Count Down

Put the kids in two teams.  For each team draw a 50 at the top of the board.  They roll the dice and whatever they get, they can take that number away.  The first team to get to zero wins.  Variations are:

• just have them speak out loud for number practice
  
• show a flash card and the first kid to say the card can throw the dice
• ask them a question before they throw and a right answer can double the dice value, or a wrong answer can be miss a turn or normal value

Chose your corner

Take 4 or 5 cards and put them in the corners of the room. Play music and get the kids to dance for a bit. When the music stops they choose a corner. Have the same pictures on smaller cards, draw one at random and say it out loud.  The kids in that corner are eliminated. As the number of kids decreases remove a picture and so on until 1 lucky kid is the winner.

Blindman

This is like reverse charades.  The player puts a card on their forehead without looking at what it is.  The other players act out (or give hints for older kids) about what the card is.  The player has to guess in English.  Use a timer to put some pressure on and if they guess within the time they get to keep the card and another player comes.

Spin, spin, spin

Put flashcards in a circle so their edges are touching.  On a coin, use tape to make an arrow.  The first player (or team representative) stands in the center* and spins the coin.  When the coin falls, wherever the arrow is pointing the player must say that card (or make a sentence).  If they are right, the can put their counter on card.  Then the next player tries.  The team or player with the most counters on cards at the end wins.  You can also give them counters to get rid of and the first team to put them all on cards wins.  This version is harder to control time wise, but is more exciting.  You can also have other players' counters removed if the same card comes up.

*it still works on a table if it is a small group.

All gone!

Put some cards on the table. Assign letters of the alphabet to each student (eg give them each a flashcard, so the dog flashcard has the letter D O G). 

One student asks for a card from the table. The student who finds the card gives it to them.  Then the next student asks for a card (either the finder or in order).  The student can only ask for a card which contains at least one of their letters. So the student looking for D O G can ask for 'goldfish' or 'tiger' but not 'cat' or 'elephant'. The group should try to take all the cards without making any mistakes and without making a student to miss a turn.

English Sumo

Have a pair of kids face each other and put large size flashcards on their backs.  When you say "go" they have to try to see what is on the other kids back without showing their own card.  The winner is the first person to say what the other kid's card is.

Take-away

Lay out the cards in rows (eg 3x4).  Players take turns in taking and saying any number of cards from a single row.  The player who has to take the last card loses.

Danger, danger

Put the cards face down.  Mix in some "danger" cards (these can be anything as long as it isn't easily confused with the rest of the cards; pictures of a bomb, a tiger, a demon etc).  Students take turns to turn over a card.  If they can't say the picture or word, or get a "danger" card, they have to perform a forfeit.

Janken Battle

Put 10 or more cards on the table or on the floor.  The kids line up in teams at either end of the cards.  When you say go, they move along the line saying the words out loud.  When they meet they do "rock, scissors, paper" and the winner stays where they are and the loser goes to the back of their team and the next team member starts from the beginning of the cards.  Continue until a team gets to the opposite end.

What's your name?

A good way to practice things like 'Hello, my name is.... What's your name?', is to put a timer in a box. Everyone sits in a circle, and one person is given the box. That person says to the next person, "My name is X. What's your name?" and then hands the box to the person, the mini-conversation continues until the timer goes off. It's always funny to the see the face of the person when the timer goes off in their hand! Practice it first without the timer on, so everyone knows how to say it, then do it with the time for 2 minutes, then 1 minute. It gets them talking really fast!  You could have kids that have the timer when it goes off be out, but it might end in tears.

Ochita Ochita

Pre-teach a set of vocabulary words with gestures to match each word.

The caller says "Ochita Ochita" (or for older kids make an English eqivelant "here it comes, here it comes" or something). The players then chorus "nani ga ochita" ("what is?"). The caller then shouts a vocabulary word. Players do the action for each vocabulary word as fast as they can. If players perform the wrong action or take too long to figure it out, they're out of the game.

After a few rounds begin stringing words together with "and" and making students perform multiple actions at once or switch between them quickly.