12 No-Prep Classroom Activities For TEFL/ESL (Quick & Easy)

These classroom activities and games require virtually no preparation. You'll only need a ball and a few markers for all of these activities. Click on the link to see them in action on video. Most of these no prep activities emphasize speaking. Some also use TPR or speaking and writing.

Warm-up Activities/Icebreakers

These warm up activities work well in the beginning of your class to capture your student's attention. Ice breakers are useful for making students feel more comfortable, encouraging interaction, and positive relationships between your students and yourself.

1. Word Chain

Kindergarten - Adolescents.

Instructions:

1. Get a ball or a soft die
2. Have your students stand
3. Pass the ball to a student and give them a letter ("T")
4. That student gives you a word that begins with that letter ("Time")
5. They pass the ball back to you
6. Pass the ball to the next student
7. Take the last letter from that word ("e")
8. Pass the ball and give the next student that letter
9. Continue

This warm up activity will work well as long as your students know at least two or so words for every letter. All you need is a ball.

 2. Word Association

Elementary Children - Adults

Watch Word Association on video

This warm up activity is similar to word chain but with a twist. For this game to work well your students will need to know a fair amount of vocab. All you need is a ball.

Instructions:

1. You need a ball or a soft die
2. Have your students stand
3. Pass the ball to one student and give them a word (any word)
4. They say the first word that they think of
5. Then they pass the ball to another person and...
6. That person says the first word they think of
7. Continue

 3. Teacher Says

Kindergarten - Early Elementary Children

Watch Teacher Says on video

This warm up activity will work well with very young students who already know some commands, body parts and basic vocab. You don't need anything.

Instructions:

Create a list of commands like:

• Touch your eyes
• Touch your ears, or nose, or toes, or hair, or chin, etc.
• Sit down
• Jump
• Wave "hi"
• etc.

How to do it:

1. Have your students stand up
2. Say "Teacher says _____ (command)" or "_____ (command)"
3. If you say "Teacher says" then they do it
4. If you don't say "Teacher says" then they don't do it
5. If they do it then make them sit down
6. Continue until only one person is standing

 4. Line Up

Elementary Children - Adults

Watch Line Up on video

This icebreaker will work well with students who have some conversational level of English and can ask and answer at least fairly basic questions. You only need to prepare three questions in your mind.

Instructions:

1. Come up with three questions (perhaps two basic questions and one more interesting question)
2. Write your questions on the board
3. Have your students form two lines facing each other
4. Say "go" and have the students begin asking the person opposite them the questions
5. After some time or when the first student has asked the three questions say "switch"
6. One line stays still while the other moves down one
7. Continue

The basic questions used here are:

1. What's your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. Who would you most like to eat dinner with?

Vocabulary Games

These games and activities work well for practicing vocabulary and phrases.

5. Charades

All Levels.

Watch Charades on video

This activity will work well with pretty much all levels. You don't need anything.

Charades is a simple ESL activity that involves miming. Action words work best.

Instructions:

1. Pick a word or phrase, for example, "play basketball"
2. Pretend to play basketball without speaking
3. Have students guess what it is

4. Have the guesser come forward to mime a word or a phrase

It depends on the students, but for very young children I will usually whisper the word or secretly point to a picture in the book.

 6. Taboo

Elementary Children - Adults

Watch Taboo on video

This is fun and aside from arranging the desks you don't need anything.

Instructions:

• Place two chairs in the front of and facing the class
• Two students sit down
• Write a word on the board so that they cannot see it
• Have the other students give them clues without saying the word until one gets it
• Then change seats and have a new set of students come forward

 7. Pass the Marker

Elementary Children - Adults

Watch Pass the Marker on video

This activity will work with most levels and ages, except for the very young with little spelling ability. You only need a couple of markers.

Instructions:

• Divide your class into two teams and into two lines standing facing the board
• Say or point to a word on the board and say "Go"
• Each student says the word while at the same time passing it down the line
• The last students run up to the board to write and say it
• Give a point to the first one to say it correctly
• They then go to the front of the line
• Continue

8. Sprite

Elementary Children - Adults

Watch Sprite on video

This activity will probably work well with most levels, except those with very little spelling ability.

Instructions:

• Divide your class into two or more teams depending on the size of the class
• Say a vocabulary word from your lesson
• One student from each team races up to the board to write it
• After they write it they say it
• The first student to say it and write it correctly gets a point for their team
• The other students seated can help them spell it correctly
• Make sure that they correct any mistakes before sitting down

Games and Activities for Sentences, Q&A, and Conversation

These activities and games work well for practicing sentences and questions and answers.

9. Pass and Ask

Elementary Children

Watch Pass and Ask on video

This Q&A activity will work well with elementary students. You just need a soft die or ball.This is a fun and simple activity.

Instructions:

• Get a ball or a soft die
• Use questions from your ESL lesson
• Have your students stand
• Pass the die to a student and ask them a question
• After they answer have them pass the die and ask another student a question
• Continue

 10. Sentence Relay

Elementary Children

Watch Sentence Relay on video

You just need a couple of markers.

Instructions:

• Have two small groups of students (two teams) come up to the board.
• Say a sentence from your lesson.
• Have the students take turns writing the sentence one word at a time.
• Each person in the group can only write one word at a time.
• The first group to write the full sentence and say it correctly gets a point.
• Continue

 11. Paper, Scissors, Stone!

Elementary Children.

Watch Paper, Scissors, Stone on video

You don't need anything.

Instructions:

• Write + or - 1/+ or - 5/+ or - 10 on the board.
• Divide your students into teams.
• Have two students put together a sentence or Q&A from their book.
• The first one to say it correctly gets to choose a number 1, 5 or 10.
• Paper, Scissors, Stone!
• If they select 5 and win, they get +5. If they select 5 and lose, they get -5.
• Continue

Other

Here you will find a miscellaneous activity for practicing spelling.

12. Spelling Bee

Elementary Children - Adolescent

Watch Spelling Bee on video

You don't need anything.

Related:

• The 13 best ESL games

If this article helped you please share it.

Tweet this or Share it on Facebook