Games/Warm-Ups List

Games/Warm-Ups List

This is a list of games that can be modified to be warm-ups or activities for English clubs and after school events.  Not all are suitable for every situation or age group, but when in doubt, these are excellent gap fillers.

·         Longest Rope

-   Each team has five minutes to tie as many items that they are wearing or have on them together to create the longest rope.  After time runs out the team with the longest rope wins.

·         Telephone

-   The first person in line tells a secret phrase to the person next to him/her and that student passes it to the next.  The last person says the phrase out loud.  At the end of the line, the last person tells the phrase out loud.  But before saying if it is right or wrong.  The students must go backwards and say out loud what they heard in order to find out where the telephone was broken.  Use simple sentences for younger students such as, I like to eat bananas.  But use more complex and longer sentences for older and more advanced students.

·         Baby shark:

-   Baby shark, mama shark, daddy shark, grandma shark, going swimming, saw a shark, swimming faster, lost a leg, happy shark

·         Funky Chicken

-   Let me see your funky chicken, what did you say?, I said, let me see your funky chicken, What did you say? I said u-ah ah, u-ah ah, u-ah ah.

·         Carson’s circle ball

-   Stand in circle with feet wide apart, lean over, pass ball and try to get it between peoples feet.  If it does, that person must turn around and bend over.  If it goes through again, then they are out.

·         True/False:

-   This game will help students get more comfortable speaking and thinking in English (this is important even for camps that are not explicitly TEFL-related).  Divide the group into two teams and have each team make a single-file line.  Place two chairs, one labeled “true” and one labeled “false” at the far end of the room/playing field.  Explain the rules: when it’s your turn, a counselor will read/say a statement (for example, “the sky is red.”), and the idea is to run and sit in the chair that corresponds to the statement (in the example, of course, “false.”).  Whoever sits in the correct chair first gains a point for her team.  Make very clear to campers that there is to be no pushing or tripping, and that once someone is sitting in the chair, you may not push him out of it so you can sit down yourself; if you do any of these things, you will lose a point.

·         Two Truths and a Lie:

-   In a circle, ask each student to share three sentences about herself; two of these must be true and one should be a lie.  The group tries to guess which is the lie.

·         People to people

-   Use as an icebreaker or to lift energy in the classroom.  You can play for as little as 5 min or longer.  Stand in a circle.  There must be an odd number of students, so the teacher may need to play or stand out.  One person stands in the middle while the rest of the group pairs up.  The person in the middle says elbow to ear, or fingers to knee, or head to back, etc. At some point he/she will yell people to people and grab a partner while the rest of the group switches partners.  The person left without a partner will be in the middle.

·         Have You Ever/I Have Mail For:

-   The group stands in a circle and each student marks her or his spot with a piece of chalk (or you can do this with a circle of chairs).  The facilitator stands in the middle of the circle and explains the activity.  The person in the middle must ask a question, e.g.. “Have you ever ridden a horse?” or another variation, “I have mail for anyone who has ever ridden a horse.”  Those people who have ridden a horse must run to a now vacant spot in the circle.  The person in the middle can only ask something that she or he has done, e.g. they must have ridden a horse.  Students cannot run to the spot immediately to their right or left.  (Sometimes kids can get excited and this can get a bit violent, so be careful).

·         Pictionary

-   Students draw pictures related to a theme or list of vocabulary words.

·         Line up:

-   Students must line up in order of height, shortest to tallest, with eyes closed and without speaking (you might also want to use blindfolds, since kids like to cheat!).  Variations of this game include lining up according to birthdays without speaking, and one game in which students must line up according to the size of an animal they have chosen.  With the animal variation, only animal sounds are allowed.

·         Charades

-   Students act out scenes related to a theme or a list of vocabulary.

·         Hang man

-   Words or phrases related to a theme or list of vocabulary words.

·         Red rover red rover

-   Two lines on each side of the field/room/gym.  They hold hands tightly.  They huddle and decide which person they want on their team.  Then they say one team at a time, “Red rover, red rover, send __________right over” That person must run and try to break through the students hands at some point in the line.  If they can’t get through, they become part of that team, but if they do break through, they get to take one of that teams players back to their own team. And so on.

