Students stand in a circle and take turns in counting from 1
to 50 (easy) or 1 to 100 (hard). If they can't think of the next
number they have to sit down. The next student then continues.
To make it harder give a time limit of only 1 second per person.
Also try odd numbers and even numbers for older students. Try
not to have more than ten students in one circle.
Instead of numbers you can use letters of the alphabet.
Write different numbers on about 30 pieces of paper. For young
students use the numbers 1-30. For older students, use often
confused numbers like 13 & 30 and 15 & 50 etc. Spread
the numbers over the floor at the front of the classroom. Split
the students into two teams and have them line up at the back.
Call out a number and one student from each team has to run to
the front of the room and search for that number. The winner
is the student who finds the correct number. Give that team one
point and continue with the remaining numbers.
Instead of numbers you can use vocabulary words.
Guess my Number:
One student comes to the front of the class and chooses a number
between 1 and 50. (For younger students ask them to write a number
down or pick a number from a bag.) They then say "Guess
my number". Students put their hands up trying to guess
the number. Depending on their guess the reply should either
be "My number is bigger" or "My number is smaller".
The words higher and lower could be used for older students.
The student that guesses the number correctly then goes to the
front of the class and the game continues.
Draw an outline of a body on a large piece of paper. The easiest
way to do this is to stick two or three sheets of newspaper together,
ask a student to lie down on it and then draw around their body.
Make up some flash cards using the vocabulary list for parts
of the body. Split the students into two or three teams depending
on the number of people. The body outlines should be at one end
of the classroom and the students lined up at the other end.
Then, on the command "Go!" the students pick up a flash
card and run to the body outline placing it in the correct place.
They then run back and the next team member takes over.
The teacher stands at the front of the class giving commands
such as "Simon says touch your ear" and "Simon
says touch your nose". If the command is proceeded with
"Simon says" then the students must do it. If the teacher
just says "touch your mouth" then the students must
remain still. Any student that tries to touch their mouth are
out of the game. For older students try adding "left hand"
and "right leg" etc.
Using any vocabulary list, make up playing card sized flash cards:
one with the words written and the other with a matching picture.
For example, the word "book" on one card and a picture
of a book on another. All of the cards are then placed face down.
Each student then takes turns to pick up two cards. Encourage
them to say the name of the card as they pick them up. If the
two cards match they get to keep them and play again. If they
don't match they should be placed back in the same position face
down. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end
of the game.
I went to Market:
This game is best done in groups of five. The first person starts
by saying something like "I went to market and I bought
a loaf of bread." The next person then has to add to the
list. "I went to market and I bought a loaf of bread and
some flowers." As the game proceeds around the circle the
list gets longer and longer and becomes increasingly harder for
them to remember. A student is out of the game if they can't
remember the whole list. The game continues until there is only
one person left.
Visit different places for different word lists. For example,
holidays around the world, animals seen at the zoo and provinces
visited in Thailand.
Place some objects on a table such as 6 books, 5 rulers, 7 pens,
3 erasers, 2 pencils etc. Ask the students questions like "How
many pencils?" and ask them to "count the pencils".
Tell them they have one minute to remember everything on the
table. Cover the objects. Give the students 30 seconds to write
down the objects they saw and how many of each.
of the Week:
Push the tables to the back of the classroom leaving an open
space. The students sit on their chairs in a large circle. One
student is chosen to stand in the middle and his chair is removed.
Go around the circle naming each student, including the one in
the middle, a different day of the week. If you have a large
class of 42 students then six of them will be Monday. To start
with, go through the days of the week asking "Monday please
stand up" and so on. Also say "school day please stand
up" and "weekend please stand up" and "every
day please stand up". If you have 42 students then 12 should
stand up for weekend and 30 stand up for school day. Now the
The student in the middle either calls
out a day of the week, "school day", "weekend"
or "every day". If he calls out "Wednesday"
then all Wednesdays must get up and change their seats. The one
standing in the middle must now run to find a vacant seat. The
student who is left without a seat goes to the middle and the
game continues. If "weekend" is called then everyone
who is Saturday and Sunday must change seats. For "every
day", everyone has to change seats. There are no winners
but the game is a lot of fun.
You can use months and seasons for older students.
South, East, West: Label the four sides of the classroom for each
point of the compass. Ask the students to stand up and face the
front. When you call out a compass point they must jump quickly
to face that direction. For example, if they start off by facing
north and you shout "south" they must do a quick 180
degrees jump. Anyone who jumps the wrong direction or is too
slow is out and sits down. Make it a little harder by adding
north-east, south-west etc.
Whisper: Divide the class
into two teams and tell them to line up. The student at the end
of each line is given a pencil and piece of paper. Invite the
student at the front of each team to come to the teacher's desk.
Show them a phrase written down such as "The black cat sat
on the white mat" or "Three dogs meet five cats."
They then go back and whisper in the ear of the first team member
the exact phrase which they have memorised. This person then
whispers the phrase in the ear of the next team member. This
continues down the line until the final person who writes it
down. If this matches the starting phrase then they are given
a point. Change the length of the phrase to make it easier or
One student goes to the front of the class and says something
like "I can see something in this room starting with the
letter C". The other students then have to guess what it
is. Encourage the students to use English all the time. "Is
it a chair?" "No." "Is it a clock?"
"No." Is it a cup?" "Yes!" The student
that guesses correctly then comes to the front of the class and
does the same thing with a different object. If there are not
many things in the classroom you can include objects that can
be seen in a picture. If the students are having difficulty in
guessing the object encourage them to ask questions such as "Is
it near the front?" or "Is it big?" These questions
should only be answered with a "yes" or "no".
The class is split into two teams, for example boys and girls,
and two gallows are drawn on the blackboard. One person from
each team is chosen to pick a word from a vocabulary list and
then draws a dash on the board for each letter in the word. The
representative from team 1 then invite members of team 2 to guess
a letter of the word. If they are correct then that letter is
written in the correct place and that team can play again. If
they are wrong, the head is drawn on the gallows. The other team
then have a go at guessing letters in their word. The game proceeds
like this until the head, body, two arms and two legs have been
drawn. The team whose body is finished first are the losers.
In small groups get the students to sit in a circle. The first
person thinks of a word, translates it, then spells it. The next
person then has to think of a word starting with the last letter
of the previous word. For example, if the first word is "house"
the next word could be "elephant". A word cannot be
used twice. A person is out if they cannot think of a word.