EY Supplementary

Resource Book

Games / Activities
/ Warmers and
Fillers

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 Introduction

Who this book is for?

This book has been written to help provide teachers with a wide repertoire of games
and activities to begin classes and add to the lesson outcomes and aims. These
suggested activities are presented in order for you to have more opportunities to
achieve the language aims of your lessons and to help create a positive, fun,
learning environment.

What is a warmer?
An activity designed to get things started, wake up tired students (and teachers) and
prepare brains, mouths, ears and eyes for English.

What is a filler?
An activity you can add to a class because you have time to fill in a valuable way for
the students, for example before the break or at the end of the lesson.

Categories
The categories used to help organize this book are rough guides to the activities.
Many of the activities can be varied for different language points.

Setting up warmers and fillers

Warmers and fillers are designed to be short. Spending too much time on these
reduces time available for actual teaching so these activities are designed to last no
more than 10 minutes.

The description of activities has been written to maximize student involvement. This
can be done by
• Having teams instead of eliminating students.
• Having as many teams as possible.
• Having tasks for students when they are listening to each other.

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 Warmers and Fillers
Table of contents

Vocab revision games / Brainstorming 48. Music chart discussion

1. ABC word race 49. Spin the bottle
2. Around the world 50. Story telling
3. Balls between backs race 51. Talk for a minute
4. Change the letter game 52. Talk or die
5. Finger bingo 53. That’s a lie!
6. Flashcard mystery 54. To be or not to be
7. Flashcards with symbols 55. Weekend
8. Grid game
9. How many things can you think of Grammar points
that….? 56. All of us
10. Label your neighbour 57. Change chairs / Fruit salad
11. Ladder 58. Have you ever …?
12. Mallet’s mallet / Bonk 59. Irregular verbs challenge
13. Memory / Hidden squares (Pelmanism) 60. Jumbled sentences
14. Memory words 61. Jump the line
15. Mime, draw, explain 62. The long sentence game
16. Name two things 63. Who would….?
17. Opposites quiz
18. Pass the eraser Pronunciation
19. Pictionary 64. Pronunciation ball throw
20. Pyramid / Backs to the board 65. Pronunciation grids – shouting dictation
21. Scattegories 66. Ship or sheep?
22. Shout it out 67. Tongue twisters
23. Steps game
24. Stop the bus / Brainstorming (vocab- Questions
pronunciation) 68. 20 questions
25. Taboo 69. Banana-na
26. Tick, x, squiggle 70. Coffeepotting
27. Vocabulary charades 71. Do you like your neighbours?
28. Word association 72. Don’t answer back!
29. Word tennis 73. Find someone who…
30. Words from words 74. Fruits and vegetables
75. Proxy interviews
Spelling 76. Question dice
31. Alphabet game 77. Quizzes
32. Body letters 78. Shout the answer
33. Change the letter game 79. Stand in line
34. The letter game 80. Who / What is it?
35. Spaghetti spelling 81. Yes / No game
36. Spelling relay
37. Spelling tennis Writing
38. Tower 82. Internet chat
39. Vowel body spelling 83. Word stories
84. Writing storm
Fluency / Speaking practice
40. 3 picture story Numbers
41. 3 things in common 85. 21
42. Angry greetings 86. First to 20
43. Chinese whispers / Telephone 87. Fizz – buzz
44. Dice discussions 88. Number draw race
45. Disco / Library 89. Over & under ball pass
46. I’d rather…
47. Magic circle

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 Warmers and Fillers
Table of contents

Music 106. Can I come?

90. Music – Gap fills 107. Cough dictation
91. Music – Karaoke 108. Coup co
92. Music – Ordering sentences or words 109. Croquet
93. Music – Singing and dancing 110. Cuisenaire rods pattern game
94. Musical categories 111. I spy…
95. Musical jobs 112. Picture flash
113. Riddles
TPR 114. Snow ball fight
96. 10-second objects 115. True or false statements
97. Body dice 116. Word plexers / Rebuses
98. Duck, duck goose
99. Human knot Appendix
100. Opposites teacher says Pyramid
101. Shark Shout it out
102. Teacher says (Simon says) The letter game
Ship or sheep?
Miscellaneous Internet chat
103. Balderdash Riddles
104. Basketball Word plexers / Rebuses
105. Betting games

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 Warmers and Fillers

Vocab revision games / Brainstorming

1. ABC word race

In teams, students line up at the back of the classroom. Give the first person in each line a
marker. When you say ‘go’, students race to the board and write a word beginning with ‘A’, then
run back to their teams and hand off the marker to the next student in line. The next student
runs to the board and writes a word starting with ‘B’ and so on until a team has gone through the
entire alphabet. You can make it more challenging by restricting students to words within a
topic, e.g. countries, foods, or verbs.

2. Around the world

Elicit a bunch of topics to the board. Have two students sitting next to each other stand up. The
teacher states one of the topics, e.g. ‘colours’ and the two students race to say a word under
that topic, e.g. ‘red’. The student who says the word first moves one student to the left, who
stands up (the losing student sits down in the winner’s chair). The first student to go around the
whole room wins.

3. Balls between backs race

Divide your students into teams. Give each team a soft ball. The first two people in each team
stand back-to-back at the back of the room and put the ball between them. They must hold the
ball with their backs and cannot use their hands or touch the ball at anytime. Once all the
groups have the ball between their back, shout out a vocab topic e.g. colours, animals, foods,
character adjectives, or adverbs. They must run together and race to the board where a marker
is laying on the floor. They must bend down, pick up the marker and each write a word
belonging to that category (passing the marker between them) without dropping or touching the
ball with their hands. The first pair to do so gets a point for their team.

4. Change the letter game

Put a common four-letter word on the board. In pairs or small groups, students race to find as
many new words as they can change only one letter at a time to form a new word. After a
minute, the group with the most words wins. For example, the starting word is hand. Students
can write hand – band – bend – mend – fend – feed – feet – meet and so on.

5. Finger bingo
Give each student a piece of paper and scissors. Have them trace their hand and cut it out.
Then write five vocab words from whatever topic you have been studying, e.g. body parts.
Divide your students into two teams and ask one student from each team to do a simple board
race to choose a winner, e.g. name a colour. The first student to do this now takes the hand of
the opponent and rips off one of the vocab words, stating it aloud. Anyone else in the class with
that same vocab word written down must also rip it off their hand. Continue with the next pair of
students. Continue for about 10 minutes. Then have each team count up how many fingers
they have left in total. The team with the most remaining fingers wins.

6. Flashcard mystery
Each student gets a flashcard and holds it on his / her back; the student does not know which
flash card he / she has. Students mingle and ask each other questions to find out which
flashcard they have. For example, students may say ‘Do I have a tiger?’ to which the other
student looks on their back and answers ‘Yes, you do’ or ‘No, you don’t’.

7. Flashcards with symbols

This is a great activity to review vocabulary. Draw or write a symbol / shape / letter or number
under each flashcard on the whiteboard. You call out the symbol and the student has to say the
word or structure for that flashcard.

© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 5 of 37

 8. Grid game
On the board draw two grids with 12 squares and write the numbers 1 – 12 in a square. Divide
the class into 2 teams. Each team needs a writer. The rest of the team are given a grid with
words in it (12 grid squares with 12 words – each team has the same words, but in different
places on the grid). The rest of the team have to take turns describing one of the words without
using Vietnamese, spelling or saying the word. The writer has to guess and write the word in
the correct square.

