zombie scarf

The leader of the game holds the scarf at one end, all other player hol it on the other end. The leadrs starts to tell a story, and when he/she says a "code word" all players must ran away, and the leader must try to catch them. When the leader catches a player, that player turns into a zombie - he now walks slowly and makes zombie sounds and his task is to catch other remaining players.

robots

Select two robots and one mechanic. Place the robots in different corners of the room facing different ways. When you give the signal the robots start to walk. They can only walk straight and if there is an obstacle in front of them - they must hit it and continue walking (the robots should be carefull not to hurt themselves). The mechanic can give robots commands: "turn left" and "turn right". The robots must obey the commands. The task of the mechanic is to make the robots meet. 

cards against humanity

This is a mega-fun card game for advanced levels. The cards can be downloaded here: http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/index2.html

Warning: Black humor and explicit lyrics!

black Peter

This is a card game. Here's the description from Wikipedia:

There are retail card decks specifically for playing old maid, but it is just as easy to play with a regular deck of 52 cards. When using a regular deck, a card is either added or removed, resulting in one unmatchable card. The most popular choices are to remove the ace of clubs or queen of clubs or to add a single joker.^[3] The ace of spades, queen of spades or joker, respectively, becomes the "old maid"; it cannot be matched, and whoever holds it at the end of the game is the loser. It is possible to discard a single card from the deck face-down; if this is done, players cannot know which card is the old maid.

Deck of 19th-century cards

The dealer deals all of the cards to the players. Some players may have more cards than others; this is acceptable. Players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have (e.g., two kings, two sevens, etc.) face up.^[4] Players do not discard three of a kind. In common variants, the suit colors of a discarded pair must match: Spades (♠) with clubs (♣) and diamonds (♦) with hearts (♥). When playing with one card removed, this means one unique card is always the old maid instead of it possibly being any of the three remaining cards of that rank.

Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering his hand face-down to the person on his left. That person selects a card and adds it to his or her hand. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with their original cards. If so, the pair is discarded face up as well. The player who just took a card then offers his or her hand to the person to their left and so on. A player is allowed to shuffle his hand before offering it to the player on his left. In some variants, all players discard after the dealer has drawn.

The object of the game is to continue to take cards, discarding pairs, until all players except one have no cards. That one player will be left with the lone unmatchable card; they are "stuck with the old maid (your chosen card)" and lose.

complete the picture

This is an activity to divide people into teams. Find some pictures (equal to the number of teams you want) and cut them into several pieces. Give each person 1 piece at random. After you give a signal, the people must mix and find other people to complete the picture. In the end you will have your teams. 

cross the circle

All the people are assigned numbers and stand in a circle. The leader of the game has a jar with all the numbers, from which he pulls a number at random and says some role: a balerina, a rapper, terminator, zombie etc. The person, whose number has been said, must cross the circle in the above role. After that he/she invents a new role and the leader takes a new number from the jar.  

wink murder

In each round of play, one player is assigned the role of murderer (or Killer), with the ability to "murder" other players by making eye contact and winking at them. If a player is winked at, they feign sudden death and are removed from the game. Other players are forbidden from winking. The objective of the murderer is to murder as many people as possible. Optionally, a role of detective can be added to the game.

find the chief

Have all players sit in a circle and then chose a person to be “it”. The “it” is to leave so that “it” cannot see or hear. Choose one person to be the chief and he will act out short movements. Examples are clapping hands three times, stomping feet 4 times, etc. All other players must do what the Chief does. Have “it” return to the group to figure out who is the Chief, you can give him up to three guesses if there’s a large group.

hula-hoop

Everyone stands in a circle holding hands. Have two people break hands and put their hands through a hula hoop and rejoin hands again. The hoop must be passed the whole way around the circle without breaking hands. Sometimes it goes over and sometimes under...doesn't matter. It is also fun to time the first try without telling the kids. Tell them at the end after discussing what helped and what made it difficult. Then try to "beat" the first "time".

change!

