Grammar and Vocabulary Review Activities
Games using only classroom materials
Musical Chairs
SPEAKING
Purpose: sentence creation
Materials: none
Division: as a class
Students sit in a circle with plenty of empty space in the center to move around.
The teacher starts by standing in the center and either making a statement or asking a question using the target
grammar. If the statement/question is true for the student he/she must stand up and try to find an empty seat. If it is
false, the student remains seated. The teacher should also claim an empty seat so that one student is left standing. That
student must now create their own statement or question.
Ex. The target grammar is using gerunds after like. The teacher starts of by saying “I like studying English.” The students
who like studying English (which hopefully will be most if not all the students) must stand up and find an empty seat.
If the target grammar were forming questions with the dummy “do” the teacher could similarly start of with “Do you like
English?” and the students who would answer yes must stand up.
Sitting/Standing
LISTENING
Purpose: review/creating contrast between ideas
Materials: board and board marker
Division: As a class (divided into 2 teams)
Draw a person sitting and a person standing on the board. Under the person sitting write one grammar option and
under the person standing write the other option. For example if the target grammar is parts of speech you could write
“noun” under the person sitting and “verb” under the person standing. Divide the class into two teams. Instruct the class
to remain facing forward at all times. (No looking behind to see what your team mates do.) The teacher then says a
word and counts down from 3. If the student thinks it is a noun, he/she has 3 seconds to sit down. If the student thinks it
is a verb, he/she remains standing. At the end of 3 seconds the teacher yells “stop.” Student must remain in the position
they are in. Elicit the correct answer from the class. Count the number of students in the correct pose on each team. The
team with the most people in the correct position gains a point. Play until one team reaches a designated number of
points.
*This game can be made more “extreme” by having the students stand on tables or chairs and squat instead of sit. (a
great variation that can be used outside on park benches, tables, jungle gyms, etc)
Castles
WRITING
Purpose: review (sentence creation, sentence transformation, answering questions, etc.)
Materials: board and board marker
Division: as a class (divided into 3 teams)
Divide the class into 3 teams.
Draw a simple castle for each team on the board. The castle should be made of three distinct sections (ex. two side walls
and a center doorway with tower). Draw a flag above each castle.
A student from each team comes to the front. The teacher asks a question. The students write their answers on the
board and squat (or strike a funny pose). The first student to answer correctly and squat gets to add a section to his/her
team’s castle or erase a section of an opposing team’s castle. If all three walls of a castle are erased, the opposing team
that erased the final section gets to “steal” that teams flag. For a team to regain their flag they must redraw all three
sections of their castle. Play until one team has all 3 flags (or to a designated time).
Backs-to-the-Wall game (Taboo variation)
SPEAKING
Purpose: vocabulary
Materials: board and board marker
Division: groups of 3 or 4
Write all the vocab words on the board.
Divide the class into groups of 3 or 4.
Have each group sit in a circle with one student in the group positioned so that he/she cannot see the board - inform
these students that they are not allowed to peek at the board.
This student is responsible for guessing the answer.
The other team mates are responsible for giving that person the clues to guess correctly.
The teacher points to a word. The groups try to get their team-member (the one with the back to the board) to guess
that word by giving clues. These could include giving a definition of the word or acting out charades. They can do
anything to get the person to guess except use the vocab word or speak in another language. Once the team-member
thinks they know the correct answer they raise their hand and shout out the answer. The first team to do this gets a
point.
Each round have teams alternate who has their back to the board.
(Things to be careful of: Students often raise their hands before they actually know the answer - this is why they are
required to both raise their hand AND yell out the answer at the same time. Also, on occasion students try to use their
L1 if the guessing person speaks the same L1. To discourage this and any other cheating, I stipulate they must only speak
English and any group caught cheating will lose all their points.)
Play to a predetermined number of points or until all words are used.
Heads Up, Sentence Up (Secret Sentence Relay)
WRITING
Purpose: sentence creation
Materials: board and several board markers
Division: groups of 4
Divide class into teams of 4 and assign each team member a number 1-4.
Assign each team a section of the board.
Have teams sit together in a line.
The objective is for each team to create a sentence (based on target grammar).
Students put down their heads so that they cannot see the board.
Teacher calls out go and the student assigned as #1 from each team must run up to the board and writes a word on the
board to begin a sentence and then return to their seat, taps on student #2 in their group, and puts his/her head down.
Student 2 must now run up to the board, see what word was chosen and choose the appropriate next word, then return
to his/her seat, tap student #3 and put his/her head down. Repeat until a group has created a complete sentence that
fulfills the target grammar.
