Canva has some amazing games and activities that you can use in your next TEFL/ESL lesson whether that’s online or in-person.

You can sign up to Canva for free here. It’s a great design resource that anybody can use, but it’s particularly great for teachers. I’ve used it for creating worksheets, posters, games, and even videos in my classes.

Let’s take a look at some of the games and activities available on Canva.

First up, let’s look at Canva’s various generators that you can use to create some fun activities.

1. Bingo Cards

Did you know that you can create Bingo cards on Canva? It’s fun and easy to make a Bingo game on any ESL topic. Just add some pictures or vocabulary words to the Bingo charts, make them look pretty, print, and play.

Here’s the link to the Bingo card generator.

2. Quizzes

It’s easy to make fun game show quizzes on Canva. Just use their generator to add any elements, questions, and answers you want. Then play the presentation in class. My students love these quizzes.

Here’s the quiz presentation generator.

3. Word Search

Make a cute word search fast with Canva’s word search generator. You can also search for pre-made word searches and find one relevant to your class. The benefit of Canva over other word search generator’s are the images and lovely designs you can add on Canva.

Here is Canva’s word search generator.

4. Comic Strips

This is a good one for students to use. If your students have access digital devices, let them create a comic strip about about something they’ve learned in class, using a specific grammar topic, or using certain vocabulary words.

Here’s Canva’s comic strip generator.

5. Spider Diagrams

These spider diagrams are generated in Canva’s whiteboard function, which if you’ve never used before, is basically a digital whiteboard. You can use the spider diagrams to write down students’ ideas in class and brainstorm together.

Here’s the spider diagram whiteboard generator.

6. Flashcards

To make new flashcards, you could just open Microsoft Word and copy and paste random images into a new document, or you could make your flashcards look much more beautiful and cohesive with Canva.

Check out the flashcards creator here.

Now it’s time to check out Canva’s game templates.

The following templates are not generator’s like the above. Each of these are free pre-made games by Canva that you can edit to your heart’s content. You can also search Canva’s templates for specific pre-made games, although some will likely be paid content.

7. Hidden Picture Game

This game has a series of cards covering a picture. The teacher clicks a card, deletes it, and slowly reveals the picture. The student who correctly guesses the picture first, wins!

To make this relevant to your class, put pictures of vocabulary words into the template. Or put pictures of people doing certain activities and tell students that they must make sentences using a specific grammar point. For examples, if you’re studying past continuous, put an image of someone walking a dog, and first student to say, “He was walking a dog!” is the winner.

Here’s the Hidden Picture Game template.

8. Digital Board Game

This is a digital board game. Teacher’s can modify it anyway they want to suit their class: add images, add questions, create rules, etc. Be creative!

Here’s the Digital Board Game template.

9. Word Puzzle

Make a simple word jumble a little more fun by making it into a beautiful Canva presentation! Change the words so they match your class’s vocabulary words.

This is the Word Puzzle template.

10. Memory Game

This memory game is in the whiteboard section of Canva making it easy for the teacher to modify and project in class. Simply put vocabulary words or pictures behind the cards before class. Then in class see which students have the best memories and can get the most matches.

Here’s the Memory Game whiteboard template.

11. Spot the Difference

This fully customizable worksheet is great for any lesson on comparisons. You can use any of the free templates available on Canva as is, or you can edit one as much as you’d like. I’ve only linked one template below, but there are several available on Canva for free.

This is one Spot the Difference customizable worksheet.

12. Maze

This maze is great on it’s own for younger students, but it can be edited into an activity for adults by adding words or images students have to follow to solve the maze. For example, you could add verbs to the maze and only make the past participle verbs lead to the maze’s exit.

Here’s the customizable Maze worksheet.

13. Tic Tac Toe

To make this presentation game relevant to ESL class, just add words or images that the students must say to the tic tac toe board in order to mark with an X or an O. If you want to make this harder, have students say a sentence with the vocabulary word in order to put their mark on the space they want.

Here’s the Tic Tac Toe presentation.

14. Guess the Word Battle

You can either just use the presentation as is or edit to create clues for vocabulary words. For example, if your students are learning about sports, you could put a picture of someone kicking, a referee, a field, and a goal keeper to get your students to guess “soccer.”

This is the Guess the Word Battle presentation.

15. Talk for a Minute

This cute presentation is an ESL classic conversation activity. Put images into the presentation for your students to describe. Students should tell their partners about the object on the screen for one minute. This can be turned into a complete lesson by teaching students filler words and techniques for describing before playing.

This is the Talk for a Minute presentation.

16. Zoomed in Game

This game is called “Guess the Person,” but I would change it to guess the vocabulary word. Put a zoomed in picture on one slide and the zoomed out picture on the next slide. Can your students guess what the image is?

Here’s the Guess the Person/Image game.

I hope those were useful to you. If you want more classroom games, try 10 Active TEFL Games for Getting Kids Up and Moving.

Have you found any other good classroom games on Canva? Let me know because I’m always looking for new games to play in my classes.