The pupils must copy your PREVIOUS action every time you shout change, so:
Teacher claps hands. Pupils sit still. Teacher shouts CHANGE and begins to pat her knees. Pupils begin to clap their hands. Teacher shouts CHANGE again and begins to click her fingers. Pupils now pat their knees. This is a good concentration builder.

fotrunately-unfortunately

People tell a story together, one by one. Each person must add a sentence, changing the sentence of the main character.
E.g.
Unfortunately the plane’s engines failed.
Fortunately the pilot had a parachute.
Unfortunately the parachute would not open.
Fortunately their was a haystack underneath. Etc.

blob

Participants spread out in an enclosed area and the Blob is chosen. At the leader’s signal, the Blob begins trying to tag another participant. When the Blob succeeds in tagging a participant, that person latches on to the Blob, becoming part of the Blob. The Blob continues to try to tag others, and as they get tagged, they also join the Blob.

Eventually, everyone is the Blob, and there is no one left to be tagged. Encourage both groups of participants as they try to avoid or assimilate, and remember that the last person to be tagged by the Blob is not the "winner" and the first person to be tagged is not the "loser". The objectives for the Blob and the non-blobs should prevent the participants from thinking of this. The group will probably ask to play again, and because this is a fairly short game, there should be time to repeat the game.

The second time, encourage the Blob to work together to find better ways to tag people, and the non-blobs to discover original ways to avoid the Blob.

screamer

1. The entire group stands in a circle, everyone needs to be able to see the eyes of everyone else.
   
2. Explain that you will be saying two sets of instructions repeatedly, "heads down" and "heads up." When you say "heads down," everyone looks down. Whey you say "heads up," everyone looks up, STRAIGHT INTO THE EYES of anyone else in the room. Two possible consequences:
   1. if they are looking at someone who is looking at someone else, nothing happens;
   2. if they are looking at someone who is looking right back at them, they are both to point in a very exaggerated manner at the other person and let out a SCREAM OR YELL. They are then "out" and take their places together outside of the circle to observe.
      
3. Once the "screamers" have left the circle, the circle closes in and you repeat step two, followed by step three, until you are down to two people. Yes, they have to do it one more time, even though the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

mime it down

Participants are divided into groups of eight to ten people. Each group sits in a straight line, facing backward except for the first person. Participants are not allowed to talk at any point in the game. The first person in each line is given an object to mime (i.e., a toaster, a computer, a jack-in-the-box) – the only requirement is that it can be shown in pantomime in a seated position. The first person taps the second person in line on the shoulder so that they turn to face each other. The first person mimes the object, and when the second person thinks he knows what the object is, he nods. Then the object is mimed to the next person, traveling down the line to the last person. The objective is for the pantomime of the object to be clear enough each time that it stays the same object all the way down the line. Usually, the object changes into something entirely different – the interesting thing is to see how it changed along the line. Each person should tell the others what they thought the object was, and discuss what they saw the others demonstrating.

color dictation

The students have line drawings and the teacher gives them intructions on how to color the drawing. The instructions are not direct commands, instead, the teacher "dictates" sentences and the student must listen and understand how the picture is to be colored.
For younger children the "dictation" can be very simple: "three blue balls", "a yellow car", "the green tree".
With older children a teacher can use full sentences: "The boy on the left is wearing a red hat." or "The girl under the tree has blue shoes."
Repeat each phrase or sentence several times before moving on. Give the children plenty of time for coloring. They also need time to reflect and to transfer what they are hearing into what they are doing.
The students will probably "copy" each other. This is fine, language transfer will still occur because there is still an association with what they heard and what they are coloring.
Don't be afraid to continually add more complex sentences as they get used to this type of "dictation". Children love the challenge and they will listen carefully to avoid making costly mistakes (it's very difficult to erase coloring pencils).

monster bodyparts

A fun game for reviewing body parts and numbers!
You need: two white paper cubes. On one cube (on each of the 6 sides) you draw eyes, ears, mouth, hair, hands, feet (or any other body parts you are working on) and on the other cube you write out the numbers - one, two, three, six, ten, twelve, etc. The student "throws the dice" and has to draw the outcome on his paper: twelve eyes, three noses and six feet, etc...
The student continues until he has filled in all six body parts and colored in his monster.

dart gun

Using a dart gun in class. E.g:

"This is a game I use while teaching animals. I have several different groups of preschool and elementary aged children, and this is particularly appealing to boys - as I believe boys learn better while being active! And believe me, my groups love it!
I simply divide the children into two teams. I then draw a line on the floor (with masking tape) and instruct the children to stay BEHIND the line at all times. Then I line up various rubber animals on a table and give each team a dart gun (I have some nice ones that shoot foam darts - so it is VERY safe). Then I call out the name of one animal. The team gets 1 point if they shoot the correct animal."

go fish!

