Playing games can help your children learn English. Games are engaging and motivating for primary school age children and young learners, and this makes it easier for them to pick up English words and grammar as they play.
Games also develop your child’s confidence and social skills in English, in a fun way.
When you are at home, or out and about with your children, try these games to learn English with your children. Along the way, you’ll see their English proficiency improve, plus you will make some lasting memories together.
Here are English classes for young children that include fun activities to help your young learners enjoy learning English.
Contents table
|
Game |
Language |
What you need |
|
What’s the time, Mr Wolf? |
What’s the time, (Mr Wolf)? It’s ... o’clock It’s breakfast time! It’s lunch time! It’s dinner time! I’m going to eat you up! |
Group of children, large space |
|
The washing line race |
Clothes vocab Hang up the … Get the pegs Run! Quickly! |
Bag of (baby) clothes, clothes pegs, string or rope |
|
Pairs |
It’s my turn It’s your turn I’m the winner I can’t remember Turn the cards over Vocabulary for ‘sets’ of cards, e.g. animals, house objects |
Set of picture cards |
|
Vocabulary board game |
As above Move back two places Miss a turn Go back to the start Go forward two spaces It’s my turn Can I have the dice, please? |
Sets of printable flashcards |
|
Scrabble |
Vocabulary |
Scrabble board, letters, timer |
|
Bull’s eye |
Vocabulary from flashcards Throw the ball Aim Almost! Well done! Bull’s eye |
Flashcards |
|
Drawing game |
It’s my turn I’m the drawer Vocabulary Can I have the pencil, please? |
Flashcards, paper, pencils, timer |
|
Hangman |
Sets of words: home, animals, places, body Short phrases |
Pen, paper or mini-whiteboard and marker |
Read on for all the details!
Classic games to play with your children to help them learn English
These games are easy to play, and they delight young children because they involve running around and playing. Along the way, they improve their English vocabulary, grammar, and their social skills
What’s the time, Mr Wolf?
Objective:
Learning the time in English can be hard for your children, but this game makes numbers in English easier to remember. So try playing ‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf?’
How to play:
- Someone is named as the wolf. They stand on the opposite side of the space to the other players, with their back to the players.
- The other players shout ‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf?’. The wolf responds with an on-the-hour time - for example, ‘It’s 7 a.m.’ or ‘It’s 8 p.m.’
- Depending on the time, players have to take that number of steps forward towards the wolf. for 7 a.m. they would walk forward 7 steps. For 8 p.m. they would walk forward 8 steps.
- The wolf can also respond ‘It’s breakfast/lunch/dinner time!’ at any point! Then the wolf can turn around to chase the other players.
- If the wolf catches a player, that player takes over as Mr Wolf and the game starts again.
Top Tip:
You can try make your own variations of Mr Wolf by introducing other times of the day, such as ‘It’s bath time’, ‘It’s time to sleep’ or ‘It’s play time’.
Here are other online games to learn the time in English.
Hangman
A classic game for a reason, Hangman only requires a pen and piece of paper. It offers a great way to practise the English alphabet and spelling skills.
The game works by selecting a word – start with short, simple words that don’t have uncommon letters (z or x for example).
Write a dash for each letter in the word. The players then have to guess a letter one at a time, and if the word has the letter, write it above the dash where it appears in the spelling. If the letter doesn’t feature, you add a component to a drawing of a hangman. If there are too many wrong guesses and the hangman drawing is completed, the players lose.
A good tip is to review some of the more difficult vowels and consonants before you begin playing, so that players are confident distinguishing ‘I’ from ‘E’ and ‘J’ from ‘G’. Watch a short story on LearnEnglish Kids to help your children remember the pronunciation of some letters and words.
W_ _ _ ’_ t_ _ t_ _ _? (Can you guess this short phrase?)
The drawing game
This game is brilliant for artistic kids. Inspired by charades, each person takes it in turns to select or think of a word in English to draw in a given time. They’re not allowed to write any words. They can only draw pictures to give clues about the word. As they draw, other players shout out what they think the drawing is.
