Word games for teens

Making learning enjoyable is an effective teaching method. Teachers in middle and high schools frequently engage their pupils in educational games for teens. Parents can do so, too, if their teen enjoys the game.

Here is a collection of fun educational games and activities for teens and preteens to have a fun learning experience.

What Are Educational Games?

Educational games for teens are based on a variety of subjects like science, math, English, arts, music, and history.

These games engage children and at the same time develop their social, cognitive, and logical skills. The primary objective of these games and activities is to help children learn about different subjects practically.

Teens can also benefit by using learning games to reinforce specific concepts and understand historical events and situations.

Image: IStock

These games may be used in school or classroom to make the lessons interesting, and also at home when the teens gather to play or do a group study.

1. Name That Tune

Teenagers usually love music. In fact, a study has revealed that kids enjoy listening to music even when they do their school work. They listen to around 10,500 hours of music between seventh and 12th grades, according to Robert A. Cutietta, author of Raising Musical Kids: A Guide For Parents. If your teen is into music, here is an easy educational game that he will love.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – No Limit

You Will Need:

• A music player
• A collection of songs or an online library of songs.
• Paper and pen for keeping score.

Setup:

• One person can be the moderator while the others will be participants. If you have more than five players, you can form groups and make it a competition.
• You will need at least a couple of hours to compile enough music for the game. Ensure you include pop music and other genres as well.
• The moderator should know the name of the artiste and the title of each song.

How to play:

• Moderator randomly picks a song from the collection and plays it for around 10 to 15 seconds.
• Teams or individual participants will be given 30 seconds to come up with the artiste’s name and the title of the song.
• If the first team fails, the question passes to the next team. If no team gets it, you can make it a free-for-all question and encourage kids to guess.
• If no one gets the answer right, the moderator reveals the answer.
• You can play as many rounds as you want.

You can create variations of the game by asking participants to identify the genre of music, the instrument that is played and the chord (if the group has knowledge of music).

2. Pictionary

A classic draw-and-guess game, Pictionary lets teenagers explore their drawing and sketching skills. The game also gives you an understanding of how imaginative they are.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 4, Maximum – 10

You Will Need:

• Board
• Marker or chalk

Setup:

• Divide the participants into teams of two. The game is interesting if there are not more than three teams. More teams can make it a drag. If you more than ten players, create bigger teams.
• If you have an odd number, one person can be the scorekeeper and also the dedicated timekeeper.
• Prepare strips of paper with the name of an object or event or scene that participants can draw. Think of ideas appropriate for teens like a guitar, college applications, ballet, animals, food items and more.
• You can also include scenarios or events to make the game a little difficult and interesting.

How to play:

• One member of the team has to pick a chit, but not reveal what is written on it to the others.
• He has to use the board and the marker or chalk to draw the object or event for the other team members to guess.
• Players can draw anything that will lead the team members to the right answers – the idea is to encourage imagination and creativity to communicate the right message without talking about it
• If a team is unable to guess the word, the other team gets the chance to score.
• If no one gets the answer right, the moderator reveals it.
• Players can also share their ideas of better and simpler ways to share the message by drawing.

Pictionary is an excellent game that helps develop creative thinking skills and abilities.

3. Making Sentences

Making sentences is a simple yet effective game that develops your teen’s language skills. The game can last between 30 minutes and an hour.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 10

You will need:

• Sheets of paper
  Pens

Setup:

This game requires a lot of preparation.

• Look up sentences with words that you want your children to learn.
• Jumble the sentences and start writing down the unique words randomly on the sheet of paper.
• Ensure that the words are spelled correctly and are written clearly so that all the participants understand. Make copies so that each participant gets one.
• Include articles, prepositions, conjunctions and other words that your teen would need to form sentences.
• Make an exhaustive list of sentences that can be created with the words on the paper.

How to play:

• Give your participants a pen, two sheets of blank paper and the sheet with the words.
• Players have to form as many sentences as they can in 30 minutes.
• In the end, the player with the highest number of meaningful and grammatically correct sentences scores the highest.
• You can also form teams of two if you have more people.

Making Sentences is a great game that lets teenagers experiment with language. It makes them think about the different ways a word can be used in a sentence and builds their writing skills.

4. Charades Or Mime Games

Mime games, commonly known as Dumb Charades, can be a lot of fun. Charades are suitable for kids aged eight to 14. It is similar to Pictionary, except that players try to communicate a word or phrase instead of drawing on a board.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 4 Maximum – 10

You will need:

Paper and pen for keeping the score.

Setup:

The teacher or parent can create a list of subject-related words or phrases that your teenager is familiar with. Put the words or phrases on small chits of paper.

How to play:

• Divide the group of kids into different teams of at least two each.
• One person from a group picks a chit but does not read it out loud.
• The player has to enact the word or phrase, and the other member(s) of the team have to guess the word or the phrase.
• The team scores a point if they guess it right.

Shy teenagers may not be willing to participate in this game. Let them be a part of the game, but don’t force them to face the audience unless they are willing to.

5. Monopoly Board Game

Monopoly is one of the most popular fun learning games for teens. The game is about creating wealth and the hindrances that one may face when they try to make money.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 6

You will need:

1 Monopoly board game

Setup:

• Read the instructions of the game and make sure you understand everything, should your teenager have any questions about it later.
• Each player gets $1500, divided into different denominations of 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1. The amount and the denominations can vary in different versions of the game.
• The property deeds (cards) and the remaining money are with the bank.

How to play:

• One player has to be the banker and manage the trades that the players want to make. The banker has control of the deeds, the houses and hotels that players can build on their sites.
• The player who gets the highest number on a throw of dice gets to begin the game.
• The number on the set of dice is the number of moves the player has to make on the board.
• If the player lands in a city or area, he or she can buy it from the bank.
• If the roll of dice lands a player in another player’s property, rent is collected by the owner.
• Players can build houses or hotels on the property to collect higher rent from others.
• The game can go on and on for hours or until all players, except one, run out of money

Monopoly introduces your teen to the world of property trading and amassing wealth while overcoming obstructions in the form of taxes, penalties and even jail time.

Quick tip

You can also introduce the Monopoly card game to your teens. It’s a fun and challenging game, and exercises the brain to craft winning strategies.

6. Bird Identification Game

This is a simple, yet an appealing game that encourages teens to learn about the environment and the different species of birds that inhabit it.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 6

You will need:

• Flashcards with pictures of birds
• List of three clues you can give the participants to guess the name of the bird
• Paper and pen for keeping score.

Setup:

• Collect pictures of commonly seen/known birds to bring in fun.
• Include images of birds that your teenager would have learned about at school.
• Keep the list of clues and facts about the bird handy.

How to play:

• Divide the players into teams.
• One person has to be the moderator or the quiz master.
• In every round, each team is shown a flashcard with the image of the bird.
• The image can be displayed on a screen, or it can be passed on to the team that has to identify it.
• The moderator gives the team a chance to guess the name of the bird without clues.
• If needed, he gives one clue at a time, helping the players to guess the name of the bird with as little information as possible.
• Team scores 20 points for identifying the bird without using the clues. They get 15 points if they use one clue, 10 points for two clues and 5 points if they use all the three.
• The game should have at least four rounds so that you get to cover a decent number of birds.

You can create a variation of the game by replacing the pictures of birds with animals.

