Often the work of an ALT, especially at junior high level, is likened to being a tape recorder. We're asked to read things out loud so that students can repeat after us. This can get boring but if you consider the purpose and potential benefits of this activity, you can increase the value to the students of this activity.

Birthday groups gets students walking around and saying the month they were born in while listing to other's answers and deciding if a group should be made. Basically, it's practicing the months focusing on the student's own birthday.

Blackboard memory is a vocab drilling activity that uses a memory challenge to let you vary how you are learning the lesson's English vocabulary. A great way to keep the students focused when they need more drill 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.

The circle memory game is a way to practice new vocab or short phrases in a group in a fun and challenging way. The main challenge is trying to remember everything that has been said so far!

The concentration game is a game of memory and recall. The students have to remember what has been said before them, then they have to recall the English vocabulary of the lesson (or previous lessons) to add their own word.

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 fly swatter game is kids whacking the blackboard with (clean, I hope) fly swats. Every teacher knows this game and students love it. Good for reviewing vocab and just having a good time.

The freeze game is a fun way to get the younger, energetic (or rowdy) classes to expend some energy while drilling new vocabulary. Chanting English with a lot of movement and "Freeze!" thrown in to challenge students.

Fruit basket is a wonderful game for reviewing vocabulary in elementary school English lessons. Wonderful because the students know the rules and wonderful because they love to play it (obviously not the older ones). With one less chair, the game revolves around changing where you sit while trying not to be the last one left without a seat.

The gesture game seems to have fallen out of fashion around my neck of the woods but I think it can still serve a purpose. The gesture game activity is simple and requires no extra preparation so can be used as planned or on the fly when you need to fill in an extra 5 or 10 minutes.

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.

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.

In human bingo, each student is assigned a number, animal, etc and becomes a square in a bingo game. When all students in a group have been "crossed out", that team wins. You can use this game to practice various vocabulary sets, such as numbers, colors, animals, fruit, etc.

Karuta is a Japanese game similar to snap. It's a fun way to test listening recognition for vocabulary sets and students love this game. The bonus is that every Japanese student knows karuta so you barely have to explain the rules.

This is straight out of the elementary school textbook. Place an eraser in the middle then beat your partner to snatch it away and get a point.

Last letter first letter, more commonly known here as shiritori, is a game I am sure we have all played at some point and it makes a great warm up game for junior high classes.

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.

Memory is a match the cards game I'm sure we all played as kids. As a child, I played with playing card but in an elementary English class, vocabulary card sets work better. If you have them, this game can be used to drill vocabulary.