14 Engaging ESL Activities for Young Learners

Young learners are naturally inclined to creative lessons. It’s essential to keep ESL lessons fun and enjoyable while maintaining a robust educational standard.

Activities are designed to help students achieve a lesson goal. Rather than the teacher merely instructing students, activities require group participation. The outcome of every activity should result in students reinforcing their speaking skills and learning something new.

There are so many great activities that can help young learners practically use their English. These activities will enable them to speak the language confidently and prepare them for using it in the real world.

Role-play

Role-play is the quintessential ESL activity. This activity requires students to either pretend to be someone or imagine a particular situation. Teachers can set up a role-play activity that mimics a real-life scenario, such as ordering from the supermarket or traveling in a foreign country.

Role-plays are great because it is the closest thing to using English outside the classroom. Students will experience using the language to converse with others without the anxiety of making mistakes since you are there to guide them.

Role-play gives students a chance to be creative and imaginative with their English, allowing personal growth in the language. Engaging with other students also creates a positive dynamic in the classroom. By creating an engaging, intellectually-stimulating simulation, students will be motivated to speak confidently. They will retain all the material taught in the study phase of the lesson.

Tips to prepare for a role-play activity

• Prepare the lesson beforehand. Make sure everything is set up correctly.
• Have a clearly defined purpose for the activity. Show students what they need to do to achieve the desired outcome.
• Allocate every student a role. If you’re giving them imaginary personalities, allow the student time to understand the nature of their character.
• As a teacher, it’s essential to take a facilitator role in this activity. Let the activity play out to see what happens. Don’t worry about correcting mistakes and help when needed. Make notes of any errors students make and use them to prepare a review lesson.
• Let the young learners enjoy and express themselves. This activity is the best way for all students to shine and build the foundation of their speaking skills.

Awesome ESL Role-Play activities

• Dining out at a restaurant
• Catching a taxi/bus
• Going to see a doctor
• Shopping in a supermarket
• Job interview

Pictionary

Pictionary is a great activity to practice vocabulary. All you need is a whiteboard, a marker, and a list of words.

• Divide your students into groups.
• Give one of your students the marker and a word from the list.
• The student will draw a picture, and their classmates will try to figure out what they are portraying.
• The student drawing must not say anything to disclose the answer. They must only draw.
• Each group will compete with each other over who gets more correct answers within the time limit.

Pictionary is an excellent way to reinforce your students’ knowledge of topics and vocabulary. Drawing and trying to guess the word that’s been given to them will help them visualize what they have learned in class.

This activity is fun, exciting, competitive, and engaging. Everyone has a turn at drawing, showing off some outstanding drawing skills!

Hangman

Hangman is another whiteboard game to reinforce vocabulary.

• Think of a word and draw a line for each letter of that word on the whiteboard.
• Have your students raise their hands and try to answer either by guessing letters or the word itself.
• For each incorrect answer, draw part of the hangman.
• The student who guesses correctly before the hangman is drawn completely will be the next person to think of a word.

Word Bingo

Bingo is an old game that works so well in an ESL classroom. It’s incredibly fun to play, and you can award your students prizes for winning. Word Bingo is an excellent activity for reading and listening skills. It will require students to focus on the activity.

Students will be given bingo sheets with English words written on them. The teacher will say the words that come out of a hat and the first student to complete a bingo pattern wins!

Songs

Music is an essential part of living language. Young learners love to sing, so using songs is a great way for students to use their voice and learn the rhythm of the English language.

The best way to conduct a singing session would be to have all students standing. You should develop movements to go along with the song to keep your young learners engaged and activated!

Recommended English songs for young learners

Maple Leaf Learning has a collection of cute and useful ESL songs for children. Some of their best hits are:

• How are you today? – Feelings and Emotions vocab
• How’s the weather? – Weather vocab
• I can see a rainbow –

Some great pop songs for ESL learning are:

• Take me to your heart – Michael Learns to Rock
• Everything at once – Lenka
• Something just like this – Coldplay
• Beautiful – One Direction

Hot Potato

Hot potato is a fast-paced, vocabulary revision activity that will keep students engaged, excited, and focused. This activity is best suited for smaller classes.

Equipment needed for Hot Potato

• Music player
• An object for students to pass around (the potato)
• Flashcards with lesson vocab

Hot Potato Rules

• Gather all the students into a circle.
• Have the students pass each other the potato with music playing.
• When the music stops, the student with the hot potato must take a flashcard and read the word.
• The student must attempt to make a sentence using the word on the flashcard. If they make a mistake, they will sit out for the rest of the round.
• The student who’s left standing wins the round!

Variations of Hot Potato

A more relaxed version of Hot Potato would be to have pictures instead of words on the flashcards. Students will try to guess the word related to the image.

