That’s why it’s important to break your ESL class up into smaller blocks. Use the book for 15 minutes or so and give them a worksheet for another 10. And when you get done with all that boring stuff, break out the games.
One great ESL PowerPoint game that I came up with some time ago is called Say It First. It’s a guessing game that has 2 teams and all of my classes have really liked it. They’ve like it so much, in fact, that I really need to make more. Right now I’ve got two of the games, and you can download the first free ESL PowerPoint game here.
So How Does It Work?
The game is simple and only has a few rules. Let’s run through them:
- You’ll have to divide your ESL class into 2 teams;
- Load up the PPT and tell students they have to guess a word based on the first letter;
- For each word they guess, their team gets 1 point;
- The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
So, in this game you’ll get different slides like this, each of which will change with the click of the mouse:
Here’s another one that asks for an animal starting with the letter ‘L.’ There are many possible answers for this one, not just the sample answer of ‘leopard.’
Some of the slides are a bit difficult, but if you download the game you should be able to use the template to make up your own games. The free ESL PowerPoint download that I offer is 27 slides. This will take you a good 20 to 30 minutes of class, and most of your students will be sitting on the edge of their seats.
Give Say It First a try in your ESL classroom today and see how much fun you’ll have!