(Note: if a student is not the member of their team writing on the board, he/she must have his/her head down. Peeking
is cheating)
Story Swap
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: practice target grammar; pronunciation
Materials: none
Division: as a class
Students create short 3 sentence stories using target skill. They must memorize these sentences. Students then mingle.
Student A tells their story to student B and listens to student B’s story, memorizing it. Student A adopts student B’s story
and vice versa so that when student A turns to speak with student C, Student A is now telling student B’s story, not
his/her original story.
Students mingle for 3-5 minutes.
As a class have students present the final story they had memorized and have it compared to the original.
(Variation ex. using pronunciation: Each student is assigned a vowel sound and must create 3 rhyming sentences using
his/her sound. Student mingle and swap sentences. In the end, as students present their final set of sentences the class
must guess which vowel sound was supposed to be represented.)
Fast Words
WRITNG
Purpose: review vocabulary (suitable for large amounts of words); grammar structure review
Materials: board and board markers
Division: groups of 4-5
The board is divided so that each team has a section. (No more than 4 different teams so that there is plenty of space for
each team.)
Teams should sit in a line.
The teacher calls out a letter or category.
The first student from each team runs to the board and begins writing as many vocab words that start with the letter or
fit into the category (ex. money). The teacher yells out another category or letter and student number 2 must run up to
the board as student one returns to his/her seat. Play for a predetermined time. In the end have students “grade” other
team’s answers (on spelling, accuracy, etc). The team with the most correct answers wins.
This could be expanded to practice grammar structure review: teacher yells out a grammar structure (ex. passive) and
student must write as many passive sentences as possible.
Sentence String
SPEAKING
Purpose: sentence creation
Materials: none
Division: as a class
Teacher begins a sentence by saying a word. The first student chooses the second word. The next student chooses the
next word and so on. The student who completes the sentence by saying the last word must sit down. Also, if a student
cannot think of a word within 5 seconds he/she must sit down. Repeat until only one student is standing – he/she is the
winner.
Alibi
SPEAKING/LISTENING
Purpose: practice asking questions
Materials: board and board marker
Division: groups of 5
Start by writing the word “alibi” on the board and have students guess the meaning, give hints if needed
The teacher then exclaims that a terrible crime has been committed and describes the crime.
Choose a suspect from each group and have them step outside. The suspects come up with an alibi that includes lots of
details (who, what, where, why, when, how).
The other students become the investigators and in their groups brainstorm questions to ask the suspects.
The suspects come in and rotate from group to group answering the questions. Groups then compare the answers of all
the suspects and try to find any statements that don’t line up. They then accuse any suspects they believed committed
the crime and explain why.
Adjective Memory Chain Game
SPEAKING
Purpose: adjectives/numbers/pronunciation
Materials: none
Division: As a class or in groups of 5
Begin by saying “I went to Suzzalo library and took one old owl.” Then gesture at a student and invite them to repeat
what you said and add another sequence starting with two and “t”s. (Ex. I went to Suzzallo library and took one old owl
and two terrible tomatoes.) Continue around the class until someone forgets or makes a mistake and then start over
from that student.
*Can be adopted to be done in small groups rather than as a class
Row and Column Game
SPEAKING
Purpose: review
Materials: none
Division: As a class
Have students write down questions using the target grammar (or incorrect sentences using the target grammar, or
have a list of vocab words).
Have students in the first row stand up. Ask them one of the questions. First to answer gets to sit down. Continue until
one person is left standing. Have the students sitting in the column of the remaining student stand up. Repeat until one
person is standing. Have students sitting in the row of the remaining student stand up. Continue until all the questions
get answered.
Board Boggle
WRITING
Purpose: review vocab/practice spelling/review alphabet
Materials: board and board marker
Division: groups of 3
Draw a 5x5 grid (or larger for more challenge) on the board. Ask students to yell out letters and fill them into the grid.
Have groups work together to try to find words in the grid. First team to 5 words wins.
Vocabulary Olympics
WRITING
Purpose: practice vocab
Materials: board and board marker
Division: teams of 3 or 5
Have teams choose a nationality from the Olympics as their team name and designate a place on the board for each
team.
Say a word. Members from each team run up to the board and right words related to the keyword one at a time. After
about a minute yell out another keyword. Repeat for a few minutes. At the end check the words. If any seem unrelated
to the keyword have the team defend it. Team with the most correct words wins.
One Guy Out
SPEAKING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: none
Division: as a class
Ask one student to leave the room for a minute. Give student something to memorize in the hall (This is mostly to kill
time, but why not make use of that time. Student can try to report what he learned/memorized/read in the hall.)
