As the school year winds down and summer approaches, English teachers have a special chance to make the last days of class both fun and educational. By adding exciting games and activities, teachers can celebrate their students’ hard work while keeping them engaged. In this blog post, we’ve gathered 50 fantastic games and activities to keep students motivated and entertained as they finish their English studies for the year. Let’s dive into these creative ideas to make the end of the school year a memorable and enjoyable experience!
1. Stop
A student writes the first line of a story on a sheet of A4 paper. They fold down the top of the paper to hide the sentence. They pass the paper to the student on their right, who writes what happens next in the story, folds down the paper and passes it on. The game continues with students writing the middle, climax and end of the story. Students then read the (funny) stories aloud!
Write 3 conversation starters on the board. Have students make two lines facing towards each other. Students have 1 minute to discuss the topics with the person opposite them. When the timer goes off, the students in one of the lines move one space to the left, and repeat with their new partner.
One student holds a ball. They say a word. They throw the ball to another student. That student has to say a word that starts with the last letter of the word the previous student said. They then throw the ball to the next student and the process repeats. For example:
nurse – engineer – receptionist.
Students create cards with key vocab words. Collect the cards and share them out with the class. Each student sticks their card to their forehead, without looking at it. They ask their partner questions to work out who or what they are!
Students stand in a circle with a soft ball. The teacher chooses a theme or topic. The student with the ball says a word they associate with the topic. They then throw the ball to another student who does the same before throwing the ball again.
Tell a group of students to write 6 consonants and 3 vowels on seperate pieces of paper. They then have 2 minutes to see how many words they can create with the letters.
Students form two lines at the back of the classroom. Say the definition of a word. The students at the front of the line race to the board to write the word. Then, the students return to the line and the next two students race to the board to create a sentence with the vocabulary word. Students get one point for the word and one point for a correct sentence!
Students draw vocabulary items for their group to guess. They cannot say anything or write anything, only draw!
Place a chair in front of the board and ask a volunteer to sit looking away from the board. Tell students that you are going to write a word on the board and that they must give the student in the chair clues to help them guess the word.
Remind them that they can’t say the word on the board and can only describe it!
Have students create their own personalised flag. They can use symbols that most represent them or their favourite moments from the school year.
Choose an English song. Write a phrase from the song with one missing word on the board. Choose two students to face off in front of the class. Students must listen to the song and raise their hand when they hear the chosen lyrics. Students get one point for hearing the phrase and one point for identifying the missing word.
Create a safe space for open dialogue by giving students the chance to be the teachers. Students can bring in photos, objects or other items to teach their classmates about what makes their family or culture special. Allowing students to ask questions and learn more about the culture can help deepen understanding.
Rather than just telling students about yourself, separate the class into teams and play a fun game of trivia to allow students to make guesses about your favourite foods, hobbies and interests. Create the trivia game using Google Slides with one question per slide and four possible answers! After the students have played, have each group create their own trivia game about their teammates and play with the class.
Have your students write a letter to their future-selves. They can write about what they hope to have learned, what they wish to have accomplished or generally how they hope to be. This will set you up for a great end-of-term reflection activity as well!
Have the students come up with a list of about 10 popular Spanish films. Once the list is created, separate the class into teams of three. Choose a film and give the students just one minute to write an alternative title for the film in English on a slip of paper. The name cannot be a direct translation. After one minute collect all of the slips and write them on the board. The students will then vote on which title they think is the best. Teams cannot vote for their own title. The team with the most votes earns one point.
In this game, students will be the quiz masters! Separate the students into teams of three. Ask the students to write sentences including one false friend. Students then read the sentences aloud to their classmates. Give the groups time to discuss amongst themselves, then give each group a chance to identify the false friend and suggest a word they think would correctly replace it in the sentence. Teams get one point for finding the false friend and one point for guessing the correct word. If a sentence is unable to be solved by any team, the team who wrote the sentence earns one point.
Play a short clip from an English language flim or television programme in front of the class. After having students listen to the clip, divide them into groups based on how many speakers are in the video. Have students write their own script in Spanish. Once students are finished writing their scripts, have each group perform their script for the class. During the performance, students will not stand in front of the class, but instead sit with their backs facing the students and be dubbing artists as you play the original clip with the sound off. This activity can continue while altering between Spanish language clips and English language clips.
Ask students to count to 10. Explain that there is no order or time for calling out the numbers. Anyone can call out the next number, BUT if they say the number at the same time as someone else, the group must start over. Once the group reaches 10, try to get to 20!
Buy colourful sweets and have each student take a handful. Then, tell students that for each colour, they must reveal a different fact about themselves. For example, for each yellow sweet, they must say a favourite food.
Create a shoulder-to-shoulder circle, and then have each student grab two other hands from two different people across the circle. Now the entire circle must figure out how to untangle the giant knot of arms and people without letting go.