The Ultimate List Of Free ESL Games For Kids

Games and fun activities are a vital part of teaching English as a second Language. Games and activities will liven up your lesson and ensure that your students will leave the classroom wanting more.

Games can be used to warm up the class before you start your lesson, during the lesson to give students a break when you’re tackling a tough subject, or at the end of class when you have a few minutes left to kill. There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of games that you can play with your students. EFL games are used to test vocabulary, practice conversing, learn tenses - the list is endless.

The ultimate list of free ESL games for Kids has been put together to help get you started and feeling prepared. Having these games up your sleeve before stepping into the classroom will ensure your lessons run smoothly.

Tip: Go through the ultimate list of ESL games for Kids and choose 10 games that you like, and just rotate through these games for a few months until you or your students get bored of them. Then start the process over again.

Alphabet Shout Out

Randomly choose an alphabet flashcard and award a point to the first student who shouts out a word beginning with that letter.

Alphabet Writing Relay

Divide and line up the students into two teams. Divide the board into two halves and have one student from each team run to the board, write 'A', then run to the back of the line. The next student writes 'B', etc. The first team to finish wins.

Alphabet Erase relay

As 'Alphabet Writing Relay', but this time, write the alphabet on each half of the board and have each team race to erase the letters in order.

Alphabet Soup

Give each student an alphabet flashcard and have them skip around the room to the 'ABC Song'. Stop the song at random and have the students rush to line up in order, e.g. A-K.

Alphabet Touch

Call out letters and have the students find and touch them in the classroom, on posters, etc.

Animal Dice Actions

Take a big dice and assign an animal to each number. Have the students roll the dice and act like the animal!  

Beat The Clock

Time the students as they race to put alphabet, days of the week, or month flashcards in order. Have them try again to see if they can beat their fastest time.

The Bomb

Pass a ball, object or a flash card around a circle of students. When the timer rings, the student holding the ball must answer a question, make a sentence or say a word.

Car Race

Arrange the flash cards in a long line with starting and finishing points. Give each student a counter. The first student throws the dice and moves. The student must say the word on the flashcard he/she lands on. If the student makes a mistake, he/she goes back to his/her original place. Add colored paper between cards to represent 'Take Another Turn', and assign a crash number e.g. #4 on the dice which means the student must return to the beginning.

Charades

Divide and line up the class into two teams. The first student from each team comes to the front. The teacher whispers a word or shows a flashcard to the two students and they act it out. The first team to call out the correct word gets a point. E.g. sleeping, eating, playing soccer...

Clusters

Play any music and have the students walk, skip, jump, hop, etc around the room randomly. Stop the music and call out a number between 1-8. The students must quickly get together in a group or groups of that number, and the odd students must sit out until the next round.

Commando

The teacher is the commando and gives commands to the class and/or individual students. This is a great energy burner as well as review of actions colors, numbers or anything else you can throw in. E.g. "Jump 10 times", "Touch your (body part)", "Touch (classroom object", "Turn around", "Stand up / Sit down".

Concentration / Memory

Have the students sit in a circle. Spread out the flashcards (2 sets) face down. Students take turns flipping over two cards and saying the vocabulary. If the flashcards are a match, the student keeps the cards. If they are different, they remain face down. The student with the most pairs is the winner. .

Crazy Train

Students line up behind the teacher in a choo choo train line. Give commands such as "faster", "slower", "turn left", and "stop".

Dance Of The Ostriches

Pair up students and attach a flashcard to their backs. The object of the game is to look at the other student's flash card and yell out the word before they see yours.

Draw It Relay

Divide the students into two teams. Whisper a flashcard to the first member of both teams and have them run to the board and draw the word as fast as possible. Award points to the fastest team.

Fashion Show

Have each student stand up one at a time and elicit from the class what he or she is wearing.

Find It

The teacher holds up a letter flashcard. The students must search around the room to find either a corresponding object/picture that begins with that letter or find that same letter written somewhere in the room. The purpose of this game is letter recognition. It can be played as a relay race with two teams racing to find the letters first.  .