9. How many things can you think of that….?

In groups, students try to think of and note down as many things as they can that fit a given
definition and that they know in English. For example, you might tell them to think of as many
items as they can that are small enough to fit into a matchbox. After two or three minutes, pool
all the ideas on the board, or have a competition to see who can think of the most items. Here
are some examples:
• How many things can you think of that …?
o …are bigger than you are?
o …are round?
o …make a noise?
o …work electricity?
o …are made of paper / wood / glass?
o …people enjoy looking at?
o …you can write with?

10. Label your neighbour

Take a bunch of blank stickers to class. In pairs, students must write as many labels as they
can and stick them on their partner in the allotted time. The pair with the most correct labels
wins. This is great for labelling body parts, colours, clothes, etc.

11. Ladder
Divide the class into teams. Draw as many ‘ladders’ on the board as there are teams. Each
team lines up in front of their ladder. Give the first person in line a marker. Yell out a topic and
students race to write a word in that topic on the bottom rung of the ladder. The student then
hands off the marker to the next student who fills in the next rung, and so on. The first team to
climb their ladder gets a point. The make it more challenging, tell students that as each word
goes up the ladder, it has to be longer than the last word, e.g. the topic is animals, the first
student writes cat, the next writes crab, then camel, then monkey and so on.

12. Mallet’s mallet / Bonk

Put four chairs in a small circle in the centre of the room. Call forward one student from each
group. Give them a category e.g. colours. The students take it in turns to say a colour. If they
hesitate too long or repeat a colour already said, they are out and must sit back down with their
team. Continue with the remaining three students. The last student remaining wins a point for
their team. Repeat with a new student from every team and a new category.

13. Memory / Hidden squares (Pelmanism)

Divide the class into groups. Give each group a set of matching word cards (you can also use
picture-word matching, word-definition matching, etc.). Students lay them out in the form of a
grid e.g. if there are 24 cards, they lay the cards down 4 across and 6 down. One student starts
by turning over two cards and reading them out loud. If they match, the student keeps them as
a pair. If they don’t match, the student turns them back over as they were. Then it is the next
student’s turn. Continue until all pairs are matched. The student with the most matches wins.

14. Memory words

Write down a list of 13 – 15 key words from the previous units in the book. Scatter the words
onto an OHP transparency. Show the students the words for 1 minute. They aren’t allowed to
write anything in the minute. They have to remember as many words as possible. Turn off the
OHP after one minute. The students write down a many words as the can remember in pairs.
The pair that can remember the most words is the winner.

© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 6 of 37

 15. Mime, draw, explain
Split the class into teams. Have one student come to the front of the room. Give the student a
vocab word. The student begins to mime the word. If the students can’t get the word, the
student then draw the word or clues to explain the word. If the students still can’t get the word,
the student then explains the word (without saying what it is). If a team gets it when the student
is miming = 3 pts, drawing = 2 pts, and explaining = 1pt.

16. Name two things

Divide the class into pairs. Give each a small white board, marker and eraser. The teacher
then says, ‘Name two …’, e.g. ‘Name two animals’, or ‘Name two things that start with b’.
Students race to write down two things fitting into the criteria you stated. The first team to do so
gets a point for their team. Have the students change writers and repeat with a different criteria.
The pair with the most points wins.

17. Opposites quiz

Organize the class into teams. Say an adjective, eg from the list below. The first student to call
out the opposite wins a point for his/her team. The team with the most points at the end wins.

Opposite Opposite Opposite

Adjective Adjective Adjective
adjective adjective adjective
beautiful ugly dry wet last first
better worse early late noisy quiet
boring interesting empty full old young
cheap expensive fast slow poor rich
clean dirty fat thin soft hard
dangerous safe friendly unfriendly strong weak
dark light high low tall short
different the same horrible nice tidy untidy
difficult easy hot cold worst best

18. Pass the eraser

Stand all the students in the circle. Explain that they must pretend the eraser is a different
object and show us what it is. For example, take the eraser and put it up to your ear and start
talking into it like it is a telephone. The other students should guess what it is. Then pass the
eraser to the person next to you and they will continue to make objects from the eraser. Some
ideas to help students if they get stuck are: toothbrush, banana, marker, hat, brush, etc.

19. Pictionary
Divide your students into pairs, sitting, facing each other in 2 lines. Give one line of students a
mini-board and marker. Show them a flashcard or a vocab word. The students draw the picture
as their partner guesses what it is. The first to guess correctly (from any picture) gets a point.

Change this into a more challenging game by having the students draw whole sentences e.g.
‘The cat is sleeping on the TV.’

20. Pyramid / Backs to the board

Divide the class into two or three teams. Place one student from each team at the front of the
room in chairs with their backs to the board. Write a word on the board. The rest of the
students must describe the word to their team mate (over the voices of the other teams
describing the same word). Students may not use Vietnamese or spell the word, but you can
allow them to act it out if you want. The first team member to guess the word on the board gets
a point.

This is sometimes played using a pyramid grid, assigning a point scale on each line, making the
value of the points raise as the pyramid builds and the words get harder. See the appendix for a
template.

© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 7 of 37

 21. Scattegories
This is similar to stop the bus but the categories are more obscure, e.g. ‘things you find in the
kitchen’, ‘things that are cold’ and there is a time limit rather than waiting until the first person
finishes. In groups, give the students a bunch of categories. Tell them they have 3 minutes to
write as many answers as they can, starting with a certain letter (you will have to make sure
there are answers for all your categories with the letter you give the students). Each team gets
one point for every original answer they have (similar answers negate each other and no team
gets a point for that answer). This will encourage students to be creative in their answers. All
answers are up for debate and can be voted on by the rest of the class. Continue with a new
letter. The team with the most points in the end wins.

22. Shout it out

Divide the class into teams. Have one student from the first team come to the front of the room
and draw a card. (See the appendix for some example topics). The student tells their team the
topic and the students have 30 seconds to shout out as many things on the list as possible. The
number of words on the list they get is the number of points they get for that round. You can let
the other teams have a 15 second chance to come with any more they can think of for extra
points. Then have another student from the next team come to the front and draw a card. The
team with the most points wins.

23. Steps game

Draw a set of steps for each team - about 10 levels. Each team is at the bottom (draw a sad
face). Revise vocabulary with any kind of board race or game. First team with the correct
answer gets to move up one level. The first team to get to the top (draw a happy face) gets to
choose something funny for the other teams to do e.g. sing a song.

24. Stop the bus / Brainstorming

There are several variations of this game. Here is one way to play it:

Divide the class into pairs or small groups. Across the top of the board, write five categories
e.g. hobbies, verbs, adjectives, animals, foods, etc. Choose a letter from the alphabet e.g. F.
The teams race to think of words beginning with F to fir each category e.g. fishing, fly, fat
frog, french fries. The first team to finish shouts ‘stop the bus’. They get a point for each
answer they have that no other team has gotten yet. To avoid cheating, make sure they
write down their answers onto the paper (not just think of them). Repeat with a new letter of
the alphabet.

This can also be adapted to practice pronunciation or word stress by having topics be related
to them e.g. words with /θ/,/ʃ/,/k/ /silent e/ sounds, etc. or first syllable stress, last syllable
stress, etc.

25. Taboo
Write down a list of vocab words from previous units / lessons. Divide the class into teams. Call
up one student from each team. Show the two students the same word e.g. in-line skates.
They have to stand in front of their teams and try and describe the object without actually saying
the word (or any words that are in the word) or using any actions. The rest of the team has to
try to guess the word. The first team to guess what is being described wins a point. If a student
describing the word actually uses the word, they lose a point. Make sure you and your TA
monitor the teams closely for any blatant cheating. Repeat the game with new students and a
new word. The team with the most points wins.

The TSC in your centre may also have the official ‘Taboo’ game. Check with the TSC staff.

© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 8 of 37

 26. Tick, x, squiggle
This game only works well with five letter words! Split your class into teams. Write on the board
the following key for students:

o = right letter, right place

o X = wrong letter, wrong place

o = right letter, wrong place

Draw five dashes on the board and tell students you are thinking of a five letter word e.g. ‘chair’.
The first team says a five letter word, e.g. ‘shirt’. You write the word shirt in the five dashes on
the board. Then write the appropriate symbols under the word, e.g.

C h a i r
X X
Students know that there is an ‘h’ in the correct place, an ‘I’ and ‘r’ but in different places than in
the word chair and there is not a ‘c’ or ‘a’ in the word you are thinking of. The next group
guesses another word, e.g. ‘short’.

C h a i r
X X
S h o r t
X
Now students know there is an ‘s’, ‘h’, ‘r’, and ‘t’ in the word in the correct places but there is not
an ‘o’ on the word. The next group chooses a word. If they guess correctly, they win a point. If
they guess incorrectly continue playing until a group gets the word. This can be played in small
groups.

27. Vocabulary charades

Students write new vocabulary on cards from the lesson associated with the topic. Collect the
cards and divide the class into teams of two or three. One student from each team comes to the
front of the class. Choose a card for each student. Show student 1 a card. He / she mimes the
meaning of the word to his / her team, who win a point for a correct guess. If the team cannot
guess, the other teams can raise their hands to guess. Student 2 and 3 then take turns to mime
their words. Continue with different team members and words. The team with the most points
wins.

28. Word association

Divide students into groups of three or four. Student A thinks of a word from the previous unit,
e.g. suitcase. Student B has to say a word associated with suitcase e.g. travel. Student C has
to say a word associated with travel e.g. train and so on… Student can challenge each other to
explain their word associations. The last person to be able to continue associations wins.

29. Word tennis

Split the class into two teams. The first person on each team will shout out the answer first, and
then the second person the second answer and so on. The teacher shouts out a topic e.g.
‘clothes’ and the first student on one team says a word in the topic e.g. ‘shirt’. The first student
on the other team says another word from the topic e.g. ‘trousers’. Then the second person on
the first team says another and so on until someone messes up. The other team gets a point.
Continue with another topic e.g. foods.
© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 9 of 37
 30. Words from words
Write a fairly long word on the board. Students work in pairs to make as many words as
possible from the letters in the initial word. For example, from the word ‘grandmother’ the
following words can be made: and, red, hot, her, grand, heat, rat, meat, hate, dragon, mate, etc.

© ILA Vietnam Vocab revision games / Brainstorming Page 10 of 37

 Spelling

31. Alphabet game

This game can be played in groups or as a whole class. Students try to think of an animal (or
any topic, such as foods, etc) beginning with each letter of the alphabet, omitting letters that
don’t have words or are too difficult (e.g. X, U, Q). Students win one point for each correct
animal they say first. Extra points could be added for saying whether the animal is wild or
domestic.

32. Body letters

This can be played a number of ways, for example

The teacher shouts out a word and students race in teams or groups to form the letter with
each other e.g. ‘H’ three students would lie on the floor forming an ‘H’.

You can set gestures or actions to each letter and sing the alphabet. Make sure if you do
this that you keep the same actions for each letter; changing the action could be confusing
and more difficult to remember.

33. Change the letter game

Put a common four letter word on the board. In pairs or small groups, students race to find as
many new words as they can change only one letter at a time to form a new word. After a
minute, the group with the most words wins. For example, the starting word is hand. Students
can write hand – band – bend – mend – fend – feed – feet – meet and so on.

34. The letter game

Put a pile of cut up letters in the middle of the floor. Divide the class into four teams, placing
them at each corner of the room. The aim is to spell words the fastest. Tell the students that
only one student from each team can pick a letter at any given time. Each student who goes to
the letter circle can only pick out one letter, and then must go back to their team, where a new
team mate goes to find a letter. The teacher shouts out a recently learned vocab word. Teams
race to spell the word letter-by-letter. The first team to spell the word gets a point for their team.
Continue with a new word.

See the appendix for the letter template. It is recommended to make 12 copies of each letter.
Copy it onto tag / card paper for longer-lasting letters.

35. Spaghetti spelling

Bring some dried uncooked spaghetti to class. Break it up and give small piles to pairs of
students. Say a recently learned vocab word. Student race to spell the words using the
spaghetti pieces.

36. Spelling relay

Divide the students into two or three teams. Line them up at the back of the room. Give the first
student in each line a board marker. Shout out a vocab word, e.g. ‘apple’. Students race to the
board to write the first letter of the vocab word, e.g. ‘a’. They must then race back and hand off
the marker to the next student in line who runs to the board to write the next letter, e.g. ‘p’. The
first team to finish writing the word gets a point for their team.

37. Spelling tennis

This follows the same format as ‘Word Tennis’ (under Vocab revision games / Brainstorming)
but the students spell the word shouted out instead.

© ILA Vietnam Spelling Page 11 of 37

 38. Tower
Draw the following grid on the board:

Write in the first 3 letter word e.g. cat, pet, bat, pen, she etc. Divide the class into small teams.
Teams race to think of the next word (5 letters) which must include the 3 letters of the first word
e.g. CAT – TRACK. The 3 letter words are 5 points, 5 letter words are 10 points. Each new
word must be formed using 3 letters from the previous word. Words cannot be repeated. For
the final 20 points teams must think of the longest word they can using the previous 3 letters.
The longest word wins the points. Play a few rounds, changing the first word each time! To
vary the activity, this can be played as a board race and will get students moving. Draw 2 or 3
grids on the board and have the teams race to complete their own grid. First to finish correctly
wins the round. To make the game more challenging you could change the length of the words
e.g. draw the tower made up of 5 letter words and 7 letter words etc.

39. Vowel body spelling

The aim is to spell words without saying the vowels but putting actions in for the vowels instead.
First, decide what action is going to be used for each vowel e.g. ‘a’ is putting arms above heads,
‘e’ is putting hands on knees, ‘i’ is putting arms straight out, etc. The teacher then says a
recently learned vocab word, e.g. ‘banana’. The class then begins to spell the word saying the
consonants and miming with an action the vowels, e.g. ‘b’, <arms above heads>, ‘n’, <arms
above heads>, ‘n’, and <arms above heads>.

© ILA Vietnam Spelling Page 12 of 37

 Fluency / Speaking practice

40. 3 picture story

You will need a photo of an interesting couple, a photo of an interesting location, and a strange
piece of realia. Students must build a story from these items. First show them the couple. Elicit
ideas about their relationship, their careers, who loves whom the most, how long they have been
together, etc. Once you have a pretty full picture, introduce the piece of realia (for example: a
tennis racket), elicit how this is involved in the story, who used it and the result that it had upon
the couple. Finally, show the class the location picture and elicit a suitable conclusion to the
story. Ask students to summarize the entire story. The student will surprise you with how
inventive they are. This can be done in small groups, as a whole class and with different
pictures.

41. 3 things in common

Students work in pairs to find out three things they have in common with each other - but not
things like 'We both live in Vietnam', as these things are too obvious. You can extend this or
make it more specific by giving them a topic (family) and they have to find three things in
common. Try to put students together who don’t normally talk to each other.

42. Angry greetings

Elicit some greetings to the board e.g. how are you, what’s your name, nice to meet you, how
have you been, it’s been a long time since I last saw you, etc. Tell your students they are going
to go around and greet each other as if they are meeting for the first time. Decide whether the
students are meeting a co-worker, a friend’s friend, their boyfriend/girlfriend’s mother, etc. Have
them mingle and meet each other. Then tell your students that they are meeting their friend for
lunch but they just found out their friend kissed their boyfriend/girlfriend and they are very angry
about this. Continue with other scenarios, using similar language but changing the body
language and tone of voice depending on situation. Some other example situations include: the
person they are meeting smells really bad, you’ve met the person before but cant remember
his/her name, the person you are meeting is really famous and you are star struck, you are
meeting a small child, the person you are meeting just had a parent pass away, etc.

