29694 47 fun activities

Chinese drawing. Divide your students into teams. Line

Compare and contrast. Give two pictures and

them up, facing the board. Give a new or a key word to

ask the students to make comparisons

the students at the back. They must use their finger to
write the word on the next student’s back. This
continues along the lines. The winning team is the first

between them. E.g. Harry Potter and
Gandalph, Mona Lisa and Medusa, 2 famous

to reach the board and write the word correctly. They

sportsmen or women, someone from the

gain an extra point if they can use the word in a

distant past and someone from the present.

sentence, or give the definition. For beginners, work
with letters of the alphabet – upper and lower case.

Hot seat There are many variations on this activity.
Put one student ‘in role’ – he has to be a character in
Guess the object. Take or draw a picture. Then take 5 pieces
of paper (all the same size as the original picture.). Cut
various sized holes in them. Put them all on the picture.

Take one off at a time – can they guess what the object is, or
where – street scene etc. Each time, they are allowed 5
questions to help them guess. You can do this as a whole
class activity, or put them in teams .
Match–upTried and trusted; always works. Pictureword or word-definition match ups. Make it
kinaesthetic by giving the cards out and asking
students to match them up. Get great resources from
MES-English.

a book/film you’ve studied and the rest of the class
prepare questions to ask. You could: Make question
cards with the wh- question words and give them
out. The students have to make questions with the
word they are given. Or, allot ‘tense cards’ – past
simple questions with did, present with do or does
and future with will.

Splat/Wipeout Nice and simple, great activiity.
Good for revising vocabulary. Wipeout. Write or
draw your items on the board (about 12 is
good.) For beginners, a simple vocabulary item
or letters of the alpahabet. For mainstream,
key words, or main characters, etc. Invite two

Beat the clock Students love this!!! They take turns in
the hotseat. The rest of the class prepare questions –
the object of the exercise is for the hotseater not to
say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. So the students need to write
questions which are the most likely to elicit a ‘yes’ or a
‘no.’ This can be general questions, ‘Have you got any

sisters?’ etc, or it could be based on a topic you have
studied ‘Do plants need light to photosynthesise?’ etc.
This is an excellent way to practise tag questions, as
these are the most likely to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘Mr Bean
went to the dentist’s, didn’t he?’
Rules
1) Students cannot prevaricate – ‘maybe’ ‘I don’t
know’ ‘obviously’ etc are not allowed. I sometimes
insist on a full sentence. ‘Mr Bean did go to the
dentist’s.’ ‘Plants need light for photosynthesis.’
2) No nodding or shaking of the head.
3) If the hotseater answers the questions for more
than 90 seconds, then he has beaten the clock!
4)If he says ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then he is out. I use my metal
bin and a boardmarker at this point, but if you can get
hold of a drum or a bell or something, that is great. I
ask a student to do this and there are alwways plenty
of volunteers. This is a great revision tool!
This

students to the board. Say the word, or give
the definition.The winner is the first to hit the
item. He then wipes it out. Call another student
and repeat the exercise. Splat You can prepare
the items in advance on a slide, with picture.
The same activity, except students just hit the
item. For more advanced students, give the
definition, or some clues. You can also have a
student to give the clues. They love the
competition.

Eleven. Students stand in a circle. They count around.
The student who says 11 is out and has to sit down.
Each student can say up to 3 numbers, so when
there are just a few left,they can calculate how to get
each other out. Or twenty one...
Little light ball Throw this to the student you want to give
the answer. They return the ball as they answer. Makes for
a good, fast question and answer session.


Hangman Don’t forget this old favourite! It makes a great

Vary your close exercises. Cloze exercises are a

starter activity and can be used at any level – e.g. for
beginners – classroom objects. For more advanced
students, key words in any subject area. Just write on the
board, with students taking a turn, or use a generator.

great way of testing comprehension – but also,

Guess who? You need post-it notes , or pieces of paper
and blutac. Put the students in pairs. Write the target
words on the post-it notes. Stick one on each of the
students’ foreheads – without letting the student see
what is on his forehead. The task is for each partner to
guess what is on his forehead, by asking questions of his
partner.. Is it an animal? Is it green? Etc. The answer can
only be ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

spelling. Try leaving all the vowels and ‘y’ out .
Students do enjoy this exercise.

I Spy with my little eye, something beginning
with .... Another old favourite that is a great
activity for beginners.
Count round The students have to count
round the class – in 3s, (or 4s, 5s etc). Then,
start f rom a high number and they have to
count down in threes.