Players

2 to 6 players, best with 3 to 6.

Deck

Standard 52-card deck.

Goal

To collect the most sets of four.

Setup

Five cards are dealt to each player if three to six players are involved. With only two players, seven cards are dealt to each.

All remaining cards are placed face down in a draw pile.

Gameplay

Randomly choose a player to go first.

On your turn, ask a player for a specific card rank. For example: "Barb, please give me your 9s." You must already hold at least one card of the requested rank.

If the player you ask has any cards of the requested rank, she must give all of her cards of that rank to you. In the example, Barb would have to give you all of her 9s.

If you get one or more cards from the player you ask, you get another turn. You may ask any player for any rank you already hold, including the same one you just asked for.

If the person you ask has no relevant cards, they say, "Go fish." You then draw the top card from the draw pile.

If you happen to draw a card of the rank asked for, show it to the other players and you get another turn. However, if you draw a card that's not the rank you asked for, it becomes the next player's turn. You keep the drawn card, whatever rank it is.

NOTE: The "next player" is the one who said "Go fish."

When you collect a set of four cards of the same rank, immediately show the set to the other players and place the four cards face down in front of yourself.

Winning

Go Fish continues until either someone has no cards left in their hand or the draw pile runs out. The winner is the player who then has the most sets of four.

blanket

This is a game to remember names. In the middle of the room two people are holding a big blanket, dividing the room into two parts. You split your group into two teams and both teams gather on the opposite sides of the blanket in a way, that the members of the opposing teams don't see each other. When the leader gives a signal, one member from each team comes forward and stands in front of the blanket. Then the blanket is lifted and the two people see each other. Their task is to say the name of the person in front of them as fast as possible. The one who was the last has to join the opposing team. The game is finished when all people are in one team.

island

You start by telling the backstory: the whole group is going to the island and they need to take different stuff with them. The people take turns and say the things they are going to take to the island, and the leader of the game says if that item can be taken or not. The trick is that people can only take objects that start with the same letters as their names, e.g. John can take jeans, jelly, jeep; Mark can take maps, markers, milk etc. The game is over when everyone figures out the principle.

The leader of the game can give players small hints by always using their names: "Yes, John, you can take jeans" or "No, Sam you can't take a TV".

mutations!

People sit in a cirle and everyone has a piece of paper in their hands. Each person writes a sentence on top of the paper (the more silly the better) and passes his paper to a neighbour on the right. The neighbour reads the sentence and draws the picure of it on the same paper. Than he folds the paper, so that only drawing is visible and passes the paper to his neighbour on the right. That person has to look at the picture and write what is happening...and then fold and pass again. The last person makes a picture and finally all the papers are unfolded.

what happened?

You start by telling the situation:
"A naked person lies in the middle of the desert holding a broken match in his hand. The person is dead and there are no footprints around him."

The group has to find out what happened to the person by asking you yes/no questions.

The story:
Three men were flying over the desert on a hot air balloon. Suddenly they started to fall down. To make the balloon lighter they have threw away all their stuff and their clothes. But that didn't help. So the men decided to draw matches, the one with the short match would have to jump off the balloon to save others.

You can make up different situations using the same principle. 

babylon

All the group stands in the circle with one person in the middle. You explain everyone the roles and the sketches. The middle person can call out a role and point to someone from the circle. That person, the person to his left and the person to his right must then perform a small sketch. The one who makes a mistake becomes the new middle person.

Here are the roles:
1. Viking
When you point to the person and say Viking, that person must make a viking helmet with his hands. At the same time the people standing to the right and to the left of the Viking have to mime rowing the viking bot and make sea noises.

