10 Time-Killer Games for Kindergarten and VYL
As anyone who’s taught kindergarten knows, attention spans are short. For me, a typical kindy game lasts an absolute maximum 10 minutes before I have to switch to something else. But sometimes teachers are just not in the mood to constantly switch activities to keep little minds engaged.
That’s where these time-killing games come in handy! They all teach great grammar or vocabulary skills, but last much longer than the typical “slap the flashcard” game.
So if you need to kill at least 15 minutes or more in your next class just to save your sanity, check out these games.
1. Memory Game
Time: 15 minutes
Required: A relatively large stack of flashcards
This game is best for a review lesson when you have a lot of flashcards.
First, quickly review the flashcards with the students. Show them the words and have them repeat after you, checking pronunciation.
Then put all the cards face down on the floor or sticky tack them to the board with the picture facing away from the students.
Now point to a card, ask a student what it is, and have them answer in a complete sentence. Then you (or the student) flip the card over. If the student is correct, they keep the card. If not, then put the card back face down. Then point to a new card and ask another student what this one is.
Students must try to remember which cards are where, which is surprisingly difficult for young learners, but they really love getting it right and getting to hold onto their own little flashcard. At the end, they can count the cards and see who has the most. Don’t emphasize a winner unless you want tears on your hands.
It’s a simple but effective review for VYL.
2. Is it a ___?
Time: 15 minutes
Required: Flashcards
Get a stack of flashcards that the students know. Show the students what words you have and ask them to repeat the words a few times to make sure they remember the words and can pronounce them correctly.
Next drill the sentences, “Is it a ____?” “Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.”
Finally, the teacher should take a seat at the front of the room, face the flashcards away from the students by placing them against his or her chest, shuffle the flashcards, and look down at what flashcard is on top without showing the students.
Now ask students to guess what flashcard it is. Every time a student guesses incorrectly, say “No, it isn’t.” When someone gets it correct, shout, “Yes, it is!”
That student now gets to come up and take the teacher’s place, choosing other students to guess the flashcard they now have in their hands.
Rinse and repeat!
3. What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?
Time: 15-20 minutes
Required: Flashcards and a space free of desks and chairs
Line several students up along a wall in the classroom (or a line along the floor). Take a stack of flashcards with you and stand at the opposite end of the room or as far away as space allows.
Show the students a flashcard. Ask them, “Is it a _____?” If the answer is, “No, it isn’t,” then students should say that, and take one step. Ask them “Is it a ____?” with the answer being “no” for several flashcards. Finally, show them a flashcard and ask a question with “Yes, it is!” as the answer.
After students say, “Yes, it is!”, they must race back to the wall or the line where they started at. The teacher chases them and tries to tag a student. If a teacher successfully tags a student, then they become a wolf with the teacher. This can be repeated many times.
Different grammar: The questions can be exchanged for any “Yes/No” questions, such as, “Can it fly? Does it have four legs? Can you see this in the city?” depending on the students’ ability levels and the grammar topic.
To make it more exciting, you can use a stuffed animal or flashcard to demonstrate that you are a wolf. You can also exchange the wolf for an animal the kids are more familiar with like, “alligator.”
Big classes: Finally, if you have a lot of kids in your class, just play the game with four or five students at a time. The game is pretty exciting to watch, and the other kids generally have a good time watching their classmates get chased. So, they’re not just sitting there, encourage other students to answer your questions too.
4. What’s Your Name?
Time: 15 minutes
Required: Nothing
Before you play the game, practice saying, “My name is _______.” Call on a few students to say their names using the pattern.
Then demonstrate saying, “My name is ______,” but with a name that is not your own. Have a few students practice saying a name that isn’t their own.
Now take a chair and face it backwards, away from the class. Have a student come sit in the chair, not looking at the class. The teacher goes to a student in the class, points, and asks, “What’s your name?” That student should respond with a name that isn’t their own.
The student sitting in the chair at the front of the room should guess who it is. They cannot peek. If they’re wrong, get the speaking student to say “their name” again. Repeat two or three times before saying “Good try! But it was Pam!” or until the child in the chair guesses who it is.
Now switch students and have a new student come to the front.
This game can be made harder by miming that children are allowed to get out of their chairs or indicating that they can change their voices. VYL get an absolute kick out of this game and it’s great essential speaking practice too!
5. Dice and Questions
Time: 15 minutes
Required: Flashcards, a whiteboard, and a large dice
Write six questions on the board and number them 1-6. Make sure they are questions that the students are very familiar with. Some good ones are, “What’s your name? How are you? What do you like? What day is it today? How’s the weather? etc.”
Read the questions to the students. You can even draw little pictures next to the questions to help remind them what the questions are.
Now give one student a large dice. He or she rolls the dice. Whatever number the dice lands on, the student must now ask that question to one of their classmates. The first student takes the dice to a student of their choice, asks the question, and when that student answers, the first student can give them the dice.
