Snowball Fight!
This ESL activity is good for kids who are elementary level and above. Before your English class, write down on a piece of paper the following:
Age: ___________________
Favourite colour: ___________________
Favourite animal: ___________________
Favourite movie: ___________________
Favourite city: ___________________
Now make enough photocopies so that each student has a copy (I always print out one or two more in case new students turn up).
What to Do in Class
Each student writes down their answers and screws their paper up into a ball. Now get your class into two lines facing each other. Have the two teams throw their snowballs at the other team.
Keep it up for 30 seconds, so all the papers are mixed up. Students now need to pick up a random ball, unwrap it and find the student whose paper they have by speaking with as many people as possible.
TEFL Lemon Tip for TEFL Teachers
If you are worried that the classroom will get too manic, simply have each team facing away from each other and throwing the balls over their shoulders.
Also, kids will sometimes march around saying 'is this paper yours?' rather than asking questions. To avoid this, ask the kids to memorise what they read and then put papers in their pocket. This way, they'll be speaking English and listening to responses much more effectively. You can follow up by asking the kids to introduce their friends if their English level is high enough. This ESL kids activity will also work for teens and adults, too!
Like this ESL game?
Why don’t you try some of these five other TEFL Lemon games for kids!
ESL Game of the Day: Meatballs
ESL Game of the Day: Tin Can Telephone
ESL Game for Teens & Adults: Swatter Stories