Mini Plays

The teacher makes up a little discussion which she reads or gives to a couple of children to read. E.g.

Mum: Bye, now. Be careful!
John: Yes, Mom. I will.
Mum: Don´t forget to write.
John: No, Mom. I´ll write every day.
Mum: Call me when you get there.

And then, the teacher chooses one aspect to the plays that will be improvised based on this short discussion. E.g.

"Your plays must be about a situation where somebody is leaving away. What happens? What do you say? You have 5 minutes to practice a little play in groups of 2-5."

In five minutes the plays will be presented and some vocabulary can be marked, if you feel like it. The kids love making plays and they are pretty good in improvising incredible plays even in few minutes.

Story Telling & Memory Game

Ask the children (at least 5 to 6) to sit around in a circle. 

Ask one child to say a sentence in a story form e.g. "once there was a boy". 

The next child will have to repeat that sentence and add something more to it like "once there was a boy whose name was John". 

In this way the children keep building up a story as well as remembering what the previous sentences were. 

The child which forgets a line will go out of the game. 

This game not only improves a child's memory but also encourages him/her to be creative in storytelling.

Invitation to an Annual Dinner

Pre-activity: The teacher should have taught students about prepositions. 

Activity: In pairs, students are required to write a dialogue of about 12-15 exchanges based on an invitation card given by the teacher.
Sample invitation card:

INVITATION TO EXECS BUSINESS ANNUAL DINNER

DATE: 24 JUNE 2001
PLACE: PALOMA BALLROOM, DE PALMA HOTEL
TIME: 7.30 AM
ATTIRE: FORMAL

Allow about half an hour to prepare the text and about 3 minutes to present it in class. Ask students to be as creative as possible.

Students get to practice prepositions as well as Wh-questions. I find that my students enjoying themselves while pretending to invite their friends to the annual dinner.

Movie Review

This could be carried out in pairs or in groups of 3-4.

Pre-activity: The teacher should have taught students about adjectives and adverbs. 

Activity: Students can choose a favorite movie, cartoon or television series to review. They should talk about the main plot, actors and actresses, provide a synopsis and tell why they have chosen that particular movie. Once they have discussed and edited their movie review, they would have to present in front of the others, and hand over a copy of the edited text to the teacher to be corrected. May also include pictures to make their movie review more interesting.

The Game of Truth

It is a very simple but interactive game. As you know people always ask the same questions in chats over and over again. What do you do? How old are you? etc. She asked me if I wanted to play THE GAME OF TRUTH. I say yes of course! Here are the rules: (I made some changes for the English classroom)

1.Make a lot of small cards with interesting topics written on them, such as: LOVE, JEALOUSY, PIRACY, MONEY, SMOKING, SEX, DINKING, CLONING, BRIBING, FRIENDSHIP, DEATH PENALTY, PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT, FAMILY, etc, etc. Look for topics that make students speak. Sometimes even CONTROVERSIAL ones.

2.-Every student in the class will take turns in taking a card. He or she will talk a little about the topic in the card he or she selected. For example:

MONEY: for me money is very important, but is not the most important thing. It is only a way to reach things. Success is not measure by the money you can get, etc, etc.

3.-Allow student to express their feelings even if it is not their turn. Remember the main point of this game is to make students speak! However, don’t lose the control of the class.

P.D. If you select very interesting topics I guarantee everybody will try to answer the questions even when is not their own turn. This activity is excellent to "to break the ice" and to help you know each other in the classroom.

Saved by the Bell

I discovered this game while watching T.V. With some modifications the idea of the game is the same:

1.-Place a buzz or bell inside a waste basket (a clean one, of course).

2.-Get a light ball that fits into the basket.

3.-The student will make a shot with the ball. If the student scores the bell will ring (saved by the bell), if the student fails an indiscreet question will have to be answered by him/her.

4.-In advance, prepare as many cards with indiscreet questions as possible. 

For example:

Have you ever cheated in a final test? Have you ever stolen something? Have you ever had two or more boy/girlfriends at the same time? Have you ever gotten a ticket? If so why? Have you ever had a nickname? If so, which one? etc., etc.

The point of this game is to practise asking and answering in a fun way. However, you have to be very careful with the questions you write on the cards! (Some questions may be very offensive if you are not careful).

Pronunciation Bingo

THIS BINGO IS FOR NOUN - VERB STRESS

I came out with this idea while I was teaching pronunciation in Mexico. The idea is to make a bingo game contrasting the pronunciation of nouns and verbs with the same spelling. (Use a stress mark (´) to show the students that nouns are stressed in the first syllable and verbs on the second). Examples:

prógress - progréss
présent - presént
prótest - protést
cóntract - contráct
désert - desért
rébel - rebél
súspect - suspéct
cónsole - consóle
cónflict - conflíct
récord - recórd
cónvict - convíct
ínsert - insért
pérmit - permít
etc.

