GAMES SUMMER CAMP

1. CHINESE WHISPERS

2. HANG MAN

3. CATTEGORIES / STOP THE BUS: start by preparing some categories or topics that contain the
target vocabulary your students have been learning, such as verbs, clothes, transportation,
colours, etc. Then choose a letter of the alphabet. Your class, which should be divided into
teams, should write as quickly as possible every word in each category that begins with that
specific letter. When they have completed all the rows, they have to shout ‘Stop the bus!

For example, there are three categories: clothes, countries and cakes. The letter you choose is
‘C’. The students will have to come up with something like this:

Corset (clothes)

Canada (countries)

Cupcake (cakes)

4. TUTTI FRUTTI (chair game)

5. THE FLOOR IS LAVA – words (or whatever) on the floor, they have to touch what the teacher
says and then jump on their chairs

6. BINGO: empty files - printed

7. JENGA

8. TIC-TAC-TOE: running / with cups and plate + board on the floor. 2 teams, 2 lines
https://www.weareteachers.com/team-building-games-and-activities/

10. WEREWOLF: printed

11. ONE (card game Helen Doron)

12. SCARF GAME – 2 teams

13. 21: Pupils sit in a circle. Each person says a number and, together, they count up to 21. The
person who says 21 replaces the number he or she wants with his or her name. For example,
he or she can replace 7 with ‘Miguel’. Then count up to 21 again, but say ‘Miguel’ for the
number 7, and so on until all the numbers have been replaced by names.

14. COOPERATIVE CHAIRS: This is the classic chair game, but instead of eliminating people,
only chairs are eliminated. The aim is that, between everyone, they can all stand together on a
chair. This is one of the best games to encourage group cohesion and cooperative learning.

15. MOVIES

16. THE IMPOSTOR: A pupil or the teacher acts as a judge. He or she chooses a topic, e.g.
“cinema”, and says it in the ear, one by one, to his or her classmates, who are seated in a circle.
One partner is not given the key word, but ‘impostor’. The pupils then say a word related to the
topic, e.g. ‘locker’, ‘Oscar’, ‘entrance’, etc. The impostor has to guess what the key word is in
order to say a related word without his or her classmates finding out that he or she is the
impostor.

17. TRUE OR FALSE: Each student writes down 2 true facts about him/her and one false fact. In
small groups, they read out their cards and the others have to try to guess which one is false.

18. WHO/WHAT AM I?: paper, masking tape, pencils/pens

19. I DISAGREE: In order, each student will say a word that is related to the previous word
(given by the teacher or a student). With the exception that they cannot be derived words.
Each time a new word is said, the pupils have the opportunity to disagree. If the majority of the
pupils disagree, the person who said the word should start the round again.

20. BARTOLO, BARTOLO: the pupils sit in a circle. Some will be numbers and others will form a
board of directors: president, treasurer and secretary. To the right of the president there will be
a free chair, which will be that of the Bartolo and will be occupied by the one who fails in each
round. The aim is to become president. The game is started by the president as follows:

‘Presi, Presi’ (two slaps on the thighs); ‘number, number’ (two finger snaps).

The player of that number (e.g. 5) answers: ‘Five, five’ (clapping); ‘Treasu, Treasu’ (snapping).
And so on.

The player who makes a mistake or takes too long to answer takes Bartolo's chair, and then he
becomes number one, with everyone changing places in order. But if the player who makes a
mistake is part of the board, he does not occupy Bartolo's chair, but changes places with the
player who made the mistake.

Strategically, therefore, the Board of Directors will try to make the numbered ones make a
mistake, and these, in turn, will cause the directors to fail in order to take their place.

21. CHAINED WORDS: first, make up a word, such as ‘bee’, then throw a ball to a student; they
will think of another word beginning with the last letter, ‘e’, such as ‘emerald’. They will
continue the word chain around the class until someone can't shout out the next word fast
enough, then restart without that player.

22. WORD JUMBLE RACE: is perfect for practising tenses, word order and grammar. It's quite
simple. Prepare by cutting sentences into a handful of words, then divide your class into small
groups and give them a batch of words each. When you say ‘GO!’, each group will race to put
the words in the correct order.

23. PICTIONARY

24. GUESS THE SECRET WORD: First, think of a word, then tell students some words associated
with it. They will have to use their existing vocabulary to try to guess the word you are thinking
of. For example, if the secret word is ‘peach’, you could say ‘rose’. Then they might guess
something like ‘flamingo’ and you'll tell them it's unrelated. But when they say words like
‘guayava’, you can tell them that it is associated with the secret word.

