21 Effective Learning Games for ELA Classes

Games are an engaging and effective way to help students build vocabulary, grammar, reading, and speaking skills. This collection of 21 classroom-ready games offers impactful language practice that’s simple to implement in any upper elementary English language arts classroom setting.

Vocabulary-Enhancing Games

Expand students’ vocabulary skills with these language learning games that make word exploration interesting and effective.

1. A to Z Word Scavenger Hunt: Scavenger hunts can be super educational, turning learning into an engaging adventure that fosters curiosity and teamwork. In this activity, students have to come up with words related to a theme (i.e. animals, food, musical instruments) for each letter of the alphabet. For example, if the theme is animals, they might start with “alligator” for A, then move on to “bear” for B, and so on. Students work individually or in teams to fill in their alphabet chart with various animals. This activity boosts vocabulary, creativity, and focus while encouraging friendly competition and teamwork.

Materials: A to Z alphabet scavenger hunt chart or worksheet.

Variations: Use a timer for added excitement or assign a smaller portion of the alphabet for younger students.

2. Synonym BINGO: Students receive a BINGO card filled with various words. The teacher calls out a word (e.g., “happy”), and students must find a synonym (e.g., “joyful“) on their cards. Students cover the matching word, and the first one to get five in a row, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, calls out “BINGO!” This game helps reinforce vocabulary and teaches students about word relationships.

Materials: Pre-made BINGO cards with words in the squares, a list of synonyms for players to reference (optional), markers to cover the squares.

Variation: For more advanced learners, use challenging synonyms (e.g. “fast” for “swift”). Alternatively, limit the vocabulary set by focusing on a specific theme (e.g., emotions or action verbs).

3. Word Associations Chain: Students sit in a circle and take turns saying a word related to the previous word. For example, one student might say “apple,” the next might say “red,” and the next might say “fire truck.” The game continues as each student adds a new word to the chain, building on the previous one. This game helps develop quick thinking, creativity, and word associations.

Materials: None.

Variation: To add a memory challenge, ask students to repeat the entire word chain before adding their word.

4. Word Jar Activity: A jar filled with vocabulary words is placed on a table in the classroom. Each student picks a word from the jar, looks up its definition in a dictionary, and then uses it in a complete sentence. This activity helps reinforce vocabulary usage, encourages students to practice using new words in context, and builds their dictionary skills.

Materials: A jar, paper slips with vocabulary words, a dictionary.

Variation: Create themed jars based on current lessons, such as “habitats,” “medieval times,” or even “algebra,” to focus on specific vocabulary sets.

Grammar-Building Activities

Engage students in interesting, hands-on language learning games that make studying grammar more enjoyable.

5. Sentence Scramble: Students are given a stack of cards, each featuring a word or punctuation mark. Their task is to arrange the cards into a grammatically correct sentence. This fast-paced activity helps reinforce sentence structure, word order, and punctuation, while also providing practice with different parts of speech in a fun and engaging way.

Materials: Cards or slips of paper with words and punctuation marks that form sentences.

Variation: Use color-coded cards for younger students to indicate subjects, verbs, and objects. Let older students create sentences for their peers to unscramble.

6. Grammar Detectives: Turn your classroom into a detective agency with this language learning game. Give students task cards with specific grammar clues, such as “Find a verb in a sentence from a picture book” or “Locate an adjective on a classroom poster.” You could include fun challenges like, “Gather 5 blue nouns from around the room.” This activity actively engages students and helps them apply grammar concepts in real-world contexts.

Materials: Task cards with prompts (e.g., “Identify 3 nouns in your math word problems,” “Write down all of the proper nouns in the classroom,” or “Locate 5 action verbs in the lyrics of a song.”), clipboards or notebooks, pencils, colored pencils.

Variation: Add a scavenger hunt element where students check off items as they find them or work in teams to complete as many tasks as possible within a set time.

7. Verb Charades: This is a fantastic way to combine learning with physical activity, making grammar lessons more memorable. Write a mix of action words on cards or slips of paper. Have one student choose a card and act out the verb while the rest of the class tries to guess the word. This interactive language learning game helps students reinforce their understanding of verbs and their meanings while having fun.

Materials: Verb cards with a mix of simple and complex action words.

Variation: Use themed sets of verbs, such as sports actions, daily routines, or animal movements, to make the activity more fun and relevant to students’ interests.