When you name the cards let the students listen to the words but not look at them. This way they will be able to distinguish the difference.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

MINIMAL PAIRS BINGO

The same can be done to teach minimal pairs. Examples:

sit - seat
but - bat
bought - boat
saw - so
base - vase
etc.

P.D.MAKE THIS GAME INTERESTING BY GIVING SMALL PRIZES TO THE WINNERS

Spelling Review

This activity will make students review spelling in a funny way. You can create similar spellings as the following ones:

I.1.2.C.U = I want to see you

R.U.O.K? = Are you Ok?

I´s T = Iced tea

I.C.Q = I seek you

I.O.U. = I owe you

E.Z. = Easy

B.Z. = Busy

I.1.T = I want tea

I.8 = I ate

U.2 = You two/ you too.

Y? = Why?

C.U. $$$.9 = See you at nine

2E.Z.4U = Too easy for you

R.U.D.Z? = Are you dizzy?

Memory Game (Long and Short Forms)

RULES: The same rules as the regular memory games(the only difference is they are going to match the long forms with the sort forms).

Foreign students sometimes do not realize there are many reductions in English. They feel frustrated when they are not able to understand spoken English. This is in part to because they are not aware of short forms. A way to help them is by showing same expressions in both short and long forms. Examples:

want to- wanna
going to-gonna
ought to-outta
because-'cause
a lot of- alotta
see you-seeya
got to-gotta
let me-lemmi
give me-gimmi
what have-wattav
etc.

I advise the teacher to read aloud the cards when the students pick them up in order to encourage them to repeat and learn them.

Four-Letter Words

This game has nothing to do with offensive words.I play it just for fun and the students like it a lot. You will be amazed to see how many different words can be generated from a single word!
1.-The teacher writes a four-letter word (not a bad word but word made up four letters) on the board.
For example:
The teacher writes on the board: TIME
2.-Students will take turns generating words from the first one.The idea is to change only one letter but generate a miningful word.
TEACHER.-TIME
STUDENT1.-DIME
3.-Any letter can be change.Only one at a time, but not on the same place consecutively.Example:
TEACHER.- TIME
STUDENT1.- DIME
STUDENT2.- LIME (Wrong you should change any other letter but not on the same place consecutively).
TEACHER.- TIME
STUDENT1.- DIME
STUDENT2.- DOME
STUDENT3.- COME
STUDENT4.- CAME
STUDENT5.- CANE
Etc.
Etc.
The teacher has to limit the time the students take to write the words (may be 20 seconds). The students score a point for each meaningful word they write. If a student takes too much time he loses his turn. Finally the student who makes more points is the winner.

Listening Exercise (Song Puzzle)

I really like this activity because it is easy and fun. Students will say English is music to my ears!

For this exercise you will need the lyrics of a song in English.You will need several copies, one for each student. Cut the lines of the song. The students will try to put the song in order. You will play the song as many times as necessary. The student who finishes first is the winner.

Tell Me Why

The point of this game is to try to answer questions. We often take for granted many things but if we consider them carefully sometimes they are not necessarily logical.These questions are intended to make students speak. In most of the cases there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. Here are some examples:

If you're so WISE can you tell me WHY:

Some birds have wings but never FLY.

not all the monkeys have a tail BEHIND.

Leopards have spots and TIGERS STRIPES.

Grooms dress in black and BRIDES in WHITE.

People wave their hands when they say good BYE.

The ocean´s blue and so is the SKY.

Our EYES shed tears when we CRY.

We must WRITE letters from left to RIGHT.

Roosters crow in the mornings at six or FIVE.

People trhow RICE to the groom and BRIDE.

We strech and yawn when we feel so TIRED.

As you can see I repeated the /ai/sound to create a special sensation to the ears.These questions can also help you to teach pronunciation and intonation if you read them with the proper rhythm.

Traffic Light Questions

This games works especially with adult students who are reluctant to speak about personal issues. 

Prepare three cards (a green, a yellow, and a red one) with six questions each. The questions on the green card are easy and not personal, and the ones on the red card are more difficult and personal. Each student throws a dice twice.

The first time is to decide upon the color of the card (1 or 2 = green card; 3 or 4 = yellow card; 5 or 6 = red card) and the second time is to choose the question.

Spot the Difference

Divide the group in pairs. For this activity you get two apparently iqual pictures. You can get this pictures in puzzle books or internet. 
Give one of the pictures to a student an the counter-picture to his/her partner. Make the students sit far from his/her partner in order to describe the picture without looking at the counterpicture. The point of the game is to detect the differences without using body language or looking at the partner's counter-picture. The team that finds all the differences first is the winner.

