Category: ESL Games Kids

Can Can’t ESL Game | ESL Grammar Activity

can/can't-esl-activity

Can Can’t ESL Game This can can’t ESL game is great for practicing speaking, listening and writing. It’s a game for children or adults, but the content is usually covered with children more than adults. Can/Can’t is a very basic grammatical concept. Related: ESL Activities for Advanced Level Students To play this can can’t ESL game, put the students in teams of 2, 3, or 4 depending on how big your classes are. They have to pick 1 animal, and 1 thing, but must keep it a secret from the other teams My 2 examples that I give the students…

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The Memory Circle Game | ESL Speaking for Kids

memory-circle-esl-game

Memory Circle Game for Kids Memory circle game is a fun way to help students remember names, or English vocabulary. It is a game that I often use with smaller (less than 10 students) and younger students (elementary school or kindergarten). However,  I’ve also used it with university students in South Korea when learning new vocabulary words with good results. Here’s How to Do It:  To set up the memory circle game, you need to make a rule about what kind of words or grammar that the students can use. Base it on whatever you are studying that day in…

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Top 10 Blog Posts on ESL Speaking | English Speaking Activity

Presentations for ESL Students

Top 10 Blog Posts of All-Time on ESL Speaking We’re going to take a little trip down memory lane with this blog post. I’ve looked back in time and found the 10 most popular blog posts here at ESL Speaking. Find out what other people have found most helpful! #1: Small Talk ESL Activity This small talk ESL activity is the most popular blog post here at ESL Speaking! Small talk is one of those extremely important skills for our students to learn. But for some reason, it’s also something that is rarely practicing in the ESL classroom. My goal…

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Vocabulary Auction | Fun Game for ESL Students

ESL-vocabulary-auction

Vocabulary Auction: Preparation There are plenty of variations of auction games, but vocabulary has the least amount of preparation involved. It will be more fun if you have fake money, poker chips, etc. Begin by having the students list vocabulary they have been studying. Try to get at least 20 terms from them. Next, divide the class into groups of 3-4. Give each group a budget of $1000 and have them bid in increments of $50-100. (Note: if you are using money or tokens, you will need your own supply, to pay out groups who double down.) Vocabulary Auction: How…

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Top 10 ESL Activities for Total Beginners | ESL Games

ESL-activities-for-total-beginners

Top 10 ESL Activities for Total Beginners When I first began my ESL career teaching in South Korea, I taught total beginners. It was like I got thrown into the deep end of the pool and I could barely tread water. 10 years later, with a whole lot more experience under my belt, total beginners don’t intimidate me like they used to. In some ways, I even like them better than advanced students. It’s easier to teach someone numbers and colours than the subtle differences between all the future tenses. Anyway, if you’re in the same boat I was when…

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Top 10 ESL Review Activities and Games | ESL Review Games

ESL-review-activities

ESL Review Activities If you’re looking to make sure your students understood what you taught them in a previous lesson, consider using one of these top 10 ESL review activities and games. They’re fun, engaging and interesting, which will equal happy students and happy teachers! Most of them are appropriate for just about any age or level of student, just adjust them accordingly. Click on the titles of each ESL review game to be taken to the full description of the activity. #1: Odd One Out This ESL warm-up activity is also one of my favourite ESL review activities. It’s…

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Trivia for Kids: ESL Lesson Planning Made Easy!

trivia-for-kids

Trivia for Kids as well as Adults Trivia is one of my favourite ways to begin my classes. It’s a light-hearted way to ease your students into using English and it also is a great way to expand student’s general knowledge as well as vocabulary. The only problem is that it can be pretty hard to find trivia that is challenging yet has language easy enough for students who don’t speak English as their first language. However, there are two resources that you need to check out! The first one is trivia for kids and the next one is trivia…

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Private Teaching ESL Activities and Games | 1-1 ESL Teaching

Private Teaching Activities and Games Private teaching can sometimes be a little bit difficult because the activities and games you’d normally use with bigger classes often won’t work when it’s just you and a student. I know that I’d way rather teach a class of 30 than a private session with only one or two students! However, I still occasionally do private teaching and I have a go-to repertoire of activities and games that I rely on. I’ll share a few of my favourite activities for 1-1 ESL teaching here. English Central Videos for Private Teaching I love to use…

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1-1 ESL Activities: For Kids (7-13) | Private Teaching Activities

ESL-activities

Private Classes With Kids = Difficult! Teaching private classes to kids can be quite difficult and I personally find it far harder than doing the same thing with adults. Adults are usually able to focus reasonably well for an hour or two and their motivation is usually high since they’re the ones paying for the lesson! With kids however, it’s a very different story. Learning English with a private tutor can sometimes be the last thing they want to be doing. Their attention spans are short, sometimes only 5-10 minutes. And, they are sometimes very unmotivated, especially if all their…

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ESL Speaking Activities for Kids | ESL Games for Kids

ESL Speaking Activities for Kids

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+) Do you want to make your English classes for kids engaging, interactive and fun for both you and the students? Want to make you life easy and save time when planning your ESL lessons? You’ll need to get 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Kids (7+). Stop Wasting your Time! Whether you’re a first-time English teacher, an experienced but overwhelmed instructor, or an instructor without a textbook, you need more activities for speaking classes for children. If you’re tired of wasting your time wading through the junk on the Internet to find the…

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Top 5 ESL Games for Teenagers | ESL Activities

ESL games for teenagers

Top 5 ESL Games for Teenagers Teaching English to teenagers can be quite difficult because they are notorious for not really wanting to participate in class. They are often shy, tired, and haven’t chosen to take your English class. However, help is here with these top five ESL games for teenagers that are guaranteed to get your teenage students participating in class, speaking English, and having fun despite themselves. Try out just a few of these ESL games for teenagers and you’ll notice that students like your class, like you, and will begin to like English more and more each…

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Vocabulary Games for ESL Students | ESL Vocabulary Activity

Vocabulary games for ESL students

  Teaching English vocabulary is traditionally quite boring for the students as well as the teacher. However, it doesn’t have to be tedious if you play a few vocabulary games for ESL students. They’re guaranteed to get your students talking, thinking and most important of all: remembering and knowing how to use those words they’ve been studying. Error Correction Relay Race: Correcting errors is a very important skill for language learners but it’s often quite boring and students usually don’t like to do it. However, you can make the old new again with this exciting relay race that the students will…

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Top 10 ESL Games | Fun ESL Activities

Top 10 ESL Games

You need some ESL teaching awesome in your life, right? Fun, engaging classes filled with happy students? Painless lesson planning that gets done in no time? Of course you do! Jackie is here to help you with these top 10 ESL games to try out in your own classes. Password: This is a fun ESL activity that gets your students practicing an important skill-using alternatives to describe a vocabulary word if it’s not available to them because they forgot it. It’s an often overlooked skill that is important for our students to use if they want to speak English fluently.…

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Fortunately/Unfortunately Speaking and Listening Activity

Speaking and listening activity

Skills: Speaking/listening Age: 9+ Materials Required: None You may have done this speaking and listening activity at school yourself. Start of by telling students some good news (something that “happened to you”) followed by some bad news. For example, “Unfortunately, my car wouldn’t start this morning. Fortunately, my neighbor gave me a ride to school. Unfortunately, she drove through a red light. Fortunately. . .” Students will then generate similar language using fortunately/unfortunately or luckily/unluckily. Procedure: 1. Divide students into small groups of 3-5. 2. Give them a scenario (something that “happened to you”), alternating between good and bad news.…

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