English word games to play

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A list of fun English word games for kids to help improve children’s spelling, reading, and vocabulary. This list of word games for kids includes word games that encourage conversation and early literacy that you can play on the spot or prepare yourself with just some paper and pencil.

Why are Word Games Good For Kids?

Word games and vocabulary games for kids are great because they get kids talking and using language while having fun. When you make a learning activity fun, kids don’t realise they are learning.

For reluctant learners, playing these word games can help and motivate them to want to play and learn more.

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10 Fun Word Games for Kids

Many of these word games for kids can be prepared easily at home with materials you already have. However if you don’t have time to prepare your own, you can also purchase a range of fun word games for kids HERE.

1. Hang Man

Probably one of the most popular word games for kids is the popular Hang Man. Player 1 thinks of a word and Player 2 has to guess it before they get “hung.”

Player 1 writes spaces for letters are written on the page so they know how many letters there are in the word. Player 2 proceeds to choose a letter they think may be in the word.

If it is correct Player 1 writes the letter down where it goes. If it is incorrect Player 1 draws part of the “hangman”. If the drawing is complete by the time Player 2 guesses, then Player 1 wins.

2. I spy

A really easy and fun word game for kids is I spy. You don’t need anything for this game except your imagination.

Player 1 thinks of a word and tells the others the first letter. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with __” The other players need to guess the word. Whoever wins gets to be the spy!

This is a really great car game for kids too and helps to build vocabulary.

3. Bingo

Such an easy word game to prepare for kids. There are some really good versions on Amazon HERE. You can purchase the game, or use it as an example to make your own.

Draw a square grid on a page and choose a theme. Write out some words using the theme. Eg, beach: swimming, sand castles, water, sea shells, dolphin, sunbeds, picnic etc.

Make an extra copy of the words ensuring there are a few extra than the amount on the page. Cut them up into squares and put in a bowl scrunched up.

Take turns in pulling out a word and reading it out loud, then finding it on your page. The first person to find all of the words calls out Bingo and is the winner.

This fun word game for kids helps with reading and talking aloud.

4. Word Family Game

This game requires children to rhyme. Select one word and everyone needs to write as many words as they can that rhyme with that word. Eg. If the word is “Cat”, answers could be: hat, bat, rat, sat etc.

This is a great word game to help build kids vocabulary and help their language skills.

5. Word Search

Another fun but challenging word game for kids is a word search. Draw a grid of 10 x 10 squares and place as many words as you can within the grid. Words can go up, down, or diagonal, and letters can overlap to be used more than once.

Create a list on the side or bottom of the page of the words you have entered. Then once you cannot fit anymore words in, fill the blank boxes with random letters.

Kids will need to find the words as quick as possible. This can be a fun word game to do individually or as a team. For kids who like to compete, you can make identical grids and see who finishes first.

This word game encourages persistence and helps to improve their literacy skills.

6. Unscramble the words

A simple word game for children that will get them really thinking! Write a list of words down on paper but scramble the letter order while writing. Kids will need to look at the letters and try to work out what the word is and guess it.

This can be quite a competitive word game, but it helps to really get their mind ticking.

7. Scategories

While this is also an official board game, (which you can find online here) you can also make it yourself quite easily. Each player has a piece of paper and pencil.

Select 10-15 categories. These can be anything you like but remember they should be popular enough that you can guess something with most letters. Eg. Country, Movie, Body Part, Actor or Actress etc.

Once you have your categories it is time to choose a letter. Without a dice, the easiest way is to write the letters randomly on a piece of paper.

Then one person closes their eyes and points to a letter. When the letter has been chosen, players have 2 minutes to fill in the gaps with something in each category starting with that letter.

Winner is the one with the most filled in at the end, or the first to finish.

This is a really fun and competitive word game for kids that helps to improve their vocabulary, spelling, and conversation skills.

8. Words within a word

This word game requires kids to create their own words. Choose one really long word with at least 8-10 letters. The longer the better.

The aim of this word game is for kids to try to make a list of small words out of the letters of the long word. So for example the word COMPUTER includes: put, cot, term, core, mop, top, pet. Etc.

This is a really fun word game to help children’s spelling skills.

9. I am going on a picnic

A fun word game to help with your child’s memory and to get them talking.

One person starts and says “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some… fruit”

The next person says what the first person said, and adds something of their own. “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some fruit, and some sandwiches.

The next person says what the first, and second person said, and adds something of their own. “I am going on a picnic and I will bring some fruit, some sandwiches and some ice-cream.

You continue on and on and it gets more difficult to remember everything. We usually can get to at least seven or eight, and surprisingly my pre-schooler can often remember more than me!

This conversational game helps with memory, and also learning new vocabulary.

10. Story prompts

This word game involves making up a story by taking turns in saying sentences. One person starts the story, and says the first sentence. The second person continues the story with another sentence, and so on.

