Warm Up Activities For English Clubs

20 Questions
One person thinks of an object (person, place, or thing). Everyone takes turns asking yes/no
questions until someone can guess correctly (or until 20 questions are asked). The difficult part is
that you cannot ask "wh" questions!
Example: PINEAPPLE. Does it talk? No. Does it make life easier? No. Do you eat it? Yes. Is it
something you would eat for dinner? No. Etc...
If someone makes a mistake in forming the question, other club members can help turn it into a
proper question.
Can't Say Yes or No
In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or squares of paper (about 10).
Everyone moves around the room starting conversations and asking each other questions. The
only rule is that you cannot say the words YES or NO. If you accidentally say one of these
words, you have to give a coin or square to the person who you said it to. Try to trick each other
by asking questions that you would almost always answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways
to trick your friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions in a row works well. (Especially tag
questions: Are you new here? This is your first time in America, isn't it?). This game is a great
way to practise using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary. It also makes everyone
laugh.
Fact or Fiction
In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves or someone they know or heard
about. Usually it is something funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.
Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in the nude. One day Uncle Leo was
sleepwalking and he went outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour was
coming home late from work and saw him! She called the police and he got arrested for being
naked in public.
Everyone around the room has to say whether they think Josh's story is fact (true) or fiction
(made up). Josh reveals the truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns telling a
story.
Chain Fairytale
This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper and writes the first sentence or two
to start a fairytale (not one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs. He wanted to get married, but
there were no female legless frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say "SWITCH". At this time the writers have to put down their
pens and pass the papers. They cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will continue
the story. After about ten minutes you will have as many silly stories to read as you have club
members. The leader should warn the writers that they will soon have to wrap-up the story
during the last two minutes so that each story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud

for a good laugh. You can extend this activity by trying to edit each other's writing and spelling
errors.
Draw the Picture
In this activity members split up into pairs or small groups. One person looks at a scene from a
magazine or book (the leader should cut out enough pictures, or bring in enough magazines for
the club). The other person has a pencil and a blank piece of paper. The person with the picture
will try to describe everything he sees to the drawer. This is good practice for using prepositions
of place. When the describer is finished, compare the drawings to the real thing! Whose is the
closest to the original?
Categories
For this game, one person thinks of a category, such as MOVIES. In a circle, everyone must take
a turn thinking of a Movie title (in English of course). If someone takes too long to give an
answer (the leader should count to five) then that person is out and a new category begins. If
someone gives an answer that doesn't make sense or is incorrect, he is also out of the game. For
example, if the category is VEGETABLES and someone says "banana" that person is out. The
game continues until only one person is left!
Who am I?
In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's names on them. The leader tapes
one card on the back of each member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks each
other questions to find out their own identities. When someone guesses their own name correctly,
the name-tag gets taped to their front and they continue to chat with the party guests until
everyone is wearing the nametag on the front.
Jeopardy
In this game, which is based on the famous gameshow Jeopardy, everyone writes down ten
answers to questions about themselves. After writing down the answers, people have to form
pairs or small groups and try to find out what the questions are.
Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?" "Blue." "What colour do you hate?"
"Green." "What colour is your underwear?" "Purple!" You can stop at three guesses if you want,
or keep going until someone in the club can guess the question.
Hot Seat
In this game, the club is split up into two teams. One member from each team sits facing the
group. The leader holds up a word (or writes it on the board if you are in a classroom) for all of
the team members to see except for the two players in the hot seats. The teams must try to get the
person in the hot seat to guess the word or phrase. The first person to guess correctly gets to
stand up and a new member from their team takes the hot seat. The person on the other team has
to remain in the hot seat until she gets an answer first. You can keep score or just play for fun.
This game can also be played in pairs. One pair member closes their eyes while the leader shows
the word to the other pair members. The first pair to get the word right gets a point. Warning!
This is a loud game because people tend to get excited and yell!
Broken Telephone

This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets people laughing. The leader first
must think of a sentence or phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person will then
whisper what she heard to the next person. Each person can only say, "Can you please repeat
that?" one time. When the message reaches the end of the chain that person must speak out loud.
Oftentimes the message will be completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out
where the chain broke! In a big group you can send the message two ways and find out which
team comes closest to the real message. (A famous example is the army message that started as
"Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" and ended as "Send three and fourpence, we're
going to a dance.")
Here are some more ESL activities.

When You Turn Off The Light

This is an activity I created with my students aged 11-12 all together during a class.
I wanted them to learn how to give directions. As it was very difficult for them because we
needed a context, I picked one of them and blindfolded him using my jumper. That was really
funny for them.
He was placed in the middle of the classroom and told to find a word on the blackboard
following instructions given by the group.
It was nice and funny work!! Good luck!!
Contributed by: Maria Jose Gil Roma

Games
Headbands

Students: 3+
Materials: Thick cloth elastic from Daiso and cards with pictures and names of famous people,
cartoon characters or people from your school on them.
How to Play:

1. Students choose a card without looking at it and put it into their headband so that everyone else
can see who they are.
2. Going around in a circle students take turns asking questions about who they are. Ex, am I an
entertainer? Where am I from?
3. First person to guess who they are wins!
Spoons

Students: 4+
Materials: A set of spoons, but have one less than for each player. So if 6 are playing have only
5. Also a set of 40 or so sturdy cards with vocabulary words from different categories. Good
categories are colours, animals, English speaking countries, school events, words that mean big
etc etc just adjust for the level of your students.

