English Games for Primary School Students
As an auxiliar de conversación (an assistant language teacher in Spain), I teach English to the first, second, and third grades in an elementary school. Since the school I work at is a bilingual school, I teach English through other academic and extracurricular subjects, including natural and social sciences, physical education, and music.
On this page, I’ve compiled the English as a second language (ESL) games and interactive activities I’ve used with my students on a variety of subjects. Keep in mind that I used these games to teach English vocabulary to first, second, and third grade classes in Spain, but I think many of these activities would work well for older primary school students, too.
You’ll find these ESL games organized below by subject in alphabetical order.
Body Parts - External
Label the Body - fun body part vocab word matching activity
Spin the Wheel! Do the Action! - total physical response (TPR) game to practice body parts
Name that Body Part! - multiple choice quiz-style game for English parts of the body
Show Me Your ____! - spin the wheel and call on students to point to different body parts
Simon Says - use this TPR game to quiz students on English body parts
Hangman - play hangman with English vocabulary words
Body Parts - Internal
Sort the Organs! - great virtual game for students to sort English organs by body system
Vital Functions Quiz - online quiz activity to test students’ knowledge of internal body systems
Human Body Systems Quiz - another interactive English human anatomy quiz
Cities, Towns, and Villages
Categories! - Divide students into teams of 4-6 people. Explain that you will give the students a category, and they will have to think of as many English words and phrases in that category as they can before time runs out. Instruct students to assign a group leader who will write down all of the words and phrases they think of. Put an online timer on the screen. (The amount of time you give students for each category is up to you, but I would suggest 2-5 minutes.) Then, tell students the first category and start the timer. When the timer ends, make each group read aloud their responses, and give them a point for each correct answer. Keep track of the groups’ points on the board to get the students excited. Example categories for lessons on cities and villages include:
Things cities have but not villages (i.e. lots of people, tall buildings, etc.)
Things villages have but not cities (i.e. few people, small buildings, etc.)
Places/buildings in a city (i.e. school, library, etc.)
Jobs in a city (i.e. teacher, doctor, etc.)
Food and Nutrition
Ask students to name foods that contain each type of nutrients! - This is a great way to get the whole class to participate and speak English. Simply write one of the nutrients on the board and ask students to raise their hands to say types of food that contain that type of nutrient. (BONUS: To get them to practice English a bit more, you can require students to respond in full sentences. Write an example sentence on the board. For instance, you could write, “Bread contains carbohydrates.” Teach them that the key word here is “contains.”)
Name that Nutrient! - See my Complete Food and Nutrition Lesson Plan for Third Grade Primary for a picture-based game where students must tell the teacher what nutrients are in the pictured food.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - This youtube video has a great reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a great story for thinking about healthy and unhealthy foods. (BONUS: For an extra activity, pause the video whenever the caterpillar eats something and ask students 1) what nutrient it contains and 2) if the food is healthy or unhealthy.)
Name a healthy food - Ask the students to name as many healthy foods as they can, and write the foods on the board. You can tell them they will compete against the other classes to think of the most healthy foods. Later you can tell them which class won the game.
Hangman - Play hangman with healthy or unhealthy foods. Tell the students that their only hint is whether or not the food is healthy.
Halloween
Skeleton and Jack-o-Lantern Body Parts Game - a Halloween-themed guessing game
Professions
What Do Your Parents Do? - Ask each student what job their parents have. Tell them to use the following sentence as an example: “My mom/dad is a _____.” If they don’t know the word for their parent’s job in English, let them use Spanish and translate for them. Then, ask them to say it as a sentence in English.
Hangman - Play hangman using the English vocabulary words from your lesson on professions
Senses (Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch, Hearing)
What Sense Is Being Used? - a fun picture-based guessing game, best for grades 1, 2, and 3 (BONUS ACTIVITY: Ask students to use complete sentences to state which sense is being used (i.e. “He/She/They is/are using sight”).)
Hangman - play hangman with English vocabulary words
Weather and Climate
Weather Vocabulary Quiz - a multiple-choice-style quiz game that can be displayed on a classroom screen for the class
What’s the Weather Like? - in this game, students spin a wheel with images related to different weather phenomena, and they have to answer the question, “What is the weather like?”
