1. Slap!
(Speaking isn't required for this game, so it works especially well with children two or under)
Materials Needed: Flashcards
Directions:
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Sit children in a circle and place target vocabulary flashcards face up in the middle of the
circle.
Shout out a flashcard (“apple!”) and whichever child slaps the flashcard first, wins it.
Notes:
a) For additional vocabulary practice, have the children run through a series of Total Physical
Response (TPR) tasks before they can slap the cards. Ex., "Touch your head...touch your
nose...touch your ears...touch the apple!".
b) You can adjust this game to make it less competitive, by simply giving each child the same
three or four picture cards, so that they aren't competing against one another.
c) If some children are quicker than others, create a penalty for slapping the wrong card. You
can make the game more challenging by calling out a flashcard that isn't in the circle.
Target vocabulary: Any vocabulary on flashcards, “slap”, “touch your/the….”
2.Where's the...?
Materials Needed: Various objects to hide
Directions:
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Teach the children 'close your eyes' and then hide a stuffed animal or ball around the room
and have them take turns trying to find it.
Then try having them hide the toy and then ask each other "Where's the…”
Target vocabulary: “Close/Open your eyes”, “Where’s the…?”, “Here it is!”, objects, furniture, parts of
the room
3. Basketball toss
Materials needed: Basket and ball (you can use a garbage can and a bunched up wad of paper as the
ball)
Directions:
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Elicit any target dialog or vocabulary. If the child answers correctly, they get to take a turn
trying to make a basket.
Target vocabulary: Anything pre-taught to them, “throw the ball”, “well done!” , “you missed!”
4. Goody Bag
(You can do this at the beginning of every class)
Materials Needed: Cloth draw-string bag and various objects (pencil, eraser, ball, teddy bear, etc.)
Directions:
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Tell the children to close their eyes and while their eyes are closed, place one the objects in
the bag.
The children then take turns feeling the object and then guess what the object is. ("pencil!"
"car!", etc.)
Target vocabulary: objects, “what’s in the bag?”, “it’s a….”
5. Run and Pick up!
(A great game if you have a big classroom)
Materials needed: Flashcards or objects
Directions:
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Practice commands like 'run!', 'hop!', 'walk', 'crawl', etc. and then place flashcards or objects
at the end of the room.
Have children take turns or compete as a group and line them up at the other side of the
room.
Yell out commands like: Walk to the apple! Skip to the teddy bear! “crawl to the phone!”
The child(ren) walk/skip/hop to the flashcard/object called. The child who reaches it first is
the winner.
Note: Try doing this in pairs, groups or one by one, depending on their age/how competitive they
are.
Target vocabulary: Verbs of movement, objects
6. Bowling Game
Materials needed: Flashcards or objects, ball
Directions:
 Place the flashcards or objects on the floor at one end of the room. Position them so that
they are standing up against the wall like 'bowling pins'.
 Have each child take a turn rolling the ball towards the cards. They win whichever
card/object the ball hits, but first they must successfully name the card. ("It's an apple!")
Target vocabulary: Objects/pictures, "Good luck!", "Try again!", "Oh no!", "Your turn", etc.
7. Erase!
Materials needed: Board, board pens/chalk, erasers (or paper towels)
This quick game is best played after a review of numbers or the alphabet. But it can work with other
vocabulary, too.
Directions:
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Write or draw a variety of numbers / letters or pictures on the board.
Give each child an eraser (or paper towel) and then yell out: "Erase the...(number one, letter
b, etc.)". Children have to rush to erase the number or letter before the other child(ren) do.
Note: If some students are faster, have the slower ones race the teacher and let them win
Target vocabulary: numbers, the alphabet, objects, “erase”
8. Memory
Materials needed: Flashcards
Directions:
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Place flashcards in a row, face up on the floor or on the board.
Review the order several times (apple, banana, pineapple, grapes, etc.)
Turn all the flashcards over, so that the picture-side is facing down.
Call out a flashcard and have the children take turns guessing which flashcard it is.
If they guess correctly, they keep the flashcard.
Note: You can use this to practice a number of target dialogs. For example, before the child can keep
the flashcard, s/he has to say: "It's a __ (frog, pencil, tree)" or "I like bananas", etc.
Target vocabulary: objects, “turn over”, “it’s a…”, “oh no!”
9. Bowling Game
Materials needed: Flashcards or objects, ball
Directions:
 Place the flashcards or objects on the floor at one end of the room. Position them so that
they are standing up against the wall like 'bowling pins'.
 Have each child take a turn rolling the ball towards the cards. They win whichever
card/object the ball hits, but first they must successfully name the card. ("It's an apple!")
Target vocabulary: Objects/pictures, "Good luck!", "Try again!", "Oh no!", "Your turn", etc.
10. Yummy! Yucky!
(Works well with the two and under age group)
Materials needed: Flashcards or plastic food
Directions:
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Review food flashcards/plastic food and then give each child one. Have them pretend to eat
the food and then rub their stomachs and say "yummy!" or shake their heads and say
"yucky!" depending on the food item.
