Category Archives: ESL games

The Fly Swat Game

The fly swat game is very versatile. You can use it for spelling, academic vocabulary, math and just about any subject that requires students to identify a word, sentence, phrase, number or equation.

I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this game.

Here’s how we play it in my classroom. First, I divide the board up into two sides, a side for the boy’s team and a side for the girl’s team. Next, I assign a score keeper. The score keeper sits on a little stool off to the side and keeps track of the points.

On the board, I put up the vocabulary words we are studying or short sentences that focus on the grammatical skills we are building. I’ve even put up clocks to reinforce time-telling skills.

This is also a great game to play for test reviews and reinforcing vocabulary.

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PowerPoint Game Templates

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and several other PowerPoint game templates are ready to be downloaded for you to use.

If you aren’t familiar with creating PowerPoints or aren’t as tech tech savvy as you would like to be, don’t worry. All you need is little practice and you’ll pick it up in no time. Click here for an article with tips on how to incorporate PowerPoint games into your classroom.

In the meantime, I’ve scoured the web and compiled a list of popular PowerPoint games that are sure to be a hit. PowerPoint games are an excellent way to break up the monotony on review days and will go a long way in motivating students, but most importantly it will bring a smile to their faces.

Wheel of Fortune PPT – Pilot theme music, 1989 opening theme, 1989 closing theme, 2000 theme music, prize 1, prize 2, prize 3, prize 4, prize 5, and prize 6. It’s the little things that make a big difference, and here are the little sound effects that will help your students transition on to the next segment of the game: bankrupt sound effect, bonus sound effect, the buzzer, category selection sound effect, the last spin, the wheel of prizes, and no more consonants.
Pyramid PPT - There are two to choose from: the 10,000 Dollar theme and the 25,000 Dollar theme.
Password PPT – There are four themes to choose from: Password All Stars, the 1971 version, the 1961 version, and Password Plus.
Millionaire PPT -Click here for the sound files that go to each round.
20 Questions PPT -The kids will love the silly music and sound effects.
Funky Jeopardy PPT & Jeopardy PPT – The theme show music, ending theme, final theme, final 60 seconds and the ending theme music.
Guess The Word PPT – The sound effects are built right into the slides.
Deal or No Deal PPT -Click here for the theme song, commercial break music, contestant music, and the high stakes music. Click here for the Slide Share version.

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Free PowerPoints

PowerPoints are a fantastic way to capture your student's attention.

I love using PowerPoints in the classroom. Once you get the hang of it, you can knock them out fairly quickly. You can jazz it up with pictures, media and audio too. Also, there are lots of free PowerPoint templates that you can download to keep things interesting. (I’ll post more on that subject later.)

If using PowerPoints in the classroom seems like an overwhelming task then please read this article by Don L. Fisher and put your mind at ease. Also, I found this tutorial that will walk you through the process.

Now back to the topic at hand, there are loads of great free PowerPoints all over the internet. The problem arises when you are looking for a specialized topic, but if you are looking for general ESL PowerPoints then there are plenty to choose from.

Below are a few sites that offer free PowerPoints on general ESL topics:

Scroll down for a few free demo PowerPoints from ESLgalaxy.com
The Internet TESOL Journal has a handful of free PowerPoints on verbs, contractions, and common root words.
ESL Castle has a few free Powerpoints on grammar.
English 4 Kids has a list of four PowerPoints that can be used as games or used for grammar review.
ESL Kids World has several PowerPoints to choose from.
EL Civics has a large assortment of Powerpoints including holidays and US Citizenship.
4 Kids ESL has a a list of about 4 free PowerPoints to choose from.

Check out the links below, especially if you are looking for something specific in the content area:

And finally, click here for some really creative ideas for getting the students involved using PowerPoint presentations in the classroom.

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Christmas Lesson Plans & More!

Christmas is big deal in Western countries and I’ve compiled a few links to help you put together a fun lesson. There are lots of ways to approach this fun holiday.

You could go for a multi-cultural theme…

Santa Clause around the world

Here is a link to a page at Hot Chalk. There are tons
to chose from. They’re divided up by discipline. http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Christmas.htm#

More…
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Christmas/
http://www.esl-galaxy.com/holiday.html
http://www.teach-esl-to-kids.com/christmas-lesson-plan.html

Pictures of screaming kids sitting on Santa’s lap. It’s funny – what can I say? You could cherry pick a few of them and ask conversational questions like:

Why is he/she crying?
Do you think he/she is afraid of Santa?
How old were you when you first sat on Santa’s lap?
What do you want for Christmas?
What is your favorite Christmas charity? Why?

…You get the idea…

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/holiday/sfl-scaredofsanta-ugc,0,7181908.ugcphotogallery

Santa cam – maybe you could catch him. He wasn’t in when I checked. Probably out delivering Christmas gifts.

http://www.santaclauslive.com/main.php?link=santa_claus_live&kieli=eng&pid=2

Best Sites for Adult ELL’s
This one looks real good. Totally appropriate for an adult intermediate class.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/xmas.html

Oh, this one is good. I used to get their free downloads in my inbox all the time. It is worth signing up and then archiving the lessons for future use (just in case.) Scroll down for the Christmas activity.

http://www.efl4u.com/

Listening activity

http://www.headsupenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139&Itemid=100

Fluff Stuff
You could use this as a time filler. The videos (that I looked at) on the site were non-verbal and professionally done.

http://www.santatelevision.com/index.html

Santa at the North Pole

http://www.northpole.com/

This is the link to the official NORAD Santa tracker. My BF’s hubby actually pulls this one up to get the girls excited about Santa Claus. You could throw it into the lesson as a transitional activity. While you are preparing for the next activity. Tell the students that you are going to do a “random Santa Check.”

http://www.noradsanta.org/http://www.noradsanta.org/

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Indoor & Outdoor ESL Games

Click here for a link to games that kids play in the West. Some are outside games and some aren’t. They are divided alphabetically, by category and favorites. Capture the Flag, Duck, Duck, Goose, Heads Up Seven Up, Green Light- Yellow Light and much more. There is also a site map button, so I’m sure you will find something that will work for you and your students. What Time is it Mr. Wolf? This is a cute game you can use to teach the kids to tell time and have fun too!

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More ESL Games

I ran across this on You Tube and thought it was really good. It is a bowling game that requires the students to knock down colored pins. The vocabulary words are divided up into colors that correspond to the pin’s color. One team rolls the bowling ball and then the other team has to say a sentence using the words that are organized by color. I know it sounds confusing, but watch this and see how it is done.

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ESL Games

I used this website a lot when I was teaching reading. I mostly used the graphic organizers, but there is a lot more to this website than that. They have teacher forms, games, certificates and quote posters too.

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