Hot Fun! Activities that Keep your English Classes Laughing and Learning

When I first started teaching, I used to worry that if I didn’t have all of my students sitting at their desks quietly focusing on their learning objectives, I was failing as a teacher. I used to think that if students were laughing and having fun, someone might look in and think that I wasn’t doing my job. I really didn’t want to be a boring teacher who made learning into drudgery though because, even from the very beginning of my career, I loved it when my students were having fun. The most important thing I can do in a classroom is leave my students wanting more. The more I learn, the more I want to learn and it is my goal everyday to make my students feel the same way. I believe that learning is hard work but I also believe that hard work can be fun.


When I think back on all of the most difficult jobs I have had, I remember the fun moments most vividly. In my mid-twenties I worked on several cruise ships. Working on a cruise ship was the most physically demanding job I have ever had and that is saying something because I grew up on a farm. The day started at 5:30 with the breakfast service and ended at 11:00, after dinner had been cleaned up and the dining room was set up for the following morning. I lost feeling in parts of my feet and my joints all swelled up but I also laughed as my friends and I painted each other as well as the holds. We played tricks on each other by sending the new people down into storage to find the dehydrated water and we made life-long friends.


I want my ESL classes to be the same, I want my students to work hard but I want them to play and have fun too. Here are a few of the activities  I plan that encourage my students to laugh, bond and leave my classes wanting more.

Help Your Students Understand Jokes and Humor in English

Humor is one of the most difficult things to understand in a foreign language.  Even in English I sometimes have trouble figuring out humor from a different English culture.  I remember struggling to figure out why Monty Python was funny when I first saw it. I am from the United States and British humor is different than American humor, but after repeated exposure I do understand the humor now. 

Not many language courses explore humor; none that I have taken at least, but it is a really important part of the way we communicate.  Not being able to share in a joke can make you feel left out.  I know that I used to sit through many a social occasion when I first arrived in Colombia, struggling to comprehend what was going around me and not understanding why people were laughing.  Did someone tell a joke?  Were they laughing about a story someone told or where they laughing at me?  I usually chose to think that they were not laughing at me and if they were, they didn't mean it in a bad way.  That helped me not to feel too insecure about trying to join in on conversations.  Nevertheless, I did spend quite a bit of time fake laughing because it seemed like joining in would make people like me more.  

Helping students to understand humor can help them to avoid hurt feelings or just feeling alienated.  Last semester I asked my students to watch a humorous video on a serious topic.  Some of the students understood some of the jokes and laughed but most of the students looked confused so I asked them to choose one part of the video in which the audience was laughing, examine the language that was being used before the laughter started, and to try and understand exactly what was being said.  Then, they had to take it to someone who worked in the English Community Zone at our university.  This is a service the university offers to our students where they can go and chat with students who have mostly either lived abroad or are exchange students.  They were then supposed to ask those students how humor was different in their countries from humor in Japan.  If your school does not have an English Community Zone, you could show students how to ask questions on-line. This site shows 13 different places people can go to get their questions answered.  

In my class, students learned some really important information, for example, in the United States good friends often insult each other in a friendly way.  This is supposed to be funny and show how close their relationship is, it is not supposed to be taken seriously.  It also made students think about how we use language to make each other laugh.  They really enjoyed going out and finding this information and bringing it back to their classmates.  

Some of my favorite comedians are:

Eddy Izzard is an English comedian who also does stand up in French German and Spanish.  He did an interview with NPR about learning languages.

John Oliver is an English comedian living in the United States who does a news show

David Sedares is an American comedian living in France. The video linked to his name is a piece he wrote about learning French.

Trevor Noah is a South African comedian living in the United States who does a news show. In this interview he talks about his move to the United States.

Warning: these comedians are all meant for adults and sometimes use adult language.  

Ask your students to find and make jokes.  I am terrible at telling jokes and I only really know one joke so I tell it any time the subject of jokes comes up.  I am learning new jokes and expanding my repertoire by asking my students to look at their vocabulary list, do a search to find a joke with that word and bring it to class with them.  They came up with some pretty good jokes and had lots of questions about why things were funny.  

Vocabulary Games

Vocabulary is the backbone of learning a language.  The more words you know, the easier it is to communicate.  Learning those words can be drudgery though so why not jazz it up with a few games.  

1. Blind Banana- I was introduced to this game by one of my friends.  It is simple to put together and fun to play.

Materials:  All you have to do is make a stack of vocabulary cards and you are ready to go.

• Place stack of vocabulary cards face down in the middle of the players
• The first player draws a card and holds it to his/her forehead without looking at it.
• The other players must then make sentences using the word but instead of saying the word, they say banana.  For example, "Every summer I have to cut the BANANA in front of my house."  "There is a big area covered in BANANA at the park and people like to play sports or just lie down and read a book there." 
• They must continue to make sentences like that until the person with the card on their forehead is able to guess the word.  