‘I we nt t o t he marke t and I bought . . . . ’
Fruit bowl I call this ‘Big Cats’

Another old f avourite. Can be used as a

because I teach boys and they like that
better. The students must be seated in a
circle, on chairs. You need at least 12
students, I would say. Go round and
allot each a cat – tiger, lion, panther,
etc (3, 4, or 5 cats, depending on group
size.)Stand in the middle. Explain:
‘When I say ‘lion’, all the lions have
to get up and swap seats. When I say
‘tiger’ all the tigers have to swap
seats.Etc. When I say ‘Big cats!’,
everybody has to get up and swap seats.
Then, do this twice. By now, the

students are wondering what the big deal
is. Third time round, take away a chair!
Play the game again – someone is left
without a seat. He must give a forfeit,
or answer a question. Be careful! This
can be very lively, particularly on a
‘Big Cat’ round.I only play this at the
end of term. The students love it.

category game, if you’ve been learning

Odd one out – can be used at any level – this
can actually be quite demanding conceptually.
Storyboard. You have been teaching, now it’s time
for the students to show they have learned!They
have to divide a sheet of plain A4 into 4 or 6 squares.
They need to recount, in sequential order, with
diagrams, the story you have studied, or the topic. As
well as narrative, they may include speech bubbles,
or fact file boxes.

clothes, or f oods etc. The f irst student
starts of f , then it goes round the class, with
each student having to remember all the
others’ answers. This can be varie d. ‘I
went to the zoo and I saw a ...’ or with verbs
‘I went on holiday and I ... played on the
beach.’ etc
True or false ?- variation Instead of a
straightforward T or F, put a mistake, or a piece

of false information in each sentence which the
students must find and correct. Or produce a
report on something the class has studied, with
mistakes in it. Very adaptable and can be used at
every level.

Sequencing and Practising Connectives at
intermediate or advanced levels. Take a story or
report and cut it into sections for the students to put in
the right order. Also, take out all the time connectives
and substitute ‘then’. When the students have
reassembled the passage correctly, say, ‘I am going to
read it out loud. How could it be improved?’ Split them
into pairs or groups, and see which group can substitute
‘then’ with the best connectives. Give out a list of
suitable connectives if you need to. Let the students
read out their versions and discuss who has done the
best job.


Bingo/Lotto a great, fun revision
activity – need I say more?

Nought s and cros se s You draw 9 boxes on
the board and use some blutack to stick your
f lashcards/ key vocabulary f ace down on the
boxes. Split the class into two teams. They take

Back to the board. One student comes out and

turns to turn a card over. I f it’s a picture and

stands with his back to the board. You then – get the

they know the word, or if it’s a word and they can

rest of the class to check that he doesn’t take a peek –

give the def inition, they get their nought or their

write a word or draw a simple diagram. The rest of

cross. The winning team is the f irst to get 3

the class must describe it, or give clues, but they

noughts or 3 crosses in a line. This can be

cannot say the word. Split them into teams to make it

adapted to pair work.

a competion. Great for students at all levels.

Spell it out Students have their books and pens
ready. Start spelling the word letter by letter.
The object of this exercise is for them to guess
the word before you finish spelling it. A fun way to
present a spelling test!

Describe and draw Put the students in pairs. Give each a
picture. Student A describes his picture (but mustn’t show
it) to Student B, who then has to draw it. At the end, they
compare their pictures and discuss what is different. Then
they swap roles. Excellent for beginners – colours,
prepositions and for practising ‘has/have got’ etc as well
as for advanced students.

Jumbled words and jumbled sentences. For

Do mino e s You ca n do this a s a whole cla s s

beginners, you can give out individual packs of the

a ctivity, with jus t one s e t of dominoe s . Give e a ch
s tude nt one or 2. On one box, the re is a que s tion, on
the othe r a n a ns we r. The firs t s tude nt re a ds out his
que s tion, the n the s tudnt with the right a ns we r puts
his ha nd up, re a ds it out a nd the n re a ds his que s tion
e tc. This ca n be done in pa irs .

alphabet. For more advance students, you can have
full sentences, including adverbs and connectives.

Box of words Get a bag or a box and put lots of words
on pieces of paper in it. Go round the class – each
student has to take a word, read it and either make a
sentence out of it, or give the definition. If you like, you
can write each student’s sentence on the board. Then,
the others can correct the sentences and/or make

suggestions for improvement. This can be used to
practise basic English with beginners, or with key words
or new vocabulary for more advanced classes. Or, if
you’ve been studying a novel or a play, your words can
be based on that.