7. Hangman Word Game

Hangman is a guess-the-word game that can keep your teenagers excited right from the start. The players have to guess the right word before they exhaust their chances, to score a point.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 10

You will need:

• A white board and marker
• Paper and pen for keeping scoreSetup:

Prepare a list of words or phrases from a specific subject of your choice.

How to play:

• The moderator or host will pick a word and draw a blank for every letter in the word.
• Players in the team have to guess the possible letters to fill the blanks.
• If they guess a letter right, they guess again and move on until they get the complete word.
• If they guess the letter wrong, the host draws one part of the stick figure of a hanged man.
• The team gets no more chances after the host completes drawing the figure.

This game makes teenagers judicious while using up their chances and guessing the word correctly. Also, you can make the game about any subject – from math, science, environmental science, history, geography to music, art, and movies.

Image: Shutterstock

8. Twenty Questions

Twenty Questions is a guessing game, which can be played anytime, anywhere.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 12

You will need:

Paper and pen for keeping score.

Setup:

Create a list of famous personalities about whom your child may have learned in history. Use the names of pop or rock music idols, national leaders and other famous personalities in news.

How to play:

• Divide the participants into teams of equal number.
• The host can select one person from the list of names, and the teams have to ask the right kind of questions to narrow their options and guess the name of the personality.
• The team scores a point if they can guess who the person is before they exhaust the 20 questions.
• If the team fails, the other two teams get one chance each to guess who the person is, based on the questions asked.

The game teaches deductive reasoning and tests the teen’s knowledge of history and current affairs.

9. Silence

Silence is exactly what the game is about. The game is good for large groups and challenges children to accomplish tasks together, but without speaking to each other.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 10, Maximum – NA

You will need:

• Post-its
• Pens
• A lot of space
• Paper for keeping score

Setup:

Some amount of preparation is required for this game.

• Write down the names of months, days of the week or any other set of words that have to be arranged in a particular order.
• Keep the post-its ready and do not mix them up. For example, avoid mixing up the days post-its with months, to avoid confusion during the game.

How to play:

• Pick up a set of post-its on which you have listed down the names, numbers etc.
• Give one sticky note each to one person randomly.
• Make sure that no one has more than one sticky note.
• Once the post-its or sticky notes have been distributed, create space in the front for the activity.
• Tell the players that they have to arrange themselves in the right order in as little time as possible. For example, you say: “the days of the week in the right order or reverse order”, and players with sticky notes with the days of the week should move to the front and arrange themselves in that order.
• The trick is to do it without speaking at all.

There is no competition in this game. However, this game helps children develop organizational, co-ordination, and non-verbal communication skills.

10. Chain Reaction

Chain reaction is a simple game for building a teenager’s vocabulary.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 10, Maximum – NA

You will need:

• Sheets of paper
• Pens

Setup:

• Pick a topic of your choice – it can be anything appropriate for teenagers like food items, books, names of people, animals, cities, songs, anything from nature or a specific subject like biology, geography or math.
• Tell the topic or theme to the participants; you can write it on the board if it is in a classroom.
• Give the participants sheets of papers and a pen.
• Ask them to write the alphabet A to Z, vertically.

How to play:

• Give your participants five minutes to create an alphabetical list of words relevant to the theme or topic.
• The game begins when the first person reads out a word he or she has written.
• The next person has to give a word beginning with the last letter of the first word.
• The game goes on until all the letters are covered.
• Players unable to give a relevant word are eliminated.

The game can be repeated as many times as you want with different topics. Chain reaction is one of the best ways to make kids remember and recollect everything they have learned.

11. Pass the ball

The goal of this game is not to be the one holding the ball.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 8, Maximum – 12

You will need:

Football or a stuffed-toy ball

Setup:

• Make the participants sit in a circle, with enough space between each other to pass the prop comfortably.
• Select a host or moderator to observe the game and identify ‘It’.

How to play:

• The person holding the ball is ‘It’.
• The host or moderator asks a question and calls out ‘Pass the ball’.
• As soon as the moderator says ‘pass the ball’, ‘It’ should pass the chicken and answer the question before the prop comes back to him. For example, the host calls out “Name five baseball teams. Pass
• the chicken”, the player has to pass the ball and name five teams before the ball comes back to him.
• Other players have to pass the ball while the player answers the question.
• The player holding the ball at the end of the answer becomes the new ‘It’ and faces the moderator’s next question.
• If the prop comes back to the original holder before he or she can answer the question, they continue to be ‘It’.

This game encourages kids to think quickly and answer to dodge the questions by the host.

12. Conversation Game

Image: IStock

Conversation is a simple vocabulary game that can be played anywhere. It is an interactive game that teaches them the art of conversation.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 2, Maximum – 10 (5 groups of 2 each)

You will need:

A list of words

Setup:

• Create at least five sets of 10 words each.
• Ask the members of the group to sit facing each other.
• A moderator for timing the activity.
• Paper and pen for keeping score.

How to play:

• Give the players a set of 10 words.
• Tell them to use the words in a conversation.
• Give them 10 seconds to think and one minute to complete the conversation.
• Participants have to use the listed words in a meaningful way.
• If players fail to use all ten words in their one-minute conversation, they don’t score anything.

This game helps to teach kids how words can be used in different contexts in a conversation.

13. Trivia

Image: IStock

Trivia is an all-time favorite among kids and adults.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 4, Maximum – 8

You will need:

• A set of questions on the chosen topics, along with the right answers and some information about it.
• Paper and pen for keeping score.

Setup:

• Create a list of easy-to-understand questions that your teenager may know the answer to.
• Questions can be from their school subjects, general awareness, current affairs, politics, music or any other topic that your teenager is familiar with.

How to play:

• Form four groups of two.
• The game begins with the host or moderator asking the first team a question.
• If players in the team answer the question correctly, they score a point, and the next team gets to answer a new question.
• But if the team fails to answer the question, it passes on to the other team. The team that answers the question gets the point.
• You can have as many questions as you want.

Quick tip

Setting a timer for each question can make Trivia nights a lot more challenging and thrilling.

14. The Human Knot

The Human Knot can be played in your backyard or inside a classroom.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 6, Maximum – 10

You Will Need:

• A timer
• A lot of space for accommodating a circle of people.

Setup:

The game needs a moderator who understands how the Human Knot works and who can guide the participants through the activity. So prep yourself with all that you need to know about the Human Knot and be ready to answer any questions that your teenagers may have.

How to play:

• Arrange the group in a circle.
• As soon as the moderator says go, the children have to join their right hand with that of the person opposite them.
• Then, ask them to join their left hand with someone else’s hand.
• Ensure that they do not hold their neighbor’s hands.
• The objective is for them to untangle the knot without breaking the chain.

The Knot develops the teenager’s problem-solving abilities. It is an excellent game for a field day.

15. Math Quiz

This is a fun way for teenagers to brush their math.

Number of participants:

Minimum – 4, Maximum – 8

You will need:

• A set of questions from math.
• Paper and pen for keeping score.

Setup:

• Collect math and quantitative aptitude questions.
• Make sure that the questions are clear and easy to understand.
• Try to include real life scenarios in the questions to make it relevant.

