QUIZZES AND GAMES

GUESS WHO?

Practice question words while playing this fun game.

PICTIONARY GAMES

Review vocabulary with this game. Elementary and lower intermediate level.

TONGUE TWISTERS

To help students loosen up their tongues, download this pdf.

RIDDLES

SCAVENGER HUNT

WORDSEARCH: IN THE GARDEN

TEACHER SAYS

Another version of the classic game of SIMON SAYS. Teachers use their imagination and create phrases using LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, action words and body parts. Remind students that they must follow instructions carefuly only if the phrases are preceded by ‘teacher says’. The student who performs the wrong action or who performs it without being told ‘teacher says’ is eliminated from the game. If older students are participating, the teacher can make the game more difficult by performing actions that do not correspond to the sentence being said (For example, “Teacher says touch your right foot” while the teacher actually touches their right arm instead). Instinctively students will imitate the teacher and therefore will have to pay particular attention in order not to make mistakes.

EXAMPLE OF CLASSROOM LANGUAGE – Teacher says put your left arm up.  Teacher says touch your right knee. Teacher says stomp your left foot.  Teacher says sit down. Put your chin up.  No, I’m sorry I didn’t say Teacher Says!

WORD CHAIN

The first student begins by saying any vocabulary word they know in English and then the next student continues by saying a  vocabulary word that begins with the last letter of the previous word.  For example:  computeR – ReD- DaughteR- Rabbit etc.

12 LETTERS

Begin by writing 12 letters on the board (make sure to include vowels) and give students an allotted amount of time to find as many words as they can using those letters.  When time is up, ask students how many words they were able to form.  Tell the student who formed the highest number of words to write them on the board and then ask other students to integrate with words that are not on the board.

For example:    b e r c t a k d g f o s

cat   scarf  take  go  bake  back  best  bet  bed dog bread red sea     etc.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?

Ask a student to wait outside the classroom and then ask classmates to try to remember what he or she is wearing and describe it in English.  

8 QUESTIONS

Ask a student to think of a classmate.  The other students in the class must guess who the student is by asking no more than 8 questions. For example:  Is it a boy or a girl?  Has she got long hair? Has she got blue eyes? etc.

MIX UP

Divide class in two groups. Give a couple of minutes for everyone to observe each other.  Have students exchange objects (ex. glasses, jewelry, etc) then in random order ask students to line up in teams facing each other.   The object of the game is to correct the changes.  For example:  Stephanie go stand near Lucas.  Alex you’ve got Tommy’s bracelet.  Anna, give Adam his watch.  Sam you’ve got Matt’s shoes on.

STATUE SCULPTOR ROCK

Divide the class in groups of 3.  One student is the ‘statue’ and must hold a pose in a random silly position.  Another student is the ‘rock’ and must keep eyes closed  at all times so they don’t see the statue. The last student is the ‘sculptor’ and has 30 seconds to explain to the ‘rock’ the pose held by the ‘statue’.  The rock must mimic the ‘statue’ simply by following the directions given by the ‘sculptor’.  For example: place your foot on your knee, palms together, etc.  At the end of the 30 seconds the teacher stops the game and the ‘rocks’ can open their eyes to see if their position is the same as the ‘statues’.  As an adaptation there can be one statue per the whole class rather than in each group.

WHISPER IT

This is a classic game, requires no equipment and is always fun to play!  Place students in line or in a circle. The first student must whisper a sentence in English in the ear of the next student who in turn must whisper it to the next student and so on and so forth until all students whisper the sentence.  Each student can only say the sentence once.  The last student in line must then repeat the sentences out loud and the first student must either state if the sentence is correct or correct it if it is wrong.

IN MY CLASSROOM I CAN SEE

A fun lesson finisher and a good memory game to review classroom vocabulary.  The first student must begin the game by stating ‘In my classroom I can see’ and adding a classroom object that he/she can see in the classroom (for example a red desk).  The next student must continue by repeating the sentence the first student said and adding a classroom object of their own.  For example: ‘In my classroom I can see a red desk and a blue pen’.  The game gets harder as each student adds classroom vocabulary to the sentence.

