If you’ve ever watched kids lose focus during an ESL lesson, you know how real the challenge is. It’s not always easy to keep their attention, especially when traditional activities for English language learners start to feel repetitive. That’s why fresh, creative ideas are so important- they can turn a dull lesson into an engaging experience. This blog brings you 15 fun ESL activities for kids that are easy to use, and perfect for building language skills. Let’s dive in and explore new ways to energize your classroom!
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1. Sentence Jenga
In this exciting game, each Jenga block has a word, phrase, or question written on it. When a player pulls a block, they must use it to form a complete sentence or answer the question (e.g., if the block says “apple,” they might say, “I eat an apple every day”).
The game helps kids practice vocabulary, sentence structure, and speaking skills while trying to keep the tower from falling. The winner is the player who successfully builds the tallest tower without toppling it. This activity is a favorite among ESL classroom games because it combines learning with hands-on fun.
2. Word Search Fun
Word searches are one of the most fun English learning games. It helps kids improve their vocabulary, spelling, and focus in ESL lessons. They’re simple to use in the classroom. A word search worksheet can be tailored to fit your lesson’s theme, whether it’s about seasons, holidays, or specific topics like antonyms or synonyms. Here are some worksheets where kids can work on a winter-themed worksheet, finding words like “strong” and “weak,” or a spring worksheet with words like “flowers” and “rainbow.”
Once students receive their worksheets, they race against the clock to find and circle all the hidden words. To add more depth, you can challenge them to use the words they find in sentences or short stories. Kids not only practice their language skills but also enjoy the thrill of competing to see who finishes first.
3. Emoji Conversation
In this activity, kids use a series of emojis as prompts to create dialogues or stories, making it a perfect choice for ESL activities for beginners.
For example, if the emojis are 🏃♂️🍎🎒, a child might say, “He ran to school because he forgot his lunchbox with an apple inside!” Kids can work in pairs or small groups to brainstorm and share their ideas.
This activity encourages creativity, helps with sentence-building, and makes learning fun by using something they love—emojis! The most creative or funniest story wins, keeping everyone engaged and excited.
4. Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is a great way to encourage kids to use their creativity while improving their language skills. It provides a structured approach to storytelling where students can focus on building sentences, expanding their vocabulary, and organizing their thoughts.
Here are some worksheets you can try in class. These worksheets provide fun and engaging prompts to guide kids in writing their own stories. For example, in “The Friendly Alien,” kids write about encountering an alien and helping it, while in “The Superhero School” they describe how they reunite a lost puppy with its owner.
Each worksheet gives a clear prompt, and students are encouraged to use descriptive language, sequence events logically, and share their unique ideas. To add an element of fun, you can turn this into a classroom activity where kids read their stories aloud, and the class votes for the most creative one.
5. Picture Description
Picture description activities are an engaging way to help students build their observational skills and expand their vocabulary, making them a great choice for ESL activities for kids. These activities encourage students to carefully examine visual details and describe what they see, making it a great practice for sentence building and communication.
Here are some worksheets such as “Match It Carefully” or “Using Visual Clues” provide clear prompts for kids to connect images with appropriate descriptions or create their own based on clues. For instance, in the “Match It Carefully” activity, students observe colorful illustrations and match them with the correct description, such as “The underwater world is amazing” or “Lily is scared of ghosts.”
Similarly, the “Using Visual Clues” worksheet asks students to infer emotions and write short dialogues based on the setting and mood of the pictures, like a family enjoying a picnic or a person working at their desk.
6. Tongue Twisters
Tongue twisters are a fun and effective way to improve kids’ pronunciation and fluency in English. Students practice tricky phrases like “She sells seashells by the seashore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” focusing on clarity and speed.
This activity encourages careful listening and speaking as kids try to pronounce each word correctly without stumbling. It’s also a great way to add laughter and energy to the classroom while helping students develop confidence in their spoken English.
Here’s a printable list of popular tongue twisters that you can try in your classroom:
| Tongue Twister | Difficulty Level |
| She sells seashells by the seashore. | Easy |
| Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. | Medium |
| How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? | Medium |
| I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. | Easy |
| Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. | Easy |
| Betty Botter bought some butter. | Medium |
| Red lorry, yellow lorry. | Hard |
| Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward. | Medium |
| A big black bug bit a big black bear. | Medium |
| Unique New York, Unique New York. | Hard |
| Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better. | Hard |
| Eleven benevolent elephants. | Easy |
| If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose? | Medium |
| A proper copper coffee pot. | Medium |
| Black background, brown background. | Hard |
| The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick. | Very Hard |
| Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. | Hard |
| Give papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup. | Hard |
| Four fine fresh fish for you. | Medium |
7. Role Play
Role play is an engaging way for kids to practice real-life conversations and build confidence in using English. In this activity, students are given a scenario, such as ordering food at a restaurant, shopping in a store, or asking for directions. Teachers can assign roles—one student acts as the customer, while another plays the waiter, cashier, or guide. To make it more interactive, provide props like menus, fake money, or maps to create a realistic setting.
This activity helps kids practice vocabulary, improve sentence structure, and learn how to respond in different situations. It’s also a great way to encourage teamwork and creativity as students come up with their dialogues.
8. Interactive Online ESL Games
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Keeping ESL activities fun and engaging is essential to ensure kids stay motivated and excited to learn. Interactive online classroom games for teaching English are a fantastic way to make language practice enjoyable while also building foundational literacy skills.