8. Preposition Performance: Bring prepositions to life with this engaging twist on charades. Students act out sentences using props like chairs, boxes, and other classroom items. For example, they might create a scene for “The ball is under the table” or “The notebook is on the chair.” Their classmates then guess the sentence based on the performance, making this an exciting and interactive way to reinforce understanding of prepositional relationships.

Materials: Common classroom props (e.g., chairs, boxes, books, pencils); a list of preposition-filled sentences (e.g. “The ruler is between the two books,” “The scissors are next to the glue,” “The trash bin is next to the recycling bin,” “The pencils are inside the cup on the shelf.”).

Variation: Pair students to collaborate on creating and acting out their scene. This adds a layer of creativity and teamwork to the activity.

Speaking Skills Games

Encourage fluency and confidence with these language learning games focused on verbal expression.

9. Describe and Guess: Put students‘ descriptive skills to the test with this interactive guessing game. One student selects an object from the classroom environment (or is assigned one by the teacher) and describes it to the class without saying its name. The goal is to use rich, specific details to help their classmates guess what it is. For example, a student describing the classroom clock might say, “It’s round, has black numbers, and hangs above the whiteboard, ticking quietly all day.” This game sharpens vocabulary, listening, and critical thinking skills while building confidence in public speaking.

Materials: Real objects from around the classroom; timer (optional).

Variation: Challenge students to use at least three adjectives in their description.

10. Interview a Friend: This activity helps students practice their question-and-answer skills while learning more about their classmates. Students take turns interviewing each other using teacher-provided prompts, such as “What’s your favorite food and why?” or “If you could learn a new skill instantly, what would it be?” This exercise builds listening, speaking, and social skills as students engage in conversation and learn to formulate thoughtful questions.

Materials: Question prompts (e.g. “What’s your favorite after-school hobby or activity?” “If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?” “If you could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?”).

Variation: Rotate roles so all students can ask and answer questions, helping them become more comfortable speaking and listening.

11. Tongue Twister Challenge: Turn up the fun and improve their pronunciation with this lively game. Students take turns reciting tongue twisters, aiming for speed and accuracy. From “She sells seashells by the seashore” to more challenging phrases, this activity encourages focus, articulation, and laughter. It’s perfect for practicing difficult sounds and improving fluency in a lighthearted way.

Materials: List of tongue twisters.

Variation: Add a speed round where students try to say their tongue twisters faster and faster without tripping up, creating excitement and friendly competition.

12. Story Circle: Improve creativity and teamwork with this collaborative storytelling activity. Students sit in a circle and take turns adding a sentence to a growing story, always building on the previous student’s words. One student is designated as the “scribe” and writes down each sentence to document the evolving story. The result is often a unique and hilarious tale that encourages creative thinking, teamwork, and understanding of narrative structure.

Materials: Paper and pencil for the scribe.

Variation: Voice record the final story and play it back to the class, allowing everyone to enjoy the collaborative creation and reflect on how their ideas came together.

Listening Games for Comprehension

Develop attentive listening with these dynamic language learning games.

13. Follow the Leader: This activity gets students moving while practicing listening and following directions. One student gives a series of 3-6 specific instructions (e.g., “touch your head, shoulders, then toes,” “clap your hands above your head,” “spin around 3 times,” “play the air guitar for 5 seconds”), and the rest of the group must replicate them in sequence. This activity reinforces attention to detail and promotes physical activity while enhancing listening skills and memory.

Materials: None.

Variation: Mix up the instructions with both physical actions (e.g., jumping jacks) and verbal commands (e.g., “say the alphabet backward”), adding variety and making the game even more challenging.

14. Whisper Challenge: Prepare for hilarious twists and turns in this game that tests how well students listen and communicate. Students sit in a circle, and one person whispers a phrase to the person next to them, who whispers it to the next, and so on until the last person in the circle hears the phrase. The final person says the phrase out loud, and everyone compares it to the original. This activity, also known as the telephone game, helps with listening comprehension and shows how messages can change when they’re passed along.

Materials: None.

Variation: Encourage students to use phrases with tricky homophones or similar-sounding words (like “bare” vs. “bear”) to add an extra layer of difficulty and encourage careful listening.

15. Match the Sound: Help students sharpen their listening and matching skills with this auditory activity. To play, prepare a set of cards with images of various objects, animals, or scenes. Play an audio clip of a sound (e.g., an animal noise, a car horn, or a clock ticking) and have students choose the picture card that matches the sound they hear. This game boosts listening comprehension, vocabulary, and categorization skills.