The game often ends in lots of laughter and a quick realisation of who can draw well. For primary school children, begin with basic themes like food, toys and transport. Once they’re comfortable with these, move on to more abstract concepts that will encourage them to think creatively and help them expand their English vocabulary.
The washing line race
A game that combines English learning and clearning? It really does exist! The washing line race can be played with one child - or in two teams if you have a group of youngsters.
To play, take a bag of kids’ clothes with two of each item (baby clothes are ideal), a set of pegs and a longish piece of rope. Tie the rope between 2 trees or 2 chairs, to be a washing line.
Tie the ‘washing line’ at the children’s height so they can peg clothes on the line.
Make two bundles of clothes – each team has 1 of each item. 1 sock, 1 T-shirt, 1 hat… and so on for each team.
One person is designated the caller. They shout the name of a different clothes item in English. ‘Find a hat’ or ‘Find a sock’. Each team races to pin that item on the line before the other team. The first team to peg all the right items on the washing line is the winner.
If you don’t have access to a washing line, try this clothes activity instead.
I went to the market to buy …
Games can help your primary school children remember English words, by giving them the chance to repeat the same words over and over again ‘I went to the market to buy …’ is a memory game where players sit in a circle and take it in turns to say out loud ‘I went to the market to buy …’ and then they add 1 item
The person who speaks after them adds their own item to the list. The sentence gets longer and longer as the game continues.
For example, the first person could say ‘I went to the market to buy milk’, the second person says ‘I went to the market to buy milk and bread’, the third person says ‘I went to the market to buy milk, bread and carrots’, and so on.
It’s helpful to have a piece of paper handy with some example words they can use if they can’t think of an item to add. If one player can’t remember something on the list, they are out. The winner is the person who can remember all the items on the list.
This game may seem simple, but it’s effective. It helps English students practise a range of English phrase structures, for example quantifiers like ‘a bottle of’, ‘a packet of’, ‘a bag of’.
Board games to help your children learn English
Junior Scrabble®
Board games are excellent for primary-age students because they help them learn English spelling and word order. They can also be played in groups to develop children’s social skills and communication.
Junior Scrabble® is always one of the top English language-learning games. Players have to use certain letters they are given to make words in English on the board. The game can be difficult at first, but you can help your children by getting them to make a list of words that they know in English. They can keep this list beside them as they play.
As players increase in confidence, step up the game by having players make words that overlap with one another on the board – making the board into a type of crossword.
Snakes and ladders
‘Snakes and ladders’ is not always a speaking or reading game. Most players simply roll the dice and move along a board, going up if they land on a ladder, down if they land on a snake. However, you can make it into a cool language-learning activity by printing expressions in English to add to the board and to direct players.
For example, include instructions like
. ‘start’
. ‘finish’
. ‘move back two spaces’
. ‘go back to the start’
. ‘move forward three spaces’.
Players then have to read these out loud, if they land on them, and follow the order.
For more advanced students, print off this board game template and challenge them to write short questions for different spaces on the board, for instance:
. ‘How do you say ____ in English?’
. ‘Name ten wild animals in English’
. ‘Which is longer, the Amazon River or the Nile River?’
This levelling-up ensures students practise grammatical structures, review vocabulary and demonstrate their writing, reading, listening and speaking skills.
Bull’s eye
An active and educational game to learn English, ‘Bull’s eye’ requires you to draw three large concentric circles on a big piece of paper or card. Each level is allocated points. The centre of the bull’s eye is 100 points, the second outer circle is 60 points and the third outer circle is 20 points. Use a soft ball or small soft toy to shoot at the bull’s eye.
Prepare some questions or challenges tailored to the English proficiency of the players and ranging in difficulty.
Plays throw the ball or small cushion. The circle they land on will determine the question they have to answer, in English.
Some questions could be:
. ‘How many brothers or sisters do you have?’,
. ‘Finish this sentence in English …’
. ‘Translate this expression into English’
. ‘What is 2 + 2?’
TIP: You can use your children’s school coursebook to find vocabulary that they’ve been studying or to identify themes they’re familiar with in English.
These are just some of the many English learning games available. For more activities, take a look at these fun and games options. Ready, steady, go!
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