2. Palm tree

When you point to the person and say Palm tree, that person must become a palm tree and start swaying in the breeze. The people standing to the right and to the left of the Palm tree are now Hawaiian dancers and have to dance away from the tree while singing Hawaiian song.

3. Ballet dancer

When you point to the person and say Ballet dancer, that person must put his hands up and start spinning. The people standing to the right and to the left of the Ballet dancer have to do a ballet pirouette while humming the ballet tune.

zombies and potatoes

Everyone in the group closes their eyes. The game master then selects one zombie from the group by lightly touching his/her shoulder (noone from the group has to notice that). All the other players will be "potatoes". The master then gives the signal and everyone has to start walking around the room. When two people meet, they have to quietly whisper their roles to each other. If a potatoe meets another potatoe - nothing happens and they just walk away. But if a potatoe meets the zombie - it dies! In 5-7 seconds after it hears a person whisper "zombie" to his/her ear, the potatoe must scream and fall to the ground. Then he/she can open the eyes and watch the rest of the potatoes slowly killed by the zombie :)  

Another version of this game is Vampires. Potatoes present themselves as mentioned above and the vampires are always silent. When a potatoe meets a vampire it becomes a vampire. But when two vampires meet - the both become potatoes! Magic!

taboo

Before class, create several index cards. On each card write one word in a large font with a circle around it, and underneath write 2-4 related words in a smaller font. The goal is for students to get their teammates to guess the circled word. They can say anything they like to try to make them guess, except for the words written on the card.

Here is the example of a game for the topic "films":

Terminator – robot, future, Arnold Schwarzneger, Skynet

Titanic – ship, boat, iceberg, Di Caprio

American pie – comedy, pie, american

Twilight – vampire, warewolf, love, romantic, Pattinson

Iron man – iron, man, costume, Stark

Batman – superhero, costume, bat, black

Spiderman – spider, man, costume, red, blue, heroe

Shreck – big, green, ogre, cartoon

WALL-E – cartoon, robot

Madagaskar – animals, island, cartoon

Forest Gump – Forest Gump, man, Tom Hanks

Rocky – box, Silvester Stalone

Toy Story – toys, story, cartoon

Matrix – robots, Keanu Reeves, future, Morpheus, Trinity

Lord of the rings – hobbit, ring, middle earth, Jackson, Gendalf

Star wars – jedi, any name (!), space, empire

Doctor House – doctor, Hugh Lourie, medicine, hospital

Indiana Jones – archeologist, adventure, Harrison Ford, hat

Lion King – lion, Simba, cartoon, Disney

Slumdog millionaire – India, poor, boy, rich

experts

Select three volunteers and sit them in front of the group. They will be experts. Then the group has to decide the area of their expertiese e.g. food, cinema, sports etc. After that the group starts asking them questions, and the experts have to answer. The trick is, the experts can each say only one word at a time and have to speak in chain and try to make up a meaningful sentence. 

why not?

You ask everyone to think of some thing they want to do today: go to the movies, sleep, eat an ice-cream etc. Then the people must go around the room and tell their plan to everyone, and each person they meet must come up with a reason, why this plan cannot be fulfilled. If you hear the same reason for the second time, the person must think of another one. The reasons should be as funny and creative as possible. And delivered in a polite way. "I'm really sorry, but today you cannot go to sleep. Your bed has been eaten by Godzilla."

mafia!

First, write one of 4 things on enough pieces of paper that each person gets one. Depending on numbers 3/4 will be Mafia, 1 Policeman, 1 Doctor and all the rest will say Citizen. Give each group member a part and explain that no one else is to know who is who as tha aim of the game is to root out the "mafia" from amongst the "citizens". Explain that at night a the mafia will kill someone, the doctor will save someone and the policeman will investigate/ find out about someone. 

