the equator, or south?‟), or clothes („Am I worn on the head?‟) The sky‟s
the limit! Good for question forms and to get students talking.
 Grammar Skills

A Capital Game
Write a load of nouns on the board, both common nouns and proper nouns, but
don‟t use capital letters. Vary the list of words to suit the level of your group, so
for an elementary class you could write something like: „table, usa, book, house,
garden, england, philip, the times, shirt, ice cream...‟ and so on. The students
split into two groups and compete to be the first to write the list of words again,
but this time putting capital letters on the proper nouns (in this example, „USA,
England, Philip, The Times‟).

Interesting Articles
Similar to „A Capital Game‟, this involves writing plenty of different nouns on the
board and getting the class – in two teams – to discuss and write down whether
there should be „a‟ or „an‟ before each word. This is a quick and easy game –
intended for elementary students really – that allows the students to identify and
practise the grammar rule for indefinite articles. Make sure you throw a few
proper nouns into the mix too, just to confuse them!

The Instant Story Generator

The whole group sits in a circle and decides on a few story keywords, for
example, a place, a man‟s name, a woman‟s name, an object, and so on. Tell the
students they are going to tell a story as a gro up. Each student can only
contribute one word at a time, before the story moves on to the next person. If
the story reaches a natural break the student whose turn it is next can say „full
stop‟ instead of carrying on. The story must include all the keywords that were
agreed at the beginning. This is a great game for identifying sentence structure
and bringing out grammar points, as well as letting the imagination run riot. A
variation is to let each student contribute one sentence instead of just one word.

Action Games

Balloon Rodins

Split the class into small groups and give each one a large quantity of balloons
and a roll of sticky tape. Their task is to create a fantastic balloon sculpture,
which outshines those made by the other teams. After forty-five minutes or so the
groups come together and look at all the sculptures. Each team has to describe
what their sculpture represents – and is invited to elaborate on the principles of
art that they have been influenced by... or not, as the case may be! Prepare
yourselves for some „explosive‟ balloon fun in this hilarious team-building and
communicative activity! Note: this activity works just as well with modelling clay,
or lots of old newspapers, instead of balloons.

Dead Heat

The class needs to be in groups of around eight people. Lay out a finish line at
one end of the classroom with no desks or chairs in the way. The students stand
in a line, as if about to start a race. On your signal they either run or walk towards
the finishing line. However, all the students must cross the line at exactly the
same time. A fun and energetic warmer which encourages students to talk to
each other – particularly when they keep getting it wrong. Give your teams
several attempts at this and they should get it in the end.

Get A Move On

Split the class into two teams. Set a starting line and a finishing line. This is
basically a slowwalking race, where both teams are competing to be the last to
cross the finishing line. The only proviso is that everyone in the race must keep
moving forward – just very slowly. It‟s also good fun played with individuals in
heats, building up to quarter-finals, semi-finals and a grand final. A fun team-
building activity that will bring out the team spirit in your group.

5 Great English Games for advance

Surefire ways to make your lessons more fun

If you've ever taught English before, you have probably had this complaint, or
have at the very least known someone who has received it before.

"Your class is too boring, the students want more activities/games"

It happens to the best of us, so Im going to teach you 5 proven activities that can be
adjusted to work for almost any lesson. Everyone of them emphasizes student talk time,
and they are all genuinely fun for both you and the stude nts.

Mystery Theatre
This one is great for the teacher, you get to sit back and watch some really original and
wacky plays created by your students!
Materials needed- Just a whiteboard and some markers!

The set up- Not much, you will need to write some themes(romance, comedy, horror, etc)
in one corner of the board, at least one them for every group participating. Then just
prepare 10 random questions to elicit words with.

The activity-

Ok, this one is all about creating role plays. The trick is, don't tell them that until the last
minute. Put them into groups of 2-6 students depending on your class size. Without
explaining why your doing this, elicit ten, TOTALLY different words from the students
and write them on the board. The more random the better.

For example, I might ask students things like

Name your favorite food!

Tell me something thats scary!

What is something you would say to the person you love!

Tell me a planet!

Give me a boys name!

What smells very bad!

you get the idea....when your finished this and you have your words listed on the board,
assign each group a theme.

Now heres where you explain to them what to do, Every team must make and preform a
role play for the class, finding a way to use every word thats on the board at least once!
On top of that, their play must be in their designated theme! Give them 10-15 minutes to
work in their groups and figure out just what the heck they are gonna say! After that,
bring the class back together for presentations, and I promise your going to see some very
original, hilarious plays being acted out in English!

Dangerous Definitions
This one is based on the classic board game "Balderdash", a game I always loved playing
with my friends, so i thought, why not find a way to bring it to the classroom?

Materials needed
Lots of small papers for teams to write definitions on, a list of very strange words.

The setup

Before you can play, your gonna need to find about 20 words that your students will have
absolutely no clue what the definitions are. I'm not kidding, the weirder and more obscure
you can get the better. Your not trying to teach them these words, your simply trying to
get them to work together using English in a fun way.

The game

So, divide the group into even teams of no more than 4 people. If you have a small class,
just play singles and its just as fun.

First you will write out the first word on the board, you do NOT tell them the definition,
only give them the part of speech it is.

The students will have to create a definition for this word, and do there best to try and
make it sound as believable as possible. Once all teams are finished with their definitions,
they hand the papers to you and you read the student definitions, as well as the actual
definition out to the class. Its very important that you read all the papers the same way,
and you give no clues as to which one is the correct definition.