GAMES WITH NUMBERS

DICE GAMES:

ADD TO 100

In pairs students roll die one at a time and say the number rolled.  The next student rolls the die, says the number rolled and then adds it to the total reached before.  Example: S1 rolls 5 and says ‘5’.  S2 rolls 4 and says ’5 and 4 is 9‘.  The game continues until students reach 100.

BEEP

Ask students to stand up and decide with them which numbers students can’t say, for example 3 and 7  or any number containing those digits (13, 71, etc).  Students must substitute those numbers with BEEP.  The first student in line begins by counting ‘1’ out loud, the next student says ‘2’, the next student cannot say ‘3’ but must say ‘BEEP’ instead, the next ‘4’ and so on until the students reach 100.  If a student makes a mistake he or she must sit down.  Last student standing is the winner.

1-21

In this game the students have to count in English one number at a time in turn in progressive order up to 21. The 22nd student will have to choose a number and an English word of his choice (or a category if he wants to concentrate on specific words) which will have to replace that number. For example ‘three, duck’. Number 1 must never be replaced.

The students start counting again from 1 to 21 but the student who has to say ‘3’ and the student who has to say ’13’ will have to replace the numbers with the word ‘duck’. If a student makes a mistake or does not remember the word corresponding to the number, he is eliminated. At the end of the round the 22nd pupil will again have to replace another number with another word and the game continues until there is only 1 pupil left in the game.

RACE TO 100

To start with, have the students stand in a circle around a table.  Player 1 begins by rolling the die until they roll a ‘six’ and then quickly passes the die on to the next player. In the meantime another player (S1) in the group begins writing the numbers from 1-100 on a sheet of paper as quickly as possible until Player 1 that is rolling the die yells out ‘SIX’.

 At this point the die and the pen and paper are passed onto the next players in a clockwise direction.  Player 2 keeps rolling until they roll ‘six’ while S2 keeps writing from where S1 left off, trying to get all the way to 100.  As students write the numbers they must say the numbers out loud in English. Play continues until one player reaches 100. As a variation students can begin writing from  100-1 or when playing with older students they can skip count (by 2 or 5 for example) until reaching a higher number for example 1000.

ROLL AND DO IN THE GYM

Before beginning the game, together with the students match an action to numbers 1- 6.

For example: 1. push up 2. jumping jacks 3. turn around and touch the ground 4. hops on one leg 5. squats 6. burpees.

Divide the students in pairs and distribute two dice to each pair. In turn students must roll the first die to determine the action that must be carried out and the second die that determines the number of times the action must be done. As the student does the action he or she must say out loud the action being performed in English (for example: one jumping jack, two jumping jacks…).

WILD WILD WEST

Begin by choosing a ‘sheriff’ in the group then have  students sit in a circle.   The ‘sheriff’ must point to a child in the circle and ask a math problem.  The students sitting immediately to the left or to the right of that student must say the answer as quickly as possible.  The first one to answer is saved and becomes ‘sheriff’ while the second one is out of the game.  The game continues until only two children are left.

LISTEN AND TOUCH

The teacher calls out a number and students must touch the floor only with that number of body parts using unique combinations (for example: not just two feet but also one foot one finger).

BIG NUMBERS

Firstly, divide students into teams (possibly of ten children).  Then distribute to every team ten A4 sheets of cardboard paper each with a number 0 to 9 written on them.  Each student should hold a sign with a number up high.  When the students are ready the teacher must say  a number (es. 10,467) and the students must stand in the correct order to form the number.  The first team to do so is the winner.

CAPTURE THE FLAG

First, the teacher divides the class into pairs, assigns each pair a number and then puts the pair of students facing each other each at about 5 meters from a dividing line in the center of the field.

At this point the teacher, holding a flag (a handkerchief, a bandana, a shirt, etc.), stands at one end of the dividing line and holds out the flag and shouts a number. The pair with the same number run towards the flag trying to grab it and when one of them has they run to their starting point without being tagged by the other.

Each player who manages to steal the flag first and return safely to his team without being touched is awarded a point. On the other hand, if the player is tagged before returning to the starting point, the point is awarded to the other team. Then, the flag is returned to the teacher and the game continues.

The team with the most points wins.

As an alternative, other categories of words can be used instead of numbers such as animals, colors, etc.