2. Memory- This was one of my favorite games as a child and I still love it today.

Materials: Identical cards with vocabulary words on one card and either a picture or a definition on another.

• have students lay all of the cards out face down.
• The first player turns over 2 cards and everyone looks at them.  If they are a match he/she gets to keep the cards and turn over 2 more.  If they are not a match, he/she turns them back over and play goes to the next person.  
• The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.

3.  Roll of the Dice- This is fun because it adds the element of chance

Materials: a stack of vocabulary cards, a dice and a list of what each number should do. The list can look something like this:
1- give a definition
2- use the word in a sentence
3- give a synonym or antonym 
4- explain the pronunciation of the word (how many syllables? Where is the stressed syllable?)
5- Give 2 collocations that go with the word
6- Give the card to another player who reads the word and you must spell it.

• The first player rolls the dice.
• Then he/she draws a card and must do what the number says.  
• If he/she is successful, they keep the card.
• If he/she is unsuccessful, they must put the card on the bottom of the pile. 
• Play continues until all of the cards belong to someone.
• The player with the most cards wins.

4. The Wall Between Us - This game is great because it asks student to move things around and rely on their listening skills rather than their reading skills.

Materials: Picture cards for each vocabulary word for each student, a folder to place between students so they can't see what the other player is doing.

• Place a folder between the 2 players like a wall so that they can't see what is on the other side.
• One player will arrange the pictures in so that some things are in front of others, some things are on top of others, some things are next to others.  It doesn't matter how they are arranged.
• The other player must then ask "Where is the __________?"
• The first player must reply "The _________ is on top of/next to/in front of the ___________."
• They must continue this way until the second player thinks he/she has all of the vocabulary cards arranged the same way as the other player.
• Remove the "wall" and take a look.  Do they match?  If they do, they get a point. If they don't, no point.  If you are playing with a whole class, the team with the most points at the end of 10 or 15 minutes is the winning team.  

Fun with Realia

Nothing livens up a classroom like bringing in real stuff and letting students feel, smell and listen to it.

Blindfolded Touch and Feel

• Bring bags full of items that you are studying, one bag for each group of 3 or 4 students. For example if you are studying food, you could bring in different kinds of fruit and vegetables.
• Put a list of questions on the board for students to ask each other like. What shape is it? What does it feel like? How heavy is it? What color do you think it is.
• One member of the group sits facing the board so he/she can read the questions while the other members of the group put on blindfolds.
• They then must choose one item out of the bag, pass it around and feel it. The person facing the board can’t see what they have in their hands and must ask questions until they can guess what it is.
• When the blindfolded members of the group think their friend has the answer, everyone can look and see if they were right or not.

Seasonably Dressed
If you are doing a unit on clothes or seasons, you could bring in a big bag of clothes.

• Put the bag on one end of the room and divide the class into teams of 2.
• Show one member of each team a season. That person must then ask their team member for different items of clothing that are appropriate for that season. For example if the season is winter, the person might ask for mittens.
• Their team member must then run to get the requested item and bring it back for their friend. If they can’t find one they must run back and say “I couldn’t find one, do you want anything else?”. If they could find one, they say “Here it is, what else can I get you?”
• The team with the most items of clothing at the end of 5 minutes wins.
• Then they have to make up a story for where they are going with their clothes and what they will do when they get there.

Hunting for Clues (inferring)
If you are teaching a skill like inferring, you could bring in items that belong to people you know.

• Then ask your students to examine those items very closely for any clues they can find about who owns that item.
• Ask them to think about how old the person is, how long they have owned this item, what gender they are, what their personality is like, what else might they own.
• Then ask the students to write a description of the person without mentioning the item.
• Ask the students to read each other’s paragraphs and try to match the paragraph with the object. In the end, the authors of the paragraphs will reveal what object they had received.

​Not every activity in your classroom needs to be focused on fun but a variety of different activities in the classroom is always a good idea because it keeps students engaged while not exhausting one part of their brains overmuch.

​Emotion is one of the keys to learning. If students don’t feel anything while they are learning, the learning is not likely to stick. This is why it is important to weave fun into your lessons. Students who look forward to your classes will in turn create classes you look forward to teaching.

Good questions to ask yourself while planning any lesson are, Would I enjoy doing this? If I were a student in this class, would I leave feeling as if I had learned a lot and I wanted more? If, after an honest look at the activities you are asking your students to do, you can’t say that you would enjoy it, you should think about how fun could be integrated into even serious topics.

Humor can get students thinking just as much if not more than approaching things from a totally serious perspective. As they say, laughter is the best medicine. Laughter actually changes the chemistry in your brain, it makes your whole body feel better and it can make learning difficult things a joy. Go on, don’t be afraid to let your class laugh and get a little rowdy sometimes, it may not look like students are learning to some critical eyes, but I assure you, if the activity is well-planned, students will be learning as well as laughing.   

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