Doing the 'best time challenge' is just a fun way to get an elementary class to practice asking and answering a target dialogue a few times as a class. Nothing special, but it works and the students get into it.

Rather than create a worksheet and use a lot of paper, doing a blackboard survey puts all the information up on the board for all students to see and review once the communication part of the activity is over.

This activity works well with most walk-and-talk information collecting communication activities. Also, it's a no-prep activity so you can use it any time.

The bomb game is good for drilling vocab or basic conversation phrases. Students must say the target word/phrase before passing the "bomb". Everyone gets very excited playing this game but watch out because tensions can get high.

Students ask each other about what they have in their fridge at home, right now. A mundane daily recall activity for all us home cooks but in the English class this becomes a fun thing for students to ask each other about. This activity also includes writing the English words.

Students hide some stationary behind their back and their partners guess what it is.

Students make a fold out extend-a-picture that they can show off to their friends while using tall/short or long/short to describe their drawings. Once you show an example, your students will be eager to get artsy and create their own.

Oftentimes, our roles in class are thinking up games or activities to make practicing a phrase or short dialogue set fun and kid oriented. But there is the other English that you should also nurture in your class. The every day English, also known as classroom English - it's what the students use as part of the lesson but isn't the lesson, it's what helps communication throughout the class.

Find your partner is one of the most basic games for English lessons around and so simple that you can adapt it to fit pretty much any lesson's target phrase/language or vocabulary set.

The relay gesture game is a combination of running and gesturing as a group. It is a fun game to competitively practice any vocabulary or phrases that can be gestured.

Students walk around drawing things for their friends. First they ask what their talking partner wants, then beat the clock drawing it for them. Lot's of fun and simulates real use of the language.

This activity gives students the chance to use "Are you ~?" in a real use situation. It's a fun activity where students get to hear the problems another student has and creatively provide a solution.

Chanting is a simple drilling tool that adds cadence (usually by clapping) to repetition to liven it up. For any hip-hop fans - try taking it one step further and adding a beat to make it even more interesting.

The make a snake game makes use of "paper scissors rock/janken" (which students love!) and has them walking around practicing simple English question and answer dialogue. Works in many different elementary lessons.

Perfect for the turn left, go straight (directions) English lesson, the maze game is a popular activity. Arrange the desks and have students directing other students through the maze to find their goal.

Students are challenged with guessing what their speaking partner likes and matching it with something they like too. This activity is for studying "I like ~."

There are a few things you can do when teaching the "My name is _______" lesson at elementary school in Japan, like creating name cards/ tags, etc but many require paper and take a bit of time. Here is a quick little game to play that requires nothing except the students and that they can say "My name is _______".

Row racing uses the rows of desk as groups and the element of competition to bring some excitement to new vocabulary or dialogue practice.

Using interview sheets is a great way to encourage students to speak to a large number of other students in their class, sometimes students they otherwise wouldn't normally speak to, using the target English language of the lesson. A benefit is that they get to learn about their classmates at the same time.

Wall to wall is an activity with the goal of helping your students speak up loud and clear if your English class is a little too quiet. Students try to speak to each other from two opposite sides of the classroom. It's not really a game - there are no points and no winners or losers, but it can increase confidence and help shy students.

This group or pair activity gives students the chance to use "not" while playing a guessing game.