How to play:

• Math Quiz is similar to trivia, except that it is dedicated to quantitative abilities.
• Ask the teams a question and let everyone work on the problem.
• Give the teams at least one minute to come up with the answer.

The idea is to encourage teenagers to rely on their quantitative abilities instead of using electronic calculators.

Online Educational Games

Image: IStock

Teenagers can also play a variety of educational games online. From something as simple as trivia on different subjects to crosswords and complicated stimulation games, there are hundreds of online educational games for teens.

16. Climate Challenge

Climate Challenge is an online educational game designed by the BBC. The focus of the game is climate change, which is a major cause for concern for world nations. The game’s tag line is “Earth’s future is in your hands”, which gives children a sense of responsibility and makes them aware of their role.

You will need:

• A computer or laptop
• Internet connection
• Flash Player 8 installed on your system

Setup:

No setup is required for this game. Your teen can play Climate Challenge here.

How to play:

• The player has to don the role of the president of the European Union and figure out ways to deal with catastrophic events that are threatening the global climate.
• The game has policy cards which are taken from real policies for minimizing carbon dioxide emissions. The statistics used in the game are also taken from actual records.
• While tackling the man-made and natural disasters that may or may not affect the climate, the player should also implement or change policies to stay popular among the nations and citizens.
• The game is challenging in the sense that the player has to strike a balance between doing what is good for the environment and also addressing the voter’s needs.

The game includes details from real-life studies wherever possible, but is not necessarily an accurate prediction of how the climate is going to change. Nevertheless, it is a great online game that introduces young adults to the hottest topic among environmental scientists: climate change and why it is bad.

17. Operate Now: Arm Surgery 2

Does your teen show a keen interest in medicine? Then he may enjoy Operate Now: Arm Surgery 2. The interactive game takes the player through the many steps involved in fixing a broken arm.

You will need:

• A computer or laptop
• Internet connection

Setup:

No setup is required for this game. Your teen can play Climate Challenge online.

How to play:

• It is your first day at the hospital and the head nurse greets you.
• Throughout the game, the player interacts with the head nurse to answer questions, select the right tools and diagnostic procedures to treat a patient with a broken arm.
• The game does not show the actual procedure performed by doctors, but tells you enough to understand how a surgeon fixes a broken arm.

Arm Surgery 2 can be played on a number of online gaming sites. The game is simple, fun and gives you an idea of what happens behind the scenes during an arm surgery.

Top 6 Educational Activities For Teens

In addition to games, educational activities and little experiments can be used to make learning fun for teenagers.

18. Geometry Scavenger Hunt

Geometry is not an easy subject to love. If you want to get your teenager interested in it, the Geometry Scavenger Hunt is a brilliant activity you can rely on.

You will need:

• A camera per person/teen.
• List of geometric shapes, terms for each participant.

Setup:

• Give clear instructions to the children about their objective.
• Emphasize the importance of following instructions to achieve the objective.

What to do:

• Math Quiz is similar to trivia, except that it is dedicated to quantitative abilities
• Ask the teams a question and let everyone work on the problem
• Give the teams at least one minute to work on the problem and come up with the answer
• If a team can’t answer, the question passes to another team.

19. Record The Natural World

Image: Shutterstock

Worried that your teenager is playing too many video games? Here is an educational activity that will encourage him to go outdoors and explore the wonders of nature.

You will need:

• Water color paper.
• Water colors.
• Pencils for drawing.
• Eraser and sharpener.
• Specimens like leaves, flowers, trees, bushes, etc. that they can see and draw.
• Containers for water colors.

Setup:

• On the drawing paper, write down the name of the specimen, date, and classification for reference.
• You may want to take your teen to a park or a garden where he can take a close look at the specimen and reproduce it on paper.

What to do:

• Ask the kid to look at the specimens closely and make a note of the details – the lines, the number of branches, the geometric shapes, the color and the texture.
• Ask him to create a rough outline of the specimen first and then move on to the finer details.
• Give them enough time to do that – may need an hour or more.
• Once they are done with the drawing, they can use the water colors to give them the natural colors.

This activity can create an interest in nature and also encourage them to develop their sketching and painting skills.

20. CSI: Get The Fingerprints

If your teenager is into solving mysteries, he or she will love this activity. It teaches them the simplest ways to get fingerprints from anything.

You Will Need:

• Pencil
• Clear tape
• Cornstarch or talcum powder
• Piece of white paper or index card
• Makeup brush or paint brush
• One drinking glass
• Magnifying glass
• Cocoa powder

Setup:

Let your teen use household objects and areas for this little project.

What to do:

• The easiest way to get someone’s fingerprints is to rub the pencil over one part of the white paper and use it as a stamp pad. Press your fingers on the pencil stamp-pad and then on a white paper or an index card to read the prints.
• Take a drinking glass or any other object with your fingerprints. Make sure you have used it a few hours or a day before.
• Ask your teenager to use a magnifying glass to find and look at the fingerprints and research online about what makes them unique.
• They can also dust for fingerprints, as they do in movies and TV shows, using powders. Sprinkle a little corn starch or talcum powder if the surface is dark and cocoa powder if the surface is light-colored. Blow off the excess powder or use a brush to dust it off to see the fingerprints clearly.
• Your teen can also peel off the fingerprint using a clear tape and paste it on an index card or white paper.

This is an interesting activity that introduces forensics to your teenager.

21. Physics Made Fun With Cartoons

Help your teenager learn the laws of physics with this fun game.

You will need:

• TV
• Cartoon shows
• Stopwatch
• Calculator

Setup:

• This activity can be conducted right in your living room.
• Create a list of physics concepts that your teen may have learned in school.
• You will have to be familiar with the laws of physics that you want to discuss with your child.
• Road Runner and Looney Toons are ideal for this activity.

What to do:

• Select the concepts that your child has learned at school.
• Watch a few cartoons together and ask your teenager what laws of physics have been applied in the cartoon character’s actions.
• Discuss what is real and what has been exaggerated.
• See if your teen can calculate a different variable based on the physics equations they have learned at school. For example, ask the teen to time Daffy Duck’s or Will E Coyote’s fall from a cliff. And then ask them if they can derive the distance based on the time it took them to fall.

This exercise can be great to brush up basic formulas of physics, which your teen is likely to learn in middle and high school.

22. The Monty Hall Problem

The Monty Hall Problem teaches your kid about probability.

You will need:

• Sheets of paper with the problem
• Pens

Setup:

• This activity can be conducted at school or home.
• Ideal for groups as it allows for debate.
• The host or moderator should have a good understanding of the problem to be able to explain it to the kids.

What to do:

• Give them the Monty Hall Problem on a sheet of paper. You can get it online.
• Tell the kids that there are three doors and only one of them has a car behind it.
• Ask them what the probability is of getting the car. The answer should be 1/3.
• Now tell them there is a goat behind the first door.
• Ask them the probability of picking a door with the car behind it. They should say that it is 2/3, which means they have a better chance of winning in this round.

Children may say that that the probability of picking the right door the second time is ½, which is wrong. This is a good example to help them understand the concept.

23. Trace The Shadow

This is a fun game that can be played outside. The game is about the movement of light, usually sun, and how the position changes the angle in which the shadow falls.

You Will Need:

• A plastic bottle – should not be transparent
• Sheets of paper
• Pencil

Setup:

This activity can be conducted only on a sunny day.

