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.
Conversation Relay
Line up the students in two teams and have the last student in each team tap the shoulder of the student in front and have a conversation E.g. "What's you name?", "How are you?". The student answering then starts the same conversation with the student in front, and so on. When the conversation reaches the front, the student at the front must run to the back and continue the procedure. The first team to get all the students back in their original positions wins.
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.
Duck Duck Goose
Students sit in a circle and the teacher starts by walking round the outside of the circle tapping the students on the head saying "duck". When the teacher says "goose" the student whose head was touched must jump up and chase the teacher round the circle. The teacher must sit down in the student's spot before being tagged. If tagged, the teacher must continue tapping heads. If not, the student walks around the circle touching heads. It might be easier to use vocabulary like "cat, cat, dog" or similar, or even "duck, duck, dog" to practice awareness of 'u' vs 'o' and 'g' vs 'ck' sounds.
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.
First letter
Give the students various picture flashcards. Go through the ABC's and instruct students to hold up the flashcards that begin with that letter.
Flash Card Act Out
Choose one or more students to come to the front. Show a flash card or whisper a word, and have the students act it out. Reward the first student to guess the correct answer. This can be used with many subjects (e.g. sports, actions, verbs, animals, etc.)
Flash Card Walk
Arrange the flashcards in a big circle. Play some music while the students walk around the circle. When the music stops, call out a flashcard, and the student standing next to the flashcard wins.
Follow The Leader
Students line up behind the teacher and follow the teacher's actions. Use as a review for identifying and chorusing classroom objects or acting out actions. Give the students a chance to lead.
Gestures
Use western gestures in your class.
| Expressions | Gestures |
| Hello | wave |
| Goodbye | wave |
| It's cold | put arms around shoulders |
| It's hot | fan your face with hands |
| No! | shake your head "no" |
| Come here | move your index finger |
| Me! | Touch your chest |
| OK | make the OK sign |
| I don't know | pull shoulders and hands up |
| Shhhh | index finger in front of mouth |
| Stop | hand up, palm out |
| Stand up | raise hand slightly, palm up |
| Sit down | lower hand slightly, palm down |
Go Fish
Have students choose two flashcards each. Have the students hold the flashcards face up but not to show anyone. Choose a student and ask "Do you have a cat?" If the answer is yes, they have to give you the flash card. Have each student ask other students questions. A student with no cards is out.