This activity is specially good for those students who are reluctant to speak.

Extreme Situations

The point of this activity is to make difficult questions involving choosing a course of action in extreme situations. Usually this situations will involve feelings, prejudices, ethics,,etc.

Examples 1:
You are on a deserted island. There is a motor boat and you are the only one who knows how to drive it. It is up to you to decide which people of the following people you are going to take with you in the boat. There is space for only you and 3 more people.
Here they are:

• a prostitute
• a drug addict
• a dying old man
• a doctor convicted of malpractice
• a child pornographer
• a convicted criminal
• (Note: You should adjust the list to suit the students in your class. Delete some if you find them offensive. Add others that you think would generate good discussion.)

Example 2:
You find a wallet with $50,000 and the ID of its owner. That money is exactly the amount of money you need to cover the expenses of a delicate operation for your daughter. She needs that operation to survive. What would you do with the money?

And you can create new extreme questions to challenge students to speak.

Getting To Know You

- For larger classes.

1. Give each student an idex card

2. Have the students pair up and write the name of their partner on their card. Give them five or six questions that they must ask each other such as:
-Where were you born?
-What is your favorite color and why?
-What did you dream last night?

3. Make sure that they write down the answers to these questions on their card. When they are done, have them each choose a new partner.

4. They will then tell their new partner about their old partner based on the questions answered. Each person will record this information on the other side on the index card (the index card is only to help them remember everything).

5. Once they have finished, they each stand up in front of the class and tell everyone what they learned about one of their classmates.

This helps them to develop their communication skills and helps them get comfortable with speaking and interacting with all the students in the class.

Karaoke

- For larger classes

Preparation: choose songs that are easy to understand and somewhat enjoyable.

1. Divide the students up into groups of 4-5 people.
2. Give each group a different song. Have them figure out all the words to the song. Make sure that not just one person is doing the work, but that it is a group effort.
3. Give them the entire class (one hour) to work on it. Next class, have them return to their groups to practice one time.
4. You then have the group as a whole, stand up and sing along with the recording.

- This is fun for the students if they all participate and work together.
- Choose both popular and silly songs to keep their attention and interest

Syllable Game

Write a difficult word on the board for example 
ACCOMMODATION. 

Then clap your hands while saying the word. Repeat as necessary. 

Then ask them to count the claps in ACCOMMODATION. There are 5 handclaps. Get students to clap and say ACCOMMODATION. 

Tell students these handclaps are called SYLLABLES and that every word breaks down into one or more syllables. Briefly practice saying "syllables." 

On the board underneath ACCOMMODATION draw 5 medium sized boxes. Put the correct number underneath each box. 

Clap and say the first syallable of ACCOMMODATION and ask your students which letters should go in box 1. They should say AC (some might say ACC.)Repeat this process until all of the letters are in the correct boxes. So now you should have 

Box1 AC Box2 COM box3 MO Box4 DA Box5 TION 

Then choral drill the letters like this. 

Teacher: Which letters are in Box1? 

Students: AC 

Teacher: and in Box2? 

Students: COM 

Continue this until all 5 boxes (syllables) have been covered. 

Then ask a student to give you the contents of BOX1 and 2. Then ask another to give you the contents of box 2 and 3. Then 3 and 4. then 4 and 5. 

This gradual building of the word helps them not only to understand the rhythm and concept of syllables, but also helps them to fix the spelling in their minds. 

Once they grasp the concept of syllables, Write some 3,2, single syllable words on the board and get the students to work out how many syllables the word has, and then get them to put the letters into the correct boxes 

Truth or Lie?

It can be used at any level from pre-int. up. It can be used just for speaking practice but it's particularly useful if you're doing present perfect for past experiences. It works soooo well! The students just love it! Lots of question and past tense practice. Even the quiet ones will talk! 

Based on a group of three (it can be done in pairs, or fours if you write some more questions), each student has a piece of paper with five questions on it (see below) and takes it in turns to ask the person on their left one of their questions. The student answering the question must answer 'Yes I have.' regardless of the truth. The student who asked the question can then ask as many further questions as he likes in order to help him decide whether the truth is being told or not. Obviously, sometimes they'll be telling the truth. The third student can also join in with questions, thereby 'ganging up' on student B. Listen how students fabricate stories in an attempt to avoid questions! When the first student feels he's heard enough he says 'No further questions' and writes 'True' or 'False' next to the question. The game then carries on (student B asks a question to student C and so on) When all the questions have been asked the papers are passed to the left for marking i.e. the truth is revealed. The highest score out of five wins. 
This game will really open your eyes to people's ability to LIE. 
Here are the questions. You can use different ones, obviously. 