Ok. Tell everyone to close their eyes. Say something like: "Citizens of ___ go to sleep". Next invite the mafia, and only the mafia to wake up. Between them the members of the mafia will "kill" one of the group. Get them to agree on and point to their victim. Tell them to go back to sleep. Next ask the doctor to wake up. Ask him who he wants to save, again asking that it be communicated through gestures. Should the person being killed and the person being saved be one and the same, the murder will have been averted and so the process will have to begin again. Finally wake the policeman up. He will point to the person he's investigating and you will either nod indicating yes that person is mafia, or shake your head, no they're not. 
Finally ask them all to wake up. Say something like: "Last night in ___, there was a brutal and bloody murder and _____ was killed. We know that 4 people among you are members of the mafia and responsible for this murder. Citizens who do you want to accuse?"

It'll take a few minutes to catch on that it could be anyone and the accusations will begin. "I accuse X because he has a wonky moustache" or some such. X will then have to defend himself. Nobody is to
admitt to being mafia and they will soon catch on that it is either the loudest people who are accusing everyone, or the quietest that don't want to draw attention to themselves, that are guilty. As each
accusation is made and the individual makes his defense a group decision will need to be made on whether or not to send that person to prison. Ask everyone to vote and the majority decision sticks. Once
they get sent to "prison" ask them if there were in fact mafia or notat which point they must tell the truth. As each person gets sent down or at appropriate intervals, stop the proceedings as another day
ends, and a new night and a new murder occur. 

Expalin that both the Policeman and Doctor are allowed to tell what they know, but also expalin that a crafy mafia member might lie and say he's the policeman to try to point the finger away from himself. The Mafia may also accuse one another, as each person is only really concerned to keep themselves out of prison. Also one a peron is dead, or has been sent down they are no longer permitted to participate as they may know, or think they know things. The mafia are likely to kill anyone they feel is on to them. There's no set pattern to how the discussion should go just let them argue it out among themselves, giving advice if and when you feel it's necessary.

pairs

This game is useful to learn/practice vocabulary and it is also a good speaking activity. You need to print out a set of cards, on each card there is a word and a clear illustration of that word. Then you divide the cards among players (each should have 10-15 cards). The players make moves in turns. Someone starts by putting one card on the table. The other players must think quick - find a pair to that card among their cards and put it on the table. The first one to make a pair can take both cards and put them in his/her "point pile". Then the next person puts another card on the table and everyone must search for the next pair etc. In the end the winner is the person who has the most points (cards) in the pile.

The idea of that game is that basically any card can be a pair to any other card. You just need to find something they have in common and be able to explain it. This games requires quick thinking and creativity. 

mutants

The people sit in the circle, each has a piece of white paper. You ask everyone to draw any animal head (with a neck) at the top of the paper. Then they must fold the paper in a way, that only a beginning of the neck is visible and pass their paper to the right. Then each person draws some animal body and again folds and passes the paper. The last task is to draw legs. In the end you pass the papers one more time and the people can finally unfold them. You will have a lot of crazy animal mutant pictures, which you can later discuss.  

uno!

The Uno game can be used as a good ice-breaker before the main class. It is also a good way to practice color/number vocab.

surviver spelling

Make a list of vocabulary covered in previous lessons. Have students stand. Call out a vocabulary word. The first student begins by saying the word and giving the first letter, the second student the second letter of the word, the third student the third letter, and so on until the word is spelled correctly. If somebody makes a mistake they must sit down and we start from the beginning again until the word is spelled correctly. The last student must then pronounce the word correctly and give a definition in order to stay standing. The student who is left standing is the "survivor" and wins the game. 

If all the students remain standing you can introduce a prize.

liar!

Take a deck of cards. Deal all the cards from the deck to the students. The goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards. 

Let's say the player doesn't have the card he is supposed to put down, for example a 3, the player must try to "lie" or fool the other players into thinking he has the card so he can play... if other students have any doubt they shout "liar" if the player was lying he then pick up the pile at the center of the table. If the player who is accused of lying was telling the truth it is the player who accused him who must pick up the pile in the center.

All players MUST put down a card when it is their turn, even if they do not have the required card. The game is over when one of the players has no more cards.

pick an object

When people enter the room, there are a lot of different objects all around. They must each pick one object and then explain, why this object represents them. This activity requires creative approach.

beep!

