ESL Kids

Posts Tagged ‘esl games’

Everybody loves the Fruit Basket Game so let’s play!

by Bill Ralens
Intro: That right, I invented the Fruit Basket Game. Um… Ok, maybe I didn’t invent the game but I did write this page and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Nearly everyone (I think) knows the Fruit Basket Game. Well I’m including it here because, I reference it on this site, for completeness and for anyone who doesn’t know this game. This is a really fun game to use in your ESL class if you have a little bit of room for everyone to run around.
Skill Used: Listening, Repeating
Level: Easy
Ages: 5 and up (maybe younger)
Group Size: 10 or more people, the more the merrier. (1 person is the Game Master)
Setup: You will need some flash cards or classroom cards (preferably laminated). You will also need as many chairs or benches(we have benches) as you have students (teacher also plays) or as many as the number of students minus one (40 students, use 39 chairs).The benches or chairs need to be arranged into a large circle.
How to Play: With your classroom vocabulary cards on the chalk board, ask the students which card they like. I’ll use fruit for this example. Let the students pick three or four cards (maybe apple, orange, and banana). Now with the children sitting on the chairs assign teams. First student is on apple team, second student, orange team, third student, banana team, fourth student, apple team and so on.
To start out with, the teacher is the Game Master. The Game Master calls out, “What fruit do you like?” The students then chant back, “What fruit do you like?” The Game Master then calls back, “I like apples and oranges.” Everybody that’s on apple and orange team changes seats. If the Game Master yells out, “I like fruit baskets.” Everybody changes seats. The last person without a seat becomes the new Game Master.
End Notes: This game can be played with any vocabulary. I like to try and trip up the students by calling out all kinds of weird things for “Fruit Basket.” Fruit basketball, fruit bikinman (a cartoon character), Fruit bachan (grandma in Japanese) etc.

Heads Down Thumbs Up, 
It’s Time to Play Seven UP!
The Seven Up Game
Introduction:
I used to play this game when I was in elementary school. Here it’s being adapted for the ESL classroom and given a Halloween theme.
Skills Used: Speaking
Level: Easy to Medium
Ages: 7 and up
Group Size: 14 and up.
Setup:
Seven people are chosen to be Monsters (pickers). Each Monster is given a halloween mask to wear. If the class is very big, more than 30 people, choose more Monsters. We have 40 children per class and use nine Monsters.
How to Play:
The seven Monsters (pickers) sit at the front of the classroom. The teacher says, “Heads down, thumbs up. Time to play Seven Up.” The remainder of the class cover their eyes (heads down) and sticks one thumb up, while the Monsters stand up (Seven Up). The Monsters are then given a minute or so to pick one person by touching the thumb of someone who as their head down. After picking someone, the Monsters returns to the front of the room. When all of the Monsters have returned, the teacher says, “heads up,” and the children who had their thumbs touched stand up.
The teacher then asks each standing student, “Who was it?” The student then gets once chance to guess who touched their finger. “It was Frankenstein.” If the student guesses correctly, they switch places with the Monster that touched them.
After every standing student has had a chance to guess a Monster , the teacher again says, “Heads down, thumbs up, time to play Seven up.” And the students play again.

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.

If you’ve been wondering how to teach English overseas, especially in Japan well, ESL Classroom Games are great when you have large groups. What makes them great is that they require little to no setup and can be played with minimal supervision by the teacher.
That means that the children are playing the game together in smaller groups and the teacher goes between the groups to check on the children’s progress. Give these games a try in your ESL lesson plan.
The Hot Potato Game is a classic children’s game but now with an ESL twist. I also talk about the importance of tension for making ESL games more enjoyable. (Ages 6 and up)

The Clap Game. This is an excellent and fun way to test how well the kids have learned their vocabulary. (Ages 8 and up)

The Magic Word Game is a lot like musical chairs except there’s no music. Children listen for the “Magic Word” and sit down when they hear it. The game gets good when chairs start to disappear. (Ages 6 and up)

Heads Down Seven Up! Another classic children’s game, reborn as an ESL classroom game. Students try to guess who touched their thumb. (Ages 8 and up)

If you like TPR (Total Physical Response), the Freeze Game is a great way to practice vocabulary and EFL dialogues. The children copy their teacher but stop when they hear “Freeze!”(Ages 5 and up)

Combine Chinese Whispers, with Charades, throw in some team competition and you have the Charades Race Game. TPR, silliness, and a whole lot of fun rolled into one. (Ages 8 and up)

Everybody knows the Fruit Basket Game. Well then why is it here? Well Mr. Smartypants, it’s so much darn fun how could I leave it out?

The Group Making Game is a crazy game that teaches children about numbers, shapes and more–a great game for kids with tons of energy!

ESL Flash Card Games are also great classroom games and if you have a lot of kids, let them make their own flash cards. Not only do children enjoy making the cards but they feel proud and happy to play games with them.