·         5 point star

-   Use as an icebreaker or to modify and use to study tenses such as present simple and continuous. Give students a quarter sheet of paper and let them draw a big star on it.  In the middle have them write “I” and then in each star corner have them write the beginning of a sentence such as “have”, “have never”, “want to”, etc.  Then at the corners on the outside of the star, they will continue the sentence.

·         Spelling race

-   Break students into teams, call out a word, and they must race to the board, pick up a piece of chalk and spell the word and run back to their team. They get a point if they are the first team back and the word is spelled correctly.

·         What am I?

-   Tape a profession (or whatever) to the back of a student.  He/she must ask questions to the rest of the class, but the questions can only be answered with yes or no.   For example: Do I wear a uniform, do I work outside, do I carry equipment, do I drive a car everyday, is my uniform green, is my uniform blue, am I a police man?  YES!

·         20 questions

-   One student thinks of an object or person or animal, or food, and the rest of the class must ask questions that can only be answered with yes or no.  For example:  Am I smaller than a cat, am I alive, can I eat it, am I a fruit, am I yellow, am I a banana? YES!

·         Hot seat

-   One student sits in a chair at the front of the class and pretends to be a famous person.  The rest of the class asks questions about him/her.  Name, age, occupation, family, hobbies, etc.  This is a great game to encourage creative thinking.

·         Electric chair

-   One student sits in the chair at the front of the seat.  All the other students get to ask the student questions about topics studied in the class.  If the student does not answer within five-ten seconds (you decide) the chair shakes and electrocutes the student back to his/her seat and the next student is up.

·         Evolution

-   The participants must move around the room and evolve into different animals in the following order:  worm, frog, bird, monkey, human.  Show participants how to move like a worm (hands close to side, legs together and wiggle around).  They must move around until they find someone to challenge.   When they are face to face, they “rock, paper, scissors, shoot” one time and whoever wins gets to evolve to the next animal.  Whoever loses must remain the same.  The frog squats and jumps around.  The bird glides around flapping its wings.  The monkey puffs out the cheeks and uses one arm to scratch above the head, and the other arm to scratch under the arm.  The human simply says, “ I am Human” and walks away from the group.  The point is to evolve to human.  Whoever can do it first—wins.  If they really like this game, it might be fun to add some more animals in the mix and let them make up the gestures to go along.

·         Categories

-   Divide students into teams.  Give a category such as animals, fruit, professions, etc.  Give the students one minute to write down as many words as they can in their teams.  The team with the most words, wins!

·         Will You Buy My Donkey? 

-   Have all the participants stand in a circle.  Two people stand in the middle.  One is the salesperson, and the other is the donkey.  The pair will go around to different people in the circle and use the following dialogue:

·         Will you buy my donkey?

·         No, I will not buy your donkey.

·         But my donkey can ___________.

In blank, the salesperson says whatever he wishes.  Encourage the students to be creative.  My donkey can: sing, moonwalk, jump, dance, play the guitar, be Brittany Spears, etc.  If the “customer” laughs, then he or she becomes the donkey and the donkey becomes the salesperson.

·         Head and Shoulders

-   We all know this song!

·         Rain Dance

-   This activity stresses unity, and is therefore a good activity for last day of camp.  All participants stand in a circle.  A leader will explain that together, the campers can create their own rain storm.  During this activity, everyone should remain completely silent.  Each person is instructed to copy the actions of the person on her or his left side. The dance starts with the leader rubbing his hands together.  As she or he begins, the action passes around the circle, each following the person next to her or him.  When everyone is rubbing their hands together, the leader begins to snap her or his fingers.  The action continues around the circle as before.  Then the leader pats her or his thighs, then stomps her or his feet.  After that, the actions are done in reverse order: stomping, patting, snapping, and rubbing, then stopping all action, until the circle is in silence once again.