Choose around 10 volunteers to come and stand in a line at the front of the classroom. The first student in line must begin counting from 1, and each student in turn calls out the next number. However, every number that has 3 in it (or can be divided by 3) must be replaced by the word "beep" (or buzz etc.). Following a "beep" the next student in line must call out the next number, and not the number that has been replaced. For example, 1, 2, beep, 4, 5, beep, 7, 8, beep, 10 etc.

If a student hesitates too much or makes a mistake he/she must sit down, so eventually only one student remains. Whenever a student sits down, begin from 1 again. See how far you can get!

hunter-shield

Each person selects two people from the group - a hunter and a shield. After the game master gives the command, all people must spread across the room and find a position where their "shiled" is standing between them and their "hunter". 

what changed

Sam and Mike stand facing each other. Sam has 30 seconds to look at Mike and memorize his appearance. After that Sam turns around and Mike changes one thing in his appearance - rolls up the sleeves, unbuttons the shirt, puts the watch to a different hand etc. Then Sam turns around again: he has to look at Mike and notice the one thing that changed.

clue!

The Clue game can be a good way to spend a lesson.

human bingo

Divide the paper into nine squares. In each square write a question about the group members:
- who here has a brother?
- who can drive a car?
- who can play a guitar?
- etc.

The people then have to go around interviewing each other and try to fill each square with one name. The one who gets it first is the winner. 

musical chairs

The game starts with any number of players and a number of chairs one fewer than the number of players; the chairs are arranged in a circle (or other closed figure if space is constrained; a double line is sometimes used) facing outward, with the people standing in a circle just outside of that. A non-playing individual plays recorded music or a musical instrument. While the music is playing, the players in the circle walk in unison around the chairs. When the music player suddenly stops the music, everyone must race to sit down in one of the chairs. The player who is left without a chair is eliminated from the game, and one chair is also removed to ensure that there will always be one fewer chair than there are players. The music resumes and the cycle repeats until there is only one player left in the game, who is the winner. When down to the last two players the chair may be moved as long as the music has stopped before the chair has been touched.

electricity

Everyone stands in one big circle and holds hand. Someone starts the game by making the first "charge" - he squeezes the hand of the person next to him. As soon as that person feels that his hand is squeezed, he must squeeze his neighbour's hand. That way the charge starts going arund the circle. The goal is to make it go around as fast as possible.
To make the game more difficult you can make two charges go in different directions.  

language box

This is an idea for ESL teaching. When you have a classroom of people and you don't want them to speak their native language you start your lesson by introducing a language box. The group stands in circle and you walk along that circle with the box. Each member must "take out his tongue" and put it in a box. That means he/she will not be able to speak the native language during the class. Everyone can think of a funny or unusual way to take the tongue out.

At the end of the lesson you make the reverse procedure: you go around the classroom and let everyone take their tongue back.  

hangman

You start by drawing the gallows. Think of a word or phrase and place a small line to represent that letter. Students must try to guess the letters in the word. If they guess correctly, you place the letter in the correct position. If they guess incorrectly, you draw a new body part hanging from the gallows, starting with the head. If the students make enough incorrect guesses for you to draw a full man, he "dies" and they lose.

simon says

The rules are simple: someone from the groups says an action e.g: jump, lie down, sing, stand on one leg, etc. And the whole group must make that action until someone suggest a different one. You can be creative and suggest some interesting actions: hug John, hide under a desk, make animal noises etc.
The activity can be used to repeat some movement vocabulary.   

broom

This activity is used as an energizer and a way to memorize everyones names. The whole groups stands in a circle with one person in the middle. This person is holding a broom the way it touches the floor with one end. The middle person has to look at the group, shout someone's name and let go of the broom. The person whose name was called must rush to the centre of the circle and catch broom before it falls to the floor. Then it is his turn to shout the name etc. 

activity!

This board game is very useful and fun for practicing vocabulary and speaking.

If you don't have the game, you can make it yourself. The principle is simple: you have a set of cards with one word on each of them. The cards lie face down in a pile. The players split in two teams.

The first team starts: one player takes a card, reads the word (to himself) and then has 1 minute to explain this word to his team. The player cannot say the word, instead he must draw, mime, or describe it. If the team guessed the word and there is still time left, the player takes another card and explains it. For each guessed card the team gets 1 point. After the minute is over, the second team has a turn.

