Name Games: 10 Quick & Easy Games To Play While Teaching English To Kids!

10 Quick & Easy Games to Play while Teaching English to Kids!
Blog 5 from our wonderful guest blogger/Spanish intern, Ciara! If you’re

stuck for ideas and need a little lesson plan inspiration, this one’s for
you. Ciara’s put together her 10 favourite games to play in the TEFL
classroom so take your pick and thank her later!
1. Name games
Name games are a really good way to start a lesson, they are
especially helpful at the start of the year to help you remember the
names of all your new students! Go round the circle and have the
children say their name and one of their favourite things. When the
next child introduces themselves, they must first introduce the child
that went before him and so on until the last child must remember the
names and favourite things of everyone in the group! This can be made
harder for older students by having a rule that their favourite thing
must begin with the same letter as their first name.
2. Charades
This is a game that I’ve found to be popular with children of all ages!
I’ve used an envelope full of cut out words or a set of picture
flashcards for younger students to play this. Secretly show a student a
word or flashcard and then have them silently act it out while the
other children call out – in English – what they think the secret word is.
The children get super competitive over this and the mimes can be
hilarious! Charades can also be adapted to learn almost any
vocabulary – animals, sports, hobbies, emotions – so it is endlessly
useful!
3. Pictionary
Similar to charades but uses drawing pictures of a secret word instead
of acting it out. I’ve found that children love being given to chance to
use a marker and whiteboard – and to show off their artist skills.
4. Stand up if you…
This game works best with a larger group and you need to have an
open space to play in. Get all the children to form a large circle with
you standing in the middle. You should then call out a sentence such
as ‘stand up if you are wearing shorts’ and everyone wearing shorts
must run to switch places in the circle with each other while you steal
one of their spots. The child left in the middle then gets to call out the
next question. This game can be easily adapted to suit the vocabulary
the class is learning as the questions can focus on appearance,
clothing, likes/dislikes, family members, holidays – almost anything!
5. Guess the flashcard

This game is very simple but very effective. While holding a hidden set
of flashcards in your hands, slowly reveal them one at time while the
students must shout out the name of the depicted word. The child who
guesses correctly the fastest gets to hold the flashcard – something
they absolutely love – and the child with the most flashcards at the
end is the winner!
6. Slam
This is another flashcard game which works best with small groups.
Place all the flashcards on the floor and have the children gather
around them. Then call out the name of the flashcard and have the
children ‘slam’ their hands onto the correct card. The child who’s hand
is at the bottom of the pile – and is therefore the fastest – wins! I’ve
found with this game that its best to get the children to keep their
hands on their heads until the moment you call out a words to avoid
them hovering their hands over the pictures!
7. Memory
For this game you need to have a two sets of matching flashcards or a
set of pictures and corresponding words. Simply place all the cards
face down on the floor and have the children take turns picking two
cards in order to find a matching pair. Children love this game and I’ve
found it engages even the most easily distracted students. Again it
can be adapted to teach lots of different vocabulary – this week I used
this game to teach Halloween words and it worked really well!
8. Bingo
To play you first need to find some Bingo grid with pictures or words of
desired vocabulary (there are lots you can print free on the internet) or
make your own! Give each child a grid that they must mark off as you
call out words – the first to get a row or to complete their grid is the
winner. Make sure to check the winners grid to ensure they have
matched the words correctly! This can be made harder by giving the
children clues to the correct picture rather than the word itself.
9. 20 Questions
This game is great as it allows students to practice forming questions
in English as well as revising their target vocabulary. Have a student
think of a secret word while the other students take it in turns to ask
them question in order to guess what they’re thinking. Again, you can
give them a prescribed vocabulary to use – or simply let them use their
imaginations!
10. Find the colour
I have found this game to be really popular with younger students as a

way of teaching them the colours. Gather all the students together and
then call out ‘find something …’ and the children must run to touch
something in the classroom of the correct colour. This is great as it
gets the active children moving and it can be hilarious when they find
the correct colour on themselves or on another student – or even on
you!

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10 Quick & Easy Games to Play while Teaching English to Kids!

Blog 5 from our wonderful guest blogger/Spanish intern, Ciara! If you’re

5. Guess the flashcard

10. Find the colour

I have found this game to be really popular with younger students as a

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