·         Quick Thinking:

-   Make sure everyone knows each others’ names before you start.  Divide participants into two teams and have them stand on either side of a blanket that two counselors hold up (make sure you can’t see through the blanket, and that heads or feet are not visible to the person on the other side).  One person from each team should come forward to the blanket and when the counselors drop it, the first person to say the other person’s name gains a point for his team (or you can have the ‘losing’ person join the team of the ‘winning’ person).  Play until one team reaches a certain number of points; or until all the players are on one team.

·         Lap Sit:

-   Participants begin in a circle, standing shoulder to shoulder.  Participants turn right, so they are facing the back of the person in front of them.  Next they should step in towards the center of the circle until everyone's toes touch the heels of the person standing in front of them.  Hands should either be on the shoulders or waist of the person standing in front of them.  On the count of three, everyone should slowly sit down on the knees of the person behind them.

-   *Safety:  A domino fall is possible.  If people feel that they may fall, they should stand up and the group can begin again.  Variations include walking while sitting, or sitting with no hands.

·         Who is Simon?

-   This game was played at WELL 2010, and participants seemed to really enjoy it.  Everyone stands in a circle and one of the participants will volunteer, or is picked to leave the room.  Then a leader is chosen and everyone must mimic what the leader does, but the object is not look directly at the leader.  They must try to follow the group and look at random people.  Have the leader start the motions, and then the person outside is invited back in with a knock on the door.  He/she must then stand in the middle and try to guess who the leader is.  When he or she guesses, that leader then waits outside while the group chooses a new leader.

·         Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

-   Have students hunt and either make a list, bring back, or take a picture of something that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

·         Human Bop-It!

-   I use this as a warm up activity to PE lessons especially in dance to get children thinking about the rhythm and beat of the music. It's based on the 'bop it' game bought in shops.

§  Kick it - children kick in front of them (ensure they're all in a space first!)

§  Twist it - twist their bodies half way around then back, feet remaining in same place on the floor.

§  Spin it - children turn around

§  Pull it - imagine they are pulling two levers down from above their heads

§  Bop it - jump in the air.

·         Concentration

-   The rhythm for the game is slap, slap (on the knees), snap, snap (one on each hand (right, then left).  Group sits in a circle.  One person is designated as the leader, and he/she sets the pace.  The object of the game is to get to the leader’s spot.  The leader begins the rhythm, and on one set of snaps says his/her name on the first, and someone else’s on the second (the names MUST always be said on the two snaps).  The person who’s name is said must respond on the next set of slaps and snaps by saying his/her own name and then someone else’s.  If the player does it correctly, the game continues.  If the player does not do it quickly enough, that player must move to the seat to the right of the leader, and the rest of the group moves up a seat (toward the leader’s spot) to fill in the seats.  Game continues until group has learned names well.  The pace can be as fast as desired.

·         Name Tag Mania

-    Participants are given a name tag and a magic marker.  They are asked to print their name on the upper portion of the name tag and then to draw three objects that represent who they are on the bottom portion of the tag.  After completing the activity, participants are then asked to share their names and what they drew on the tags.  (i.e.  My name is Jess.  I drew a sailboat, a dolphin, and a paint brush.)

·         Bipity Bopity Boo

-   Everyone stands or sits in a circle with one "It" person in the middle.  The "It" then walks up to a person and says either "Me, Bippity Boppity Boo," "You, Bippity Boppity Boo," "Left, Bippity Boppity Boo," or "Right, Bippity Boppity Boo." If the "it" person says "Left, Bippity Boppity Boo," then the person must correctly say the name of the person to the left of them before "it" person finishes saying "Bippity Boppity Boo" It they same the name correctly, the "It" continues going to other people in the circle. If they make a mistake or don't say the name in time, they become the new "It."

·         Bumpity Bump Bump Bump

-   Arrange all players in a circle. Give them time to ask the names of the players on either side of them. Once the names are known, the person in the middle goes up to a player and says "(name)___, bumpity bump bump bump." That person then has to say the names of the people sitting/standing beside him/her before the middle person finishes saying "bumpity bump bump bump." Added Twist: The person in the middle can randomly yell out bumpity bump bump bump and everyone has to find a new spot on the edge of the circle. Then repeat!

