Surefire ways to make your lessons more fun
If you’ve ever taught English before, you have probably had this complaint, or have at the very least known someone who has received it before.
“Your class is too boring, the students want more activities/games”
It happens to the best of us, so I’m going to teach you 5 proven activities that can be adjusted to work for almost any lesson. Everyone of them emphasizes student talk time, and they are all genuinely fun for both you and the students.
If you find these helpful, don’t forget to check out a few of my other ESL activity related articles! There are more fun games and I even list some of my favorite games for young learners.
Mystery Theatre
This one is great for the teacher, you get to sit back and watch some really original and wacky plays created by your students!
Materials needed- Just a whiteboard and some markers!
The set up- Not much, you will need to write some themes(romance, comedy, horror, etc) in one corner of the board, at least one them for every group participating. Then just prepare 10 random questions to elicit words with.
The activity-
Ok, this one is all about creating role plays. The trick is, don’t tell them that until the last minute. Put them into groups of 2-6 students depending on your class size. Without explaining why you’re doing this, elicit ten, TOTALLY different words from the students and write them on the board. The more random the better.
For example, I might ask students things like
Name your favorite food!
Tell me something thats scary!
What is something you would say to the person you love!
Tell me a planet!
Give me a boys name!
What smells very bad!
you get the idea….when you’re finished this and you have your words listed on the board, assign each group a theme.
Now heres where you explain to them what to do, Every team must make and preform a role play for the class, finding a way to use every word thats on the board at least once! On top of that, their play must be in their designated theme! Give them 10-15 minutes to work in their groups and figure out just what the heck they are gonna say! After that, bring the class back together for presentations, and I promise you’re going to see some very original, hilarious plays being acted out in English!
Dangerous Definitions
This one is based on the classic board game “Balderdash”, a game I always loved playing with my friends, so i thought, why not find a way to bring it to the classroom?
Materials needed
Lots of small papers for teams to write definitions on, a list of very strange words.
The setup
Before you can play, you’re gonna need to find about 20 words that your students will have absolutely no clue what the definitions are. I’m not kidding, the weirder and more obscure you can get the better. You’re not trying to teach them these words, you’re simply trying to get them to work together using English in a fun way.
The game
So, divide the group into even teams of no more than 4 people. If you have a small class, just play singles and its just as fun.
First you will write out the first word on the board, you do NOT tell them the definition, only give them the part of speech it is.
The students will have to create a definition for this word, and do there best to try and make it sound as believable as possible. Once all teams are finished with their definitions, they hand the papers to you and you read the student definitions, as well as the actual definition out to the class. Its very important that you read all the papers the same way, and you give no clues as to which one is the correct definition.
Once all the definitions have been read, the teams must decide which one they think is the correct one. Once all the votes are in, you tally the scores like this.
If a team guesses the correct definition, give them 2 points.
If a team guesses a definition that was created by another team, give 1 point the team that created it.
See how it works? the object is to create a definition that will trick the other teams into thinking its real. Its fun for everyone, and you might be surprised at how creative some of the student definitions are.
Original Origins
This one is a really fun game if you have a creative class….it might not work so well for a class that hates to talk, but then again this might just be the push they need to get going!
Materials needed
absolutely none, although a white-board is helpful for this one.
The setup
Think of a few “deep’ questions that most people cant really answer. Good questions are things like, “why is the sky blue?” or “Why do monkeys have tails?”
The game
This can either be done in teams or individually, depending on what suits your class more. The purpose of the game is to answer the questions. Simple as that. The only rule is that the students can not give the actual answer to the question! They must create the most entertaining and original answer they can think of. The more outside the box they get, the better.
Give them about 15 minutes to work on their answers. Once the times up, bring everyone back together and the students will take turn presenting their answers to the class…they get points for presentation, originality, and creativity. When everyone has finished presenting, you can either pick the winner yourself, or have the class vote on who they though created the best answer for each question.
Its a fun game and it really tests their English, great for intermediate/advanced classes.
Sphere Selector
This ones an old favorite of mine, its basically just a quiz game with a slight twist that really makes it more enjoyable for the students.