What to do:

• Place the sheet of paper on a table or a bench in the park on a sunny day.
• Place the bottle in the center of the sheet and ask your teen to trace the shadow of the bottle with a pencil.
• Do the same after a couple of hours, with the paper and the bottle in the same position. This time, the shadow falls on a different part of the paper.
• Do this three or more times – this will enable your kid to tell where the sun is, based on the shadow of the bottle.
• Make a note of the time each time the child traces the shadow.

This is a simple, yet effective way to help your child determine what time of the day it is based on the position of the sun and where the shadow falls.

1. What are the academic problems faced by teenagers?

It is quite common for teens to experience academic issues during adolescence. These academic issues may include bad study habits, trouble understanding the subject, test anxiety that results in poor exam performance, procrastination on assignments, difficulty organizing one’s time to accomplish assignments or study chores, and irregular attendance in class.

2. What is the role of education in adolescent behavior?

Education plays a crucial role in shaping adolescents’ attitudes, values, knowledge, and skills, promoting personal and social development while preparing them for future opportunities.

Making education fun can help engage teenagers in studies. Educational games for teenagers help them develop several essential skills. These activities will help your teen get excited about learning. If teenagers find something that interests them, they will dig up the subject until they know all about it. So, go through this list of interesting educational games and pick the one that best fits your teen’s interests.

Infographic: Best Educational Games For Teens To Play

Teenagers are hard to please and can easily get bored. You may include games and activities in their schedule that are fun and promote learning. The infographic below includes some of the best games they can enjoy. Keep reading!

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

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• Author

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.

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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?

Word games are more than just fun boredom busters! They can help with literacy skills as well.

Children will retain more vocabulary, remember grammar rules, and learn spelling tricks if they are having fun while learning, and these word games for kids are the perfect way to get them started.

What Are The Benefits of Word Games for Kids?

Playing fun word games for kids is a great way to keep them entertained while also assisting language development by helping improve their vocabulary, spelling, and communication skills. 

Key benefits of word games for kids:

• Improves spelling
• Increases reading skills
• Expands vocabulary
• Grows their comprehension skills 
• Enhances communication skills
• Improves concentration skills
• Assists listening skills
• Enhances literacy skill
• Helps them process information faster
• Aids foreign language learners
• Helps develop confidence
• Teaches problem-solving skills
• Teaches your child how to strategize
• Develops relationships with others while playing
• Promotes teamwork

Here is my top selection of English word games aimed at different age groups.

I have sorted the games into different categories, so view the Table of Contents below to choose your favorite games.

1. Blurt!

This brain-boosting word game helps develop auditory comprehension, vocabulary, and word recall. 

Listen to the definition, and then respond!

The first player to “Blurt” correctly moves forward on the board.

Make it around the board first, and you win!

For more board games read our selection of Best Board Games For Teens.

2. JABUKA Best Word Puzzle

This is perfect for kids and adults who enjoy challenging word games, anagrams, and brain teasers! Great for learning to spell and improving memory! 

Win by using the most beans to spell words quickly, creatively, and spontaneously!

You can steal letters and words from your opponents, and twist the wooden coffee bean pieces to form different letters and words.

It’s a really fun fast-paced vocabulary game.

3. Word for Word

Kids play against each other to build words using color coded blocks that clip together.

There are multiple levels of game play for different ages and vocabularly skills.

4. Word WITT

Using Word Witt will naturally improve your vocabulary, phonemic awareness, spelling, word recognition, and mental agility.

Boost your social connections and compete for bragging rights.

Players roll the dice. Flip a card. Make as many words as you can in a minute.

5. Bananagrams

Bananagrams is an educational game that will teach your kids how to spell words and have fun at the same time.

Crossword grids are built by using all the letter tiles.

It’s a race to see who can create the best crossword grid and use all of their letter tiles first. 

 This simple word game is a simpler version of the classic game Scrabble.

Printable Word Games for Kids

Printable word games are great additions to your list of indoor games for teens and tweens to play.

6. All Aboard!

Kids will participate in a fun challenge where you will find words all about trains.

This type of word game is a great way to improve vocabulary and spelling skills and have fun!

Download your printable train word game with answers here.

7. Famous Pairs Crossword Puzzle

You’ll need to think about common food combinations, TV characters, and everyday items for this crossword puzzle by supplying the second item in each pair. 

View and download your free printable Famous Pairs Crossword Puzzle with answers here.

8. Compound Word Match Maker

The words on this worksheet are arranged in two columns.

The kids must draw a line from words from the left column to the right column and then write the compound word behind the second column to form a compound word. 

There is a comprehensive list of compound words on the page so you can choose the right words for your children.

Download your free printable compound word matchmaker with answers. Or make your own at edu-games.org

9. Animal Safari

This quiz asks you to find the names of 18 animals, each spelled with just three letters.

The catch? There is no word list provided. You’ll just have to find them! 

Download your free printable “Animal Safari” worksheet.

10. In Your Backpack

Kids can solve this fun word scramble based on everyday school items.

To get the best results, print the word list and ask your child to fill in the blanks.

Download your free printable “In Your Backpack” worksheet.

Word Games For Kids Online

These fun online word games for kids are perfect road trip games for long car rides or when you aren’t able to play with them. Instead of frowning at online games, you can get them to play a challenging word game online instead. 

11. Word Unscramble

Kids from kindergarten to fifth grade will enjoy this anagram and puzzle game that combines anagrams with a puzzle strategy.

At the top of the game area, a series of letters appear in circles. They slowly sink to the ground as the player swaps pairs of letters with each other.

The aim is to arrange the letters in the correct order before they hit the ground.

How To Play Word Unscramble

• Click on the link and click OK to start
• Click on the letters to swap their positions and form a word.
• Try to form a word before the letters touch the ground.

12. Animal Crosswords

Kids in second grade will enjoy this bright, colorful and animated crossword game.

There is an animal name for each clue, narrowing the possibilities for kids who might feel overwhelmed by a crossword without a specific subject focus.

Playing the crosswords multiple times is possible since new games are randomly generated.

13. Word Wipe

Children play Word Wipe by clicking on letter blocks in a grid and linking them to adjacent blocks to form words.

After each letter is used, the blocks above fall down to fill the void.

As children progress through the levels, the game becomes increasingly difficult.

It’s an addictive vocabulary game for teens and adults as well.

14. Merriam-Webster Games

Merriam-Webster offers many fun online games for older kids and parents to build vocabulary, compete over words, and have fun through games like crosswords, quizzes, and word puzzles.

Check out all their games here.

15. Free Rice

The Free Rice website is run by the World Food Program of the United Nations.

Kids select the meaning of a given word from four options. Even younger children can use a dictionary and ask their parents for help.

Missed words will be presented again until players get them right.

Each time a player answers a question correctly, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program to help end hunger. 

Therefore, children are not just playing for themselves but also playing for the greater good of humanity. Each player’s total number of rice grains donated is recorded in the game.

16. 24/7 Word Search

24/7 Wordsearch can be played on four different levels: easy, medium, hard, and expert.

The more complicated the level, the more words you need to find.

You are timed during play, so you can play again until you beat your previous record.  

17. Daily Word Search

Every day, AARP publishes a new free online word search puzzle.

All you have to do is choose the hidden word or phrase with your mouse.

