ESL Kids

A fun way for to practice English for ESL kids
Ages: 8-12
Group Size 4–12 people
How to Play:

The Clap Game is a fun way for young esl students to play when they are familiar with the lesson’s vocabulary. To play, everyone gets into small groups. around 4 or 5 people allows for an enjoyable pace. Everyone starts clapping a slow rhythm. The first person says aloud two vocabulary words. I’ll use animal names as an example. The first person says, “dog elephant” and then claps twice. The second word here (elephant) becomes the next person’s first word so the second person says, “elephant cat.” and claps twice. Like before, the second person’s last word becomes the next person’s first word and so on.

Start the rhythm ***clap clap clap clap***
Player 1: dog elephant
***clap clap***
Player 2: elephant cat
***clap clap***
Player 3: cat monkey
***clap clap***
Player 4: monkey chicken
***clap clap***
Player 1: chicken pig
etc.
Getting “Out”A person become “out” if they make a mistake and didn’t repeat the last word of the person before them.

**clap clap**
Player 1: dog elephant
***clap clap***
Player 2: cat monkey.
A person also becomes out if they are unable to respond with the rhythm.
example 1
***clap clap***
Player 1: dog elephant
***clap***
Player 2: elephant cat
example 2
***clap clap***
Player 1: dog elephant
***clap clap***
Player 2: elephant…………………………………………….. cat
It’s also important to call out the word within the beats, not with the beat.for example
***clap clap*** dog elephant ***clap clap***
not
clap clap clap
dog el e phant

This becomes more important because as the beat increases the speed in which the words are called out must also increase.
Team-style Variation
Once the groups have had some time to practice, you could have one member from each group come to the front of the classroom. Have the class start the rhythm. As the selected students play the teacher can control the rate at which the game speeds up.
Scoring
:

As students become out, they sit down. When about half of the students are out, the remaining teams each get a point and everyone changes with a new member from their group.