12 ESL Games to Play with Children Five and Under

Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to young children can be a stressful, pulsating nightmare of runny noses, drool and hysterical crying (and then there are the kids).

So it's important to have a repertoire of simple, easy-to-play games up your sleeve for those days when your usual chants, songs or shouts of "listen!", "sit down!" or "stop throwing the ABC blocks out the window!" don't work.

The following is a list a of 12 games that are specifically geared for pre-school and kindergarten-aged students. They're (mostly) non-competitive and involve little or no preparation time. Some of them are standards in the ESL teaching world and some I've invented through trial and error and a bit of spur of the moment inspiration.

1. Slap! (Speaking isn't required for this game, so it works especially well with children two or under)

Materials Needed: Flashcards

Directions:
* Sit children in a circle and place target vocabulary flashcards face up in the middle of the circle.

* Shout out a flashcard (apple!) and whichever child slaps the flashcard first, wins it.

Tip: For additional vocabulary practice, have the children run through a series of Total Physical Response (TPR) tasks before they can slap the cards. Ex., "Touch your head...touch your nose...touch your ears...touch the apple!"

Tip: You can adjust this game to make it less competitive, by simply giving each child the same three or four picture cards, so that they aren't competing against one another.

Tip: If some children are quicker then others, create a penalty for slapping the wrong card. You can make the game more challenging by calling out a flashcard that isn't in the circle. If a child slaps the wrong card, make him/her put one of their flashcards back into the circle.

2.Where's the...?

Materials Needed: Various objects to hide

Directions:
* Teach the children 'close your eyes' and then hide a stuffed animal or ball around the room and have them take turns trying to find it.

Tip: For more advanced students, have them hide the toy and then ask "Where's the...(ball, rabbit, etc)?

3. Goody Bag (You can do this at the beginning of every class)

Materials Needed: Cloth draw-string bag and various objects (pencil, eraser, ball...)

Directions:
* Tell the children to close their eyes and while their eyes are closed, place one the objects in the bag.

* The children then take turns feeling the object (No looking!) and then they get to guess what the object is. ("pencil!" "car!", etc.)

Tip: For more advanced students, have them say: "It's a.... (marker, pen)!" or "Is it it a ...(marker, pen)?"

Note: It may take a while for them to understand that they aren't meant to reach in and pull the object out.

4. Run and Pick up! (A great game f you have a big classroom)

Materials needed: Flashcards

Directions:
* Practice commands like 'run!', 'hop!', 'walk', 'crawl', etc. and then place flashcards or objects at the end of the room.

* Have children take turns or compete as a group and line them up at the other side of the room.

* Yell out commands like: Walk to the apple (card)! Skip to the banana!

* The child(ren) walk/skip to the flashcard called. The child who reaches it first is the winner.

Tip: For three and under, I suggest not making the game a competition because that can be too upsetting for children so young. Instead, make it either a fun group activity or have the children go one by one.

5. Erase! (Super simple yet kids love it!)

Materials needed: Board, erasers

This quick game is best played after a review of numbers or the alphabet. But it can work with vocabulary words, too.

Directions:
* Write a variety of numbers / letters on the board.

* Give each child an eraser and then yell out: "Erase the...(number one, letter b, etc.)". Children have to rush to erase the number or letter before the other child(ren) do.

Tip: For children three and under, have them race the teacher, that way you can let them win.

6. Memory

Materials needed: Flashcards

Directions:
* Place flashcards in a row, face up on the floor or on the board.

* Review the order several times (apple, banana, pineapple, grapes, etc.)

* Turn all the flashcards over, so that the picture-side is facing down.

* Call out a flashcard and have the children take turns guessing which flashcard it is.

* If they guess correctly, they keep the flashcard.

Tip: You can use this to practice a number of target dialogs. For example, before the child can 'win' the flashcard, he/she has to say: "It's a __ (frog, pencil, tree)" or "I like bananas", etc. Or simply, "Banana please"/"Thank you"/"Your welcome".

7. Bowling Game

Materials needed: Flashcards, ball

Directions:
* Place the flashcards on the floor at one end of the room. Position them so that they are standing up against the wall like 'bowling pins'.

* Have each child take a turn rolling the ball towards the cards. They win whichever card the ball hits, but first they must successfully name the card. ("It's an apple!")

Tip: For some extra language practice: Again, a number of target dialogs can be used here. Have them say "Good luck!", "Try again!", "Oh no!", "Your turn", etc to one another as they play.

8. Yummy! Yucky! (Works well with the two and under age group)

Materials needed: Flashcards or plastic food

Directions:
* Review food flashcards and then give each child a card. Have them pretend to eat the food and then rub their stomachs and say "yummy!" or shake their heads and say "yucky!" depending on the food item.

* Next, let them take turns feeding the teacher. They'll love this! Have them practice saying: "Here you are" when offering you the food, and then mime eating the food, spitting it out and throwing up (depending on whether it's yummy or yucky).

* This works especially well with non-food items (skunk, worm, spider, etc.)

9. Guess the card!

Materials Needed: Flashcards

Directions:
* After thoroughly reviewing the vocabulary, hold the flashcards in one hand and with the other hand, gradually pull a card out from behind the deck so that only a small part of the picture card is seen at a time.

* As soon as a child has figured out what the card is, he or she must yell out: "I know!" and raise his or her hand.

* If she or she is correct, he / she then wins the card. If not, then continue slowly revealing the picture until someone gets the correct answer.

Note: For variety, play a fast version of the game. Quickly reveal the picture card by flashing it in front of students' eyes for a few seconds before putting it behind your back.

Tip: Make whooshing, airplane noises while you 'flash' the cards.

10. Come here! Stop! (Don't Move!)

This will sure to be a very popular game. It works like Red Light / Green Light. And although it may take a few minutes for the children to understand the rules, once they do, it's a great warm-up game or time-filler that you can use on a regular basis.

Materials Needed: None

Directions:
* After the children have learned and fully understand the meaning of "Come here!" and "Stop!" have them stand at the back of the room in twos or as a large group.

* You, (the teacher) stand at the opposite end of the room.

* Instruct them to call out "come here!" and then you slowly run towards them motioning them to yell out "stop!". Once they've yelled "Stop!" freeze in place. Repeat until you've reached them and then tag someone. That person is the new "runner".

11. Telephone (Great for when you need to quiet a rowdy and noisy group)

It's a good game to practice: "What?", "What did you say?" "Please repeat", "I can't hear you", "Louder please," etc.

Materials Needed: None

Directions:
* Sit the children in a circle and whisper a word or short sentence in their ear. "I eat skunks!" is a funny one.

* The children have to take turns whispering the word or message to the child sitting next to them, until it's passed all the way around the circle. The last person to hear the message then has to say whatever they heard.

Note: Most of the time, children will change the message on purpose. But that doesn't matter as long as they are practicing the target dialog.

12. Basketball toss (Better used with children four-years-old and older)

Materials needed: Basket and ball

Directions:
* You can buy a cheap toy basketball hoop and ball at the dollar store or use a garbage can and a bunched up wad of paper as the ball.

* Use any target dialog or vocabulary. If the child answers correctly, they get to take a turn trying to make a basket.

Want More Game Ideas? Here are Some Useful Sites:

Genki English - Lots of games to categorized by age group. Many include video demonstrations of how the games are played

EFL Playhouse - The whole site is geared towards teachers who teach very young learners. There are games, songs and craft ideas.