For each game, you can use up to three hints.

You may check how you compare to other players today, this week, and this month on a scoreboard.

18. Wordle

Wordle is a daily word guessing game where you must guess the WORDLE (or word of the day) in six tries.

Each guess must be a valid five-letter word. Hit the enter button to submit. After each guess, the color of the tiles will change color – Green = correct letter in the right place; Yellow = correct letter but in the wrong place.

This is a wonderfully addicting word game for kids and adults.

Share your results with your friends and family for some friendly competition.

Word Search Games For Kids

Wordsearch is one of our favorite classic word games that the whole family can play. Your kids can play word search games on their own, or you can incorporate it into family game night. 

19. Goliath WordSearch

Playing this fast-paced game teaches children spelling and word recognition and encourages strategic thinking.

How To Play Goliath WordSearch

Players race to find the word on a specially designed circular board. The first one to find the word marks the spot with transparent colored tiles.

Twists and turns allow players to remove tiles from a board that has been placed by your competitors, ensuring that everyone has a fair shot at winning!

The player with the most colored tiles wins.

20.100 PICS

100 PICS flashcard games help kids improve their vocabulary, spelling, and memory.

It features a variety of colorful pictures to discover, including animals, emojis, characters, food, and more.

How To Play 100 PICS Pocket Word Search

Find the hidden words by opening the doors and sliding the revealer to reveal the hidden words.

A wipeable pen is included so you can play it again and again.

21. Word Spin

Word Spin features 8 magnetic wheels with ten letters on each one. It combines many popular word games and crossword puzzles! Simple enough to be played with by children.

How To Play Word Spin

There are ten letters on each magnetic wheel, and each letter has a number between 2 and 10. Set time limits for each round, then form words. After each round, add up your points. The player with the most points at the end of all rounds wins. 

22. Boggle

Boggle is a word search game.

Get points by spotting words your friends don’t before the time runs out.

Shake the grid to mix up the cubes, and then lift the lid to begin the game. 

In 90 seconds, each player must find as many words on the grid as possible before time runs out. At the end of the round, the words are scored. 

If two or more players find the same word, that word does not count.

The player who scores the highest wins.

Sight Word Games For Kids

23. Zingo

Zingo is a fun and engaging play experience which helps young children develop image/word association, vocabulary, and matching skills.

How To Play Zingo

The person assigned to operate the Zinger has to slide it forward and back to reveal two tiles.

When you recognize a tile that matches your Zingo card, you must shout out the name of the image on your matching card.

Next, you must cover that image with the tile. The first player to completely cover all images with matching tiles wins in this game!

24. Sight Word Swat

Sight Word Swat allows your kids to playfully compete to build reading, spelling, and vocabulary skills with the element of speed that enhances reading fluency and confidence.

How To Play Sight Word Swat

Play this game in 5 levels. The sight-word flies are color-coded by level: Blue for Pre-Primer; Red for Primer; Green for First Grade; Orange for Second Grade; and Purple for Third Grade.

Swat the sight word on the matching fly after one of the 220 sight words is called out.

Collect the most flies to win!

25. Sight Word Fishing Game

This Sight Word Fishing Game teaches your kids reading, spelling, and vocabulary skills while also developing their hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

How To Play Sight Word Fishing Game

When one word is called out, the player who catches the corresponding fish gets to keep it, and the one who sees the most fish wins the game.

26. Pop For Sight Words

Playing Pop For Sight Words game helps children improve their vocabulary, spelling, and language skills as they prepare for starting school.

How To Play Pop For Sight Words

You have no time to chew over your answer in this fast-paced game. Shout the word as soon as you see it!

It’s a competition between two to four kids to collect the most popcorn pieces.

As a stand-alone tool for early literacy activities, the popcorn word cards can also be used as flashcards.

27. Sentence Building

Build proper sentences using familiar sight words and picture cards. Using the set, kids learn to capitalize, punctuate, and structure sentences in an engaging format. Find out: Is High School Capitalized?

How To Play Sentence Building

Kids can create simple sentences by assembling the puzzle pieces, and they can learn early writing and reading with these interactive games and puzzle-piece card tiles.

Free Word Games For Kids

28. Big Words, Little Words

How To Play Big Words, Little Words

This game is also called ‘Words within a word’. On a piece of paper, write a very long word.

Your child doesn’t need to know the word. It’s less important that kids know it than that it contains a great collection of letters. 

For example: From the word ‘Elephant’ you can make the following words: eat, eaten, plate, plant, panel, plane, heel, heat, late, and many more. You can make 165 words from the letters in elephant. See them all here.

Allow kids to have a few minutes to write down all of the little words that can be made from the big word. 

Parents, feel free to join in the fun!

29. Teapot

How To Play Teapot

To make strange-sounding sentences, one player or team replaces homophones with the word “teapot.” 

For the other players, the goal of the game is to guess which word has been replaced. 

30. Word Hunting

This game is all about collecting words you find around you, which is ideal for kids who are developing their alphabet abilities.

How To Play Word Hunting

Give your kids a notepad with “tasks” to complete or words to locate while they look around, such as words that start with a particular letter. 

31. Twenty Questions

This logic and memory game is one of the most popular word games. 

How To Play Twenty Questions

 It’s a simple question-and-answer game in which one volunteer chooses a person, an object, a plant, or even a location.

The goal of the game for the group is simple: in twenty questions, figure out what the volunteer is thinking about.

The group can only ask questions answerable with a straight ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ 

32. Unscramble The Words

An easy word game for kids that will truly make them think!

How To Unscramble The Words

Make a list of words on paper, but change the letter order as you go.

The kids will have to look at the letters and try to guess what the word is.

This is a competitive word game, and it helps to stimulate young minds.

33. I Spy

I spy is an enjoyable and straightforward word game for children. This game requires nothing more than their imagination.

How To Play I Spy 

In this game, one player thinks of a word and tells the other players the first letter. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ___”

The other players must guess the word by asking several questions.

The person who guesses the word correctly is the winner and gets to be the next spy.

34. Hangman

Hangman is a classic game that will get even the most reluctant learner wanting to find the correct word.

How To Play Hangman

One person (executioner) chooses a word that the players have to find.

The executioner draws a line for each letter of the chosen word.

Players guess the word letter by letter.

If players guess a correct letter, the executioner writes it on the blank line where it occurs.

For each letter they guess wrong, you draw a part of the hangman.

If the players get every letter of the word correctly before the executioner finishes drawing the hangman, they win.

Word Games For Teens

35. Making Sentences

Your teen will develop their language skills through the simple yet effective game of making sentences.

How To Play Making Sentences

Give each participant a pen, two blank sheets of paper, and a word sheet.

In 30 minutes, players must construct as many sentences as possible. 

The player who writes the most meaningful and grammatically correct sentences wins.

36. True Story

How good are you at telling lies and sticking to them?

How To Play True Story

In a single sentence, one player describes an experience. It may or may not be an actual event. 

Other players can then ask follow-up questions, and the storyteller must respond accordingly.

Depending on your rules, you may choose a time limit of five minutes or a fixed number of questions, such as 10.

Then, they must guess whether or not it is true.

37. Chain Reaction

The Chain Reaction game is a simple way to build a teenager’s vocabulary.

How To Play Chain Reaction

In Chain Reaction you have to connect two-word phrases together to make a word chain.

