Good review games for esl

Ping Pong — Divide students into two teams. Students work as a team to answer a review question. Then, if they answer it correctly, they get a chance to bounce a ball into one of three plastic cups to get a prize for their team. Prizes can be a homework pass, free time, extra computer time, lunch in the classroom, and so on. Bingo — Review Bingo is another classroom favorite. To change it up a bit, use candy as the markers.

Have students program their bingo cards with their vocabulary words and pull questions randomly. Beach Ball — Purchase a white beach ball and write a variety of review questions on the ball. Then have students sit on top of their desks. The goal of this game is to play catch. When a student catches the ball, the must answer the question their right thumb is touching. Headbands — A fun spin on the popular game headbands is to write a review term on a post-it note.

Each student must stick the note to her forehead without looking at it. Their goal is to figure out what the term on the forehead is. Lip-reading is a significant element of interpreting speech, especially in noisy environments. The student mouthing the word also practises enunciating clearly and correctly.

Instead of just recognising vocabulary words, this exercise requires students to put together coherent sentence descriptions, great for practising fluency.

On the TV show players are shown a strange object in secret, which they can choose to describe truthfully, or invent a different description. In the classroom we simply replace these strange objects with random pictures, shown to a student at the front on the computer.

You could source your own images, but the easiest way to play is using our Box Of Lies generator. As students are describing a picture, the game also doubles as a way to practise that skill, including the correct use of prepositions. When students have finished their description, their classmates have to guess whether they were describing truthfully, or inventing something completely different. Vocabulary category games are really popular with any age group, and perfect as a no-prep warmer.

Perhaps the most well known of these games is Scattergories. In the original version, players have to complete twelve categories with a single word all beginning with a predefined letter. We prefer a variation in which students work in small teams to complete three categories with as many words as they can.

The team with the most valid words in a given category wins a point for that round. In that case the game Stop is more suitable, because students race to think of only one word in each category with six categories this time. As in Scattergories, students draw category columns on a piece of paper.

Some good categories to use include animals , clothes and accessories , sports and hobbies and jobs. Students then swap papers and score points for each word written. Our last category game is one that never fails to go down well, Name Ten. In each round students think of ten words in one vocabulary category in one minute, without any specified first letter.

The key feature though is an element of the original Scattergories game, in which only unique answers are worth a point.

This is great because students have to think of multiple words, but are also rewarded for more obscure vocabulary. While they may be able to think of more difficult vocabulary, the time constraint makes that less prevalent, and there is an element of luck in which words other teams choose to write.

The game works best with three or four teams, each of which you assign a column on the board for checking answers. We all have times when we need a more relaxed, light-hearted activity — as a time-filler after a tough test for example.

If you can get your hands on a deck of cards, then Kings Cup also known as Ring Of Fire fits the bill perfectly. An adapted drinking game, here the alcohol is replaced by English speaking challenges! Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. By Janelle Cox Janelle Cox. Janelle Cox, M.

Learn about our Editorial Process. Featured Video. They must take a card and answer correctly to remain on that spot, or move back two places if they are incorrect. If they land at the bottom of a ladder, and they answer correctly, they get to move up the ladder. Related Categories. Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library:. Dramatically Improve the Way You Teach. Save hours of lesson preparation time with the Entire BusyTeacher Library.

That's 4, pages filled with thousands of practical activities and tips that you can start using today. Popular articles like this. Classroom Management and Discipline. Teaching Ideas. Are You Sure You Understand? Recycling and Revising.