Have you ever… 
spoken to a famous person? 
danced on a table in a public place?
been trapped in a lift?
taken an illegal drug? 
sung karaoke?

Have you ever… 
appeared on television?
left a bar or restaurant without paying? 
written graffiti on a wall? 
appeared in a photograph in a newspaper? 
chased a criminal? 

Have you ever… 
done a very dangerous sport? 
won a medal or trophy?
missed a flight? 
stayed in a five-star hotel?
swum naked in the sea? 

A typical exchange might be something like: 
- Have you ever swum naked in the sea? 
- Yes I have. 
- Where did you do it? 
- Erm. On holiday in Majorca. 
- Who were you with? 
- Some friends. 
- What were their names? 
- Erm...etc. 

Comic Strip Challenge

Materials: Comic Strip printouts
This is a fun warmup that is great for those students who are a little bit introverted because it doesn't involve speaking but instead focuses on writing. Print out a simple blank comic strip and have the students fill it in individually or in pairs. It's best if you can find one that matches the topic for that day, such as emotions, hobbies, dating, etc. Then you can have students compare with a partner or another pair and finally you can elicit some volunteers to share their ideas with the class.
Procedure:
1. Print out a blank comic strip paper (one per student or one per pair).
2. Have students fill in the comic strip.
3. Students compare with a partner or another pair.
4. Elicit some volunteers to share their comic strips with the class.

Comic Strip
Comic Strip2
Comic Strip3

Boggle

Materials: “Boggle” grid on PowerPoint, whiteboard or paper
You've probably played the word game Boggle before. You have to shake up the letters and then you have a certain amount of time to make some words with connecting letters. You can also play it with your students but you don't need the actual Boggle game. Simply make up a grid on the whiteboard, PowerPoint or on a piece of paper. I make a 6x6 one and put some obvious words in like colors or animals. Then, students go in pairs and have to make as many words as possible that are 4+ letters.

You can give a bonus for longer words if you like. At the end, students count up how many points they have, you can doublecheck for any errors and then award a small prize to the winning team.
Procedure:
1. Prepare a “Boggle” grid.
2. Students go in pairs and try to make as many words as possible with 4+ letters. You cannot use the same letter in a single square twice within a single word.
3. Students add up points. The teacher checks answers of the top 2 or 3 teams and declares a winner.

Some possible words from this board:
green, pink, rake, back, fire, fires, fast, road, rose

Now... it's your turn!

Intonation Fun

Use this activity to underline the importance of intonation when your students, as they often do, talk like robots. Basically, get them to say the words in quotation marks in the contexts that follow.

'Hello' 
to a friend
to a friend you haven't seen for 3 years
to a neighbour that you don't like
to a 6 month old baby
to someone you have just found doing something they shouldn't
to someone on the phone when you're not sure if they are still on the other end

'Goodbye'
to a member of your family as they are going through the boarding gate at the airport
to someone who has been annoying you
to a child starting his very first day at school

'How are you?'
to someone you haven't seen for 20 years
to someone who has recently lost a member of the family
to someone who didn't sleep in their own bed last night

'I never go to pubs'
by a person that totally disapproves of drinking alcohol to someone who often goes to pubs
as a response to someone who has told you they sometimes go to pubs
said before: '…but I quite like discos.'

'What have you done?'
to someone who claims to have fixed your television only that now it's worse than before
to someone who is scolding you for not doing anything when you suspect the same about them.
to someone who has just done something very bad and which has serious consequences 

Lost in a Jungle

This game can be done in groups of three to six students. It keeps everyone involved even the quietest students.
The Teacher prepares a list of say 20 items and writes the list on the board or gives copies to groups. This is a list of things that people may need if they're lost in the jungle and things that they may not need.
For example:

• A pack of canned food
• 50 meters nylon rope
• Knife
• Torch
• Tent
• Cellular phone
• 6 gallons of water
• Petrol
• Alchohol
• Blankets
• Candles
• Matches
• ...

Then, the students in groups decide on 5 itmes on the list which seem essential to all of them.This usually takes a whole session since they all come up with different ideas. Sometimes a creative student chooses an item apparently irrelevant, but when he/she explains how to use it, everyone agrees! 

Air Write

One person "writes" letters, words, numbers, shapes etc: in the air and others guess what it is. Can be done in pairs, as a group, along a chain. Can also be played as back-write, that is, writing the letter/word/... on the back of another and they guess what it is.