There is also a stealing rule: if the minute is over and the team didn't guess their word, the other team can make one attempt to guess it. If they are correct - they take the point. 

dj sam

You ask everyone to take a marker and write the letters d-j-s-a-m on their fingers in any order (one letter per finger). You then open a white board and show the definition of every letter: d is for danger, j is for joy, s is for sadness etc. (you change the letters/definitions to fit your topic). The people then have to mix and find a partner. The partner chooses one of your fingers without seeing the letter. And you must talk about the subject he chose. Then you switch. 

jenga!

Good way to keep people busy while waiting for others.

knots

Ask participants to form a circle, shoulder-to-shoulder and close their eyes. Then each person should place a hand in the middle of the circle and to grasp another hand. After that the participants to put their other hand in the middle and grasp a different person's hand. Then they open their eyes and must untangle the knot into a circle without letting go of hands.

fruitbowl

The people sit on the chairs in circle. The game master stands in the middle and explains the rules: there are three teams - apples, bananas and oranges. When the master calls out the name of the team, all it's members must stand up and change places. When the master says: "fruitbowl" everyone must stand up and change places. After explaining the rules the master starts the game and calls out the names of different teams. After 2-3 times he shouts "fruitbowl" and when the people stand up to find a new place, the master sits in someone's chair. The person left without the place is the new master. He/she must lead the game and try to get a place.

hogs and tractors

Participants split in pairs. One of them thinks of the animal sound, another - of the machine sound. After each pair has came up with their sounds, everyone closes their eyes and mixes in the room. The goal of the game is to find each other by making your sounds. 

broken phone

The people stand in chain. The person in the end of the chain begins the game by whispering some phrase to his neighbour. The neighbour than has to whisper the phrase to the next person and so on. The people have to pass the phrase as quickly as possible. The last person has to say it aloud. Usually by the end of the chain the phrase is completely different.

can't stop

This is a variation of a board game of the same name where 2 teams race to reach the top first. I use this game a lot for phonics practice but it can be used for anything. Draw two vertical paths of 8-12 squares each and draw a big circle with a prize at the top. Place a magnet for each team at the bottom of the paths. If team 1 goes first ask 5 students from that team to stand. ask a question and the student who raises his hand may answer. If correct, then his team's magnet goes up one square and he\she sits down leaving 4 students standing. Ask these students: Do you want to stop? If they answer yes then draw a line under their magnet and they can't fall bellow it but their turn is over. If they answer "No" then ask another question but if they get it wrong they fall all the way to the bottom or to the last place they stopped. You must ask "Do you want to stop?" after every correct response. At first teams will try to race to the top without stopping but soon discover its very hard to answer 12 consecutive questions without any mistakes and thus always plunge back to the bottom.

blow that fish

Two teams stand on the opposite sides of the table. In the middle of the table is a paper fish figure. The teacher asks the question and the first team to answer it correctly gets the right to blow. After that the questions continue. The team that is able to move their fish to the end of the table wins the game.

cowboys

This is a great warm up game suitable to many fluency levels, ages and target vocabulary types. It also requires no resources and encourages quick thinking. The game can be made as hard or easy as you wish. 

The teacher is the cowboy in the centre of the circle. Teacher makes a gun shape with their hand. Teacher points to a student (shoots them) and says the target vocab. This student ducks and the Students on either side of them must shoot each other with the answer. The first to say the vocab correctly wins, whilst the second is out. E.g.: teacher points to a student and says "yes." Students on either side of the targeted student point to each other and say "NO!" - practicing ontonims.

The teacher can control the game so the remaining two students are from opposing teams. When down to two students, they stand back to back and walk away from each other until teacher says the vocab (Ie: In opposites bang teacher says: "One, Two, Three, Four, Yesterday!". Students turn around and shoot each other after four steps saying "Tomorrow!"). 

who am i?

The students seat in a circle. Each student has a card with a person/animal/object on his forehead. He doesnt see the card, but everyone else does. The person must guess what is written on the card by asking a yes/no questions. If he asks a question and receives the answer “yes”, than he can ask another question. If the answer is “no” than its the next person’s turn.