For example:

GUEST

HOUSE

FLY

AWAY

GAME

TIME

SENSITIVE

The game starts as soon as the first player reads out their word.

The next person must guess the next word that they believe makes up the two word phrase.

It’s up to the next person to provide a word that logically follows.

The game continues until all the words have been guessed correctly.

Players who are unable to provide a relevant word will be eliminated.

38. Common Quality

This is a fun verbal game to play in pairs or small groups. 

How To Play Common Quality

A player begins by naming an object and a characterizing feature. 

The second player must then name another object with the same quality as the first and a new quality this new object has. 

The game is played back and forth with multiple players.

For example:

1. A pink Flamingo.
2. Roses are pink and smell nice.
3. Perfume smells nice and is expensive.
4. Cars are expensive and drive fast.
5. And so on…

39. Conversation Game

Conversation is a simple game of vocabulary that can be played anywhere. The game teaches conversation skills in an interactive manner.

How To Play Conversation Game

The players will be given a set of ten words. They should use these words in conversation. They have 10 seconds to think and a minute to complete their conversation.

Participants are required to use the listed words meaningfully.

If players fail to use all ten words during their one-minute conversation, they do not earn points.

Word Puzzle Games For Kids

40. Little Words

Kids will enjoy playing Little Words because it develops vocabulary and spelling skills simultaneously.

This game uses a crossword-like approach: each puzzle includes seven clues, seven mystery words, and 20 groups of letters. 

Getting the answers to the mystery words is a bit like an anagram since they have to solve the clues and rearrange the letter types.

There are five different difficulty levels for the game.

41. Sight Words Puzzles and Games

Students will learn all 220 sight words in this engaging workbook.

Along with fun activities, each section includes a review that tests comprehension before they move forward.

42. Montessori Crosswords

The Montessori Crosswords app is great for children learning phonics, as it emphasizes the sounds that individual letters and groups of letters make (phonemes).

Children are instructed to drag the correct letters/letter groups into the blank squares to form a given word.

Every time the child answers correctly, they’re rewarded with entertaining interactive animation. 

43. Spelling Puzzles

Spelling Puzzles are challenging games that helps kids develop their observation skills and hand-eye coordination by completing the puzzles. 

Allow children to play together. Ask them to look for clues to the word being formed. Children will see the mistakes and correct themselves when they find the right puzzle. 

44. Kids Word Search Games Puzzle

Kids Word Search is a traditional crossword puzzle game that teaches and adds new words to your child’s vocabulary.

Wordsearch crossword puzzles are a great way for kids to learn new words every day. 

Word Search involves finding words from a variety of topics and themes such as fruits, vegetables, animals, numbers, and a lot more! 

45. Under A Spell

Under A Spell is an app that children will enjoy, while it will tests their spelling and vocabulary skills. 

The child’s task is to connect the letter cubes in the right order to spell set words, connecting them horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

As your child plays, the difficulty increases with overlapping letters, frozen letters, and letters that explode if not used quickly enough. 

It starts with simple three-and four-letter words like ‘cat’ and ‘tie’ and progresses to more difficult ones as they progress.

Simple Word Games For Adult

46. Unique Connections

The word association game for adults is best played with a whiteboard. 

However, you can also use pads of paper. Everyone takes turns coming up with a “seed” word. 

For every seed word, each player writes a related word. Points are awarded if you write down a word that no one else has mentioned. 

It is also possible to challenge one another if one feels that their opponent’s word is unrelated to the “seed” word. When this happens, the opponent must defend their choice.

47. Pyramid

Pyramid is an exciting game where players must guess words based on clues. 

There are several words inside the pyramid, arranged from shortest to longest.

To win, teams will have to guess all the words in the pyramid within the allotted time.

The first word is given at the top. From there, you need to find the second word. The word below is 1 character longer and must contain all of the letters from the word above. It may sound easy, but it can be very difficult to solve the pyramid.

In order to make the game easier for the players, you have the option to include one or more characters from the words or to add clues for the missing words.

Group the players into teams and give one person on each team the pyramid. 

The person holding the pyramid will give hints to teammates by describing each item without using the item’s name.

Players who guess correctly earn a point for each correct guess. However, they can pass if they wish to return to the word later.

Download a Pyramid example and print at home.

48. Bang, Clap, Snap

Gather everyone in a circle. Beat your lap (or table), clap your hands, snap your left hand, then snap your right hand to establish a four-beat rhythm. 

As soon as you get the rhythm going, say, “Give me a word to describe…” and name something.

Each player must provide a suitable adjective within one bang, clap, and snap cycle. 

49. Poetry Improv

It is a game where participants have to create verses on the spot.

Assign participants a poetry style, such as the sonnet, haiku, acrostic, limerick, or free verse. Give them vocabulary words to use within the poem. 

Give them a set amount of time to compose the verses. 

50. Storium

Storium might be the perfect option for those who want to write fiction but are overwhelmed by the idea of creating a whole novel on their own or who enjoy roleplaying-type games.

Storium also allows you to share stories, but these stories are written collaboratively. 

This game enables you to either participate in a story or narrate one – so you can develop a variety of big-picture writing skills. 

Fun Word Games For Groups

51. Riff-Off

How To Play Riff-Off 

The game starts with one player choosing a word in a song and saying it aloud.

The other players are required to figure out the song the word was taken from.

This is a group game, so everyone guesses together.

If no one is guessing it right, give them another word to guess until they solve the lyrical puzzle. 

52. Backward & Opposites

Backward & Opposites is an engaging word game for teens that makes them think quickly.

How To Play Backwards & Opposites

Make ten separate cards with 10 of your favorite words or phrases on them. On the other side of the index card, write each of the words backward. 

Let your friend or game partner do the same. Take turns presenting the back sides of the cards to each other. They have five seconds to read the word(s) out loud.

Keep track of the score, and the person or team with the most correct answers wins.

For example read the following words that I have written backward: “sdrawkcab dna setisoppo”

53. Sticker Shock

How To Play Sticker Shock

You will need some sticky labels for this game.

Everyone sticks a sticker with a mystery word on their forehead.

The objective is to get everyone to say their mystery word before the party ends.

If someone says their mystery word, you can take their label. Whoever collects the most labels wins.

54. Rhyme Time

Rhyme Time is a fun game to put your child’s vocabulary to the test.

How To Play Rhyme Time

Find a common object, such as a shoe, by looking around the room.

Players have 30 seconds to list as many terms that rhyme with that object as possible.

Find out who can come up with the most words.

55. Pterodactyl

In this game, players must all cover their teeth with their lips.

How To Play Pterodactyl

The game starts with one person facing another player while saying the word “pterodactyl” without showing their teeth.

The next player will do the same. What’s the catch? You can make faces, laugh, and use funny voices to make each other show their teeth. Anyone who shows their teeth is out of the game. 

Play continues until there is only one player left. 

I hope you’ve found some fun games for your kids to play and reduce some of their screen time. When having fun playing games kids don’t realize that they’re playing active learning games. Whether it’s a family word board game, a competitive game or a basic word association game, you’ll find several cool games for some entertaining game fun. 

What are your methods for teaching vocabulary?

Drills? Flashcards? Yuck! Boring!

While these can certainly be effective, they can be a quick way to lose your student’s attention if you spend too much time on them in a class.