Good Morning Balls

1. You have three different coloured balls, (they should be very light weight, samll balls).
2. Get the class to make a circle.
3. Then give three people a ball.
   • Red Ball - Good Morning
   • Green Ball- How are you?
   • Blue Ball - Fine thank you and you?
4. The class members pass or gently throw the balls and the person who receives them says the meaning of the balls.

This is fun and gets the class going first thing in the morning. 

Punctuation Game

Draw a period (.), a comma (,), a question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), and an apostrophe (') on the board and leave a few inches between each symbol.

Tell the students the name of each and have them repeat each name. When they are comfortable with the names, begin by pointing to each one in succession. Once they are proficient at this, speed up the pace. This is where it gets fun. Once they are able to say the names in order, change the order on them. Speed up each time through to get the kids excited. As a final tactic, have each student go through the names of the symbols at a slow pace and then speed up. I give the one who can say the most right a piece of candy or a sticker. Have fun and you'll see a big improvement in their punctuation. 

Martian

Tell your class you are a Martian and you are inhabiting a human body to study human ways. You then ask about virtually anything in the room, and ask follow up questions: What is this? It's a pen. What's a "pen"? You use it to write. What is "write"? You make words with it on paper. What are "words"? ETC... You can make it as difficult as possible for your higher level students; at some point, though, you'll need to say "OK, I understand", and go to the next object. Even your best students will eventually get stuck on this one!

Prepositions Game

Prepare a text that contains prepositions. Take out the propositions and print them on a separate sheet, then cut this sheet so that each preposition is on a piece of paper, then put all of them in an envelope. 

Divide the class into groups and give each group an envelope. Tell the students that you are going to read a text and whenever you raise your hand they should bring a suitable preposition and put it on your desk and that the fastest team would get points.

Read the text with each groups' order and cancel a point for each mistake. Finally read the text with correct prepositions. You can play this game with adj as well as a,the and an. 

Spin Zone

Each set of partners receives a top. One learner says as many sentences or words in the target language as he can before the top stops spinning. His partner counts. The student who says the most words wins. We had fun letting the winners compete in "spin offs". I like to give stickers to all and candy to the winner!

Writing Idea

I asked my students to write in their daily journals what rules they would like to see implemented in our classroom and which rules they beleived would benefit our class the most. I then asked them to imagine how it would be if we had no rules in our class, in our school, and in the world. I asked them to weigh the pros and cons of this idea and write whether or not they would like to experience or live in this type of environment.

Cut-Up Sentence Kabadi

This is a combination of a basic TEFL game and the Indian game Kabadi.

Prepare some cut up sentences from the grammar or vocab area you've been working on and place them on a table at the front of the class. Arrange the students into teams, standing behind a line or marker. They have to run to the table and arrange the words into correct sentences, however, they are not allowed to breathe in.

To prevent this the students have to repeat 'kabadi' over and over. If they stop saying the word they have to return to their teams. The first team to correctly arrange all their sentences is the winner. This can get a bit wild but it's fun.

Suppose That

This works well as a fluency activity

1. You are the black sheep of your family. Explain to us why.
2. You won a motorcycle and you are planning to embark on a voyage. Explain where you go.
3. You arrive face to face with a person who you owe 100 dollars to. What do you say?
4. You help an old woman across the street. It turns out that she is a magician. To thank you, she offers you four wishes. What do you ask for?
5. You arrive home at midnight, you open the door and ......

Acting Adverbs

This activity is a great way to introduce the idea of how adverbs affect the way a verb action is done. Divide the blackboard in two and write as many verbs on one side and as many adverbs on the other as you can (get the class to come up with them). At this stage you can also teach how adjectives 'turn into' adverbs by writing down adjectives e.g. angry, happy, and adding the 'ily'. Then divide the class into two teams and perhaps give them goofy team names (I find they enjoy giving each other names). Then get one team to choose a verb and adverb combination and the other team has to act it out, e.g. talk crazily.

My experience with this activity has been with younger learners where some kind of reward is offered at the end like stamps or being the first team to leave at the end of class. You can think of your own reward (or penalty) to motivate your class. It can be a lot of fun with both the actors and the 'directors' enjoying making fools out of themselves or watching others make fools of themselves. 

Draw the Teacher

The teacher gives every student a piece of paper on which they write a sentence about their personal life. This sentence can be about school, family, music, friends, the last vacation, etc. For example "I went to the beach last vacation" or "I always study for my exams" or "I have two brothers" etc. When they finish writing their sentences they fold the paper and give it to the teacher.

It is very important to tell students before writing the sentence that the information they are going to write is "a secret" and not to show it to their classmates. If they have a question about something, they should ask it to you instead of a classmate. Tell students to write their names on the papers.