25. SPELLING RELAY: Divide the class into teams and have each team line up. The teacher calls
out a word and the first student in each line must spell it correctly. If they spell it correctly, they
sit down and the next student in line gets a new word. The first team to have all its members
seated wins.
26. 101 AND OUT: Ever worry that your maths lessons are ending up a bit boring? How about
starting some rounds of 101 and out, a fun class activity where the aim is to score as close to
the number 101 as possible without going over. Divide your class into groups and have a
spinning wheel. Each group takes turns spinning the wheel, and they can either count the
number verbatim or multiply it by 10. For example, if they roll a five, they can choose to keep
that number or turn it into 50 to quickly get to 101. For older students, try giving an awkward
multiplication number, such as 7, to make the decisions more difficult.

27. CHARADES

28. ESCAPE ROOM: printed

29. TREASURE HUNT: to do

30. BOARD RACE: in groups. Teacher writes a topic at the top. Students must write as many
words as they know related to the topic in the form of a relay race. Each team wins one point
for each correct word. Any words that are unreadable or misspelled are not counted

31. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: the rest of students have to guess the lie by making questions

32. SIMON SAYS

33. THE MIME

34. HOT SEAT: in groups. One student sits in front of the rest of the team and has to describe
the word the teacher told them. They have a limited amount of time and cannot say, spell or
draw the word

35. WHERE SHALL I GO? in pairs/3/4. One student is blindfolded and the rest of the team have
to give directions

36. WHAT´S MY PROBLEM? One student has to guess his/her problem by asking the rest for
advice

37. SECRET CATEGORY: the teacher chooses a category and write 3-5 words on the board.
Students have to guess ex: banana, berry and ball – S.C: words that start with B

38. DRAWING WITH THE EYES CLOSED

39. HIDDEN WORDS: the aim is to find words within a word. EX: SIMPLE – lime

40. WINKING: hand out papers, all are villagers except one murderer. The murderer has to kill
the rest by winking

41. WHAT/WHO/WHERE: make a circle, take a ball and shout “what, a cat!” throw the ball to
someone and that person must continue with the same category mentioning objects or
animals; someone can change the category and shout “where, a hotel!” and the rest continue
naming places.

42. GUESS WHAT: take random pictures/words. Students have to either make a sound or mime
what they see.

43. GUESS WHO: board game

44. FIND SOMEONE WHO: boards

45. SPIN AND SPEAK: board game

46. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF? Board game

47. ROLL A STORY: board game + dice

48. BREAK THE ICE: board game + dice

49. WHAT DO YOU PREFER MORE? Board game + dice + counter

50. ANIMALS BOARD GAME: Board game + dice + counter

51. NAME 3 THINGS: Board game + dice + counter

52. HAVE YOU EVER? Board game + dice + counter

53. WOULD YOU RATHER? Done - questions in a plastic bag

54. PASSWORD GAME:

1. In advance, prepare a list of English words. These can be vocabulary or just words
you expect your students to know.
2. Divide the class into two groups.
3. Have groups alternate sending a captain to the front of the classroom. Or, give each
group a time limit of 2-3 minutes and rotate team members as soon as one guesses a
word until the time is up.
4. Write a word on the whiteboard over the captain’s head, so their team can see it, but
they cannot.
5. Their team must give the captain hints until they guess the word or time runs out
(10-20 seconds). Or, until the round is up (keep adding new words once one is
guessed).
6. The team with the most points after each student has had a turn wins.
55. MINUTE TO WIN: ideas printed

56. PARTS PICTURE: photos printed

57. YES, NO, STAND UP: p repare a list of yes or no questions to ask your students. For
example, “do you like chocolate? Is your favourite colour blue?” If their answer is yes,
the student stands up. If their answer is no, they sit down. Pause between questions to
give students time to look around and find students they have answers in common
with.
58. ZIP, ZAP, BOING! This super-lively circle game involves three actions—zip, zap, and
boing. Zip directs play in one direction around the circle. Boing reverses the direction of
play. And zap passes play to the opposite side of the circle. See the video above for a
full demonstration. A couple of rules: Boing cannot be performed when someone
passes the signal using zap. And zap cannot be passed to the person standing right next
to you - https://www.weareteachers.com/team-building-games-and-activities/
59. SEEING SPOTS: For this activity, you’ll place a coloured sticker dot (blue, red, green,
or yellow) on each student’s forehead without them knowing what colour it is. When
the game begins, each “team” of students (with the same colour) must find each other
—without speaking. This is a wonderful team-building activity because it encourages
non-verbal communication and cooperation