5 Best Outdoor EFL Games with No Equipment
In spring and autumn we often take our students to the park for some fresh air, to run around, and to get out of the small suburban school house. On these occasions it’s great if you can have some games where the students are enjoying using English in their play. It looks great if a parent, or any member of the community, happens along to see a group of Japanese children playing using English. It could also be some great advertising for your school. Here are my favourites.
Hide and Seek
The classic hide and seek game where one person covers their eyes and counts to ten and the others run away and hide.
Make this game more relevant to your EFL class by reviewing these phrases:
“I’ll count”.
Numbers 1 to 10.
“Ready or not, here I come”.
“I found you”.
“What’s the time, Mr Wolf?”
This is my go to game when something has happened and I suddenly need a game to take 10 minutes or so. It’s fun, it has some good English content, and it’s easy to set up and demonstrate in English.
Note: Actually as I proofread this post I realise that I used this game today when we had a little extra time at the end of our Christmas Party.
The Rules:
Students stand in a line over one side of a large space. One student, “Mr Wolf,” stands over the other side of the space facing away from the group. The group chants together “What’s the time, Mr Wolf?” “Mr Wolf” can answer anything from “one o’clock to “twelve o’clock”, the group must take the corresponding amount of steps towards him.
For example, If “Mr Wolf” says, “4 o’clock”, the group must take 4 steps.
Theoretically, the group will advance in a line but the more timid students will take small steps, and the more daring will take leaps. And that’s ok.
When “Mr Wolf” thinks the other students are close enough, instead of answering a time (__ o’clock) , he will answer “Dinner Time!” and then try to catch the other students as they run away from him.
The object of the game is similar to a lot of childhood games. “Mr Wolf” wants the group to come as close as possible so that he has the best chance of catching somebody. The group wants to get as daringly close as possible and still get away.
Red Light, Green Light
This concept is very similar to “What’s the time, Mr Wolf?” with less English involved.
The group lines up over one side of a large space. While the student who is the traffic light is on the other side of the space. When the traffic light turns towards the group, he or she says, “Red light!” and everyone must freeze. The traffic light then turns away from the group and says, “Green light!” While the traffic light is turned away, the group tries to get as close to the traffic light as possible. The traffic light turns around quickly and says, “Red light!” Everyone must freeze and if anyone is seen moving they have to go back to the starting place. If someone manages to tag the traffic light, they get to be the next traffic light.
Note: There is another similar game called “Mother, may I?” but I find the call and response a little difficult for the ages / English ability of most of my students.
Simon Says…
One person is Simon and stands in front of the group facing them. Simon starts by saying, “Simon says ‘[action]’.” eg. “Simon says ‘touch your nose’.” Everyone must do the action. However, if Simon tells the group to do an action without saying “Simon says”, anyone who does that action is out.
This can be a little tricky, especially if you’ve got a group of kids of different English abilities. What I usually do is make sure everybody knows the action “touch”, and review the body parts. It is a great review game even for more advanced kids.
Duck, Duck, Goose.
The kids sit down in a circle. The one who is “it” walks around the circle tapping people’s heads and telling them whether they are a “duck” or a “goose”.
It goes something like, “duck, duck, duck, duck, goose.”
When someone is chosen as a goose, they get up and chase “it” around the circle. Their goal is to tag that person before they can sit in their spot. If the goose manages to tag “it” they have to be “it” again. If “it” manages to take the goose’s spot, the goose is the new “it”.
If we play this game at Halloween, we simply change the words to, “ghost, ghost vampire.” At Christmas we use “present, present, Santa.”
My Favourite EFL Games
So, they are my top 5 EFL games with no equipment. Thank you so much for reading. What do you think of my list? Are there any that you think are better? Please tell me in the comments.