After collecting all the papers, ask the students to write the numbers from one to 10 (or 20, depending on the number of students you have in that moment in the classroom) in their notebooks. After that, the teacher reads the sentences in random order (without saying the name of the student), and the students write the names of the people they think wrote sentences.

After reading all the sentences, say the question number and read the sentence again for each piece of paper and ask the students to name who they thought wrote it.

Then tell the students the name from the student who wrote that sentence. Students should write (C) for correct guesses and (I) for incorrect guesses.

This is one way for studnets to start knowing a little more about their classmates. 

Getting to Know a Little More about Your Classmates

The teacher gives every student a piece of paper on which they write a sentence about their personal life. This sentence can be about school, family, music, friends, the last vacation, etc. For example, "I went to the beach last vacation" or "I always study for my exams" or "I have two brothers" etc. When they finish writing their sentences they fold the paper and give it to the teacher.

It is very important to tell students before writing the sentence that the information they are going to write is "a secret" and not to show it to their classmates. If they have a question about something, they should ask it to you instead of a classmate. Tell students to write their names on the papers.

After collecting all the papers, ask the students to write the numbers from one to 10 (or 20, depending on the number of students you have in that moment in the classroom) in their notebooks. After that, the teacher reads the sentences in random order (without saying the name of the student), and the students write the names of the people they think wrote sentences.

After reading all the sentences, say the question number and read the sentence again for each piece of paper and ask the students to name who they thought wrote it.

Then tell the students the name from the student who wrote that sentence. Students should write (C) for correct guesses and (I) for incorrect guesses.

This is one way for students to start knowing a little more about their classmates. 

Ball Game

Students stand up in a circle around the teacher. 

A ball is tossed to a student and the teacher asks a question, e.g.: "Say a color". The student then responds and throws the ball back to the teacher.The teacher then throws the ball to another student and asks another question. For higher levels, you can ask such questions like "Give me the past participle of an irregular verb".

This is a fast game, and it is great for reviewing vocabulary. 

Human Bingo - Getting to Know You Activity

Have the students divide an 8.5" x 11" paper into 9 squares (two vertical lines / two horizontal lines. The middle square is the "free" space. Next, put a list of 5 questions on the board (these can vary in difficulty). For example:

1. What is your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. How long have you been in the USA?
4. What is the strangest thing you have eaten here?
5. (they make a question)

The students must then interview 8 different people in the class to fill in the bingo page. Each square on the paper represents one person's answers. When they have written all the answers from one person, they go on to someone else until all of the boxes on the paper are filled. When everyone has finished, the teacher uses the class list to call off names. For example, if the teacher says, "Who has Rodrigo?", the students who interviewed Rodrigo would then provide the answers he gave to the bingo questions.
It's a fun game that gets students speaking right away. It usually takes a while to complete.

What's Your Name?

One student sits in the front of the classroom (usually in the teacher's comfortable chair) with his back to the other students. The teacher then points to students in the class and asks "What's your name?" The student indicated must respond "My name is__________" with either his own name or the name of someone in the class. The student in the front cannot see who is speaking. The teacher says to him, "Is it___________?" and he must say "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't". If the student in front is correct, he gets to stay there, but if he's mistaken, he changes place with the student who fooled him.

To make the game more interesting, the students are encouraged to disguise their voices.

I always do this with my beginners at the beginning of the year, but always at the end of the class, and for not more than 5 to 10 minutes. (My beginners are elementary age.)

Survivor Spelling Game

Use this activity to review vocabulary:

Make a list of vocabulary covered in previous lessons. Have students stand. Call out a vocabulary word. The first student begins by saying the word and giving the first letter, the second student the second letter of the word, the third student the third letter, and so on until the word is spelled correctly. If somebody makes a mistake they must sit down and we start from the beginning again until the word is spelled correctly. The last student must then pronounce the word correctly and give a definition in order to stay standing. The student who is left standing is the "survivor" and wins the game. I usually give them some type of prize. If all the students remain standing we have a pizza party at the end of the week.

The students love it and it is a great way to practice vocabulary!!!

Alphabet Liar Game

Take a pack of letter cards, mixed up. It is better if it is not a complete alphabet, and there are some duplicate cards.

Deal all the cards out to the players:

Students take it in turns to play cards face down. They must go through the alphabet, starting from 'A', playing one card face down and saying the letters in Alphabetical order.

Even if they do not have the card to be played for that turn, they must play any card and pretend it is the card they said. Say the sequence has gone A,B. The next player must play a card and say C, even if he has not got an C.

If any player does not believe that someone has played the real card, he can say: "You're a liar" and turns the card over. If the card has the letter which was said, the challenger picks up all the cards. If it is not, the liar picks up all the cards in the pile. The winner is the first one to finish all their cards.