Students in class compete to get the returning student to guess/solve the mystery. If students are studying ‘adjectives’,
students could try to get the outsider to guess a person in the classroom by using these clues: This student is tall. This
student is funny etc.
Marching Game
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: review of parts of speech
Materials: none
Division: As a class
Move the chairs and tables around so that the class can form a large circle.
Begin the circle moving one step at a time. As you march, the whole class should chant “One, Two” again and again,
skipping a step each time.
Like this: One(step), (step), two(step), (step), cont.
After the students have the rhythm, change the chant so that you yell out a word on the “One” step, and the students
have to say the part of speech on the “two” step
Darts
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: review
Materials: board, 3 differently colored board markers, a board eraser, a chair
Division: As a class (divided into teams)
Draw a large dart board on the board, like this*:
Assign a point value to each section (ex. 25, 50, 100)
Place a chair about 8 ft from the board
Set the board eraser on the chair.
Divide the class into 2 or 3 teams.
Have one student from each team come to the front
and stand around the chair.
The teacher asks a question related to the target grammar. The students try to grab the ball first and answer the
question. (The student has so many seconds to answer the question; ex. 5 sec)
If the student answers the question correctly he/she gets to stand next to the chair and throw the eraser at the board.
They earn the number of points for whichever section they hit.*
*The wavy lines are important because they make it easier to tell where the eraser hit the board.
Games that require preparation of limited
materials
Mafia (variation of Alibi)
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: modals/question formation/story telling
Materials: a set of playing cards with 2 kings, 2 queens, 2 jacks and plain numbered cards (enough so there is a card
for each student)
Division: As a class
On the board write:
King – Mafia
Queen – Doctor
Jack – Detective
First ask if anyone knows the mafia. There are two mafia in this classroom and there are two undercover detectives
trying to arrest them. There also happens to be two doctors. Pass out the cards telling the students to keep their cards
secret. Explain the meanings of the cards. (Ex. if you have the king, you are a mafia).
The teacher begins by setting the scene. (For example, We are all on a field trip to the Burke. We are looking at a wall
with masks on it when suddenly the lights go out!) Have everyone put their heads down – no peeking. *Ask the Mafia to
raise their heads and choose their first victim by pointing. Then have them put their heads down.
Ask the Detectives to raise their heads and point to whom they think is the mafia. If they are correct nod your head. If
they are incorrect, shake your head and ask them to put their heads down.
Ask the Doctors to raise their heads and point at who they want to save (they can point to one of themselves) and then
lower their heads..
Have everyone look up and explain – through storytelling – that xxx was murdered in the night. (If the doctors chose to
save the same person the mafia chose to kill, then the student narrowly misses death.) Ask the class to debate who they
think did it. Once the class reaches a general consensus on two or three people, those people must defend themselves.
(Ex. It couldn’t have been me because… It must have been…) Then the class votes. The one with the most votes is killed
by the mob.
Repeat from * until the mafia are both caught and the class wins or both the detectives have been killed and the mafia
wins. Also once the class gets the hang of it invite those who have been killed to tell the make up the story.
Note: this game can seem a little violent and should only be played once the class is very comfortable with e.o.
Describing Scenes
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: description words/adjectives/comperatives.superlatives
Materials: pictures (enough for one per pair)
Division: pairs
Have pairs assign one of themselves as describer and the other as artist.
Pass out one picture per group. (These pictures should be chosen to elicit the target language. For example, buildings of
different heights for comparatives/superlatives.)
The describer describes the picture and the artist draws it as they listen to the descriptions. (The describer can’t see
what the artist is drawing and the artist cant see the original picture.)
At the end they reveal the pictures to each other.
Bingo
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: review of phrases about people (vocab/gerunds/infinitives/etc.)
Materials: blank bingo HO
Division: As a class
Have students fill out their bingo sheets with phrases of the target language (ex. enjoys eating pizza for gerunds). Collect
the handouts and pass them back out at random. Have students mingle asking questions and filling in classmates names
for any true answer until they get bingo. First three to get bingo win.
Word Pair Mingle
SPEAKING/LISTENING
Purpose: review vocab/word pairs
Materials: papers with a word from each word pair written on them, paper clips or strong tape
Division: As a class
Have students attach the words to each other’s backs with the paper clips or tape so that the person doesn’t know what
is written on the paper on their back. All students mingle asking each other questions trying to figure out what their
word is. (Only one question can be asked of a classmate at a time to encourage students to mingle with everyone.) Once
the student figures out their word, they have to find their pair. (Ex. once the student finds out they have “salt” on their
back, they have to find “pepper” from the word pair “salt and pepper.”)
