The lesson I always fall back on when asked to guest teach is the parts of the face. I have the students draw whatever part is needed next on the chalkboard. I also draw my own version and purposefully make it the opposite of theirs so we can talk about the differences. This is a great transition into Erase Face, which is just Hangman, but you erase parts of the face instead of hanging a person.

When I worked for ILP, one of the games the kids absolutely loved was a flaschard game. I would pass out flashcards with vocabulary words on them, then say a word, and the students would have to raise the correct one before the other team.

Another favorite with vocabulary was writing all the words on the chalkboard in random places. Two kids would stand at the front with fly swatters, I would say a word, and they would have to slap it on the board. This boded well even with older students, but be warned: large classes will get really noisy.

Draw a grid on the chalkboard and write a random letter in the first box. The class has to come up with a word that starts with that letter. Next, they have to come up with a word that starts with the letter the first word ended with. This goes on until the grid is completely filled, letter by letter. I didn’t think this one would go over well, but my usually naughty class ate it right up.

Mock auctions are a lot of fun. If there isn’t enough fake money to go around, you can simply write a number on a slip of paper for each student and edit it whenever they win an item. Of course, the items are just crappy pictures you draw on the spot, but the students still love it. For fun, you can throw in joke pictures like a glass of water or a mosquito.

With a big class, playing a board game could be disastrous, but you can draw a Candy Land-like path on the chalkboard (with optional chutes and ladders), then divide the class into three or four teams. Each team is assigned a magnet, and when they land on a space, they have to explain what is in the picture. If you don’t have time to draw a picture in every square, then have the students take a card from a deck (that only has 2s, 3s, and 4s in it). Depending on if they get a black or red card, they have to say/do something special.

Draw a target on the board and have teams take turns throwing a wadded-up piece of paper at it. Using higher point values like 11, 12, 13, 14, etc. is a good way to practice big numbers, since the teams’ scores will escalate quickly. I like mixing in negative numbers (especially if they miss the target completely). This can also be used in place of dice or the cards for the board game.

Tic-Tac-Toe may not seem language-oriented, but you can draw pictures and words along the top and side and force students to make a complete sentence before marking a square. In bigger classes, one side of the room can be X and the other O, and then a different student answers each time.

Stick a picture of a bicycle (or car) in the middle of the chalkboard. Tape up another picture of a house somewhere else on the board, then have the students tell you how to get home. For example: Go up. Go left. Obviously, this is kind of easy, so after each turn, move the house and draw one or two lines on the board for the bike to go around. Soon, you’ll have created a fairly complex maze for the students to navigate.

Concentration (or Memory) is fun, takes up a lot of time, and is a great way to review vocabulary. You can stick the “cards” on the chalkboard using magnets, and instead of having students come up to the board, they direct your hand to the square they want by saying up, down, left, or right. Once a team finds a match, you can ask a question like, “Can you eat this?”

Draw a picture on a large (like, very large) sheet of paper, then cut it up into 16 squares. In class, place these on the chalkboard in a 4×4 grid, mixing them up and turning some of them upside down. Write A, B, C, D on the top and 1, 2, 3, 4 on the side. Now the students have to solve the picture puzzle by telling you to switch two pieces or flip one piece. For example, “Switch A1 with D3. Flip B4.” If they get stuck, you can draw what it’s supposed to be off to the side.

Split the class into teams. Each team has an empty face on the board that they want to draw in, but they can only draw a part of the face when they take a card from a box/bag and correctly identify the picture on it. What really makes this game interesting for students is throwing in special cards that let a team draw two things at once or erase items from the other teams’ faces. This is a good way to review vocabulary as well as parts of the face and the concepts of draw and erase.

Two teams again. A student from one team calls on a student from the other team, then starts an if/then sentence (they would say the if part). The student they called on has to finish the sentence (the then part) within five seconds. If they can finish the sentence (and it makes sense), their team gets a point. If they can’t finish it correctly, the other team gets the point. Having the students call on each other is a good way to weed out those who don’t normally participate.

Ask the class to brainstorm several different adverbs, then write these down on 3×5 cards. Now come up with a few actions (like walk, eat, sleep, etc.) to write on different cards. A student then takes one of each card and has to act out the action according to the adverb. The rest of the class must say what he/she is doing, “He is eating carefully.”