43. Chinese whispers / Telephone

Divide the students into teams and line them up. Show the first person in each line a word,
phrase or sentence, depending on ability. The students whisper the word, phrase or sentence
to the next student who then whispers it to the next student and so on. The first team to
produce the word, phrase or sentence gets point (the last person either shouts it out or writes it
on the board).

44. Dice discussions

Write numbers 2 - 12 on the board and get students to suggest topics they like to talk about.
Write one topic next to each number. Students take it in turns to roll the dice, and talk for a pre-
agreed time limit on the subject that corresponds to the number rolled.

45. Disco / Library

The goal is for students to transmit a message to one another. Split the students into two
groups. Put one group in a row at one end of the room, the other group in a row on the other
side of the room. Pair the students together so one person is a speaker and one is a listener.
Give one row white boards (they are the ‘listeners’) and one row a slip of paper with a message
on it (they are the ‘speakers’). Decide if you want your students to be at the disco or the library
('disco' – the teacher plays loud music and students must shout to each other; 'library' – the
students must mouth words to each other.). The first person to write down the message
correctly gets a point for their pair. Continue with a new message and switch the listeners and
speakers.

ila Fluency / Speaking practice Page 13 of 37

 46. I’d rather…
Tell students they are going to have to tell their partner their preference to the sentences you
write on the board. Write funny sentences on the board, e.g. ‘I’d rather eat a cockroach’ and ‘I’d
rather eat a spider’. Students talk amongst themselves about which they would rather do.
Other examples are: ‘I think of myself as the ocean’ or ‘I think of myself as a mountain’; ‘I’d
rather be deaf’ or ‘I’d rather be blind’, etc.

47. Magic circle

Students stand in a circle. One person has a ball and makes a statement e.g. ‘my name is …’
or ‘I like … but I don’t like …’ then tosses the ball to another student who also makes a
statement and so on. This can be used often at the beginning or end of class to remember or
reflect on what students have been learning. It is also a fun way to see students’ language skills
develop as they gain more ability.

48. Music chart discussion

Connected to the theme of music, a great piece of material to have at hand for your teenage
groups is the recent top 20 music singles charts. Hand out a copy to each group of three or four
students & get them chatting at the beginning of a lesson. You could set some guidelines for
discussion e.g. ‘What kind of music is most popular this week?’, ‘how long do you think this song
will be at number one?’, ‘which songs are going to move up the charts or down the charts?’ etc.
For US chart visit the website, http://www.billboard.com/billboard/charts/hot100.jsp.

49. Spin the bottle

Take some skittles/bowling pins to class and put students into 3 teams. Sit them in 3 circles.
One student spins the bottle. Whoever the bottle points to can ask a question or practice the
vocabulary / grammar point. E.g. 'I am thinking of an animal beginning with T' - the rest of the
group has to guess the answer. They can keep a tally of correct answers for points if you want it
competitive. You can also vary this activity and have the bottle spinner ask a question to whom
ever it points to. Then the student who answers can spin the bottle and ask a question to the
next person.

50. Story telling

A good game for revising past simple tense. Sit the students in a circle on the floor. Tell them
that they are going to tell a story. The story will be told one word at a time, with the students
taking it in turns to say a word. You start e.g. ‘Yesterday’. The next student then says a word to
continue the story e.g. ‘I’. The next student says a word and continues the story.

51. Talk for a minute

Put the class into two rows facing each other. Write a topic on the board e.g. sport. The pairs
have to talk toughest for a minute about sport e.g. ‘What’s your favourite sport?’, ‘how often do
you play?’, ‘Where do you play?’. After a minute say stop. Ask each student to move down one
person to their left so they are facing another student (the person on the end goes to the
opposite end). Give them a new topic and repeat the procedure. Continue with more topics.

52. Talk or die

Elicit several topics to the board e.g. hobbies, school, sports, family, etc. Stand your students in
a circle, you standing in the middle. Point a marker at a student and call out a topic. That
student must talk continuously without stuttering or stopping on that topic until you point the
marker at another student and call out a different topic. If a student stops or cannot speak on
the topic, he / she dies and is out of the game. Continue until one student is left. They are the
winner. This can be done in smaller groups.

53. That’s a lie!

Tell the students that they will be telling a true story to their friends but they will include one lie.
Give the students time to think about their story (they can make notes but shouldn’t write the
whole story) because they should make it believable. In pairs or small groups, one student tells
his / her story. The other students try to guess the lie from the story. Give time for all the
students to tell their stories. Switch up the groups and have the students retell the same story
while new students try to guess the lie. To debrief, ask the students if they did a better job
telling the story the second time. Ask them if they were better liars the second time. Etc.
ila Fluency / Speaking practice Page 14 of 37
 54. To be or not to be
Split the class into two rows. Write a controversial statement on the board e.g. boys are better
at school than girls, woman should not have jobs outside the house, Vietnam is better than
Cambodia, etc. Tell one row they must agree with the statement and the other row must
disagree with the statement. The two sides then debate with each other. You can make this a
less structured activity where all students are talking with each other at once or a team vs. team
structured activity where sides take turns talking and rebutting.

55. Weekend
Elicit 5 words from each student to describe their weekend. A different student tells class or
small groups what the other did. The original student verifies the story.

ila Fluency / Speaking practice Page 15 of 37

 Grammar points

56. All of us
Students sit in groups of four to five. Write the following expressions on the board:
• All of us are going to…
• Four of us are going to…
• Three of us are going to…
• Two of us are going to…
• One of us is going to…
• None of us are going to…

In their groups, students ask each other about their plans for this weekend. They must complete
the expression so that they are true for their group. When they finish, each group tells the class
its sentences. The rest of the class listens and guesses who the people are, e.g. the group says
‘Two of us are going to play football this weekend.’ The class then says ‘We think that it is
David and Rodrigo.’ The group confirms or corrects.

57. Change chairs / Fruit salad

All the students sit in their chairs in a circle. One student does not have a chair (there is one
less chair than there are students). The student in the middle starts by saying ‘change chairs if
you …’ and filling in the rest with some criteria, e.g. ‘change chairs if you are a boy’. Any
students that the statement applies to must get up and change chairs, e.g. any boys. The
person in the middle of the circle also races to sit in a chair. The last person standing without a
chair starts the next statement using ‘change chairs if you …’ and so on.

58. Have you ever….?

This is often played as a variation on change chairs. Start by saying, ‘have you ever…?’ Any
students that have done it must get up and change chairs. The student left standing without a
chair to sit in begins the next round with ‘have you ever…?’ saying something different people
may have done.

59. Irregular verbs challenge

Have students stand in a circle. Start by saying a common irregular verb e.g. to eat. The class
follows your lead: ‘eat’ <hands on heads>, ‘ate’ <hands on hips>, ‘eaten’ <hands on knees>.
Then demo another verb that doesn’t change all three parts, e.g. think <hands on heads>,
thought <hands on hips>, thought <hands on hips>. Do one more to make sure the students get
it e.g. run <hands on heads>, ran <hands on hips> run <hands on heads>. Then the student
standing to your right has to say a verb and the students say and perform the actions. If a
student messes up, they are out. Continue going faster and faster. If a student shouts out a
verb already said or a regular verb they are out as well. The shorter the time limits to say and
do, the harder it is.

