Easy Classroom Ideas

The following (listed alphabetically) are tried and tested fillers and warmers for a variety of classes.
See also Thornbury’s The CELTA Course for a list of games, warmers and fillers.

Alphabet Mime
Put class into teams of 4/5. Each s chooses a letter and writes 5 words beginning with their letter. Each s must
then mime the words to team mates.

Anagrams
Do a couple of example anagrams on the board using recently learned vocabulary and get the class as a group
to work out the words. Ask the students to make anagrams from a set of vocabulary they have recently learned.
Stress the importance of not missing out letters in the anagram and ask the students to write the answers on a
separate piece of paper to make checking simpler. They pass their anagrams on to another group to solve.

Categories
Split the students into 2’s or 3’s and give each group of students 36 blank strips of paper. Instruct them to write
one word on each piece of paper from 6 vocabulary categories you have studied (e.g. countries, nationalities,
days, months, colours, verbs, numbers, adjectives, etc.) They then mix up the words and give them to another
group to regroup.

Food Warmer
This is useful for recycling vocabulary of food and as a lead in to a related lesson. Divide the class into 2 groups
and give them each a pile of blank pieces of paper. Ask them to write the name of a food or dish that the other
group will know on each piece of paper. When they have done this switch the 2 sets of vocabulary between the
two groups. In turn the students must explain or mime this food to their group for them to guess.

Hotseat
An old favourite. Divide the students into 2 teams with one member of each team with their backs to the board.
The teams must explain what is written on the board to their team member without repeating the word(s) on the
board. The team that guesses first wins. This is useful at any level for revising any vocabulary or using
sentences to revise grammar.

Compliments (from Chris White in Spain)

Can be used for lightening the atmosphere in a class and helping classes to bond. Prepare some stickers
appropriate for the learners in your group. Along the lines of:
_ make a compliment about my hair
_ make a compliment about my earrings
_ make a compliment about my shoes
_ make a compliment about my Jacket
_ make a compliment about my sweater
_ make a compliment about my watch
_ make a compliment about my shirt.
Next, elicit ways of giving and accepting compliments from the group and then stick one sticker on each
learners’ back keeping the element of surprise so that they don’t know what they are going to be complimented
on. The class must stand up and mingle giving and receiving compliments. Encourage them to make follow up
comments.

How many?
In groups students list as many things as they can think of in a category within a time limit e.g. regular/irregular
verbs, food, transport etc. Alternatively, try ‘Stop the bus’ or ‘Scattegories’ where a list of categories (6-8
categories, such as jobs, drinks, things in the kitchen, etc) is provided and learners have to write a word in each
category starting with the letter chosen beforehand. They have 2 mins for this and only receive a point if their
word is different from others’.

Jump
Great for ‘make and do’ or other collocations, also for minimal pairs (/v/ and /w/ sounds perhaps). Stand the
students in a line facing the teacher. Students must jump one way if the word/phrase goes with ‘make’ and the

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other for ‘do’. The teacher calls out ‘your homework’ and at the clap of your hands the students must jump.
Those that go the wrong way are out or move to the back. This can also be used for words with positive and
negative connotations (miserable, cheerful).

Line ordering race

Ss line up in order e.g. of height, weight etc. If in teams, it can be a race. Students can decide their own criterion
and get in line and the other team(s) guess the criterion.

Monday Morning
Give the students 2 minutes to draw a quick sketch of their weekend. In 2 or 3’s the students then ask each
other about their pictures.

Can I come on the picnic if I bring

This is a circle game. Each student must say and complete the sentence above. The first one says a word
beginning with A the second a word beginning with B and so on alphabetically. It can be made more challenging
if the word must start with the same letter as their name.

Who am I?
Put a piece of paper with a well known person’s name on the back of every pupil. Then they ask the other pupils
questions until they find out who they are. When they find out, they can continue with another well known
person’s name on their back. Only yes and no answers allowed.

Sentence / story ordering

Give each student a word/part of a story and they have to put themselves into a line in the correct order.

