5 Popular Activities for Young Learners

Throughout my TEFL career, I’ve tried and tested many activities with young learners – some successful, some total flops! For this blog, I’ve chosen five activities that have been consistent hits with young learners. These activities are not only asked for by students again and again, they’re also very productive, simple to do and have minimal (if any) preparation time. Why not see if you could use any of these with your own young learners…

#1 Memory Bingo

Young learners love Bingo! And this activity can help them practice their English skills in the process. Memory Bingo reviews previously learnt vocabulary sets and allows the learners to practice writing and listening to the words.

Level: Beginners +

Student: Young learners +

Lesson Stage: Warmers / Coolers / Revision activities

Materials:

• Pencils/pens and paper

Instructions:

1. Think of a lexical set you need to review in class, for example: Clothes
2. Write down the 12 pieces of vocabulary on a piece of paper or the board – make sure the words are big.
3. Show the learners the words and tell them they have to remember as many as they can in one minute.
4. After a minute, ask the learners to write down the words they can remember on a piece of paper. (Optional: Ask the learners to compare which words they have in pairs if you think they’re struggling.)
5. Ask the learners to circle five of the words they have written down.
6. Tell the students that you’re going to read out the words and that if they hear a word that they have circled, they should cross it out. The first student to cross out five circled words must shout “Bingo!” – they are the winner.
7. Read the words out slowly. Make sure you tick off the words you have read, so you know which ones you have already said and can check the winning student’s results.
8. Play until someone wins. If you want to play again, you can get the learners to circle five different words on their list and start the game again.

Pro tip: You can expand this activity further by asking the learners to choose three of the words from their lists and to make sentences using the words. They can then compare their sentences in pairs.

Perfect for: Revision activities, as learners must recall previously learnt lexical sets.

#2 Bang!

Bang is a popular group game, which can be used to review previously learnt vocabulary. It is particularly good as a cooler and can be played indoors or outdoors.

Level: Beginners +

Student: Young learners +

Lesson Stage: Warmer / Cooler

Materials: None

Instructions:

1. Have the students stand in a circle around you and choose a topic, for example: sports.
2. Make your hands into a gun shape, point at one of the students and shout “Bang!”
3. The ‘shot’ student must duck down and the students on either side of him/her must say a word related to the chosen topic, for example: football.
4. The first person to say a correct word wins the ‘shoot out’ and gets to stay in the circle. The other person must step out of the circle. Repeat this procedure until there are only two students left.
5. Put the last two students back to back and tell them to take three steps forwards. When you say “bang”, they must spin around to face each other and say a word related to the topic. The first one to do this wins the game.

Pro tip: You can ask the winner of each ‘shout out’ to stand in the middle and shoot someone else – this way you can monitor the activity more effectively.

Perfect for: Reviewing lexical sets. And teenagers also love this game!

#3 The Mexican

This activity allows the learners to come to the board – something that all students seem to love to do! It is a useful activity to practice action verbs and can be used to review the present simple or past simple continuous.

Level: Beginners +

Student: Young learners +

Lesson Stage: Warmer / Cooler

Materials:

• Whiteboard / blackboard
• Whiteboard pens / chalk

Instructions:

1. Demonstrate activity. Draw a Mexican hat on the board as if viewing it from a bird’s eye point of view.
   
2. Explain to the student’s that this is a Mexican from above.
3. Now draw the Mexican doing something from above.
   
4. Ask the students: ‘What is the Mexican doing?’
5. The students guess until correct. ‘The Mexican is canoeing.’
6. The person who guesses correctly, comes to the board and draws another activity the Mexican is doing from above.
7. Repeat until everyone has had a go, or the activity comes to a natural end.

Pro tip: You can play this game in pairs and groups, not just as a class!

Perfect for: Classrooms that may not have interactive technology.

#4 Fly Swat Board Race

This activity is to check that the learners have identified the correct written form of a word and its pronunciation.

Level: A1+

Student: Young Learners

Lesson Stage: Practice

Materials:

• Whiteboard / blackboard
• Whiteboard pens / chalk
• Board
• Fly swats

Instructions:

1. Stick vocabulary flashcards on the board in a row at eye level for students.
2. Divide the class into two teams, ask them to come up with team names and write these names on the board.
3. Ask the two teams to stand in a line as far away from the board as they can.
4. Put a fly swatter on the floor in front of the two students at the front of the two lines.
5. Explain that when you say one of the words on the board, the first student for each team, has to pick up the fly swatter, run to the board and swat the correct word. The first student to do this gets a point for their team.
6. Keep a tally of scores on the board for each team.
7. Repeat with all students. When everyone has had a go, declare the winning team!

Pro tip: If your classroom is small, it’s advisable that the students who aren’t running at the time remain seated until it’s their turn – this also helps with classroom management.

Perfect for: As well as a practice activity, this activity is also perfect for a cooler to review the language and end the class in a fun way.

#5 Jump the Line

This activity practices listening and responding to basic questions – it’s a great game for the end of your lesson. If you have a small classroom, you could even take your students outside to play this game.

Level: A1+

Student: Young Learners

Lesson Stage: Cooler

Materials: None

Instructions:

1. Ask the learners to stand in a line. Explain that to their right is ‘yes’, to their left is ‘no’ and that you will ask questions that they should answer by jumping to ‘yes’ (right’ or ‘no’ (left).
2. The last person to jump across to either side or get an answer wrong is out.
   – Example questions: Do you like ice-cream? Are you wearing a skirt? Etc.
3. Play until there is one person left, they are the winner.

Pro tip: Young learners like this game even more when you think of silly questions to ask them.

Perfect for: Reviewing yes / no questions.

If you liked these activities, take a look at our other activity blogs: Fun activities to get your TEFL students talking and 5 warmers every TEFL teachers should know.