Classroom word games for learning English vocabulary

I Spy Games

classroom games tips and ideas

learning and teaching resources

Our I Spy board games are a fun, useful tool to revise vocabulary. The objective of the game is for the students to find words on the game board. If your students enjoy this activity, you could expand it by playing related word games.

Fun, interactive, great tools for learning. Who doesn't like to play classroom games? Here are some ideas to inspire you. These activities can be used in any topic!

The suggested games focus on spelling, writing and vocabulary building. They require minimal preparation and can be used just to practise any vocabulary.

Below you will find descriptions of the following classroom games:

• reorder the letters
• abc order
• guess the words
• write the words
• misspelled words

To browse all of our I Spy games sorted alphabetically by topic, use this resource guide. Also, we offer a variety of online word games that go well with these printables.

ideas for extra classroom games

Below you will find some classroom games that go well with our I Spy games. Any game can be used in any vocabulary topic.

reorder the letters

  • Write on the board.
  • Take the letters in a word and mix them up.
  • Ask your students to reorder them to make the word, then ask them to spell it correctly.

abc order

  • Write your vocabulary words on the board.
  • Ask kids to write the letters of each word in ABC order.
  • For example, DOG would be DGO, etc.

guess the words

  • Write vocabulary words on the board.
  • Kids (A and B) play in pairs. Each player chooses 2-4 words.
  • A sits with his/her back to B.
  • B writes a word with his/her finger on A's back. A has to guess the word.
  • When A guesses the right word, kids change their roles.

write the words

  • Write five words from the same topic on the board.
  • Give the pupils time to memorize the words and then erase everything.
  • Working individually (or in pairs), your students then have to write the correct spelling of the words in their notebooks.
  • The student who does this in the shortest time is the winner.

misspelled words

  • Divide the class into two or more teams.
  • Slowly write the list of words on the board, purposely misspelling random words.
  • As soon as a team notices that a word has been misspelled, one person should stand and call out: That's wrong!
  • If the word is wrong, the team must spell it correctly.
  • If team members are able to do so, they earn a point for their team.
  • If not, another team is given the chance to spell the word and earn a point.
  • The team with the most points wins.