It also fun, if all the cards are written by the students to each other. 

battleships

Make 2 grids and lable the columns from eg. A-M and the lines from 1-13.

Let the students "hide" 10-12 words in one of these grids (using words from previous lessons, or ones you like to practise). The words should not touch and be written across or down. Now by taking turns, each student tries to "shoot" words, by asking for eg. A8. If he has a hit he can go on guessing, if not the other one tries. Winner is the one who found all the words first. (the second grid is for the own shots).

scavengers

This game is a wonderful warm up for practising prepositions while incorporating already learned vocabulary, though it takes some preparation, either before class or when the children are told to shut their eyes. I write on little slips of paper and hide them around the classroom.

One leads to another. example: ' Look under the waste bin', where the children find a slip that says,'on the teacher's desk' where they find a slip with,' beside the restroom door' or,' in front of the computer'. Inevitably the children read these instructions outloud. If they have difficulty understanding the directions I have them ask me," How do you say ' in front of the computer' in Italian?". At the end of the hunt I write a note saying 'Congratulations, You Win!!!' They are crazy for this game.

empires

Give each student a small piece of paper, about the size of your thumb. Ask them to write down their favourite animal, sport, month, cartoon character, whatever. Collect the paper, write all entries on the blackboard (makes things a lot faster). The object is to try to guess what the student wrote by asking “James, is your favourite month July?”. If James responds yes, then he becomes apart of your empire, and you ask someone else. Cross that month off the board. If James responds no, then it is his turn to ask anyone in the class to attempt to build his empire. If, for example James acquires an empire of 3 students, and you guess that James' favourite cartoon character is Stewie, for example, then you acquire him and his empire. The game ends when a student has everyone in his empire. 

dog vs ninja

All that you need for this is a stack of index cards, each with the name of possible combatant written on it. For example: samurai, tiger, battleship, pro-wrestler, ninja. Make at least 30 or 40 cards.

Shuffle the cards and choose two, then ask your students who would win a fight between the two combatants named. The idea here is to get your students talking and, if possible, speculating. Ask them why they think this or that fighter would win. Is he / she stronger, larger, or faster, than the vanquished foe?

As always, its good to add a few comedy entries in the list of fighters. How would "the smallest dog in Osaka" fare against a bull? How about Tom Cruise vs. a chicken? Godzilla vs. Madonna? Ichiro vs. an army tank? You can also add the names of students - this always gets a laugh, and can cause animated debates among your kids.

The great thing about this format is that it can always be randomized, simply by re-shuffling the deck.

hit the head

Everyone takes a piece of white paper and writes one word on it, so everyone else can read it. The people then sit in the circle and hold their papers in front of them. One person stands in the middle and has a paper tube in his hand. Someone starts the game by saying one of the words from the circle. The middle person has to find the person holding that word and hit him/her on the head with a tube. To avoid being hit the person must "redirect" the tube by calling out some other word from the circle. If you have been hit, you become the middle person.

bodyparts

The facilitator ask everyone to find a partner, shake his hand and introduce yourself. After that he ask to change partners and repeat the procedure, but this time instead of shaking hands they should shake legs. The activity continues for a while and each time the participants have to greet each other by shaking different bodyparts.

snowballs

Each participant is given a piece of white paper (preferably A4) and asked to write something on in - a name, a hobby, favourite food etc. (depends on the task). After everyone has finished, the facilitator forms his piece of paper into a snowball and starts a snowball fight. After 2-3 minutes the fighting stops and everyone are asked to take one snowball in their hand. They now have a piece of information about another participant and can use it to start a conversation or make an introduction.

This activity can also be used to divide the group into teams.

threads

This activity is good for dividing the group into pairs. The facilitator takes a number of threads equal to half group size (e.g. 5 threads for 10 people). He holds all threads in his fist so that the participants only see the ends of the threads and don't see which end belongs to which thread. The facilitator then asks each participant to take one end of the thread. After everybody did so, he uncleanches the fist and each pair is connected by a single thread.