The stories can become very interesting as each person has different ideas. Bilingual flashcards are great for this or you can find a great version online HERE.

This conversation activity helps kid’s imagination, as well as building their vocabulary.

Other Fun Learning Resources for Kids?

If you love these English word games, check out these posts!

English Classroom Games – To play in class or at home
Knock Knock Jokes – To get the kids laughing
Best Board Games for Kids – Educational and fun
Top Book Sets for Kids – For all ages

Which English word games do you play with your kids?

These fun English word games for kids can be played with children of all ages and also with adults just by adapting certain aspects of the game to suit the age of the player.

This list of word games for kids will keep kids entertained for hours on end without feeling like they are actually learning.

The acquisition of new vocabulary is essential in terms of overall language advancement. However, there is always a need to review active words from time to time in order to use them fluently in speech. Here, we will present a couple of great vocabulary revision games which will perk up every classroom. Through these games the learners will feel how fun, entertaining and effective the learning process can be.

1. Charades

Charades is a fun and cool revision game. Students need to practice their acting skills to explain the words. This game is extremely easy to organize with minimal advance preparation. The only thing to be ready for is to keep a collection of vocabulary cards for the words you have studied.

The class is divided into two teams. Each team member takes turns acting out one of the words from the vocabulary set and explains it by acting out the word. If his or her own team can’t guess the word, the opposite team gets the chance to guess it. Each right answer equals one point.

Skyeng ищет преподавателей английского. Подробности по ссылке: Skyeng

2. Pictionary

Pictionary is also an  entertaining game to play for vocabulary review. The rules are similar to those of charades except that instead of acting out the word, it is drawn on the board.

3. Bingo

Bingo can serve as a good revision game. From my experience, most of the groups/students like playing bingo because it gives them the chance to  reflect on the words they have digested.

Students are given a blank bingo board and are asked to put the review words into the squares randomly. The teacher puts the active words in a hat or a box, takes them out one by one and defines them. If the student has a word corresponding to the definition, he crosses it out on his bingo board. When someone gets five squares in a row, they should shout, “Bingo!”

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4. A memory style

A memory style card game can be another effective way for reviewing vocabulary. It requires some preparation before the game starts. For each word to be reviewed, one card should have the target vocabulary word and another card should have the definition of the word. You also need to have a big playing grid where you put the words and their definitions face down.

Each person turns over two cards each turn trying to find a match. If the cards do not match, he turns them over again and the next person tries to find a match. If he succeeds, he keeps the cards and gets an additional turn. The player with the highest number of cards at the end of the game wins.

The game can be modified even further. If you have accumulated enough synonyms or antonyms to the target vocabulary, you can practice matching target words to their antonyms or synonyms.

5. Categories

Categories is another awesome revision game which will make students energized and empowered. What they need for the game is to draw 4-6 columns on their paper and write a category at the top of each column. Categories fit the topics covered during the course. For example, if you have covered the business topics of Marketing, Work and Leisure, Ethics, Human Resources, Travel, you write these topics as categories.

You time the students and ask them to write as many words as possible under each category. As a further modification, choose a random letter and write it on the board. Give students enough time to write down a word for each category that starts with that letter.

Экономьте время на подготовку к урокам и проверку домашних заданий со Skyeng. Удаленный формат занятий, защита от внезапных отмен и график, который настроен специально под вас. Присоединяйтесь к нашей команде. Подробности по ссылке: Skyeng

6. Letter scramble

Letter scramble will make students really competitive and super fast. What you need is to take a list of words that your students have recently learned and write a scrambled version of each on the board. Students need to unscramble the words on their paper. The first one to finish deciphering all the words wins.

7. Stop the bus

Stop the bus is a cool game my students adore.  I usually divide the class into 2-3 teams. One student from each team. This student sits on a chair facing his peers. Then from behind the student in the hot seat, show the other students a word from the lesson. The other students must try to describe what the word is without saying the actual word. And the student in the hot seat must guess.

The student who guesses the word shouts out “stop the bus” and checks the word with the teacher. If correct, the team gets a point. If wrong, other teams have the chance to guess the word by writing their versions on a piece of paper and passing the papers to the teacher.

8. Puzzles

Puzzles  is another cool and easy tool to review the material in an effective way. What I like about this way of vocabulary revision is that students can work in pairs or groups while trying to find words matching the definition in the crosswords. They learn by listening to each other, cooperating to find the right answer. In this way, they both review the material and improve their teamwork skills.

Follow this link to get templates of different types of puzzles.

We also recommend watching a video with Alexei Konobeev. The speaker shared games to help your students remember new vocabulary. These games do not require special training and you can adapt them to any age and level.

We hope that all these games would serve their best to liven your vocabulary revision sessions and make them more meaningful and effective.

Which of these games have you tried? Which ones have you picked up for your next revision slot?