Pictionary (hot seat) students face class with back to board, put up famous pictures, places, events etc

E.g. Mona lisa, tianamen square, kremlin

Variations: Students mime, students make noises

Level: all

Word association, students start a word and student must make next word that corresponds in someway to previous word

E.g. chair, table, desk

Variations: choose a category, choose abstract concepts

Level: Int+

Unchained melody, students start word with last letter of the last word

E.g. eat-table-elephant-teacher

Variations: use difficult to pronounce words, words commonly mispronounced, divide class into teams Level: Pre-int

Odd one out, teacher types up three words on board, students must guess which is the odd one

E.g. Cucumber, apple, lettuce

Variations: choose obscure categories, categories that relate to topic

Level: Pre-int

Cause and effect, teacher gives a situation students must then A. come up with a reason B. come up with a outcome/solution

E.g. I broke my leg!...Why? solution?

Variations: should/could etc Level: Upper int+

Predicament, teacher sends a student out of class, come up with a situation, students must react and the person in the room has to guess the situation

E.g. My wife has another man!

Variations: N/A

Level: Upper int+

Chinese whispers, divide team into two teams, place paragraph at top of class, teams must read and recite to them and the first team to accurately complete the sentence wins

E.g. once in a blue moon

Variations: Play with pictures, give an action and student must draw it and show it to another who draws it etc

Level: Int+

Categories, teacher places a few categories of vocab on board, divide class into groups and most in a minute basically

E.g. transport, jobs, food, countries

Variations: allow them to go up one at a time, allow students in next group to ring word for extra points

Level: Pre-int

Sentence relay, like unchained melody, students must create a grammatical sentence in a group as a team from one word added to the next

E.g. shegoesto

Variations: create a story, use first conditional Level: Int+

Charades, teacher gives situation or word, students must mime word E.g. act out cleaning, baking etc

Variations: Draw the word, mime the word, use noises to indicate word, use entire situation, i.e. hotel receptionist- class put in situations and students pick out of a hat, act, sound, word

Level: Pre-int+

Yes/no game, teacher gives quick-fire questions to students and students must not say yes/no

E.g. do you walk everyday? Do you exercise?

Variations: alternative words for yes/no, put into teams

Level: Pre-int+

21 questions, put down famous people, jobs, categories on post-its and put on students backs, students mingle and guess asking yes/no questions E.g. Daniel craig- am I a man? Am I british?

Variations: use specific categories

Level: Pre-int+

Alibi, teacher tells students a crime has been committed, choose two students as suspect and friend, must come up with a proper alibi, other students prepare questions to give E.g. someone has been murdered yesterday!

Variations: use police and do each student individually

Level: Upper int+

The desert island debate, teacher gives out names of celebrities, each student is told theyre in a hot air balloon about to crash and must throw out a student, who??

E.g. paris Hilton, why me??

Variations: desert island, individual students, students vote,

Level: Upper int-advanced

Topics, teacher puts random topics in hat, students pull out one and talk about it for a minute,

E.g. talk about computer games

Variations: make them awkward, boys vs girls

Level: Int+

Back to back dictation, students sit back to back, give each student half of the story, have them complete it

E.g. mary and pat

Variations: put in difficult to pronounce words

Level: Pre-int+

Find someone whoteacher puts up a list of people on the board and students must find someone in the class who possesses these things/attributes

E.g. Find someone who never wears socks

Variations: Hand out or board, make more difficult, pre-teach do you have etc Level: Pre-int+

Two truths and a lie, teacher gives two truths and a lie. Students must guess

E.g. I love chocolate, I love football, I love rowing

Variations: allow students to practice

Level: Pre-int+

Fruit salad, teacher groups students, apple, orange and banana, calls fruit salad and everyone jumps up! Remove a chair, get student to speak for one minute

E.g. Apples!

Variation: tell them topics to talk about

Level: Pre-int