Grab

Use Lego. Spread out the Lego and call out "(Five!)". The students should take five blocks, join them together to make a pattern and hold them up. Next say "two blue, one yellow" and other combinations to 5.

Grab It Relay / Race to Touch

Lay the flashcards on the floor at one end of the room, and have the students line up in teams at the other end of the room. Call out a flashcard and have the first person in each team race to grab the card. Those students then go to the back and the next students race to grab the next flashcard the teacher calls.

Jumping The Line

Put a piece of tape across the middle of the floor or draw an imaginary line dividing the room. Designate ones side as 'true' and the other side as 'false'. Line up the students on the line, hold up a flashcard and say a word. If the students think you said the word that matches the flashcard, they should jump to the 'true' side, otherwise they should jump to the 'false' side. Students who make a mistake should sit out until the next round.

Magic Finger

Print a letter of the alphabet on the board. Instruct the students to stand and face the board. Raise your 'magic finger' and trace the letter in the air. Be silly and use other parts of your body to trace the letter, e.g. elbow, foot, nose, tongue.

Make A Sentence

Put the students into teams and lay out a selection of flashcards or items. One student from each team chooses a vocabulary item and uses it correctly in a sentence. Give each student ten seconds on the timer. Reduce the time in the second and third round. As the item is named, the teacher puts it away and gives the team a point. Write the points on the whiteboard.

Map Game

Use a world map and elicit "Where are you from?", "Where do you live?", "Where do people speak Spanish?", "Where's China?", and any other questions you can think of. Also show and tell the students about where you are from.

Memory Buzz

Have the students sit in a circle and start building a sentence. Student 1 says "In the classroom, I see a clock", student 2 says "In the classroom, I see a clock and a map", student 3 says "In the classroom I see a clock, a map and a chair" etc. For a variation, see 'Question Chain'.

Memory Tray

Bring in a tray of various review or new objects. Elicit the names of the objects and give the students a minute to memorize what's on the tray. Take the tray away and see how many objects can be remembered. Older students should write a list of objects. The student who remembers the most objects gets a point. Can be done with flashcards.

Musical Chairs

Line up the chairs and place a flashcard on each one. Play some music and have the students walk, skip, jump around the chairs. When the music stops, the students should sit down on a chair and shout out their flash cards. For more excitement remove a chair while the music is playing and make the chair-less student sit out until the next round.

Paper Airplane Contest

Give students a couple of minutes to make an airplane and one minute to test them. Divide the students into two teams and have the teams stand at the back of the room. Ask a student a question and if the answer is correct that student gets a throw. Assign points to different objects in the room (white board = 10pts., far wall = 15pts., etc.). Each student should be asked a question and teammates can help if needed.

Quick Peek

Cover a flashcard and quickly show it so the students get just a quick peek. Reward the student who can guess it correctly.

Run And Get It

Divide the class into two teams and have them stand in two lines facing each other. Assign each team member a number from one to four. Place a few flashcards in the middle of the two teams. Call a number and a flashcard, e.g. "Student three - rabbit". The students assigned that number must run into the center and touch the flashcard and shout "rabbit". The member who touched and called first can take the flashcard to their side.

Ship In The Fog

Make an obstacle course, put a blindfold on a student and have the other students verbally help him or her through the course. For example: Take 2 steps, turn left, one small step, etc.

Shoot The Basket

This can be done in teams or individually. Ask a student a question and if the student answers correctly then he/she gets a shot at the basket. Variations include rolling a ball between 'posts', throwing a ball to knock a stuffed animal off a box, bouncing a ball into a bucket, etc. Award points.  

Slam

Have the students sit in a circle with their hands on their heads. Spread the flashcards face up in the middle. The teacher calls out a flash card and the students race to touch it. The first student to touch it gets to keep the flashcard. In the case of a tie, have the students 'Rock, Scissors, Paper'.

Slow Motion

Put a flashcard in a bag or behind something. Pull it out very slowly showing only the top part of the picture at a time. Reward the first student who can guess it correctly.

Touch

Order the students to touch various objects around the classroom e.g. "Touch your book", "Touch something red".

Any other games you would like to add?