6 Exciting English Games for Kids

Looking for ways to get your kids excited about learning English? Look no further!

We’ve assembled a unique list of fun English games that will improve your child’s spelling, grammar, writing, and more! They’re great for teaching English at home, and also make fantastic classroom games.

Here is our list of fun games that will have your kids improving their English language skills without even realising it...

1. Story Maker

Goal

To improve writing, vocabulary, spelling and grammar.

Why it’s Effective

Story Maker transforms English grammar practice into an engaging game for your child. It’s a great way for children to practise structuring sentences and paragraphs, all while encouraging creativity!

How to Play

In this game, you and your learner(s) will work together to structure a story. Here’s the challenge - each person can only contribute one word at a time. For example, player one can begin with ‘the,’ then player two can add ‘dog,’ then player one can add ‘went,’ and so on. Each time a full sentence is formed, get your child to write it down. Check their work, and then continue until you have a full story. We recommend 2 or 3 short paragraphs .

One of the best parts about this game is that you can tailor it to your child’s needs! For example:

To practice tenses, focus on writing a story about the past, present, or future!

To practice vocabulary, create a small list of vocabulary words for your learner(s) to work into the story.

2. Mad Libs

Goal

To learn parts of speech and improve reading comprehension.

Why it’s Effective

Mad Libs is a fantastic way to help your kids identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Your kids will be laughing and learning at the same time!

How to Play

To play Mad Libs, your child will fill in blanks in a pre-written story (you can create one yourself, or choose from the many free worksheet options available online). Each blank space will indicate whether to insert a noun, verb, adjective, etc. Your child can read along as they fill it out, or wait until the end for a hilarious story surprise!

3. Phonics Bingo

Goal

To enhance phonetic awareness and help your child learn the relationships between letters and sounds.

Why it’s Effective

This phonics game turns practicing speech into an exciting competition. It helps reinforce phonetic patterns in a memorable way!

How to play

Give each player a Bingo card with each square featuring a phonetic sound instead of a number. The game leader can either call out words or display images, and players must mark the corresponding phonetic element on their card. The first to complete a row shouts “bingo” to win.

4. Cat and Mouse

Goal

To improve your child’s spelling, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

Why it’s Effective

Cat and Mouse is a spelling game that’s great for engaging children of all age groups. You can use it to introduce new words, idioms, and expressions in English. Cat and Mouse is fun to play at home, but it’s also a great way to engage the whole class!

How to Play

In this rendition of hangman, the goal is to guess the word before the cat catches the mouse. To play, draw a simple set of stairs with a cat at the bottom, and a mouse at the top. Then, choose a word and draw a blank space for each letter. For each incorrect letter your child guesses, draw a swoop showing the cat moving up a step. If they guess the word before the cat reaches the mouse, they win! We recommend playing on a whiteboard, as it makes it easy to reset the game and start again with a new word.

5. Word Jenga

Goal

To target specific challenges your kid faces when learning English.

Why it’s Effective

Word Jenga is an exciting way to improve your child’s language skills in any area they may be struggling with. If there are words they struggle to remember, or general areas they have a hard time with, Word Jenga is a light-hearted way to target those struggles.

How it Works

Write out a set of word challenges on notecards. Some examples of word challenges include reciting tongue twisters, identifying synonyms, spelling words, and defining vocabulary words. Then, set up your Jenga blocks as instructed on the game. Each time a player successfully pulls out a block, they have 3 tries to complete a word challenge. If they answer incorrectly, they must pull out another block and complete another challenge.

6. Night Zookeeper

Goal

To develop children’s reading and writing skills in a fantastically fun way!

Why it’s Effective

Developed by teachers, Night Zookeeper is a unique reading and writing program that uses a gamified approach to help your child improve their reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary! We also provide personalised feedback on every child's submitted work.

How to Play

Sign up for a free trial to get access to our thousands of award-winning English activities, including word games, interactive lessons, skill challenges, and more!

Got any questions? Reach out to us via email at support@nightzookeeper.com!

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