Probability plane Strategically place your
bin. Give the students a sheet of paper and
ask them to make a paper plane. Then ask
them to discuss the odds of them getting
their plane in the bin. You can bring in lots
of language. ‘Likely’ ‘No chance’ ‘Impossible’
‘Certain’ ‘50-50’ ‘6:1’ etc. Move the bin
around as they get better at it!
Chinese whispers. Two teams, each forming a circle.

Charades Divide the class into 2 teams. One
member comes out and he takes a card off the
top of the pile – written on it is what you want
him to act out e.g. ‘dig the garden’. He then acts

Whisper the key phrase into the ears of the first student in
line. They then whisper to each other, round the circle.
The winning team is the one whose final statement most
resembles the original. Good for teaching key pieces of
knowledge.

it out – he mustn’t speak or mime. The other team
has to guess the word or phrase. Put a time limit
on it, then pass it over to his own team. If you

want to make it easy, you can get the students to
prepare the cards.

Main points After you have studied a book, make a few
slides or a worksheet with just the main points. Elicit a
recount by asking questions, ‘What happened before..’
‘Why did he go there?’ ‘Who did he see?’ etc.


Add to the picture This is a good activity
for a small beginners’ group. Use the
whiteboard. Draw a line. Say, ‘This is the
ground’. Call up a student and ask, or show
them, they have to add something. They may

Place the nose Draw a blank face on the board. Call out
one student – he has to be blindfolded. He has to draw the
nose in the right place and the others have to give
directions. Give each student a different coloured pen and
see who gets the best results. Good for practising
prepositions and directions. A bit of fun!

add anything house/flower/tree/person/animal
plane/sun/birds/car etc, whatever they like.
Then they have to say what it is, ‘This is a ...’ Or
ask the others if they can name the object.
Each student gets a turn. At the end, they then
each say a sentence to describe the picture.
Good for practising prepositions. You can make
this into a longer, writing activity by having

them copy the picture and write up the
sentences. You can then have a True/false
session, based on the picture they have

Kinaesthetic True or false Place two posters at
opposite ends of the classroom - TRUE and FALSE. Read
out your statements, students have to move to the position
they think is correct. Students who are wrong have to sit
down. Continue until there is a winner. Then, move onto
the next statement. At the end of ther activity, ask students
to recite, or write down as many of the true statements as
they can remember.

Key words chart tally Ask some students to keep a
tally of how many times you say a certain word. This
can be a way of allowing a beginner to participate in a
more advanced lesson.

created.

Differentiate by half Ask your EAL students to work on
half the number of paragraphs that you set the rest of the
class.

Pre-highlight key words or phrases in the passage you are
studying.

Timeline Draw three time zones on your line – Past / Now /
Future. Students take turns to come out. Read out a sentence,
e.g. ‘He saw his friend last month.’ The student has to position

himself on the line /in the zone he thinks appropriate. This is a
great kinaesthetic way to practise tenses and expressions of time.

Provide writing frames. This can be in the
form of time adverbs for a sequence, ‘First, After
that, Suddenly.... Finally etc’ or with specific
vocabulary. You can also give support for the
answer e.g. Instead of ‘Where did he go next?’
‘Say where he went next.’

Post it marking When marking, instead of
correcting the student’s mistakes in his book, write
them on post –it notes, Then the student has to
correct his own mistakes. This way, you know the
student has taken notice.

Acrostics At the beginning – or the end of a topic, write
down one of the key terms e.g. E D U C A T I O N. The
students have to write down as many words as they can
beginning with each letter that is relevant to the topic. E.g
E – exam/expectations etc. D – detention, discipline. Split
the class into groups and the winning group is the one
with the most correct words. Each group’s suggestions
can be written up and discussed.

Ice breaker or an activity you can use for a
speaking lesson at any time. Bring in some photos
from your personal album, or the internet.
Include photos of people – family, friends.
Photos of places/big cities/countries you have

visited/food/film trailer posters/cars etc. Tell
the students ‘These are important to me’ – or ‘I
have plenty to say about each of these photos,

Read and report back Instead of reading from a
book, pin the passages up round the classroom. In pairs,

but I need the right questions.’ Give them some
time to write as many questions as they can. Or

one student reads the passage, then reports back to his

assign different photos to different students. A

partner, who writes it up. Then, they go up and read the

fun way to practise making questions.

passage to check . This makes reading and writing fun.