You reach the end of the lesson, but there is way too much time left 😱 What do you do?

At this point, it’s easy to default to free-conversation, and that’s fine. But what about playing some games to pass the time?

So — whether you have two or five minutes left, whether you’re teaching beginners or advanced students — here are some games that your students will love!

First, Ask The Student

But first, we need to ask our student if there’s anything specific they want to do. Now, how would you word this question?

1. We have some extra time. Would you like to do anything?
2. We have some extra time. What would you like to do?

Based on advice from tutors, we’d suggest asking …

… “What would you like to do?” instead of “Would you like to do anything?” This is because some students misinterpret the question and think to themselves, “Of course I want to do something, we have so much time left!" 🤦🏽

Anyways, if the student doesn’t have any suggestions, you can ask if they want to play games.

Word Chain

An easy game you can play at any level is “Word Chain.” This is when you say a word, e.g. “pencil” and your opponent must say a word that starts with the final letter of the word you said.

(Because so many English words end in the letter “e,” players are also allowed to use the consonant before “e” to start their word: “lake” → “kangaroo.”)

You can also tailor the game to the topic you’ve just covered in the lesson. For instance, if you were talking about cars, you could limit yourselves to the use of only transportation-related words (“car” → “red light” → “truck”). This is a good way to review vocabulary covered in the lesson.

If your student is up for a challenge, you can also limit the game to words that appeared in the lesson (e.g. in the article, the vocab section, or the dialogue).

Two Truths And A Lie

Another game you can play is “Two Truths and a Lie.” You tell two truths and one lie, and your student tries to figure out which one is the lie. Make sure they provide reasons for the choice they made. Here is an example of a tutor playing the game with a beginner:

Next, it’s your student’s turn to tell two truths and a lie. For more advanced students, you can play “Three Truths and a Lie” or even “Four Truths and a Lie.”

A benefit of these “truth and lie” games is that sometimes, they lead to mini-conversations (e.g. “Oh, your favorite movie is Titanic? That’s also my favorite movie!”).

However, let’s not share information that is too private, such as “I have never had a boyfriend/girlfriend” or “I am married with three kids.” Doing so makes students feel pressured to share their own personal information, and we don’t want that to happen!

I Spy

And don’t forget about “I Spy”! For I Spy, you’ll just need a photo. You can use a photo from the lesson or find one in our Describing Pictures series.

You then pick something or someone in the image and have your student guess what you’ve picked. However, they can only ask yes-no questions. For instance, let’s say you pick this image:

You could pick a statue. You start the game by saying, “I spy with my little eye, something white.” Your student then needs to guess what you picked by asking questions like:

• “Is it a statue?”
• “Does it have a head?”
• “Is it wearing clothes?”

Players usually say “I spy with my little eye,” but if we’re teaching a beginner, it’s better to stick with just “I spy” or even simpler, “I see.”

👋 That’s it for now!

What was your favorite game or activity? Which ones do you think your students will enjoy the most? At any rate, we hope these activities will make those last minutes of the lesson more enjoyable!

And stay tuned for a future piece on activities to do with more serious students!