Next, let them take turns feeding the teacher. They'll love this! Have them practice saying:
"Here you are" when offering you the food, and then mime eating the food, spitting it out
and throwing up (depending on whether it's yummy or yucky).
Tip: You can even use this with non-food items like spiders, beetles, worms, etc.
Target vocabulary: Food, “yummy”, “yucky” “I like/don’t like…”
11. Chinese whispers
(Great for when you need to quieten a rowdy and noisy group)
Materials Needed: None
Directions:
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Sit the children in a circle and whisper a word or short sentence in their ear. "I eat spiders!”
“my shoes are green” “my mummy is beautiful” “I like chocolate”, etc.
The children have to take turns whispering the word or message to the child sitting next to
them, until it's passed all the way around the circle. The last person to hear the message
then has to say whatever they heard.
Target vocabulary: Any short sentences, “What?”
12. Guess the card!
Materials Needed: Flashcards
Directions:
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After thoroughly reviewing the vocabulary, hold the flashcards in one hand and with the
other hand, gradually pull a card out from behind the deck so that only a small part of the
picture card is seen at a time.
As soon as a child has figured out what the card is, he or she must yell out: "I know!" and
raise his or her hand.
If she or she is correct, he / she then wins the card. If not, then continue slowly revealing the
picture until someone gets the correct answer.
Note: For variety, play a fast version of the game. Quickly reveal the picture card by flashing it in
front of students' eyes for a few seconds before putting it behind your back.
Target vocabulary: Any vocabulary on flashcards, “What is this?”, “I know”, “Yes/No”, “That’s
right/wrong”
13. Basketball toss
Materials needed: Basket and ball (you can use a garbage can and a bunched up wad of paper as the
ball)
Directions:
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Elicit any target dialog or vocabulary. If the child answers correctly, they get to take a turn
trying to make a basket.
Target vocabulary: Anything pre-taught to them, “throw the ball”, “well done!” , “you missed!”
14. Come here! Stop! (Don't Move!)
This works like Red Light / Green Light. And although it may take a few minutes for the children to
understand the rules, once they do, it's a great warm-up game or time-filler that you can use on a
regular basis.
Materials Needed: None
Directions:
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After the children have learned and fully understand the meaning of "Come here!" and
"Stop!" have them stand at the back of the room in twos or as a large group.
You, (the teacher) stand at the opposite end of the room.
Shout out “come here” and when they start running shout “stop” – they have to freeze
Move to a different part of the room (they should still be in “freeze” position) and shout out
“come here” again, keep doing this until they get tired!
Note: You could even nominate one of the students to do the shouting out/moving to different parts
of the room, and they could take it in turn to be the “shouter”.
Target vocabulary: “Come here”, “Stop” or “Freeze”
15. Telephone
Materials needed: a telephone (or fake one)
Directions:
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Sitting in a circle on the floor, pre-teach the word “phone”
Make a phone ringing sound, make all the kids shout out “the phone’s ringing!”
Go to the middle, pick up the phone and say “Hello? Who is it?” “María, it’s your mum”,
María has to come to the middle of the circle to speak to her mum.
María has to say “Hello mum, how are you?”
Then make the phone ringing sound again, María has to answer and say “Hello? Who is it?”
“Jordi, it’s your sister”.
Continue like this until all kids have had the chance to come to the middle of the circle and
answer the phone.
Note: To keep all kids involved, make sure they all shout out “the phone’s ringing” every time you
make the ringing noise.
Target vocabulary: Family members, “the phone’s ringing” “Hello?” “Who is it?” “It’s your….” “How
are you?”
16. Missing object
Materials needed: lots of real-life objects (keys, cup, eraser, elastic band, doll, money, bottle, teddy
bear, shoe, etc.)
Directions:
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Pre-teach the names of all the objects
Lay them out on a table and get kids to shout out the names as you point to them / pick up
the object you shout out
Kids look away or leave the room and you remove one (or more) of the objects
Kids then have to remember which object is missing (put the missing objects back as the
kids name them)
Note: Let the kids, one by one, be the one who removes the objects, this lets them be protagonists
for a while!
Target vocabulary: Objects, “what’s this?”, “the….is missing!”
17. Clothes and accessories
Materials needed: clothes and accessories (boots, hat, cap, t-shirt, bracelet, scarf, etc.)
Directions:
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Pre-teach the names of all the clothes and accessories
Lay the clothes/accessories out on the floor and shout out “Joan, put on the hat” “Laia, put
on the boots” while the kids follow your instructions
Mix this up with “Joan, take off the hat”, “Laia put on the hat”, “Laia, take off the boots”,
“Carla put on the boots”, etc, so they all get the chance to switch clothes a few times.
Note: Let the kids have fun and run around pretending to be adults in their new clothes
Target vocabulary: Clothes/accessories, “put on”, “take off”