Here are ESL games that are perfect for a variety of classroom settings—they can be used as a warm-up activity, seamlessly integrated into a lesson, or even assigned as homework. With just one click, you can assign a game and track each student’s progress through a teacher’s dashboard.
The dashboard provides detailed insights into where a child might be struggling, whether it’s with vocabulary, grammar, or reading comprehension. This allows you to identify their specific needs and offer targeted support. The games are curriculum-aligned, so they perfectly complement your lesson plans, making it easier for students to reinforce what they’ve learned. This is how your dashboard would look:
From improving sentence structure to expanding vocabulary, these interactive ESL games for kids cover a range of essential topics in a fun and accessible way. Students enjoy playing while unknowingly mastering critical language skills, making it a win-win for both teachers and learners. Simple to use and highly effective, they’re a powerful tool to help students catch up on foundational literacy while keeping the learning process interactive and engaging.
Related Reading: Best Game-Based Learning Platforms for Kids
9. Using Music
Music is a fantastic tool for teaching English because it’s engaging, memorable, and fun for kids. Choose simple, catchy songs that focus on vocabulary, grammar, or sentence structures, like “If You’re Happy and You Know It” or “The Wheels on the Bus.” Play the song for the class and have kids sing along, focusing on the lyrics. For added interaction, you can incorporate actions or gestures that match the words, making it a full sensory activity.
This activity helps students improve their listening skills, pronunciation, and speaking rhythm. To deepen learning, ask students to fill in missing words in the lyrics or discuss the meaning of the song. It is one of the most fun English activities for kids.
10. Guess the Word
This is an interactive game that helps kids practice vocabulary and listening skills. In this activity, one student sits in the “hot seat” with their back to the board, where a word is written. The rest of the class takes turns giving clues to help the student guess the word. For example, if the word is “apple,” students might say, “It’s a fruit,” “It’s red or green,” or “You can make juice with it.” The student in the hot seat must listen carefully and guess the word based on the clues.
This activity encourages teamwork, sharpens listening comprehension, and helps kids expand their vocabulary. You can keep it simple with common words or make it more challenging with topic-specific vocabulary.
11. Picture Sequencing
Picture sequencing is a great activity to help kids practice storytelling and logical thinking. In this activity, students are given a set of pictures that tell a story, but they’re shuffled. Their task is to arrange the pictures in the correct order and describe what’s happening in each one.
For example, a sequence might show a child planting a seed, watering it, and watching it grow into a tree. Students can work individually, in pairs, or in groups to discuss and decide the sequence.
Once the pictures are arranged, students can take turns narrating the story in their own words, focusing on using transition words like “first,” “then,” and “finally.” This activity improves sentence structure, vocabulary, and sequencing skills while allowing kids to use their creativity.
12. Word Ladder
Word Ladder is a creative activity that helps kids improve their vocabulary, spelling, and critical thinking skills. Start with a simple word (e.g., “cat”) and challenge students to change one letter at a time to create new words (e.g., “cat” → “bat” → “bit” → “sit”). Each step must result in a valid English word.
This is a perfect choice for ESL activities for kids as it can be done individually or in groups, making it adaptable to different classroom settings. Students can race to see who can create the longest ladder or reach a specific target word first.
For added fun, you can set a theme like animals or food and encourage students to stick to related words, keeping the activity focused and engaging.
13. Pronunciation Pyramid
Pronunciation Pyramid is a fun and interactive way to practice pronunciation and spelling. Start with a short word at the top of the board (e.g., “at”). Students take turns adding one letter to the word to create a new word (e.g., “at” → “cat” → “cart” → “chart”). Each time a new word is added, the teacher or students pronounce it together, focusing on clarity and accuracy. This activity helps students recognize letter patterns, practice phonics, and build their vocabulary.
14. Dialogue Puzzles
Dialogue Puzzles are a fun way to help students practice conversational English while building sentence structure and logical thinking skills. In this activity, you create a conversation by writing each line of dialogue on separate strips of paper, then mix them up. For example:
- “Hi, how are you?”
- “I’m good, thank you! How about you?”
- “I’m doing well. What are you up to today?”
Students work individually or in pairs to rearrange the strips into a logical conversation. Once they’ve completed the puzzle, they can read it aloud, acting out the dialogue to practice pronunciation and fluency. To add variety, use different scenarios like ordering food, meeting a friend, or asking for directions.
15. Story Cubes
You’ll need dice with pictures, words, or themes on each side (or create your own cubes using paper). Students roll the dice and create a story based on the images or words that appear. For example, if the dice show a tree, a cat, and a book, a student might start with, “Once, a cat sat under a tree reading a book.”
This activity can be done individually, in pairs, or as a group, with each participant contributing a sentence to continue the story. It helps kids think on their feet, expand their vocabulary, and develop storytelling skills in a fun and pressure-free way. This is one of the most engaging activities for ESL students.
Conclusion
Engaging kids in learning English doesn’t have to be a challenge. These ESL activities for kids are designed to make language learning fun, interactive, and effective. From creative games to hands-on tasks, these ideas help students build vocabulary, improve communication, and enjoy the process. Try these creative English activities for students in your classroom and see how they transform the way kids learn and connect with the language!
Related Reading: Vocabulary Activities for Kids
