What do your students think of when they hear the word “vocabulary”? Do they think of boring repetition and memorization? Do they think it’s the most difficult part of learning English? If so, it’s time to change their attitudes! Learning vocabulary can be fun when teachers present it in interesting ways. It’s also a lot easier to remember new words with frequent repetition, so try reviewing vocab using a variety of activities to keep students engaged. The activities suggested below are always a big hit with my students! 
Teaching Vocabulary
1. Vocab on the Board:
Introduce new vocabulary with this competitive activity that is sure to grab and keep the attention of your young learners. This is a game you can play with the whole class.
- Write the new words in a list on the left side of the board.
- Divide students into two teams. Fun tip: Get the groups to pick their own team names! Give them a theme like animals, food, movies, or something that relates to the vocabulary topic.
- Tell the two teams that you’ll read out a definition to one team at a time.
- If that team can guess the word that matches the definition, they get $100. (I find students love getting pretend money, but you could use points if you prefer.)
- If they guess wrong, the other team can steal the money by guessing the correct word for $50. If they can’t guess, it goes back to the first team again for $50, and so on until one team gets the right answer.
- Play then resumes with the next definition being read to the second team, who will get $100 if they guess correctly.
- For the last two words, you can get the teams to come up with the correct definitions on their own (since it is too easy to guess at this point).
- Whichever team has the most money at the end is the winning team!
Notes: You can write the definitions on the board as you go and have students copy them down, or have a premade word/definition list ready to hand out after the activity is complete.
2. Matchup:
This activity is great for pairs or small groups. Students discuss their choices together and often become really focused while trying to decide which definition is best for which word.
- Make one master copy where you type or write the vocabulary words on the left of the paper and the definitions on the right. Ten words/definitions work well for this activity.
- Copy one page per pair/group.
- Cut up the words from one page, mix them up, and put them into a pile. Clip them together with a paper clip. Do the same for the definitions. Repeat for the remaining pages.
- Hand out one pile of words and one pile of definitions to each pair/group.
- Tell your students to try to match up each word with its definition. Tell them to discuss their choices as they go.
- Don’t forget to keep the master copy for yourself (don’t cut it!) so that you can keep it handy while you’re circulating and correcting your students.
Notes: While this activity is a bit labor-intensive for the teacher initially, don’t forget that you can hang on to the strips on paper and reuse them often for vocabulary review. Try doing it the next day, next week, or next month! Frequent review will really help the words stick in your young learners’ minds.
Reviewing Vocabulary
1. Hotseat:
Hotseat is a classic! This class activity is guaranteed to get your students shouting and laughing. It also encourages studying in order to avoid letting their team down. In case you’re not familiar with this popular exercise, follow the instructions below.
- Put two chairs at the front of the class. The chairs should face the students (and face away from the board).
- Divide your students into two teams.
- Pick one student from each team to be in the “hotseats”.
- Write a word on the board. The two students can’t look at the word, and the rest of the students can’t say the word out loud.
- It’s up to the rest of their teammates to say (shout) the definition of the word without using the word itself. No actions!
- The first of the two students in the hotseats to guess the word gets a point. Choose two different students and repeat until everyone has had a turn or you’ve run out of words.
- You can choose to let the teams take turns (explaining different words) or have both teams do it at once (explaining the same word). I always choose the latter—it’s louder and more fun that way!
- The team with the most points at the end wins!
2. Concentration with Cards:
Concentration is a popular activity for kids to do in small groups. It’s a good way to make use of all the word/definition strips of paper you’ve cut for the Matchup activity in the Teaching Vocabulary section above.
- Divide the class into small groups (3 or 4 per group works well).
- If you don’t have the words and definitions on premade strips of paper (from the Matchup activity above), cut up squares of paper and fill in the words and definitions (I usually like to use 20 paper squares—10 words and 10 definitions). You’ll need one set of words/definitions for each group.
- Have each group arrange the pieces of paper facedown on the table in front of them.
- Students take turns flipping over two cards per turn. If they find a matching word and definition, they can keep the pair. If not, they must return the cards to the same spot. (Some variations of concentration allow a person to continue guessing as long as they keep getting matches, but I prefer to move on to the next student after a correct matchup—that way, each student gets to participate more.)
- Once all the pieces have been matched up, the student with the most pairs wins!
3. Concentration on the Board:
This variation of the classic concentration game has always been one of my faves. It’s a fun activity to try with the whole class!
- Before the activity starts, draw a numbered grid on a piece of paper and fill it in with 10 words and 10 corresponding definitions (one word or definition per square). Keep it handy for reference while doing this activity.
- Draw a grid on the board with 20 squares (5 X 4). Write the numbers 1-20 in the top left-hand corner of each square.
- Divide the students into two teams. Get one student from team A to choose one box. Write the word or definition (according to your paper) in the center of the box. Have that same student choose another box. Fill in that box, too.
- If the two boxes contain a matching word and definition, leave the words written in the boxes and give that team a point. You can now let that student continue to guess, or go to the other team. I prefer the latter because it ensures more students get to participate.
- If they don’t match, erase both boxes and repeat the process with a student from team B.
- Continue until all the boxes are filled in.
- For the last pair of boxes, make it more challenging by having that team member try to guess the last matching word or definition.
- The team with the most points wins!
Notes: On most chalkboards and whiteboards, it’s easy to see which spots have been recently erased. I like to quickly rub the eraser around the center of each box in the grid so that my students can’t see which numbers have already been chosen.
Sprout English has a great vocabulary section called the Word Bank. All of the Word Bank’s lessons embody the idea that using a variety of activities will keep students interested while repeating the vocabulary enough that they’ll easily remember it. Our Word Bank lesson are divided into themes including Sports & Leisure, Nature, Jobs, Transportation, Holidays, Verbs & Prepositions, and Describing People & Things. Each lesson includes a picture dictionary with kid-friendly illustrations, a matchup exercise, a word choice activity, a word search, a word scramble, a spelling bee, and discussion questions.
Try our newest Word Bank lesson, Thanksgiving, just in time for American Thanksgiving on November 28th!
What’s your favorite way of presenting or reviewing vocabulary? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section below. Also, please let us know if there is a vocabulary theme that would be useful for you and your students—we’re always adding new lessons to our site, and would appreciate your input!
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