So what can you do then? The answer?

Play some fun ESL vocabulary games with them!

In this huge listicle, you’ll find 17 great ESL vocabulary game ideas (suitable for adults, teens, and kids) with detailed instructions to include in your lessons.

Games are a great way to get your students to engage and use the language without fighting for their attention every few minutes.

Well, that’s great for children I hear you saying, but what about adults?

Well, as surprising as it may sound… Adults enjoy having fun too!

In fact, a number of the games here are what adults often play while socializing with friends or family anyway so they may already be familiar with them in the native language.

That being said, while some of these vocabulary games can be great for adults, this isn’t the case for all of them.

Some games on this list can be a little silly and adult students would most likely feel more than a little patronized if they were to play them. The same could be said for some games which may be too “boring” for children.

For that reason, this list also has information about the appropriate target student. It mentions:

• student level (from beginner to advanced)
• type of lesson (group and/or one-to-one)
• student type (children and/or adults)

Make sure to read each game carefully before trying it in your class. Make a note of any realia/resources you may need and if possible practise how you will run the class so there aren’t any surprises in the classroom! Let’s get started.

1. Whispers

• Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
• Type of lesson: Group
• Student type: Children & Adults

The idea of “whispers” is to get a message from one end of a line of people to the other. To start: –

1. Person 1 needs to whisper a message to person 2 (without anyone else hearing)
2. Person 2 then needs to whisper the message to person 3 etc until we reach the end of the line.

This game can get difficult because some mistakes creep into the message which can lead to a message which is vastly different at the end than it is at the start.

Once the message reaches the end, the final person reveals what they think it is. This often results in hilarity!

This game trains the students to be able to understand messages in situations that aren’t so clear. It also trains them to try to understand a sentence using context. As long as the students can form sentences then they will be ok with this game.

2. Describe It

• Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
• Type of lesson: Group or Individual
• Student type: Adults

With “describe it” the idea is to give a student a word. This can be anything you want really but nouns and verbs are going to be easier than things like adverbs and prepositions. Once the student has their word, they then have to describe it without using the word itself!

Whoever manages to guess this correctly then gets to go next and you can keep going until everyone in the class has had a turn.

The benefit of this game is that it forces students to use synonyms/antonyms that they might not use usually. It also helps them to develop the skill of using the language to try to express something even if they don’t have that particular word in their vocabulary.

This game is a little more difficult than the others and is better suited to intermediate to advanced learners. Coupled with the fact that you may lose some attention from children, this is better aimed at adults.

3. Tongue Twisters

• Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
• Type of lesson: Group or Individual
• Student type: Children & Adults

Tongue twisters are a fun way to practise new vocabulary!

In case you don’t already know what they are; A tongue twister is a sentence (or several) that is very difficult to say (usually due to a sequence of similar sounds).

An example of this would be “she sells seashells by the seashore”.

These are both great fun and extremely useful as they can be used to train pronunciation for new vocabulary. They are effective with adult students but due to their silliness, it’s no surprise that kids love them!

While there are already plenty of tongue twisters out there, you will likely have to create your own, specific to the vocabulary you are learning. (hint – don’t try to cram all of the TL into one sentence, pick one new word for each tongue twister.)

To add a more competitive element to it, (besides just saying the sentence without mistakes) you can time the students and get them to try to go faster and faster each time!

4. I went to the supermarket…

• Student level: Beginner to Advanced
• Type of lesson: Group
• Student type: Children & Adults

This game is a great one to flex those memory muscles! It goes something like this:

1. Create a circle of students.
2. Student 1 starts by saying “I went to the supermarket and I bought [some bread].” (this [ ] can be anything they choose.)
3. Student 2 then says “I went to the supermarket and I bought some bread and [an apple].” (They have to say what the previous student said but then they choose a new object for themselves.)
4. Student 3 then says “I went to the supermarket and I bought some bread, an apple and [some cheese].”
5. You then continue around the circle with the students adding more and more items until somebody isn’t able to remember all of the list.

You can choose to either reset the game once the list can’t be remembered or… for a more competitive element you can choose to reset the list minus the student who couldn’t remember. You can then repeat this until there is a “definite winner”.

As this game is more to do with memory and doesn’t necessarily involve complex vocabulary, it is suitable for students of all ages and levels.

5. I Spy

• Student level: Beginner to Pre-Intermediate
• Type of lesson: Group or Individual
• Student type: Children

“I spy with my little eye…” If you didn’t play this as a child then you missed out! But fear not, you have a chance to catch up with this fun game now.

1. Student 1 first picks an object in the room (without saying what it is). For example, maybe they see a “clock”.
2. They then have to say the phrase “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…” and say the first letter of the word [c].
3. The other students have to guess what it is and whoever is correct becomes the next person to play.

Keep going until everyone has had a turn to play. This game can be fairly simple if there are common words such as “pen”, “book” etc.

However, if you really want to bring more of a challenge, then bring some props with you or load up an image on a projector with many items.

This game is good when learning basic vocabulary and is better suited to beginners and more specifically children.

6. Word Association

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

This one is great to stimulate some creativity. It is also a very simple idea.

1. Student 1 says a word. It can be anything but for this example, we will say “green”
2. Student 2 says a word that is related to Student 1’s word. “Grass”.
3. You can then continue around the chain with each student adding a related word to what the previous person has said.

The rules are simple. You have to be able to explain why a word is related. You also can’t repeat a word that has already been said! To make this one harder you can also include a timer.

7. A-Z Categories

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

In this game, the teacher picks a category such as (fruit, countries, languages, etc). The idea is then for the students to think of something for each letter of the alphabet.

So if we picked the category “countries” then it would go like this:

1. Student 1: “America”
2. Student 2: “Belgium”
3. Student 3: “China”

You can then continue until all of the letters have been completed. Some beginners will be fine with something like “food” but some categories can be more difficult so bear this in mind when picking a topic.

You may also want to consider cultural backgrounds. “Countries” is a good topic because although they have different names in different languages, they are known by everyone. However, a topic like “bands” can become more difficult as students may want to pick their local favourites which might not be known by others.

8. Match

Student level: Beginner to Pre-Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children

For this game, you need two sets of cards. The first set of cards will have pictures of various things (e.g ball, house, etc), the second set will have the vocabulary on. As you probably have guessed by now, the student’s aim is to match the pictures up with the vocabulary.

You can vary this one a bit depending on how many are playing.

1. With just one student playing you can simply time how long it takes them to match them all and then get them to try and beat that record the second time around.
2. With more students, you can divide them into two teams. Whichever team gets the most pairs wins. (You may prefer to have the teams have one student up at a time to make sure things don’t get too crazy!)

This one is for children. It works especially well with complete beginners because the explanation needed is minimal, demo the game to them and they will take to it like ducks to water!

9. Word Grab Race

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

To set this game up you again need a collection of cards with the vocabulary on. Mix all the cards up (while still being able to see them all.) Next, divide your students into two teams. A student from each group will have their turn first.

When the teacher says the word, the chosen student from each team has to run to the front and find the correct card with the word on from the pile. Once they have brought it back to the group both teams will then switch the active player.

This is repeated until all of the cards have been captured. The team with the most at the end wins.

To make this harder, instead of the teacher saying the word you could show a picture (on a screen) or hold up an object. This forces the students to use the vocabulary and understand what it means.