Materials: Audio clips (can be played via speakers or device), picture cards (with images of animals, objects, or scenes).

Variation: For a cross-curricular twist, use themed sounds, like nature sounds (rain, birds chirping) or musical instruments, to reinforce lessons from other subjects, like science or music.

Reading Games for Fluency and Comprehension

Enhance students’ reading skills with interactive language learning games designed to improve fluency, boost comprehension, and make reading fun for all students.

16. Story Puzzles: This activity turns storytelling into a hands-on challenge. Prepare a set of story cards featuring a different part of a narrative (e.g., a beginning, middle, or end). Mix up the cards and give them to students. Their task is to arrange the cards to form a cohesive story. This game strengthens critical thinking, sequencing, and reading comprehension as students work through the story puzzle and make sense of how narratives are structured.

Materials: Story cards with different story segments (you can print or create cards with parts of a familiar story or original content).

Variation: For younger students, add visual cues or images to the story cards to help them understand the sequence. This extra support encourages independent learning and makes the puzzle-solving process easier.

17. Character Conversations: In this activity, students act out a dialogue between two characters. Select a short excerpt from a book you’re currently reading in class, ideally one that features a conversation between two characters. Students take turns acting out the dialogue, each playing a character.

Encourage them to think about the characters’ emotions, motivations, and how they would respond in the given situation. This activity helps students deepen their understanding of characters while practicing public speaking, listening, and comprehension skills.

Materials: Excerpts from books or stories with dialogue between two characters.

Variation: Challenge students to rework the conversation from the perspective of different characters in the story. This helps them explore various viewpoints, deepen their empathy for the characters, and practice adjusting tone and delivery based on character traits.

18. Guess That Character: This reading comprehension activity lets students showcase their understanding of a story’s characters through role-play. After reading a story together, ask for a volunteer to leave the room and choose a character from the story to impersonate. Give the student a few minutes outside the classroom to plan how they will portray the character through gestures, expressions, and speech patterns.

When they return, the rest of the class asks yes/no questions or makes guesses to identify the character. This game encourages students to pay attention to character details, practice active listening and provides teachers with a creative way to assess comprehension.

Materials: The story/book you’ve read.

Variation: Have props and costume pieces available to help the volunteer embody the character and enhance the experience.

Writing Practice Games

This games can help you have students engage in writing exercises that enhance their creativity, expand their language skills, and make writing a good time.

19. Story Dice Roll: This game challenges students to build a story on the spot using random prompts. To play, students roll dice featuring different categories like characters, settings, or genres. For example, a roll might land on “pirate,” “alien,” “cat,” “grandpa,” “frog,” or “bee,” and students must quickly craft a story that includes whichever character they roll. This activity sharpens narrative skills and encourages students to think creatively and adapt as they work to connect the prompts into a cohesive story. This activity helps students develop narrative skills and the ability to think on their feet.

Materials: Dice with words or images outlining story elements such as characters, setting, or genres. Teachers can create dice like these on their own or find options online.

Variation: Add a “twist” die with unexpected plot changes (e.g., “a storm hits” or “the hero turns out to be a villain”) to challenge students to adjust and expand their stories on the fly.

20. Message in a Bottle: In this reflective writing activity, students write a letter or message to a future reader, imagining what life might be like for someone far in the future. To begin, provide each student with paper and markers, and ask them to write a message that includes their thoughts, hopes, or predictions for the future. They can write about personal dreams, current events, or advice they’d want to pass on. This activity encourages creative thinking and reflection on the passage of time.

Materials: Paper, markers, and any additional materials for decoration (optional).

Variation: Allow students to share their messages with the class and discuss the imaginative elements or personal reflections included.

21. Picture Prompt Writing: In this creative writing activity, students are given a random image and tasked with crafting a story or description inspired by what they see. The picture might depict a scene, character, or object, and students must use their imagination to build a narrative or detailed scene based on visual cues. This exercise helps enhance vocabulary and descriptive writing skills as students explore how imagery can inspire storytelling.

Materials: A collection of diverse images (magazine cutouts, printed photos, or online images).

Variation: Provide students with a list of specific vocabulary words (such as “mysterious,” “swirling,” “gritty”) that they must incorporate into their writing, challenging them to use these words creatively in context.

These language learning games should help transform lessons into fun-filled, engaging experiences for students. Incorporating them regularly into your classroom routines can foster a love for learning and create lasting memories.