Now the new student rolls, gets a question, goes to another student, asks the question, and passes the dice to that student when they answer.
This might sound simple, but students LOVE choosing their friends for activities. They also love asking questions since they’re usually the ones answering. Kids will play this for ages if you let them.
To mix it up, you can make the number 6, “Ask a question of your own.” Students really love coming up with their own silly questions.
6. Little Teacher
Time: 15-20 minutes
Required: Nothing
Teach some basic classroom commands of your choice, like “Stand up. Raise your hand. Make a circle. Line up. Open your book. Put away your…” Choose whatever commands are relative to your classroom.
Practice the commands a few times by students repeating after you and calling on individuals to demonstrate the commands.
Then call three students to the front. Give them several commands and wait for them to follow them.
Now choose a “little teacher” and three new “students.” The little teacher should give commands to their three students. After a few commands, tell them good job and ask them to sit down. Then call on a new teacher and three new students. Repeat this a few times with new teachers and new students.
Finally, choose two little teachers. Choose three students for each of the little teachers. Have both little teachers give their students commands at the same time.
Repeat this a few times.
Finally, if you don’t mind a little chaos, go around the room assigning teachers and their students. Let students get up, move around, and tell each other what to do.
This activity takes ages and is great practice for your students. You’ll be surprised at the creative commands you’ll hear.
You can also repeat this activity during a lesson about action verbs.
7. What’s in the Bag?
Time: 15 minutes
Required: A box or bag filled with many objects related to the vocabulary
Get a big cloth bag, backpack, or opaque box. Fill it with realia based on the words the students have been learning. For example, a bag of toys for a unit on toy vocabulary or a box of plastic vegetables for a food unit.
Then have students come up one-by-one, reach into the bag/box, and tell you, “It’s a _____.” After the student has made their guess, they can pull out the object. If they’re correct, give them a high-five and take that item out of the box. If they’re incorrect, put the object back. If they say, “I don’t know,” they cannot take out or see the item.
Depending on the amount of objects you have, this can take ages. Students love it, and they get loads of practice remembering their vocabulary words. If the kids want, you can even put the objects back in, and repeat one more time now that they know what’s in the box.
8. Try It On
Time: 15-30 minutes
Required: Lots of interesting clothes and/or accessories
This activity is best for a clothing or accessories lesson. Gather as many items of clothes and/or accessories as you can.
Now call students up one-by-one and ask them to tell you one item. If a student says t-shirt, he can try on the t-shirt. Once he’s put it on, you can ask him to practice the grammar for that unit, such as, “I’m wearing a t-shirt./I have a t-shirt./He has a t-shirt.”
Repeat with all the students in the class. It might seem basic, but hilarity will ensue when a student has on a giant jacket, sunglasses, and a helmet. It’ll also be a very memorable lesson for you and your students. If you want, you can even pose for photos to show them in a later class, which will be great for more practice later as well as stretching the activity even longer.
This lesson can also be used with Halloween costumes too or if you have animal-related masks/hats.
9. 4 Corners
Time: 15-20 minutes
Required: Flashcards and a space free of desks and chairs
Get four flashcards. Put each flashcard in the corner of the room.
The teacher stands in the middle and counts to ten with their eyes closed. Then the teacher says, “Stop!”
Students must stop on/near one of the flashcards. The teacher then calls out a flashcard. Whoever is standing on/near the flashcard has to go sit down. Repeat until only a few students are left standing. They are the winners.
After a few rounds, let a student be the teacher. The student stands in the middle of the room with their eyes closed, counts to ten, yells stop, and shouts a flashcard. Make sure they know they must keep their eyes closed.
Students love this game. Play with just a few at first, but when they get the hang of it, let the whole class join in.
10. Color or Drawing Dictation
Time: 20 minutes
Required: A coloring picture with several objects in it or a blank page divided into different sections
Coloring kills time. Everyone knows that. But while coloring is fun, it can be frowned upon in class when it’s used as a genuine time killer with no “educational value.” (There is of course educational value in coloring “just for fun”, but we’ll put that aside just for now.)
So how can you make it more educational?
Print a coloring picture with many different objects in it. If you can’t find a picture related to your vocabulary/grammar topic, make one by finding black and white cartoons online and copying and pasting them into a word document. Pass the papers and colors out to your students.
Then tell them, “Color the dog brown. Color the tree green.” This is great practice for tests like the Cambridge exams, it’s a good review of the vocabulary, and as long as you don’t do it too often, it can be great fun for your kids too.
Another variation of this is dividing a paper into squares. (You can do this before class or have the students help during class.) Then tell students, “In square one, draw a hat. In square two, draw a jacket.”
This is another easy, low-prep way to review the vocabulary, but it’s fun and time-consuming too.
If you want to make the activity last longer or turn it into a speaking activity, you can have a few students present their drawings to the class and say short sentences explaining what they drew.