Once all the definitions have been read, the teams must decide which one they think is
the correct one. Once all the votes are in, you tally the scores like this.

If a team guesses the correct definitiion, give them 2 points.

If a team guesses a definition that was created by another team, give 1 point the team that
created it.

See how it works? the object is to create a definition that will trick the other teams into
thinking its real. Its fun for everyone, and you might be surprised at how creative some of
the student definitions are.

Original Origins
This one is a really fun game if you have a creative class....it might not work so well for

a class that hates to talk, but then again this might just be the push they need to get going!

Materials needed
absolutely none, although a white-board is helpful for this one.

The setup

Think of a few "deep' questions that most people cant really a nswer. Good questions are
things like, "why is the sky blue?" or "Why do monkeys have tails?"

The game

This can either be done in teams or individually, depending on what suits your class
more. The purpose of the game is to answer the questions. Simple as that. The only rule
is that the students can not give the actual answer to the question! They must create the
most entertaining and original answer they can think of. The more outside the box they
get, the better.

Give them about 15 minutes to work on their answers. Once the times up, bring everyone
back together and the students will take turn presenting their answers to the class...they
get points for presentation, originality, and creativity. When everyone has finished
presenting, you can either pick the winner yourself, or have the class vote on who they
though created the best answer for each question.

Its a fun game and it really tests their English, great for intermediate/advanced classes.

Sphere Selector
This ones an old favorite of mine, its basically just a quiz game with a slight twist that
really makes it more enjoyable for the students.

Materials needed

One soft ball ( one that wont do any damage as its thrown around a classroom), white-
board, question cards.

The setup

Before the lesson prepare questions of varying difficulty for at least 5 categories.
It doesn't matter what these categories are, so you can manipulate the game however you
wish depending on the language and skill level that you want to target. You will need 4
questions per category, ranging in difficulty from easy to very hard.

Categories I often use are: Geography (questions about the world), Grammar (they must
correct a sentence), general knowledge (i just find odd facts on the internet for this one),
Word Race (students must race to write down words for a specific target) and acting (you
give the student a word or sentence, they must act it out for their team to guess without
making any sound).
So, once you have your questions ready, draw a jigsaw type map on the board wit h 5 big
pieces, and assign each piece one of your 5 categories. In the center of each space, write
the name of the category, and surround it with the numbers 1,2,3 and 4.

The game

Divide the students into two teams, and give one team the ball to start with. They must
throw the ball at the board to select a category. This makes it harder for them to just
always pick the category they are comfortable with, and they have fun throwing the ball
in the classroom.

Once they have a category selected, you ask them "How many points will you play for?",
and they then get to select a number from 1-4. 1 means an easy question, but only 1
point. 4 would be a very difficult question, and therefore you get 4 points for it.

If for some reason their team cant answer the question, or they get it wrong, the other
team then gets a chance to steal the points if they can answer it correctly.

Its fun, and all you have to do is sit back and ask the questions. They enjoy throwing the
ball and they get to talk with each other about what the correct answer is.

Of course, keep a running tally of the scores somewhere on the board, and at the end of
class, you can declare who is the champion!

Ring of Fire
I've saved the best for last. This game was requested more often by my students than any
other game I have ever played. It's based on the old drinking game "Ring of Fire",
modified for the classroom.

Materials needed

Deck of standard playing cards, 20-30 small slips of blank paper, a bowl.

The setup

Almost none! Place the bowl in the center of a table, and spread the cards out face down
in a ring shape around the bowl.

On the whiteboard, or on a photocopied hand out if a whiteboard isnt available, list the 12
cards ( Ace to King) and the actions associated with each card...more on what exactly
those actions are a little further down.

The game
Before you start the game, hand every student 2 small slips of paper. Instruct them to
write down two questions, and to keep them secret! When they are finished, they need to
fold up the questions, and place them in the bowl on the table.

The students will take turns pulling a card. When they have pulled a card they hold it up
so the whole class can see, now heres the fun part. They must do WHATEVER the card
says!

so here is an example of the actions I assign to cards, and the penalty's involved!

K-Ask anyone. (the person who drew the king must pull a random question from the
bowl and ask any of their classmates.)

Q-Ask a girl (same as above, but the classmate must be a girl)

J-Ask a boy (ditto, but a boy this time)

10-Ask your teacher! (this is dangerous! they love it of course, but once they catch on to
the game they will start slipping dangerous questions in there hoping to catch you!...ie
which girl in the class do you think is the prettiest?)

9-Bunny ears! (EVERYONE must make bunny ears with their fingers, the last person to
do so must come up and answer a question)

8-Words (you choose a topic, the students must go in a circle naming new vocabulary for
that topic, the first one who cant say a new word has to answer a question. ie for the
topic of fruit.... apple! banana! orange! carrot! oops! the person who said carrot has to
answer a question.)

7-Pick again

6-touch your nose! (like bunny ears, except students must now touch their nose with both
fingers to avoid answering the question)

5-Answer one question

4-Ask the person on your left

3-Ask the person on your right

2-Two questions (ouch! the person who picked this has to answer two questions in front
of the class)

A-Free card (the student got lucky, she doesn't have to ask or answer any questions)
Remember! this is just an example of a set up I used for an intermediate university level
class...You can adjust the actions and penalties however you want to suit the topic or
grammar point you would like to work on. The students LOVE this game, they get to
talk, act silly, and the suspense of waiting to see which card was picked is really intense!