Advanced versions of the game may include having two hot potatoes. Students who have the potatoes when the music stops ask each other questions in English.

Surveys

Surveys are a great way to lead the activate-phase of a lesson. Surveys will enable students to practice the four core skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

An example of a great way to utilize surveys is during an ESL class about personal experiences. Teach students to ask the question, “have you ever…?” to their classmates and write down answers on a survey sheet.

Once the survey is complete, have each student introduce the person next to them with their fact.

“This is Lucy, and she has ridden a motorbike.” 

“This is Arthur, and he has eaten an entire cheesecake by himself.” 

This exercise allows the students to get to know each other better. It also encourages students to talk in English more and creates a more engaging classroom environment.

Simon Says

Simon Says is a quick activity that focuses on students listening skills. The game aims to give your students instructions using the phrase, “Simon says.” Students must only follow instructions followed by this phrase, and those who don’t are out! The person who is saying the instructions will try to trick students by talking faster. Students will have to focus hard to stay in the game.

• Organize the class into a circle. Explain the rules of the game.
• Start the game with an instruction using the phrase, e.g., “Simon says, touch your nose” and do the action.
• Gradually say the instructions more quickly and catch anyone who does the action without you saying, “Simon says.” For example, if you say “shake your hands,” any student who does the action is out.
• Keep playing until the last few students are left and then give out a small reward.

Two Truths and a Lie

This classic party game can be used by ESL teachers to encourage creative thinking in English in the classroom.

Have all the students form a circle and randomly pick one student to stand in the middle or front of the class.

The student will then say three statements, two of them being right and one being a lie. The rest of the class will have to try and guess which one is the lie. To do this, students will discuss the three statements with each other and try to guess.

Make sure that the class answers as one which encourages group discussion and careful thinking.

Alphabet Relay

Alphabet relay is a competitive activity that all young ESL learners can enjoy.

Start the game by writing the letters of the alphabet on the whiteboard and divide the class into teams. Choose a topic for the relay e.g., Countries around the world.

One member from each team will say the name of a country and wipe the first letter of that name from the whiteboard. For example, if a student answers with “Mongolia,” then the letter “M” will be erased.

Therefore, other countries starting with “M” (Mozambique, Myanmar, Maldives, etc.) cannot be used. When a student successfully wipes off a letter with a correct answer, their team is awarded a point. The team with the most points wins!

Other great topics for Alphabet Relay

• Animals
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Cities around the world
• Jobs and Occupations

What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?

I’m sure you remember playing this back when you were in primary school. This fun game can be an excellent way for students to practice telling the time and take a break from bookwork.

This activity is best played in a park or court outside. Select one student to be the wolf and have them turn their backs on everyone. The class will start from a distance away and will ask, “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?”

The wolf will then respond with a random time. If the wolf says, “It’s six o’clock,” everyone will take six steps forward. This process repeats until the wolf responds with “it’s dinner time,” which is when they will chase the class and catch someone.

Students that are caught become wolves themselves, and the last person to survive wins!

Creative Writing

Creating writing is an excellent way to give young learners a chance to express themselves. Creatively using a language is what builds confidence and fluency.

Young learners will need to be guided on creative writing. A good creative writing session will have the teacher setting up a blueprint. Give your students a theme and setting based on the topics learned in class. Explain to them the key elements of writing a great story and give them a minimum word limit.

Although they may be shy to write something compelling at first, you’ll find that young learners are extraordinarily creative and imaginative. You might have the next JK Rowling in your class!

Creative Art

Another way for young learners to express their knowledge of English is through artwork. Art can be used to help students visualize the vocabulary they have learned in class.

Students can draw or paint pictures based on what they have learned in class. They could also present their artwork to their classmates, which will reinforce their confidence in speaking.

Creative art can also be a great way to develop a teacher-student relationship. You should walk around the class and engage with your students, asking them about their artwork and what they think about it.

I Spy

I Spy is a stimulating activity that requires participants to locate something in the room based on a clue given by the teacher or another student. This game is excellent for young learners to practice their vocabulary and knowledge of topics such as colors and sizes.

For example, when the teacher says, “I spy something beginning with B,” the students will try to find something in the classroom beginning with this letter.

You may also say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is green,” and students will subsequently try to find a green object.

Write a Bucket List!

This simple ESL activity asks learners to write a list of things they want to do in their life. It’s a great way to teach students how to express a desire to do something in English using “I want to.”

Students will write out a list of things they want to do or things they have already done. Once finished, classmates can share what they have written with each other and engage in an open discussion about what they wrote.

Teachers can ask why students want to do certain things, which helps them start to think in English.

Activities are a crucial part of the ESL learning experience. Students need to practice what they’ve learned every lesson to reinforce their knowledge and maintain interest in the class. These are just some of the hundreds of ESL activities that you can start using in your classroom today!