To challenge your students a bit, dont write the category of the card and let the students figure it
out, otherwise youd better write the category title on the top of the card or it can be too
confusing for lower level students.

How to Play:

Everyone should be seated in a circle, place the spoons in a pile in the center. Deal out all of the
cards to your group, on the count of 3 select a card from your hand to pass to the person on your
right. Your goal is to collect all 4 of a kind. Once you have, take a spoon. If you see someone
else take a spoon you must take a spoon as well! If you dont get a spoon you take a demerit
point.
Be sure to have the student who completed their set explain their set of words to the other
students and review any new words.
Scrabble

Students: 3+
Materials: I made my own scrabble board using this handy website. To make things a bit easier I
added extra R S T L N E tiles.
How to Play

Since real Scrabble takes too long I limited the game to three rounds. Who ever scored the most

points in three rounds won. I also required my students to use the word they just spelled out in a
sentence to make sure that they got enough speaking practice and everyone understood the word.
Cube of Fortune

Students: 2+
Materials: Dice that have dollar values on 4 sides and 'Bankrupt' and 'Lose A Turn' on the other
2. I made my own extra large ones out of foam core.
How to Play:

Rules are just like Wheel of Fortune but with a cube, hence the name title. Always fun to watch
students try to drop the dice in such a way they get $300 only to have it backfire and they roll
Bankrupt instead.
Scattergories

Students: 3+
Materials: A white board and markers is nice but otherwise pens and paper and a way to keep
time
How to Play:

Write several categories in columns on the board, good categories are: Things at the Beach, In
the Classroom, Things that are Red, Adjectives, Things You Eat, Things you Wear etc etc
Choose a letter such as S, then the students need to come up with as many things that fit the
categories that start with S within 2 or 3 minutes: Sand, swimming, surfing, surfers, seals etc
etc...
The student / team with the most words wins.
Twenty Questions

Students: 2+
Materials: Writing stuff is good to have on hand for students to help keep track of information.
How To Play:

Have a student think of a person or cartoon character. Then everyone else must ask yes or no
questions in order to find out who the person is. They must find out who the person is in less
than 20 questions. Sometimes the students will need to write down answers to help them keep
track of information.
Karuta

Students: 2+
Materials: A set of cards, one set can be English words, the other half can be Japanese
translations. Or for a challenge have words with similar pronunciations and spellings like Made
and Mad

How to Play:

Lay out the cards on a table and call out words. Students have to grab the correct card, then they
get to keep it. Student with the most cards wins. This game will never get old!
Beat the Clock

Students: 2+
Materials: Sometime to keep time with, an iPod with headphones, a set of cards with questions
on them, you can adjust for your students level. Name two colors, Name something you can
buy at a conbini, Name two things you drink etc etc
How to Play:

Have the students pair up and then each select 5 or so questions. One student listens to music
(English music of course) while their partner attempts to answer all the questions as fast as
possible (alternatively you can have your students answer as many questions as they can in 1
minute). Once one student has answered them all or has run out of time, the students switch
places. The student who answered the questions the fastest, or who answered the most questions
in the time limit wins. This game also makes for a fun Bunkasai Event.

More Serious Activities

Of course some students are looking for more serious practice with English.
Show and Tell

The Kindergarten classic, ask students ahead of time to bring something in to club and talk about
it. Suggest things like postcards, photos, souvenirs or small mascots. Encourage the other
students to ask questions about what they brought in.
NHK Radio English

NHK airs a series of English conversations every month, they publish a companion book that can
be bought in most book stores as well, it's only a few hundred yen. The books have a full script
with explanations and translations and lots of nifty activities.
The audio clips can be found on here
TRAD Japan

Good ol' NHK again. NHK airs several short video clips with the aim of helping Japanese
explain parts of Japanese culture to foreigners. Topics include Bento, Tatami, Macha and
Castles. The English is pretty advanced. However each topic is explained with both Japanese and
English subtitles, and a segment on explaining difficult expressions and has pauses for you to
practice saying it. My students really enjoyed it.

There is also a companion book published with a full script in English next to a Japanese
explanation along with some funny anecdotes.
Many of the videos can be found on this youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RyokoEnglishChannel
Studying Books

Looking a short passages from a novella or picture books can be lots of fun and good practice for
reading out loud. Encourage your students to share what they liked or didn't like or how they feel
about characters and their actions. Many popular books already have teacher guides online which
saves you the work. ;)
Authors like Louis Sacher, Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling have great short stories that will
need only a little tweaking for language. Junior novelizations of movies are great too. Also, ask
what the students are using for reading material in their other English classes. Often I find the
students have these great stories that they have to study for grammar and vocabulary, but don't
have a chance to really talk about them.