Materials needed
One soft ball ( one that wont do any damage as its thrown around a classroom), white-board, question cards.
The setup
Before the lesson prepare questions of varying difficulty for at least 5 categories. It doesn’t matter what these categories are, so you can manipulate the game however you wish depending on the language and skill level that you want to target. You will need 4 questions per category, ranging in difficulty from easy to very hard.
Categories I often use are: Geography (questions about the world), Grammar (they must correct a sentence), general knowledge (i just find odd facts on the internet for this one), Word Race (students must race to write down words for a specific target) and acting (you give the student a word or sentence, they must act it out for their team to guess without making any sound).
So, once you have your questions ready, draw a jigsaw type map on the board with 5 big pieces, and assign each piece one of your 5 categories. In the center of each space, write the name of the category, and surround it with the numbers 1,2,3 and 4.
The game
Divide the students into two teams, and give one team the ball to start with. They must throw the ball at the board to select a category. This makes it harder for them to just always pick the category they are comfortable with, and they have fun throwing the ball in the classroom.
Once they have a category selected, you ask them “How many points will you play for?”, and they then get to select a number from 1-4. 1 means an easy question, but only 1 point. 4 would be a very difficult question, and therefore you get 4 points for it.
If for some reason their team cant answer the question, or they get it wrong, the other team then gets a chance to steal the points if they can answer it correctly.
Its fun, and all you have to do is sit back and ask the questions. They enjoy throwing the ball and they get to talk with each other about what the correct answer is.
Of course, keep a running tally of the scores somewhere on the board, and at the end of class, you can declare who is the champion!
Ring of Fire
I’ve saved the best for last. This game was requested more often by my students than any other game I have ever played. It’s based on the old drinking game “Ring of Fire”, modified for the classroom.
Materials needed
Deck of standard playing cards, 20-30 small slips of blank paper, a bowl.
The setup
Almost none! Place the bowl in the center of a table, and spread the cards out face down in a ring shape around the bowl.
On the whiteboard, or on a photocopied hand out if a whiteboard isn’t available, list the 12 cards ( Ace to King) and the actions associated with each card…more on what exactly those actions are a little further down.
The game
Before you start the game, hand every student 2 small slips of paper. Instruct them to write down two questions, and to keep them secret! When they are finished, they need to fold up the questions, and place them in the bowl on the table.
The students will take turns pulling a card. When they have pulled a card they hold it up so the whole class can see, now here’s the fun part. They must do WHATEVER the card says!
so here is an example of the actions I assign to cards, and the penalty’s involved!
K-Ask anyone. (the person who drew the king must pull a random question from the bowl and ask any of their classmates.)
Q-Ask a girl (same as above, but the classmate must be a girl)
J-Ask a boy (ditto, but a boy this time)
10-Ask your teacher! (this is dangerous! they love it of course, but once they catch on to the game they will start slipping dangerous questions in there hoping to catch you!…ie which girl in the class do you think is the prettiest?)
9-Bunny ears! (EVERYONE must make bunny ears with their fingers, the last person to do so must come up and answer a question)
8-Words (you choose a topic, the students must go in a circle naming new vocabulary for that topic, the first one who cant say a new word has to answer a question. ie for the topic of fruit…. apple! banana! orange! carrot! oops! the person who said carrot has to answer a question.)
7-Pick again
6-touch your nose! (like bunny ears, except students must now touch their nose with both fingers to avoid answering the question)
5-Answer one question
4-Ask the person on your left
3-Ask the person on your right
2-Two questions (ouch! the person who picked this has to answer two questions in front of the class)
A-Free card (the student got lucky, she doesn’t have to ask or answer any questions)
Remember! this is just an example of a set up I used for an intermediate university level class…You can adjust the actions and penalties however you want to suit the topic or grammar point you would like to work on. The students LOVE this game, they get to talk, act silly, and the suspense of waiting to see which card was picked is really intense!
More Activities and Games….
If you liked these and want more, be sure to check out 3 More Great English Games for Adults, and keep an eye out for more in the near future!
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