10. Hangman

Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

Hangman takes a little bit of explaining but… once your students understand it then they will love it!

The basic point of hangman is for the students to guess a word (picked by the teacher).

They take turns guessing a letter each. If the guess is correct (the letter is in the word) then the teacher will write the letter on the board, if the guess is wrong then a part of “the hangman” is drawn.

There are 8 parts to the drawing:

1. Draw the post (an upside-down “L”).
2. Draw the head (a circle) underneath the horizontal part of the post.
3. Draw the body (a vertical line under the head).
4. Draw arm 1 (a stick from the body).
5. Draw arm 2 (another stick from the other side of the body).
6. Draw leg 1 (a stick at the bottom of the body).
7. Draw leg 2 (a stick on the other side at the bottom of the body).
8. Draw the noose (a line joining the head to the post).

The students need to guess what this word is before the picture of the hangman is complete. If they guess it correctly before the hangman is complete then they win, if not then they lose.

If you want to include the students further then whoever wins the round can have a turn at drawing the hangman in the next round.

This game is fun regardless of age, group size or ability (as difficulty can be altered by using harder or easier vocabulary).

11. Stand up / Sit Down

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

For this game, you will need either a board and projector or some realia. First of all, make a line of chairs with the students sat down (facing the teacher).

1. You will then show either an image or hold up an object.
2. Next, you say either the correct vocabulary or a different word.
3. If what you say and what is shown is correct then the children stand up, if not then they stay sat down.

To add a competitive angle to this you can have the ones who get it wrong lose the game and leave the round, repeat this until there is a winner. Alternatively, if everyone is very good then you could do the last student to stand up / sit down lose that round.

This game is ideal for children, they love getting involved and moving around. It is a great way to win pre-schoolers back if you find you have lost their attention part way through a class.

12. Spelling Throw

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children

The idea of this game is to get the students to spell a word out one letter at a time, each student takes it in turns saying each letter though which is what makes it difficult.

To begin, you first need to arrange the students in a circle (either seated or standing). You will also need a ball. For this example let’s say the chosen word is “tiger”.

1. Student 1 – “t” *throws the ball to student 5
2. Student 5 – “i” *throws the ball to student 3
3. Student 3 – “g” etc

This continues until the word is complete. Again, like with the other games you could do a knockout rule where if a student gets the wrong letter then they are out of that round (repeat until there is a clear winner).

If this game is slightly too easy for the students then you can introduce a timer system where they will only get a few seconds to answer, if they don’t answer in time then they are also out.

This game is best suited to children, they will enjoy using a ball to interact with. It is also more suited to beginner levels (especially when learning how to spell.) Keep this one away from adults or advanced students unless you want to hear some patronized groans!

13. Draw It

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

Great fun with children and adults alike. Similar to “describe it”, the idea is for the student to express a chosen word without saying it. The difference here is that we are now drawing instead of describing.

Obviously we will need something to draw with for this. Pen and paper would work fine if we are struggling for resources but it would be better to use something bigger so it’s easier for the students to see, so try to grab a whiteboard!

Once you have a chosen student, tell them the chosen word (without anyone else hearing), they then have to draw it. The other students have to guess and the first one to get it right can then have their turn. Keep going until everyone has played at least once.

The advantage of this game over “describe it” is it can be a lot easier for beginner students to draw something than to try to think of a way to describe it in English. That being said if your students are advanced, they may benefit more from the added difficulty of “describe it”.

14. Word Search

Student level: Beginner to Advanced
Type of lesson: Individual
Student type: Children & Adults

These take a little longer to prepare but when it comes to actually playing, they are as easy as they come.

For anyone that doesn’t know what a word search is, you basically have a grid of squares. Inside each square is a letter. At first glance, it will appear as if you are staring at a giant mess of random letters. However, there are words hidden inside this mess that must be found.

Although this game could, in theory, be done in groups, it is one that is better suited towards individual students. It can be hard for some students to wait for their turn without shouting out that they’ve found one (especially true with children!).

The great thing about a word search is that they are very easy to play. Even if you use advanced vocabulary, the ability to look for a word is still the same so this game is suitable for students of all levels.

15. Synonyms

Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Adults

With synonyms, the point is to give a student a word, and they have to give you a synonym for that word in return. (E.g. teacher says scalding, student says hot). For this, you will need to do some research and make sure you know some synonyms for the TL of that lesson.

A very basic idea, but we have a lot of room to work with this. Here are some things we can change:

• Add a time limit (e.g the student has 3 seconds to reply)
• Time limit for the whole group (e.g how many can the group get in 3 minutes)
• In a group, the student (who just answered) could ask the next student
• Use antonyms as well
• Have the students ask the teacher

This game is dependant on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.

16. Shiritori

Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Adults

The classic Japanese game – Shiritori! You need very little to play this game, which makes it ideal as a backup activity as well.

Simply set up the chairs in the classroom so that everyone can see and hear each other clearly. A circle arrangement is a great choice as it allows everyone to hear each other and there’s an obvious order to whose go it is.

1. Choose a student or go first yourself
2. The first person (A) says a word. This can be something that was taught in the class if you want to reinforce that. Or, if this is a backup activity then it can be any word.
3. The next person to the left (B) will then say a word that starts with the last letter of A’s word. So if A said “boat” then B could say “three”.
4. The game carries on around the circle until you reach the original student again.
5. At this point you can either end the game there or carry on if you have time.

A very basic idea but we have a lot of room to work with this. Here are some things we can change:

• Add a time limit (e.g the student has 3 seconds to reply)
• Time limit for the whole group (e.g how many can the group get in 3 minutes)
• In a group, the student (who just answered) could ask the next student
• Use antonyms as well
• Have the students ask the teacher

This game is dependent on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary, so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.

17. Charades

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults

In case you haven’t played charades before, this is how to play:

1. Select a student to be “a word”, e.g. red, an apple
2. Without speaking, this student has to get the other students to guess the word.
3. They can elicit the answer by using body movements, pointing to things in the room etc. Basically anything, as long as they do not speak.
4. Whoever guesses the answer first gets to be “it” in the next round.

This is a great game for beginners as it works better with beginner vocabulary (run, sit, 4 etc.) 

Beware, you may struggle with more complex vocabulary… (try acting out the word situational!)

18. Vocab Bingo

Student level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults

Prepare Bingo sheets with grids and add one word to each square. Select the grid size (from 3×3 to 6×6) and the words according to the level of English of your students and the expected duration of the game.

Write all words you’ve added to the sheets on a list; maybe add some more. Call out the words in random order, and have the students mark the words when they hear it.

They can use a pen, or better: put little items on the squares. This is more fun, and you can reuse the sheets.

The first person to mark each word on his sheets wins.

You can make this ESL vocab game a bit harder: Don’t call out the exact words in the squares, but synonyms, or opposites, or any kind of related words (for example when you call “rain”, they have to mark “umbrella”).

Conclusion

So, there we have it, 18 games for you to try in your classes.

Make sure to pay attention to the suitability for each game and most importantly practise these before you get in the classroom.

Hopefully, these will also have sparked your creative juices so you will be able to think up some of your own.

Remember to keep it fun, educational and engaging!

If you want to find activities to build classroom community, you can have a look at this article.