·         Web of Names

-   Sit the children in a circle and emphasize that they must remain in their seats or seated on ground (for safety reasons). The game starts by a child or the teacher saying the name of someone else in the circle and holding on to the end of the string, while throwing the ball to the person they named.  The receiver calls out the name of another child, and keeps hold of his or her end of the string while throwing the ball of string on to the named child. As this continues a web begins to be formed by the criss crossing string. The fun really starts when the group has to undo the web by calling names and throwing the ball of string which is rewound by the receiver before sending it on.

·         Cocktail Party

-    People mill around, meet each other, shake hands and chat according to different scenarios e.g., cocktail party, nightclub, on the beach, etc. Scenarios: at a cocktail party, on the beach on a hot summer day, in a nightclub, at a funeral for a mutually loved friend, as Olympic athletes before 100m sprint final, on a blind date, as prisoners arriving at a jail (e.g., what did you do?)

·         Line Em’ Up

-   Divide your guests into teams. The first team who lines up according to the category you shout out, wins. Examples: Shoe size, Alphabetical by first name, Alphabetical by last name, Alphabetical by favorite dog breed (Boxer, Collie, Pug, etc.), Height, Birth date

·         Who’s It?

-    Best for smaller groups. Each student writes down on a scrap of paper a little-known fact about him or herself (the more unusual, the better). These are then read and everyone tries to guess who it is. A prize can be given to the person who guesses the most correctly.

·         Zoom

-   A group tries to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures.  The pictures are randomly ordered and handed out.  Each person has a picture but cannot show it to others. Requires patience, communication, and trying to understand from another's point of view in order to recreate the story's sequence

·         Bipity Bipity Bop

-   There are five commands the leader must remember and teach the team.  1-pilot, 2-palm tree, 3-monkey, 4-elephant, 5-bippity-bippity-bop.  For each command there is a motion.  Have the group stand in a circle with the team leader in the middle.  Point to a person a give one of the commands.   That person, along with the person standing to the left and the person standing to the right must make the appropriate motions before the leader counts to 10.  Start counting as soon as you point and yell “pilot” and count as quickly as possible.  Whoever makes a mistake is in the middle.  The motions are described below.  If “Bippity-bippity-bop” is yelled, then that person must yell “bop” before the leader finishes the phrase.

§  Pilot: makes goggles on face, person to left and right turn backs to that person and stick out their arms to form the pilots wings

§  Palm Tree: extend arms high above head and let hands droop down, person to left and right hula dance

§  Monkey: acts like a monkey, person to left and right pick and eat bugs from fur

§  Elephant: makes a trunk with arm and moves it up and down, person to left and right make big ears on the person using the width of both of their arms.

·         Hi-Ho-Ha

·         Big Booty

·         Mafia

·         Contact

·         Tug-of-war

·         Human knot

·         Street fighter

·         Limbo

·         Capture the flag

·         Ultimate Frisbee

·         Giants, Wizards, Elves

·         Signs

·         Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Sprite

·         Snowball fight

·         How well do you know your team?

·         Crack the Alphabet Code

·         Blind Trust

·         Instructional Blind drawing

·         Throw the Frisbee to answer the questions

·         Water cup race

·         Watermelon (food) contest without hands

·         Riddles

·         Jeopardy

·         Silent interview

·         Link tag

·         Green light-red light

·         Clothes-pin tag

·         3-legged race

·         Egg-spoon race

·         Pin the tail on the donkey

·         Twister

·         Ping-pong banana race

·         Musical chairs

·         Leap frog race

·         Circle sit and walk

·         Freeze dance

·         Crab walk race

·         Ghost tag

·         Honey if you love me

·         Snake’s tail

·         Triangle tag

·         Travis’ Dribble the ball

·         Battle Ship

·         Fruits and Vegetables (name game)

·         Wrap the mummy

·         # groups

·         ah so ko

·         Beat the Bunny

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GVB_2ny-5rNHhfGHGuJub_wSNr8jJODHP-KsZ1KH1m8/edit