Think Fast

A game for revision (review). It also works well for the last 5 minutes of class

The teacher prepares a list of items for revision e.g. word fields, grammar, facts. In class he/she explains the procedure. Three to five volunteers leave the classroom and wait till their turn has come. The teacher appoints a student to take the exact time and another to take down a tick for every correct answer. No repetitions! (Set up or negotiate rules on pronunciation.) Then the first player is called in.

• Teacher: You have 20 second to name as many things as come to your mind.
• Your topic: Parts of the body / London sights / plays by William Shakespeare / the places in a town / traffic signs / weekend shopping-list / etc.
• Ready, steady, go

Once all volunteers have done their bit, award a small prize (e.g. a sticker) to the winner of the round. 

Then ask the class for additions before you pick the next item. Then pick the next item.
Allow more time (30 or 40 seconds) for longer answers: What have you done so far today? / What did you do last weekend? / School rules: What do students have to do? What are they not allowed to do?, etc.

If this game is played in groups, they should be evenly balanced.

Find Parts of Speech of Words in a Sentence

• Prepaire cards with parts of speech. Give these to your students.
• Write the sentences on the board.
• Ask your studnets to find parts of speech of words in the sentences.
• You can divide the class into teams to make the games more fun.

Example: Your sentence:

I  WENT TO  SCHOOL  YESTERDAY.    
Pronoun verb preposition noun  noun

Reviewing Tenses

Preparation:

• Print out three sentences (negative, positive, and question) of the tense you want to review.
• Cut each sentence into words.

The Activity:

• Students work in groups.
• Give each group of students words of a sentence and ask them to make the sentence.
• Draw a table on the board and ask students to tick sentences at suitable positiions, positive, negative, or question.
• Ask students to make rules of the tense.

Example:

• Three Sentences:
  • I am a student.
  • I am not a student.
  • Are you a student?

Guessing the Word from a Drawing

• Ask one student to be in front of the class. Give him/her a word that can not be seen by other students.
• He/she will draw (on the blackboard) a picture expressing the concept of the word.
• The rest of the class have to guess the word.
• If you are keeping score, the one who drew the picture gets the point if the class can guess the word.

Descriptions

• Write down names of every student in your class on pieces of paper.
• Give the names to students. Try to make two students describe each other.
• Ask them to describe the person whose name is on the paper.
• After they finish, give the description to the person who is described. He/she has to find any writing mistakes on the paper.
• Students work in pairs to correct the two papers.

Fold-over Stories

This is an old favorite. Give each student a sheet of blank paper. Write the following words on the board in a vertical line: WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHY. Explain that everyone will be writing a sentence story. 

Write an example on the board, explain, asking for suggestions.

1. Tell them to write someone's name at the top of their paper, i.e., their own, a classmate's, the teacher's, a famous person that everyone knows; fold the paper over in half once so no one can see it, then pass the paper to the person on their right.
2. Write on the received paper what the subject did (suggest funny or outrageous actions), fold it over and pass it on to the right.
3. Continue to write one line, how they did it (adverbs), fold and pass; where-pass; when-pass; and last of all, why (because...) and pass it one more time.
4. Have the students unfold their stories, and read them silently. Help anyone who cannot read what the others wrote, or doesn't understand.
5. Ask one student at a time to read "their" story aloud, or turn the stories in for the teacher to read. Funny!

Guess the Letter on Your Back

This game is used to practice the alphabet.

Divide students into groups and ask them to stand in line and give the students in the front of the line a piece of chalk to write on the blackboard.

Then write with your finger a letter on the back of the students at the end of the line. They must do the same with the student in front of him/her and so on. The students with the chalk try to guess the letter and write any word that begins with that letter on the board.

Can You Find What Is Different?

Ask a volunteer to go out of the classroom. While the student is out of the room, the other students change their sweaters, shoes, coats and so on. Bring the student who went out of the classroom back inside. He/she has to guess the differences (speaking in English, of course.)

Headmaster Game

Have each student take out a piece of paper and their dictionary. Write on the board:

You are the new headmaster of this school. You have two years to make this the perfect school. You can have as much money as you want, but you must spend it all in 2 years.

• What changes would you make immediately?
• What changes must be gradual?
• What would you do to make it a better school?
• What changes would you make?

Be specific. For example, don't say hire better teachers. You must say how you would find better teachers or what kind of teachers you would hire. Also, remember you must think like a headmaster, not like a student! Making school easy and letting the students do no exams or homework will not make parents happy!

