Getting students up and moving often helps students refocus and burn off some energy. These games can all help students review the vocabulary and grammar they’ve been learning while having fun and getting some much-needed movement.

1. Fruit Salad

Put a sentence pattern on the board, such as “I have (never)…” Then add a few examples, such as “eaten, danced, written, done homework.” Drill the sentence pattern a few times. (This game can be played with many other patterns, such as “I like…”, “Yesterday I (past tense)”, “Tomorrow I will…”, etc.)

Next arrange the students’ chairs in a circle but take away one chair. The student with no chair stands in the middle and says a sentence that follows the pattern, such as “I have eaten sushi.” If that sentence is true for any student, that student stands up and must try to switch chairs with whoever else is standing. The student standing in the middle also tries to sit down.

Whoever is left without a chair must stand in the middle and make a new sentence.

Repeat as many times as you like. This game can get rowdy, so set ground rules before starting, such as, “If you push someone, then you are out of the game.”

2. Four Corners

Put four flash cards in four different corners of the room. The teacher stands in the middle, closes his or her eyes, and counts to 10. The students run (or walk) to a flashcard. When the teacher finishes counting, the students must stop on or near a flashcard. Without opening his or her eyes, the teacher calls out one flashcard. Whoever is standing near that card must sit down and those students are out of the game.

Repeat a few times until there are only a few students left. They are the winners.

The teacher should be the person in the middle for a few rounds. Then the teacher can choose a student to be the “counter.”

If you want to make it more difficult, replace the flashcards with simple sentences posted in four corners, like “I have a bear/car/doll/etc,” or “I am running/swimming/dancing/jumping.”

This game is a hit with all ages.

3. Stand Up Spelling

There is a simple game that I’ve called “1 to 20” in the past. The goal of this game is to count from 1-20, but the trick is that only one student can count at a time, so one student stands up and says “one”, another says “two”, another says “three”, and so on. However, students must count randomly. They cannot count in a row, and they cannot point to who should count next. If two students say a number at the same time, everyone sits down and starts again. The goal is to reach 20.

An alternative to this game is spelling a word. This game works best with longer words. To make things easier in the first few rounds I will write the word on the board. Students must spell the word one letter at a time, standing as they say the letter, but if someone says the same letter at the same time, they must start again. After students get the idea, you can try doing this same activity with some familiar spelling words by saying the word out loud and having students try to spell it. If they make a mistake or if two people say a letter at the same time, they must start again.

The goal is to spell as many words as possible with no mistake.

This is a great way to trick students into enjoying spelling.

4. Running Dictation

I’ve described this game several times on Oscar Lessons and with good reason. It’s a TEFL classic. Write 10 sentences on different slips of paper, number them 1-10, and then post the sentences around the room. When the students arrive, put them in teams of two, and give each team one piece of lined paper with 1-10 written on it. One student is the writer and the other the runner. The runner must run to a sentence, try to remember the sentence, go back, and report the sentence to the writer. The writer must copy down what the runner says. The goal is to correctly copy down all the sentences.

Students must whisper so as not to give the answers to the other teams. First team to finish all 10 sentences correctly wins.

This classic game never fails to get kids up and moving and can be adapted to any lesson.

An alternative version includes taking a whole printed text and putting it outside the classroom. The writers will have a paper with comprehension questions on it. The runners read the question, try to find the answer, come back, and tell the writer the answer.

5. Hot Potato

Give the students a stuffed animal. Play some music. Then the students must pass the stuffed animal around the classroom. When the teacher stops the music, the student holding the object must answer a grammar or vocabulary question.

Simple, fun, and effective!

6. Mixed Up Sentences

The teacher should think of several sentences that follow the grammar of the current unit. It’s important that each sentence has the same number of words.

Then write one sentence on one piece of colored paper. Write the second sentence on a different colored paper. When each sentence is on a different color of paper, cut the sentences up word by word.

Next, hide the words around the room. When the students come into the room, put them into groups based on how many sentences you have. 6 sentences means 6 groups. Then give each group some sticky tack or a small roll of tape.

Finally tell students their color, instruct them to find the words of that color, and then use the sticky tack or tape to put their sentences together at the front of the room on the board.

When all sentences have been found and assembled, check them as a class to make sure they are in the correct order.

If you want, have students close their eyes, hide the sentences again, and repeat the game, but assign each group a new color.

7. Agree or Disagree Run

On one side of the room stick a paper on the wall/board that says, “I agree” and on the other side stick a paper that says, “I disagree.”

Have all students stand up. The teacher should say a sentence related to the grammar. For example, if you were studying modals, a sentence could be, “All students must do their homework.” Students need to stand on the side of the room aligning with their opinion.

The teacher can say a few sentences and if students have a sentence, they can say theirs too.

8. Find Someone Who

This is another classic TEFL game for a reason. The teacher can either print worksheets with Yes/No questions on them with a line next to the question for a student to write his or her classmate’s name. Or the students can write their own Yes/No questions, leaving a space to write a classmate’s name.

After students have their questions, inform them that they must find someone in the classroom that can answer yes to the question. When a classmate says yes, the student can write his or her name next to the question. Allow students to mingle and ask and answer each other’s questions. The goal is to write a classmate’s name next to every question.

This game is always fun because students love standing up and talking to each other, so why not let them do it in a way that practices the grammar or vocabulary they’ve been working on?

9. Ball Toss

Have students stand up. Give one students ball or stuffed animal (or crumpled paper).

Simply give students a topic and tell them to say a word in that topic and then throw the ball to a classmate.

If a student says a wrong word, drops the ball, or throws the ball badly, then he or she is out.

Some examples of topics could be past participle verbs, modals, or vocabulary words or topics.

An alternative to this game is the sentence game. Give students a grammar tense, like present continuous. Tell them that each student must say a word in a sentence. For example, “I” pass the ball, “am” pass the ball, “running” pass the ball, “to” pass the ball, etc.

This game is quick and simple, so its an excellent warm-up.

10. Snowball Fight

Put some questions on the board. Ideally, these questions relate to the vocabulary or grammar you’ve been learning in class. For example, if you’re learning about rules and modals, you could write, “How often do you have to wash the dishes?” “Do you have to do homework every night?” and “Must you take your shoes off at home?”

Let students answer these questions in complete sentences on some paper. It’s a good idea to use recycled paper or scrap paper for this activity to not be wasteful. However, make sure that the papers are not obviously different from one another. (Don’t choose different colored or different sized paper for example.)

After students have written their answers, have them crumple their paper into a ball. Then have students stand up and throw the balls at each other. They can grab a new ball if it hits the floor and throw again. Tell them to count how many times they hit someone else. Let chaos ensue.

Stop the snowball fight and ask students to grab one snowball and go sit down. Then students can open their paper.

The next goal is to guess whose paper is whose. This can be done by simply having students raise their hand, guess, and letting others tell them if they’re right or wrong. It can also be done as a mingle activity where students walk around and ask each other questions to determine whose paper it is.

Once all papers have been returned to the rightful owner, the game is over.

Honorable Mentions:

Back to the Board / Hot Seat

Write vocabulary words or simple sentences on the board. Have one or two students sit at the front of the room with their back to the board. The teacher circles or writes a word/sentence. The other students mime the sentence or vocabulary. The students with their backs to the board try to guess the correct word/sentence.

Slap the Board / Erase the Board

Write a lot of vocabulary words. Call up two students. They either use a flyswatter to slap the word the teacher calls out or an eraser to erase the word. The fastest correct student wins.

I hope these action-packed moving games help liven up your classroom.

If you want more fun games, check out these fun sentence writing activities.