Games and fun activities are a great way to get children of all ages excited about learning English. You can use them at the beginning of your lesson to get kids warmed up and ready for the day, as the main focus to teach in a fun way, or at the end as a quick review. Here are some of my favorites. This list is a mix of some that I did on my own and some that my main teachers used that I really liked.
Get To Know Me Powerpoint
I kicked off my first days at the school by giving a little presentation about myself. It was a great way for me to introduce myself to the students and teachers, share info about my hometown, and spark very interesting conversations surrounding cultural differences. In my presentation, I included baby pictures, pictures of my family, college graduation, favorite food, favorite movies, my hometown, and fun facts about myself and the USA. The funniest slide was when I mentioned that chicken and waffles are a popular food combination in the South and both the children and teachers were in shock! They eat waffles mainly as a dessert so combining the sweetness with chicken as a meal was unheard of. I also gave the children a chance to ask me any questions they could think of.
Jeopardy
Jeopardy is a super popular American game show that's literally been running for 30+ years. It's essentially a question and answer game based on 6 different categories. The twist is that the answers are given first and you have to guess the question. I decided to use Jeopardy Labs to create a jeopardy template based on information the students had been learning. It was a great and fun way to review their previous lessons. The website is actually super easy to use. And it's free, free, free free!
Charades
If you've never played charades, all you do is give a student a word to act out and the other students have to guess what the word is. This is another great, easy option for reviewing past lessons. We played charades when the children were learning animals, sports, general verbs, etc. And this game honestly gets funnier the older the kids are because they are silly!
Song Translations/Fill-In-The-Blank
I was in Spain during Valentine's day so one of my teachers pulled Ed Sheeran's song "Perfect" to have the children fill in the blank as they listened to the words. This is a great activity for students maybe 3rd grade and up. You could also find a song in the students' primary language and allow them to translate it into English. Of course, make sure to properly vet the song you choose for this activity to make sure it's appropriate. We don't want any secondary lessons coming from this activity if you know what I mean LOL!
Simon Says
Simon Says is the perfect game for teaching body parts to young children. To play, the teacher simply says "Simon says touch your ___" and the students should follow along. If the teacher gives direction without saying "Simon says..." first, the students should stay still. If a student is caught following along without the "Simon says...," he or she is out. For example, the teacher says "Simon says touch your nose" and everybody should touch their nose. If the teacher says "Touch your eyebrow," nobody should touch their eyebrow because there was no "Simon says..." Super simple game but it's one of my favorite TEFL activities.
Magazine Cutout Project
I really liked an assignment one of my teachers did to teach the English name for various items. She split the class up into groups and gave each a few magazines, a poster board, glue, scissors, and a category (animals, foods, household items, etc.). Each group would cut out whatever pictures fit their category, paste them on the poster board, and I would help them write the English name next to the picture. This was a great activity in general. However, I did want to note that I struggled with food for two reasons. The first was some foods they cut out of their catalog were culturally specific so, although I could technically Google the translation if I saw the Spanish word, they were not foods I personally recognized. So I would definitely encourage sticking to generic fruits, veggies, meats, etc. that can be found worldwide. The other reason I struggled was that I can not differentiate species of fish AT ALL. If they cut the picture out before I could see what page it came from, I was of no help. But other than that, I loved the concept of the activity LOL.
DIY Board Game
This was another activity I saw one of my teachers do. She would print out a mini board with various questions like "What did you eat for breakfast?" or "What time is it?" for the children to answer. They rolled a dice and answered whatever question they landed on. You can print something out or grab a sharpie, poster board, and ruler and draw it yourself. The best part about this activity is that it is fully customizable for various ages, topics, group sizes, etc.
Do you have any other TEFL activity suggestions? Comment them below!
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