Hot Potato | ESL Speaking Game for Kids

If you’re looking for a fun way to get your students talking, you’ve come to the right place! Keep on reading for all the details about Hot Potato, a quick ESL speaking activity that can be used a warm-up or filler activity.

Hot Potato: A fun ESL speaking game for kids

Skills: Speaking
Time: 5-10 minutes
Level: Beginner, up to 11
Materials: Flashcards, timer, “potato” (an object for students to pass around)

This is a simple vocabulary review game, spiced up with a timer. There are plenty of phone app timers, but a kitchen timer works well. To play, start the potato, which can be a white board eraser, ball, or any lightweight, easily-seen object, moving around the class from student to student.

If there is not a practical way to play in a circle, have a contingency for the last student getting the potato back to the first student, such as pausing the timer.

When the timer goes off, the student holding the potato is shown a flash card. If they can correctly identify the word, they stay alive, but if they are wrong, they are out and must sit down. Vary the length of time for the timer, generally 5-15 seconds, with an occasional longer or shorter spell.

A variation is to have two potatoes which look different. The person holding potato A must ask the person holding potato B a question about the flash card, and that student must answer. For example:

A: Do you like oranges?
B: Yes, I do/No, I don’t.

Teaching Tip for Hot Potato:

If the class is large, this can be a very long game and the students who are out will lose interest quickly. So, I would break large classes into groups of 10-15. All groups use the same timer and flash card—I simply say, “Three, two, one,” and the students holding potatoes all say their answers together.

Like this activity? There are 38 more just like it in this book: 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+)

Procedure for this ESL Speaking Game:

1. If possible, move students into a circle. Simply have them stand around the edge of the classroom. If the class is very large, divide into groups of 10-15 and make the appropriate number of circles.
2. Begin moving a “potato” around the circle.
3. Set a timer for a random (brief) amount of time. Five to fifteen seconds is good, with an occasional shorter or longer time.
4. When the timer goes off, show a flash card (or PowerPoint image).
5. The student holding the potato must correctly identify the image or sit down. If playing with more than one group, count 3,2,1, and have them answer together. Have a demonstration round if your class is playing for the first time.
6. The winner is the last person standing.

Do you Like this ESL Speaking Activity?

Yes? Thought so!

This ESL speaking activity for kids is from this book, available on Amazon: 39 ESL Speaking Activities for Kids. The rest of the activities are just like this one.

If you want to have almost 40, top-quality ESL speaking activities for kids right at your fingertips, then you’ll need to check this book out. Keep a copy on your office bookshelf to use as a handy reference guide. Or, have it on your tablet for easy access when lesson planning on the go at your favourite coffee shop.

Oh yeah, do you want to know the best part? These are no-prep, low-prep so you’ll be able to save a ton of time when planning your ESL lessons. Just open the book a few minutes before class starts and you should be able to find something that’ll work with almost any vocabulary or grammar point.

If you want to add some variety to your classes, then check out the book on Amazon:

—>39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Kids<—

More Hot Potato for ESL Students

Check out another variation of this fun ESL activity for kids:

Have your Say about this ESL Speaking Game for Kids!

What do you think about Hot Potato? Would it work in your ESL classes with children? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

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Last update on 2019-09-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API