60. Jumbled sentences

Divide the class into teams. Have them stand in lines, the last students holding a marker facing
the board. The first person in each team looks at the jumbled sentence e.g. ‘weather / is / today
/ What / the / like / ?’, decodes it and whispers it to the next person in line who then whispers it
down to the next and so on until it reaches the writer. The writer races to write it on the board.
The first team to finish gets a point for their team.

61. Jump the line

One half of the classroom is ‘some’, the other half ‘any’. Read some sentences from a grammar
lesson on countable and uncountable nouns aloud, omitting ‘some’ or ‘any’. Students listen and
move to the correct side of the room. Any student who moves the wrong way or the last student
to move loses a life for their team. Continue until one team loses all their lives.

This activity can be tweaked to fit a number of language or grammar points.

© ILA Vietnam Grammar points Page 16 of 37

 62. The long sentence game
Start the sentence by saying ‘Yesterday I got up early.’ (Any sentence will do depending on
your language focus or topic). Nominate a student who repeats what you said and then adds
another activity, e.g. ‘Yesterday I got up early and had a shower.’ They nominate the next
student who repeats this and adds another activity and so on. Once everyone in the class has
added something, try to see if everyone in the class can say the final sentence.

63. Who would….?

Divide the students into groups of about 8 students. Give each student some blank slips of
paper. Read out a question using the second conditional, e.g. who would you go on a dream
date with? What would you buy with a million pounds? What would you change in the country if
you were President / Prime Minister? Students write their answer on a paper. Collect the
papers of all the group members. The papers are mixed and passed to another group who
guesses who wrote which answer, e.g. we think Simon would buy a Ferrari. The other group
confirms if their guesses were correct.

© ILA Vietnam Grammar points Page 17 of 37

 Pronunciation

64. Pronunciation ball throw

Write several phonemic sounds on the board, e.g. /z/, /s/, /ɪz/, /t/ etc. Students are divided into
teams. One person from each team stands behind the line placed towards the back of the
room. You (or another student) shouts out a word ending in one of the sounds on the board,
e.g. plays, walks, horses, or watched and the students throw the ball at the correct phonemic
sound. The first person to hit the correct sound gets a point for their team. Continue with a new
set of students for each group.

65. Pronunciation grids

Put students into teams. Draw a 4 x 4 grid on the board, get on student from each teams to
copy the grid and stay at the board (you will have several grids on the board, depending on the
number of teams, so size them accordingly). Give the other students in the each team a grid
completed with minimal pairs (each team has a different grid, or they’ll cheat!). The teams stand
at the back of the classroom and must shout their words to their team-mate who writes the
words in the grid on the board. The following restrictions apply:
• Students cannot use Vietnamese.
• Students cannot spell the word.
• Students cannon mime the word or point to it
• The students cannot move any close to each other – they must stay at the board and the
back of the class respectively.
An example grid:

1 2 3 4
A seat shop shine shy
B sign sue so shirt
C sheet sin sheep show
D shoe skirt shin sit

66. Sheep or ship?

Divide the class into teams. Write two similar sounding words on the board (one on the left of
the board, and one on the right), e.g. ship and sheep, number the words one and two. Say one
of the words, e.g. sheep. The students must decide what word you said and then say either
word one or word two. Use the ‘ship and sheep’ sheet (see the appendix) for a list of similar-
sounding words. To make this activity into a game, draw a start line and a finish line at either
end of the class. Use the squares on the floor as stepping stones connecting the start and finish
lines. Ask a player from each team to come forward to be the counter. If a team chooses the
right word, their counter can move forward to be the counter. If a team chooses the wrong word,
the counter moves back a square. The winner is the team who arrives at the finish line first.

67. Tongue twisters

Write or hand out some tongue twisters to the students. Practice saying them a few times and
then have the student try saying them as fast as they can. You make it into a game or
competition.

Here are some examples of tongue twisters:

• Peter Piper: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter
piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did
Peter Piper pick?
• Woodchuck: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

© ILA Vietnam Pronunciation Page 18 of 37

 Questions

68. 20 questions
Have a student think of a recent vocab word, e.g. an animal, place, etc. The other students then
ask yes or no questions to find out clues about the word, e.g. ‘is it red?’, ‘can it fly?’ until they
can guess what it is. The class tries to guess the word before they have asked 20 questions.
This can be played din small groups as well.

69. Banana-na
Put two students at the front of the classroom. One student is the asker and the other the
answerer. The student asking the question can ask any questions he / she wants. The student
answering the questions can only answer by saying ‘banana-na’. The student answering
questions cannot pause, answer or laugh, or else they lose the point. If they can answer
questions for 1 minute without breaking, they get a point; otherwise the asker gets a point. It
gets funny when the questions start getting personal. This can be played in small groups as
well.

70. Coffeepotting
This game should be modelled as a whole class but then can be played in small groups. One
student sits at the front of the room as thinks of a verb e.g. ‘drink’. The other students as
questions to find out what the verb is but they cannot state the verb, instead the must insert
‘coffeepot’ e.g. ‘can you coffeepot with two people?’ or ‘do you coffeepot everyday?’. The
student then answers appropriately. The answers can be more detailed than yes / no but should
not give anymore than necessary away. The student that guesses the verb gets to the next
coffeepotter.

71. Do you like your neighbours?

Ask students to arrange their chairs in a circle. Choose a student to stand in the middle. This
student needs to sit down. He needs a student to free a seat so that he can occupy it. Explain
that the student should point to a seated student and ask, ‘Do you like your neighbours?’ The
seated student has two options:

• Option one: Student says ‘no’ in which case the students sitting to her right and left (her
‘neighbours’) have to change seats.
• Option two: Student says ‘Yes, but...I don't like people who wear jeans.’ All students
wearing jeans then have to change seats.

Different examples could be ‘Yes, but I don't like people who wear leather shoes/watches/white
socks/tights etc.’

In the scramble for seats which follows a ‘no’ or ‘yes, but...’ the student in the middle tries to find
a seat leaving one of the other students without a seat.

72. Fruits and vegetables

This is a great warmer for new classes or new teachers or just something silly at the start of
class to get students talking. Ask the students to write down the following words on a piece of
paper, keeping what they write a secret from those around them:
• A fruit
• A vegetable
• A number between 1 and 200
• A yes / no answer to the question ‘do you like football?’
• How many pencils and pens they have
• The first thing the do in the morning

© ILA Vietnam Questions Page 19 of 37

 Now tell them that these things are actually…
• Their first name
• Their family name
• Their age
• The answer to the questions ‘are you married?’
• How many children they have
• Their job

Now they must get up and go around the class and ask the personal questions and share
information about their new selves. Encourage them to shake hands and make eye contact
when meeting new people. You could do this exercise as a class survey so they have to write
down the answer they hear.

73. Find someone who…

This is a good activity for a new class or to get students to practice asking questions. Have
students brainstorm questions to ask each other, with help and error correction from you, or
think of several questions for your students to ask each other and type them up on a handout.

For example:

Find someone who…

• can speak Chinese
• has two sisters
• likes to play football
• lives in District 5
• has been to Singapore

74. Don’t answer back!

The aim of this warmer is for each student to give the answer to the question asked to the
previous student, sounds complicated but the students pick it up quickly. This warmer is a good
listening activity and really makes the students concentrate on the questions. Before playing
the game you will need to make a list of questions suitable for your students and their level.
Depending on class size you will need at least two questions for each student and it's best if
they progressively become more and more difficult.

For example:

1. Are you English?

2. Where are you from?
3. What colour are your eyes?
4. How many people are there in your family?
5. What's the weather like today?
6. What time do you have lunch?
7. How often do you go to the cinema?
8. What are you doing?
9. When were you born?
10. Have you ever been to England?