Give the students 15 minutes to work alone. Then put them in groups of 3-5 with a leader to organize their thoughts. Each group's leader will give its "report" to the other students during the following class period.
If your students have a small vocabulary you can help them out by listing on the blackboard areas of discussion: teachers, buildings, classrooms, activities, dorms, lunchrooms,curriculum, sports, playground, library, bathrooms,schedules,music, art,etc.

This is a great activity for all ages. We always run out of time!

Vacation Cards

For this activity you will need a deck of cards, and an imaginative theme that could be crafted into some sort of story. For example, I choose "send the teacher on a vacation". On the board or overhead projector make a list like the following. (You could ask your student for imput.)

• A-exciting
• 2-depressing
• 3-expensive
• 4-heroic
• 5-romantic
• 6-fantastic
• 7-sad
• 8-almost fatal
• 9-cheap
• 10-dramatic
• J-happy
• Q-wierd
• K-change one option

Prompt the students a little to get them started; perhaps offer a beginning to the story. They then must continue making an oral story by drawing one card and continuing the story along those lines. For example, if they get 4, then the teacher/protagonist must do something heroic or some kind of heroric event must occur. If the students draw a K (or whatever card you stipulate), then they can change one option. This seems to help keep the momentum in the game. Continue through all cards, with the stipulation that the story must be concluded by the end of the deck. Obviously there is a lot of room for variation here. Your word list and theme could be related to your unit of study. 

My students really enjoyed this game; it is most interesting if you personalize it and insert yourself or a student (assuming he/she wouldn't mind).

Act Out an Activity

This is a game-like activity to teach continous tense.

One student simply acts out some activity (e.g.cooking) and the other students guess what that student is doing. The student who guesses correctly acts out another acitvity...

Words Beginning with a Given Letter

The teacher chooses a letter from the alphabet. Then each student must say a word that begins with that letter. If a student repeats a word that has already been said, then he/she is out of the game. The game ends when only one student remains. That student is the winner. In high level classes students lose if they say a past form of the verb. Example:see-saw.

You can increase the difficulty by adding a timer. Only allow each student 5 seconds to think of a word.

Taboo

This game is a simplified version of the board game "Taboo".

Before class, create several index cards. On each card write one word in a large font with a circle around it, and underneath write 2-4 related words in a smaller font. The goal is for students to get their teammates to guess the circled word. They can say anything they like to try to make them guess, except for the words written on the card.

Divide the class into groups of two, and write each group on the board to keep track of points. Place a desk in the front of the room facing the class, so that someone sitting it has their back to the board and can't read it. Place another desk in front of it, so the teammates are facing eachother.

Pick a team to go first, and have them choose a card. Have the teammates decide who will guess and who will talk. The guesser sits with their back to the board. On the board, making sure the guesser can't see, write the circled word as well as the other taboo words. The talker then has to try to make their partner guess the circled word without saying it, or any of the other words. After they guess it have another group come up. When all the groups have gone, do it again and have the teammates switch roles.

My students really enjoy this game, so much so that they often give the guesser clues even when it is not their team! It's a great way for students to practice forming sentences, and it forces them to use words and structures they might otherwise not use.

Classroom Rules: Must and Mustn't

• Prepare small pieces of paper each with either one thing students must do or one thing students must not do.
• Tell the students that they are supposed to form sentences that explain classroom rules.
• Divide the class into groups (of 4 if possible, so that everyone gets a chance to speak).
• Give each group the pieces of paper.

The winning group, the group that finishes first, reads their sentences aloud. (Each student of the group reads one or two sentences depends on size of group. 

It's an easy game and the preparation does not take too much time. You can make as many rules as you wish.

Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt

This game may require students to leave the classroom depending on how you set it up.
Make a list of things students must take photos of. Then put your students into teams, each with their own camera and have them go out and take the photos. The team that comes back first with all the photos is the winner.
Some ideas for lists are:

• Bus, taxi, car, bicycle, etc.
• Restaurant, post office, mail box, traffic light, etc.
• In the classroom: pencil, pen, eraser, blackboard, etc.
• Around the school: principal's office, copy machine, cafeteria, etc.

For further review of vocabulary, have the students look at all the photos and identify other things that appear in each photo.

Beep Game

Choose around 10 volunteers to come and stand in a line at the front of the classroom.

The first student in line must begin counting from 1, and each student in turn calls out the next number. However, every 4th number must be replaced by the word "beep" (or buzz etc.).

 Following a "beep" the next student in line must call out the next number, and not the number that has been replaced. For example, 1, 2, 3, beep, 5, 6, 7, beep, 9 etc.

If a student hesitates too much or makes a mistake he/she must sit down, so eventually only one student remains. Whenever a student sits down, begin from 1 again. See how far you can get!