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in Activities for Adults· Activities for Kids

ESL Basketball Game Challenge: TEFL Speaking & Grammar Activity

If you’re looking for a fun ESL game that can be used for just about any vocabulary set or grammatical point, then consider ESL basketball. It’s engaging, interactive and students of all ages love it, particularly children. Keep on reading to find out all the details you need to know about it.

basketball-esl-game

Basketball Game for English Learners

Skills: Speaking/listening
Time: 10-15 minutes
Level: Beginner-intermediate
Materials Required: Empty trash can, “balls”

Basketball challenge can be used to target any sort of simple grammatical structure. It’s more difficult when getting into complicated grammar for more advanced learners though.

This is a fun game that children love! It’s possible to play with the entire class if fewer than eight students or in teams with more, but it requires a big space to play it, such as a large classroom with not that many desks, a gymnasium or outside.

Place the empty trash can in the middle of the open space. Arrange the students around the room as far from the basket as possible (touching the wall, behind the tape line, etc.) and give each student a ball. They can be real balls, but I find that a piece of scrunched-up scrap paper works best. Then, place a line of flashcards in front of each person or team leading toward the basket. Five per player works well.

esl-basketball-game

How to Play this Game

Going in order, one student at a time; the students have two choices: aim for the basket, or make a grammatically correct sentence using the flashcard immediately in front of them and move up closer to the basket. It’s possible to limit the possible sentences to a certain kind of grammatical construction (simple past for example).

Another thing that works well for this is opposites. Put a flashcard that lends itself well to an opposite (hot/cold, up/down, black/white) and students have to say the opposite word for each one.

If they aim for the basket but miss, they are out of the game and must sit down. If they say the sentence correctly, they move up closer and wait until the next round when they have the same decision. Finally, if they say an incorrect sentence, they are also out of the game. Continue in a circle until all the players are out of the game, either because they missed a shot, got a shot in the basket or said a sentence incorrectly. Give a point or small prize to the first player to get a shot in the basket.

Optional Variation 

An optional variation is to give different points for various shots as in a regular basketball game. For example, from flashcards:

#5/4 = 3 points. Flashcards #3/2 = 2 points. Flashcard #1 = 1 point.

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Have...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Have...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 75 Pages - 07/12/2015 (Publication Date)
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Procedure for this ESL Basketball Game:

  1. Place an empty trash cash in the center of a large playing area.
  2. Arrange five flashcards per student leading from the perimeter to the basket.
  3. Line students up at the perimeter behind a row of flashcards. Each student has to be holding a ball of some kind.
  4. Students take turns in order and have two choices. The first choice is to shoot their ball at the basket. If they miss, they are out of the game. If they make the basket, they get a point. The other choice is to make a grammatically correct sentence using the flashcard closest to them and if correct, they move up to that location and waits until their next turn. If incorrect, they are out of the game.
  5. The winner is the first student(s) to score a basket. Or, if giving different points for the various shots, play 3-5 rounds and add up the scores from each round.

Did you like this TEFL Basketball Game? 

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities and Games For Kids: Practical Classroom Ideas for English...
39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities and Games For Kids: Practical Classroom Ideas for English...
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 137 Pages - 09/27/2020 (Publication Date)
Check Price on Amazon

Yes? Then you’re going to love this book on Amazon: 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities for Kids. The key to better English classes is a wide variety of interactive and engaging games and activities and this book will help you get there in style.

Pick up a copy today and get ready for some ESL teaching awesome in your life:

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Have your Say about ESL Basketball Challenge

Did you try out this game with your students? Let us know how it went. We’d love to hear from you.

Also, be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

esl-basketball

Last update on 2022-10-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at:
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