Write the question What’s your name? on the board. Explain to the students that you are going
to ask each student a question but they are going to answer the question from the student
before. To help explain this, get a student to ask you a question e.g. have you got a dog? Don’t
answer this question but tell them your name (answering the question written on the board).
Then ask another student to ask you a question, again don't answer this question but tell them if
you have got a dog (answering the previous question). Now start the game. Point to the
question on the board and then ask the first student question number one. This student must
give the answer to the question on the board. Then ask student number two the next question,
they must give the answer to the question before. Don't worry, they soon get the hang of it!
Continue asking questions making sure all students have a go. To make it more fun you can

© ILA Vietnam Questions Page 20 of 37

 give each student three lives. If they hesitate for too long or they tell you the wrong answer they
loose a life. The player or players with the most lives win.
For example:

Q: Are you English?

S1: ‘My name is Roberto’.
Q: Where are you from?
S2: ‘No. I'm not.’
Q: What colour are your eyes?
S3: ‘I'm from Italy’.

75. Proxy interviews

Ask one student to become one of the others in the class. The rest of the class then interviews
him. The 'real' student then compares the answers given by the 'fake' student. Switch up
students. You can also put the students into small groups and do the same activity.

76. Question dice

Designate different question words for each number on the dice, e.g. 1 – who, 2 – what, 3 –
where, 4 – when, 5 – why, 6 – how. Take a dice to class and divide your students into small
groups. This can be done as a speaking race or a writing race with small white boards. Ask
one student from any team to role the dice. What ever number the students land on, they must
form a question using the questions word designated to that number e.g. 2 – what questions,
students could write ‘what time do you get up in the morning?’. The first team to make a correct
sentence gets a point. Continue by throwing the dice again for a new question word.

77. Quizzes
The possibilities for quizzes are extensive. Here are a few ideas:
• Bring a quiz to ask. Read out the questions and students work in groups to decide the
answer.
• Hand out a quiz and students race to answer them all
• Have students build their own quiz in groups based on a topic or vocab words.
• Have students fill in and correct each others quizzes.
• Use paper money, points or stickers for rewards to answering questions.

78. Shout the answer

Stand your students in two lines, one at one side of the room, the other line at the other side of
the room. Give your students a set of topics or pieces of information they need to find out about
their partner standing in the other line, e.g. birthday, full name, favourite food, etc. They must
ask / shout to their partner the question they want to know. Their partner tells them by shouting
the answer across the room. This can also be done for any kind of information gap fill. It works
best when the pairs are students who don’t know each other as well (to avoid them already
knowing the answers).

79. Stand in line

Ask all the students to stand up and form a large semi-circle at the front of the class. Then ask
them to rearrange the semi circle as quickly as possible from left to right depending on their
st
birthday, with the left end of the semi-circle representing January 1 and the right end of the
st
semi-circle representing December 31 . You can then ask them to arrange themselves
according the first letter of their names or in alphabetical order. They must ask each other
question to do this. Repeat the exercise with other criteria, e.g. how many minutes it takes to get
to school, how many people are in their family, how long they have been studying at ILA, how
long they spend on homework, how tall they are, or any comparative you can think of.

80. Who / What is it?

One student starts thinking of a well-known person or thing. He / She then says, ‘I’m thinking of
someone / something that …’ and give a clue. The other students get to try to guess what it is.
If they can’t, the first student gives another clue. The student who guesses what is being
thought of first gets to become the speaker.

© ILA Vietnam Questions Page 21 of 37

 81. Yes / No game
The aim of the game is to make your partner say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, while trying not to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’
yourself. Demonstrate with a strong student first. If your partner says yes or no then you win a
point. If you say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ your partner wins a point. You can make this more competitive by
putting the class in two lines with one end for winners. When a student loses they must go to the
other end while everyone else moves down one place. Set a five minute time limit. Set a five
minute time limit.

© ILA Vietnam Questions Page 22 of 37

 Writing

82. Internet chat

Give each student a copy of the Internet chat handout (from the appendix). Tell the students to
write their name in the ‘From (Username)’ spot. Then assign each student someone in the class
to write to (they will be able to choose for the second round, but this ensures everyone gets an
‘email’ in the first round). Tell them to write a message. You aren’t going to be reading the
messages so they can write pretty much anything they want (but keep it appropriate for class).
When the students are done they raise the paper above their head. The teacher takes the
paper and passes it to the person the email is for. The receiver must stop writing whatever
message they are working on and reply to the ‘email’ they have just received. Once you have
picked it up they can continue their own message.

If the students don’t have a current ‘email’ they are working on, they can ask for a new piece of
paper to which they can write an email to anyone they want. Continue for a while until students
have had a chance to write a whole conversation to each other.

This entails quite a bit of movement on the teacher’s part, and the teacher needs to know the
names of all the students in order for it to work.

83. Word stories

In groups, students note ten words they have learnt recently. Allow them to look back at the
previous units. Write all the words on the board. In groups, students then make a story using at
least five of the words on the board. Set a five-minute time limit. Students tell the class their
story. Hold a class vote to decide which story is best.

84. Writing storm

The teacher tells the students they have 5 minutes to write about something, and sets a subject
that will encourage personal rather than general responses e.g. 'the best thing to happen to me
today'. The teacher tells the students they are looking for ideas and is not going to correct
language. Make this a group activity by having students work together to make a story.

© ILA Vietnam Writing Page 23 of 37

 Numbers

85. 21
Students must count but the one who says 21 loses and has to do a forfeit. Students sit in a
circle and can say between 1-3 numbers then the next student continues. You can change
some numbers for actions if you play a second game (e.g. instead of saying number 8 you must
stand up and clap your hands).

86. First to 20
This can be done as a whole class or in smaller groups. Someone starts by saying ‘one’. Then
another student must continue on counting consecutively to 20. No student can say two
numbers in a row and if two students say a number at the same time, the group / class must
start over. Getting to twenty is quite difficult and will be surprisingly challenging. Spice up the
goal by rewarding the class / team if they can do it in a certain amount of time (this will also put
more pressure on the students causing them to mess up more frequently).

87. Fizz – buzz

Students stand in a circle and begin counting off. When a student reaches ‘5’ he / she must say
‘fizz’ and when a student reaches ‘7’ he / she must say ‘buzz. Students continue counting until
they reach of multiple of five or seven. At every multiple of five, students must say ‘fizz’ and
every multiple of seven students must say ‘buzz’. If a student messes up he / she is out and can
monitor the other students. For younger classes it may be helpful to write the numbers on the
board indicating when the multiples land. This can also be played in smaller groups and the
winners of each group have a finale count-off to determine the class winner.

88. Number draw race

Divide students into two or three teams. The student at the back of the line starts. Show the
students at the back a number e.g. 87. The student runs to their line and ‘draws’ or ‘writes’ the
number on the back of the student in front of them with their finger. When the student knows
what the number is, he / she can write the number on the next students back. Continue down
the line until the student at the front of the line knows the number and can shout it out or write it
on the board. The first team to do so gets a point.

89. Over & under ball pass

Students stand in two lines. The first person in each line gets a soft ball. They start by saying
number ‘1’ and pass the ball to the next person over their head. The next person grabs the ball
and says number ‘2’ and passes it under his / her legs to the next person. The next person
grabs the ball, says number ‘3’ and passes it over his / her head, and so on until it has reached
the back of the line. The last student then must run to the front of the line and continue passing
the ball saying a number until the team reaches the goal e.g. 20. The first team to do so wins or
gets a point. This can be done for sequencing too, e.g. counting by 2’s, 10’s, etc.

