Combine English language learning with fun games and activities to make your classes more enjoyable for students. Consider using one of the 412 crosswords or board games from this section in your classes to help students learn and practice a variety of topics. For a pre-intermediate activity on the past simple, look at this crossword page. It is a fun boardgame that can help students practice saying past simple verb forms and asking past simple questions. You can alter the rules to make it longer or shorter and even change the words to encourage students to practice particular vocabulary. The most popular worksheets are Christmas themed so feel free to check those out too. These activities have been created by other busy teachers just like you and are all free and easy to print out for use in your classes.
Making English language learning fun for students will help keep them engaged in their lessons. Younger students especially enjoy learning games while older students are more likely to want a more serious learning environment, discount the usefulness of these types of activities, and see them as a waste of time. The number of crosswords and boardgames you include in your course will largely depend on how your students react to them but they have become very common and are an effective ESL teaching tool.
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases. Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication. Some crosswords will also indicate the number of words in a given answer, should there be more than one. The horizontal and vertical lines of white cells into which answers are written are commonly called entries or answers.
This fun beach-themed word search can be used in the summer season. It includes words related to "At the Beach" vocabulary. There are 15 words hidden in the puzzle. See if your students ...
This ESL Pals kids resource covers the topic of ‘Farm Animals’. The lesson provides the opportunity for young learners to learn new words, and phrases and form sentence ...
This colorful activity asks students to look at the pictures and complete the crossword puzzle. It includes the words: skull, skeleton, bat, vampire, spider, witch, cauldron, lantern, ra ...
This is a video with an interesting poem. Students watch the video and complete the exercises: Circle/choose the correct adjectives, verbs, letter words, etc. It contains 7 exercises and ...
There are eight activities on this worksheet about food: blanks exercises, matching exercises, analogies, word search, idioms, put the item in the appropriate box, mark the noun ‘c ...
This PDF explores the top Scrabble word lists to learn in order to secure a HUGE scoring advantage. It includes two- and three-letter words, unusual hook words, Q without U words, words ...
This quick and easy wordsearch is ideal for adult elementary students, children or teenagers. It's also perfect as an introduction, reinforcement or revision material and makes a wonderf ...
This is a great activity that you can use as a warmer, as a review activity or even as a filler. It can be used in ANY level to practice any tense for affirmative, negative or questions. It's a g ...
This is a video with a special poem, called ´acrostic´. The first letter of each line spells out a new word. You can watch the video and do the exercises (Circle the correct verbs, ...
This is a video with an interesting poem. You can make a lot of exercises: adjectives, verbs, letter words,… I’ve made 7 exercises and a crossword. But of course, you can change them ...
Have you ever wondered why Elizabeth II is so popular? This simple card game will help you to learn more about one of the most popular monarchs of our time. You may use this game as a time filler ...
This is a card game where students need to create meaningful sentences using the cards they are dealt. There are 5 main types: subjects, objects, verbs, complements and connectors. RULES: -At th ...
This is a game based on Marck Hancock's maze available on his website. Students have to find the path through the verbs with the same pronunciation: e.g. cooks - visits - helps. It aims at helpin ...
A fall themed crossword puzzle for young students that can read and write. It has twelve clues to guess from with colorful pictures that help the student solve the puzzle. The vocabulary includes ...
This is a crossword for the third grade, based on the textbook: Àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê. Ó÷åáíèê äëÿ 3 êëàññà. Âåðåùàãèíà È.Í., Ïðèòûêèíà Ò.À. (for the Russian learners). It can be used either as a grou ...
Teach or revise summer vocabulary with this boardgame. Students must advance on the board with dice, when they land on a picture they must name it, spell it and or use it in a sentence. This activ ...
Monopoly Deal is basically Monopoly, the game you know and hate, in the form of a card game, which you will come to love. It is Monopoly without tears, and it takes about a tenth of the time (20-6 ...
Common sight words are words that need to be recognised on sight. This 'Complete the Sentence' activity will help young students read these difficult words and also write them too. There are ten w ...
This is a very simple crossword that can be used to practise writing numbers 1-100. It is followed by a short activity that will make students think about numbers in a familiar context, saying sen ...
This board game is played after watching Zootopia. Students learn about Places in Town. It is expected that students can practice asking and giving information, such as "Where is she going?" and " ...
Check out HelpTeaching.com's lesson about election words, and then have students download and complete the accompanying worksheet. This is great during fall and spring election season in the Unite ...
What are some of the most common verbs in the English language? Students can begin to recognize those verbs with this word search. Challenge students to find the verbs, and then use the verbs in a ...
How many names of fruits and vegetables do your students know? Using this worksheet, students can learn the names of different fruits and vegetables. To enhance the value of the worksheet, encoura ...
Cap. Whistle. Lifeguard. Towel. What do all of these words have in common? They are all words related to the pool. Look at the list of words. How quickly can you find all of the words in the list? ...
4 24,249ElemPre-Int
Got a great worksheet on
Crosswords/Boardgames?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!