Slap the board

1 Write the words you want the students to practise, randomly on the board
2 Tell students that they are going to play a game called ‘Slap the board’
3 Divide students into two teams. You might want the students to discuss the meanings of the words in their
teams before they start to play
4 Each team stands in a line facing the board
5 Tell students that you will read a definition for one of the words / phrases on the board and that the person at
the front of the line should run and slap the word
6 The first slapper to cover the word gets a point for their team
7 The two students who slapped the board go to the back of the line
8 Make sure you keep a score of which team has won each point
9 Continue until all the words have been slapped.
The game can also be played by students in teams of 5.

Hangman
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1 Make sure the students know how to play. If they don’t, then give a quick demonstration using a simple word
like nurse
2 Choose a word or phrase. Write one dash on the board for each letter of the word or words chosen. Leave a
space between words
3 The students have to guess the word or phrase
4 They shout out one letter at a time
5 If it's correct, you fill in the blanks everywhere the letter appears
6 If it's incorrect you start to draw the hangman. Also write on the side of the board the letters the students got
wrong
7 Draw a part of the hangman for each wrong guess.
The students win if they guess the word before you complete the hangman.

Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe)

Make sure the students know how to play regular noughts and crosses. If they don’t, then give a quick
demonstration with 2 players but do not use numbers or question in the demonstration.
1 Draw a 3 by 3 grid on the board
2 Number the squares
3 You need two teams
4 One team is X, the other O

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5 Each team takes turns. They give you a number, answer your question and you put an ‘X’ or ‘O’ on the grid if
they get it right
6 Teams must try and stop the other team getting a line (across, down or diagonally).
The winning team gets a row of 3 X’s or 3 O’s.

Back to the board

1 Write the words you want the students to practise, randomly on the board
2 Tell students that they are going to play a game called ‘Back to the board’
3 Divide students into two teams. You might want the students to discuss the meanings of the words in their
teams before they start to play
4 Each team stands or sits in a circle in front of the board. One of the students in each team has their ‘back to
the board’ and cannot see it. The other students can all see the board
5 Point to one of the words on the board
6 The students who can see the word have to describe it to the student who has their back to the board. They
must not say the word (if they do minus points!)
7 The student with their back to the board has to guess the word and when they do they shout it out
8 The first team to guess the word scores a point
9 Make sure you keep a score of which team has won each point
10 The students then all move round one place, so that everyone has a turn having their back to the board
11 Continue until all the words have been used.

Variation
Divide students into teams of 5.

Ladder race
1 Draw two ladders on the board. Make sure that there is the same number of rungs in the ladder as students in
a team. For example if you have two teams of 10 students then each ladder must have 10 rungs
2 Tell students that they are going to play a game called ‘The ladder race’
3 To show the students what to do write nurse on the bottom rung of the ladder. Students have to think of a
word beginning with the last letter of this word which is ‘e’. Elephant for example. Write elephant on the next
rung of the ladder. Students now have to think a word beginning with the last letter of elephant and so on
nose
train
elephant
nurse
4 Put the students into teams and the teams line up facing the board
5 Decide on a topic for the ladder race words –parts of the body for example. Then all the words on the ladder
must be parts of the body. Decide together what the starting word will be and write this in the middle of the
board (not on the ladder)
6 Students now play the ladder race. Give each team a pen The first student in the line runs to the board and
writes the first word on the bottom rung of the ladder
7 This student then runs back to their team, gives the pen to the next person who completes the second word
and so on
8 Check that all their words are spelled correctly and are related to the topic.
The winning team gets to the top of the ladder first.

Lucky numbers
1 Before the lesson write 10 questions. Number them 1–12. Two numbers will be ‘lucky’. If the students choose
these they get 2 points without answering a question
2 Write large numbers 1–12 on the board

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
10 11 12

3 Divide the class into 2 teams

4 Decide on team names
5 Decide which team will go first
6 The team chooses a number. Ask the question. Score the points (2 for a correct answer).

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The winning team gets the most points.
Variation
_ Have more than 2 teams
_ Have more questions and more lucky numbers.

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