© ILA Vietnam Numbers Page 24 of 37

 Music

90. Music – Gap fills

Give students a copy of the song with some words blanked out. In pairs, students listen to the
song and fill in the missing words. You may have to play the song several times. The class can
then sing the song together once it is completed.

91. Music – Karaoke

Blow up the lines from the song and cut up phrases onto card paper. Divide the class into two
groups and give a few people in each group several cards with phrases (each group get a whole
set of song cards). Play the song and the students holding the song phrases hold it up as they
hear it. The rest of the group sings the phrases as they are being held up. The group which
sings the song the best according to the cards is the winner.

92. Music – Ordering sentences or words

Cut up a song either by lines, phrases or individual words. In pairs or small groups, students
listen and put the song in order. You may have to play the song several times. The class can
sing the song together once it is ordered.

93. Music – Singing and dancing

This is very simple and easy to prep. Teach your students the song and put some actions to the
lyrics. Practice singing and dancing. Younger students really like this activity and it helps them
to remember the words if there are actions with them. But you can play it with any age or level,
and remember most students will do anything you are willing to do.

94. Musical categories

Elicit some topics or general questions to the board e.g. ‘what’s your name?’ or favourite animal,
worst fear, ideal job, etc. Place pairs of chairs (facing each other) around the room. Have
students walk around while playing. When the music stops, students race to sit in a chair. The
teacher shouts out a topic or question and the students must talk to their partner about it for 30
seconds. Continue to play and stop the music. If there is an odd number of students, have the
last student standing choose the topic for discussion.

95. Musical jobs

Get all your students standing up and dancing or walking around the room while you play some
music. Stop the music and shout out a job. Students have to mingle and talk to each other
pretending to be that job. You may have to elicit some phrases or words that various people in
different occupations use.

© ILA Vietnam Music Page 25 of 37

 TPR

96. 10-second objects

Put students into groups of four or five. Shout out an object and students have 10 seconds to
make that object with their bodies. For example, if you shout out ‘hamburger’, students must
make a human hamburger with two students as the bun, one as the burger patty and maybe a
piece of cheese. Some other objects include: car, house, clock, etc.

97. Body dice

Take two big dice to class. Write a different body part on each number. Roll the dice and which
ever two body parts land face up are the two everyone has to put together. For example, if you
have one = head, two = arm, three = toes, four = hand, five = knees, six = elbows and you roll a
four and a five, students must put their hands on their knees. Continue by rolling the dice again
and students put new body parts together.

98. Duck, duck goose

This activity is aimed at low level young learners. Students sit in a circle. One student goes
around the circle saying a recently learned vocab word, e.g. ‘duck’ tapping students lightly on
the head as they are passed. When the student taps a student on the head saying a different
vocab word, e.g. ‘goose’ the student who has been tapped must stand up and chase the other
student around the circle. The student saying the vocab words wants to get all the way around
the circle and sit in the other student’s spot before he / she is caught. If the student is caught,
he / she must sit in the middle of the circle. If the student isn’t caught, he / she can sit in the
circle with the rest of the students. The chaser then becomes the tapper.

99. Human knot

Have students stand in a circle. Everyone puts their hands into the middle of the circle and
grabs onto someone else’s hand, making sure that each student grabs two other students’
hands. Then they have to untangle themselves by stepping over or under linked arms until they
are all standing in a circle holding hands. Students must tell each other what to do using
language such as, ‘Nhi, put your right hand over Minh’s head’, ‘Thao and Cuong, step over our
arms’ etc.

100. Opposites teacher says

This is the same game as above but students must do the opposite of what you ask e.g.
‘teacher says put your hands on your head’ and all the students put their hands on their toes, or
‘teacher says sit down’ and all the students stand up. If you don’t say ‘teacher says’ students
shouldn’t do anything at all.

101. Shark
Draw a circle on the floor big enough for lots of students to stand in. Draw another circle on the
floor big enough for 2 – 3 students. Draw one more circle big enough for only one foot to stand
in. Divide your class into two teams (this is best done if it is boys vs. girls so you can determine
who is on which team). Each team starts with 5 points. Tell the students they are going to the
action you say but they cannot touch the ‘islands’ on the floor. When you shout ‘there’s a shark!’
the students must race to fit in the circles. The students left out of the circles lose a point for
their team. The team who loses all their points first loses the game. This is great for practicing
present continuous or ‘I can’, e.g. ‘we are hopping’ or ‘I can roll on the floor’.

102. Teacher says (Simon says)

Start by standing in a circle with the students. You say ‘teacher says …’ and give them a
direction e.g. ‘…touch your toes’ and bend down to touch your toes All the student then repeat
‘touch your toes’ and they touch their toes. Continue with more directions. If you don’t say
‘teacher says’ the students shouldn’t follow you do the action. Any students that do lose a life
for their team. Stop when one team loses all their lives. One student can then take your place
as the teacher / Simon.

© ILA Vietnam TPR Page 26 of 37

 Miscellaneous

103. Balderdash
Write a difficult / new vocab word on the board. Assign one word secretly for each pair or small
group to look up in a dictionary. Then call out one of the words on the board. Each group then
guesses a definition for the word. When every group has written a possible definition, the group
that looked up that word goes around the classroom and collects the definitions into a pile which
includes the dictionary definition. The group then reads out all the definitions in random order.
Then the players try to guess the real definition from the ones read. Points can be awarded to
groups for writing the correct definition or for each person that guesses your definition.

104. Basketball
This game works well for any board activity, e.g. spelling relay, race to the board, split board
games, etc. Divide your class into teams. Have them do a board race of whatever is
appropriate for the class. The team that wins the round gets a chance to score some points. To
score points, the team must throw a soft ball into a basket the teacher is holding. There are
designated lines the students must stand behind (the further back the line, the higher the point
value for making the basket. The team with the most points wins.

105. Betting games

There are many games to play using fake money. Just divide your students into groups, give
them a set amount of money and begin asking or eliciting questions. Students then decide as a
group what their answer is and how much they are willing to bet on their answer. If they are
right, they get the amount they bet, if they are wrong, they must give it to you.

Example question topics are:

• How often do you…?
• Student pretends to be someone else in the room
• Questions about the teacher
• What’s your favourite…?
• Quizzes

106. Can I come?

Explain to the class they are going on a holiday but they are only allowed to go if they take the
right items. They have to guess what items they can take. Take three students outside and tell
them that the key to being allowed to go on the holiday is taking an item that is a fruit: apple,
orange, grapes, etc. You model the structure to the students – ‘I am going on a holiday. I’m
taking a ball. Can I come?’ The students who know the key reply ‘No, you can’t!’ If a students
replies with a word that does contain a fruit, then the students at the front of the room reply with
‘Yes you can!’ Students try to work out the key. If they do they continue answering when it is
their turn. They must not tell anyone else and they should use different words. You can extend
the game by changing the key (and students at the front of the room): different colours, animals,
words that start with the first letter of the name of the student speaking, a family member, a
student in the class, plural words, words with double letters, or it could just be that you are
crossing your legs when you say the item.

107. Cough dictation

Tell the students you have a cough today but you are still going to do a dictation. If they don’t
hear words, they will just have to guess what you said. Read out a joke like the one below and
dictate as usual but don’t read all the words – cough instead of saying certain words e.g. ‘Eleven
people were cough on a rope, under a helicopter, ten men and one cough.’ Students have to
guess what the missing words are and write them in, either individually or in pairs. After
checking whether they guessed correctly, they could discuss the joke and why / if they found it
funny. They could also try telling jokes they know in their mother tongue in English.

