Starting a new school year is always a challenge for both students and teachers. For English as a Second Language (ESL) students, the challenge can be even greater. To help classes establish a sense of community and to break the ice, often students and teachers alike turn to icebreaker games. In fact, research has shown that starting each lesson with an icebreaker game can increase student engagement by up to 25%, according to a study done by the University of Minnesota. In this article, we get back to basics and look at five fun and easy icebreaker games that ESL teachers can use right away with their classes. From popular classic games to the more modern, we’ve got something to suit every ESL class.
So, let’s get started!
These games below will work for any age and any level. Allowing you to get to know your
students and also for them to gain confidence and have fun in the first week of school.
Now, maybe you have a new class, maybe you have some new student’s joining an existing class, or maybe you have the same class again, but you haven’t seen each other over the summer period. Either way, we as teachers need to find ways to get our pupils talking again and gain some confidence in speaking this back to school season. Sometimes it’s not so easy, but I’ve got ya, so don’t worry.
You know me, I love playing games, being active and creating movement in my class. No boring classes here! So, over the years I’ve tried out many ideas and new games. Some good, some bad and some I will never try again! I’ve tried them out with my ESL’s and now I’m bringing you my top 5 easy to prepare icebreakers ready for going back to school.
The question ball
Prep time 5 mins. Play time can be long or short depending on class size/level.
So simple, so cheap and so much fun! This one is a great way to get students communicating and sharing personal information whilst also practising sentence structures and grammar (without them even realising it). My classes ask to play this game over and over again, at all points of the year, which is a huge win! It can take a lot of time to play, or it can be short and sweet at the start of each class if you don’t have much time.
All you need is an inflatable beach ball, I bought mine for €1 and a permanent marker or Sharpie pen. Now take your pen and write personal questions all over the beach ball, and you are ready to play. Easy as that!
To play, students throw the ball to a friend. The friend catches it and reads out the question facing them and then answers it. Then they throw it to the next person and you continue this way. If you catch the ball on the same question, just turn the ball to the next question.
Find someone who…
Prep time nothing! Play time can be as long or as short as you want it to be.
Great for personal information and practising asking questions, this game is fast and fun. Make sure you have some space to move around in too. You (the teacher) say find someone who….. is born in the same year as you for example and the students go around the class asking what year they were each born. When they find a friend with the same year, they form a pair. After everyone finds a pair then you can continue with the next find someone who….
To play in an even faster, slightly more competitive way you can play with eliminations. For example, the students who don’t have a partner at the end of the round are out or if they can’t find anyone with the same things as them they are also out.
Don’t forget to use likes and dislikes with this game, as well as factual questions. For example, find someone who likes the same fruit as you, or has the same favourite colour or doesn’t like the same vegetable as you.
Back to school BINGO!
Prep time 5 mins printing! Play time 5 -10 mins each time.
Similar to Find someone who, but not the same. This game has the same objective as Find someone who, but in the form of a BINGO card. Students all have the same BINGO card (available below) and in each of the boxes they need to find someone who has done/got that thing and write their name down in the box. When they complete the sheet they shout BINGO! And the first person is the winner.
This game is very quick and amusing to complete, you can play too and see if you can beat your students. The kids love it even more when we join in.
Here are 3 different BINGO cards and some cute winner bracelets to give out to the winners. This can be played across multiple levels and ages and is perfect to reuse year after year. This is a definite must for the first week of school. My students absolutely love it!
2 truths, 1 lie
Prep time nothing! Play time 20-30 mins.
This is another classic icebreaker game which I twist a little to make it better for ESL learners. After all, isn’t that what we want? To give them a challenge!? Okay, so the original game is that you say 3 sentences about your life, two which are true and one which is a lie and the students listening must guess which one is the lie. The twist I play with my students is that they work in pairs and learn two things about each other. Then in front of the class they present each other's truths and add a lie. This means that not only are they speaking but they also have to listen really well in order to repeat the story to the class. Plus when they invent a lie it can be very funny for the person they are talking about, so will their face tell the other students which is the lie?
Would you rather…?
Prep time nothing! Play time 5-30 mins (depending on how you play)
Everyone knows how to play this classic game, but did you realise it's a great for getting kids talking and giving opinions. I love using this with my ESL’s because they get to learn new vocabulary, practise speaking and also listening to respond.
So you could do this a couple of ways.
The first is using the whole class, put a would you rather question on the board for everyone to see and tell them to stand on the side they would rather do. Then you can ask them why they chose that option in front of the class.
The second way to play is to have 5/10 different would you rather questions and for students to work in pairs or small groups. They can choose and discuss their answers with each other.
Need ideas for the questions? I’ve got you guys. Here you will find a range of difficult would you rather questions, and I also do themed packs too, specially for Halloween and Christmas.
And there we have it my teacher friends. Some tried and tested brilliant back to school icebreaker activities for ESL and basically any students. Do you have any others that you could recommend? Let me know below.
Happy back to schooling!
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