Variation: use pictures of celebrities
Musical Narrative
LISTENING/WRITING
Purpose: adjectives
Materials: popular songs
Division: As a class and in small groups
Play the song clips. Students have to write down any and all adjectives they hear.
Then in small groups they have to use the adjectives to write their own song lyrics.
Headlines
WRITING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: simple newspaper stories, one for each pair
Division: pairs
Students design headlines for stories using the target grammar.
Collect the headlines and distribute at random.
Pairs must write simple stories based on the headlines using the target grammar.
Picture Grammar
WRITING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: picture
Division: pairs
Select pictures from internet or magazines and tape them on the walls around the room. In pairs, student must visit
every picture and describe it in a sentence using the target grammar. Give them a short time limit. At the end, collect
the sentences and go over them as a class on the overhead. As a class, identify if the sentences are grammatically
correct and accurately describe some aspect of the picture. Points are awarded for every correct sentence. The pair with
the most points wins.
Grammar Relay
READING/WRITING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: dialogue using target grammar
Division: groups of 3 or 4
In groups, students compete to see which team can complete the task accurately and on time. Display a completed
dialogue or paragraph on a table in front of class. Each relay team sends up one student to get information from the
written sample. Each student has 30-60 seconds to try to get all the information he can take back to group to write
down. Then the team sends up the next student until the team has gotten all the information. Show sample on
document camera for teams to view and make corrections.
Speed-Dating
SPEAKING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: prompts HO
Division: pairs
Give one group of students a paper with dialogue, question, or interview. When the bell rings, students all shift to the
right and the student at the end of the row goes to the first seat. Continue until all students have spoken to each other.
Grammar Stations
LISTENING/SPEAKINGREADING/WRITING
Purpose: multiple grammar review
Materials: various tasks using target grammar
Division: pairs
Partners circulate around classroom to various stations in which they need to use target grammar to complete a task.
(One activity might include a fill in the blank paragraph or a picture to describe or even a station where students speak
to the teacher, whatever requires the target grammar.) Students should write answers on their own paper numbered
according to each station. When all students complete all stations, provide an answer key for students to check their
answers or go over answer together.
Dialogue Practice/Competition
READING/SPEAKING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: dialogue
Division: two teams
Select a dialogue from the textbook or create one. Instruct the students to read the dialogue with each other and switch
roles and read again. Then close books and divide class into two teams. Ask factual questions about the dialogue to each
team. Give team members time to briefly meet and discuss possible answers. Award them one point for each correct
answer. If a team provides the wrong answer, the question goes to the other team. Keep track of points on board.
Team Competition
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: review questions
Division: two teams
To review information, divide the class in half and ask questions to one group at a time (this cuts/eliminates shouting
and chaos). Allow team to discuss possible answers. Set timer, and get a response from team. Teams get points for each
correct answer.
English Baseball *
LISTENING/SPEAKING
Purpose: grammar practice
Materials: review questions divided into three categories (easy, medium, hard)
small slips of paper with Xs on them (to represent strikes)
Division: two teams
Have an equal number of chairs lined along the wall on either side of the board and a wide open space in the
center/front of the class. Divide the class into two teams and assign a team to either side.
Have each team choose a team name and draw a scoreboard on the board.
In the center lay 5 colored sheets on the ground to create a baseball diamond (home plate, first base, second, base, third
base, pitcher’s mound)
Have students elect a team captain. Team captains compete to see which team “bats” first. (this can be done through
rock paper scissors or whoever can answer a question correctly first).
The wining captain stands on the home plate and the teacher stands on the pitcher’s mound. The student chooses
“easy” “medium” or “hard” and the teacher asks a question from that part of the list. The student has 5 seconds to say
the answer.
If the student cannot answer, they get a strike and can try another question. DO NOT give the correct answer. (This way
you can recycled unanswered questions until someone gets it right)
If the student, gets the wrong answer, they are out and the next student comes to home plate. DO NOT give the correct
answer. (This way you can recycled unanswered questions until someone gets it right)
If the student says the correct answer, they move to the appropriate base:
easy question = 1st base
medium question = 2nd base
hard question = 3rd base
Before moving on to the next student, the first student of the opposing team has a chance to get that student “out” by
correctly answering a hard question. If they get it right, that student is out. If they get it wrong the student is safe.
After one team gets 3 outs, the other team gets to “bat” (answer questions).
Play to a determined number of points or for a certain length of time.
*Explaining the rules for this game can be cumbersome. It can help to provide students an assignment dealing with
baseball rules and the target grammar the night before and review comprehension.