The joke
Eleven people are hanging on a rope under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope is not strong
enough to carry them all, so they decide that one has to leave, because otherwise they are all going to fall.
They are not able to name that person, until the woman makes a very touching speech. She says she will

© ILA Vietnam Miscellaneous Page 27 of 37

 voluntarily let go of the rope, because as a woman she is used to giving up everything for her husband and
kids, or for men in general, and is used to always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she
finishes her speech, all the men started clapping their hands.

108. Coup co
This is a favourite game among Vietnamese students, so incorporating it into your class is
always exciting. The actual game doesn’t have a lot of language value, so you must add some
into it. To play, divide your class into two teams, each line standing at opposite sides of the
room. Number off each student in each line (1 – 9 or however many students you have in each
line). Place a small object in the middle of the classroom - the eraser works well. Call out a
number. The students in each line with that number race to the middle to grab the object. Once
the object has been touched, the other student wants to tag the student holding the object. If
the student who grabs the object can get back across his / her team’s line before being tagged,
they have the opportunity to win a point. BUT, they must first answer a grammar, vocab or
language questions correctly. If the student tags the other person before he / she gets across
the line, they can have a chance to answer the question for a point.

109. Croquet
Divide your students into two teams. This works best if they are divided boys vs. girls since
determining who is on which team is difficult otherwise. Students stand in a circle (in any order)
with their feet spread shoulder length apart. Their feet must touch the students’ feet next to
them. The students are not allowed to move their feet at any time. The teacher throws a ball
into the circle. Each student bends down making a fist with their hands. They can knock the
ball only if their hands are in a fist, forming a mallet. The object is to try to get the ball through
another student's legs. If the ball goes through their legs, the teacher (or a designated student)
can ask a question. If they get the question right they are safe, if they get it wrong, the other
team gets a point.

110. Cuisenaire rods pattern game

Take enough sets of Cuisenaire rods to class for each pair or group of three to have one. Have
one student be the pattern maker while the other student(s) is (are) the follower(s). The maker
quickly makes a simple pattern with the Cuisenaire rods, hiding it behind a board or paper.
Then the maker begins to tell the follower(s) how to make the pattern e.g. the big green rod is in
the middle and the small red rod is on the green rod in the middle. Continue until the follower(s)
is (are) finished. Then switch makers and followers and do it again. This is great practice for
prepositions, colours and comparative lengths.

111. I spy…
Divide the class into small groups. Have one student (in each group) start by saying, ‘I spy
something …’ e.g. ‘I spy something blue’. The rest of the class tries to guess what it is. If the
first guess is wrong, the student continues with another clue, e.g. ‘I spy something big’ and
students guess again. The student that guesses first gets to be the speaker.

112. Picture flash

Take a large poster or picture to class. Let the students look at the picture for only a few
seconds. They have to remember as much as they can and write it down. Flash the picture
again and then they can continue writing ideas. Have students race to write all their ideas in
teams. Teams get points for every original word they come up with (duplicates are crossed off
and no team receives a point for that word).

113. Riddles
Students love play on words. Riddles are a great way to get students thinking about words and
their meaning. There is a sample sheet of riddles (see the appendix) or you can make up some
of your own. For a further challenge, ask the students to make up some riddles or translate
some from Vietnamese into English.

© ILA Vietnam Miscellaneous Page 28 of 37

114. Snow ball fight
Give your students 5 A5 sized pieces of paper. Students then write information about
themselves on the 5 scraps of paper. They can write anything but their name (or something that
clearly identifies them) e.g. age, favourite food, favourite colour, etc. Then have all the students
crumple the papers into balls, stand up and throw them at each other creating a big paper snow
ball fight.

After a minute, everyone sits back down. Explain to the students that they are going to pick up a
piece of paper, read the information and then find who it belongs to by asking questions in a
mingle e.g. ‘how old are you?’, ‘what’s your favourite colour?’, etc. Once they have found the
wonder of that paper, they pick up another and repeat the drill. The student with the most
identified pieces of paper wins.

115. True or false statements

Students write three statements on a piece of paper. Two are true and one is false. Then, in
small groups or as a game, they say their sentences and the other students have to guess
which sentence is a lie. Encourage your students to be creative but to remember that the more
believable the better! You can specify a grammar point if you want to concentrate on one area.

116. Word plexers / Rebuses

These are words moved around to make a riddle. (See the appendix for examples.) You can
do this in groups or on the board as a challenge.

© ILA Vietnam Miscellaneous Page 29 of 37

 Appendix

Pyramid

The pyramid is rated on a point scale. The bottom row of words is worth 25 points while the top word
(and the hardest word) is worth 100 points. Start with word 1 and work your way up to word 10. The
team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

ila Appendix Page 30 of 37

 Shout it out!

Kinds of music: Shops: Items of clothing:

• classical • book shop • dress
• country / western • butcher • gloves
• dance • chemist • hat
• jazz • clothes shop • shirt
• metal • hairdresser • skirt
• opera • music / CD shop • socks
• pop • newsagent • tie
• R&B / hip hop • sports shop • trousers
• reggae • supermarket • T-shirt
• rock • toy shop • underwear

Big countries: Jobs:

Currencies:
• Argentina • actor
• dollar
• Australia • dentist
• dong
• Brazil • doctor
• euro
• Canada • hairdresser
• peso
• China • lawyer
• pound
• India • police officer
• riyal
• Kazakhstan • shop keeper
• rupee
• Russia • soldier
• yen
• Sudan • teacher
• yuan
• United States • vet
The 10 most common words in
Animals in the zoo: Makes of cars:
English:
• bear • BMW
• a
• camel • Cadillac
• and
• crocodile • Ford
ƒ I
• elephant • Honda
• in
• giraffe • Lexus
• is
• lion • Mercedes
• it
• rhino • Nissan
• of
• snake • Toyota
• that
• tiger • Volkswagen (VW)
• the
• zebra • Volvo
ƒ to
Languages: Sports: School subjects:
• Arabic • baseball • Art
• Chinese • basketball • Biology
• English • football • Chemistry
• French • golf • Economics
• German • gymnastics • Foreign Language
• Japanese • racing • Geography
• Latin • skiing • History
• Russian • swimming • Math
• Spanish • table tennis • Music
• Vietnamese • tennis • Physical Education

Character adjectives: Vegetables: Parts of the body:

• ambitious • aubergine / eggplant • arm
• boring • bean • chin
• bossy • broccoli • eye
• confident • carrot • head
• friendly • mushroom • knee
• honest • onion • leg
• lazy • pea • nose
• optimistic • pepper • shoulder
• shy • potato • stomach
• sociable • spinach / lettuce • wrist

ila Appendix Page 31 of 37

 The letter game

ila Appendix Page 32 of 37

 Ship or sheep?

Left Right

sheep ship

eye high

cap cup

spots sports

box books

ear hear

cash catch

wash watch

sheet seat

cheap chips

chief cheep

leaf leave

and hand

tree three

tanks thanks

ila Appendix Page 33 of 37

 Internet chat

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

From (Username): _________________________________________

To: ____________________________________________________
[Message]:
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

ila Appendix Page 34 of 37

 Riddles

ila Appendix Page 35 of 37

 Word plexers / Rebuses

Try to figure out the word or saying represented by the combinations in each of the boxes below.
Write your answer on the line under each box.

CYCLE CHAIR

CYCLE LANG4UAGE

CYCLE

1. _________________ 2. ________________ 3. _________________

R E A D I N G ECNALG

UPSIDE
4. ________________ 5. ________________ 6. _________________

Answer key:
1. tricycle
2. foreign language
3. high chair
4. reading between the lines
5. backwards glance
6. upside down

ila Appendix Page 36 of 37

 History of changes

Version Date of issue Particulars

1 Feb 10, 2009 Signed off Jake

© ILA Vietnam Page 37 of 37