Kids speaking games

24 Public Speaking Games for Kids

August 1, 2022 //  by Alison Vrana

Public speaking is a life skill, so kids need to learn communication skills from a young age. From preschool to high school, practicing public speaking through games and activities makes speaking and listening fun. Kids will love these public speaking activities, many of which I have done in my own classroom.

These fun-filled speech activities are divided up by age group, but many are adaptable for any age. Here are 24 public speaking games to build those essential skills.

You can do this in a classroom or at home. Find a funny image to show the child (think a cow in a kitchen or flying cars), then ask the child to use his observation skills to explain what's silly about the pictures.

Learn More: ASHA Org

2. What Am I?

Describe what you do with an item or items, and then have the child guess. For example, you might say, "we use this to color", and the child might say pen, pencil, marker, crayon, etc.

Learn More: ASHA Org

Print out or draw a basic map. Choose a starting location on the map, then have the child describe how to get to another location on the map. As they give directions, move your finger or pencil to help the child visualize his directions.

Learn More: ASHA Org

The common activity, "Simon Says", helps with both listening and speaking. The kids completing the actions have to listen, but you can also have a child be Simon, allowing him to practice leadership skills.

Give kids a choice between 2 controversial topics and ask them to choose one. The key to this engaging game is requiring kids to explain why. Examples include cats or dogs, hot dogs or hamburgers, mountains or beach?

Learn More: Mama Duck

Each day, as you call attendance, have students respond to an idea, fill-in-the-blank, or topic. For example, what's your favorite movie? If I had all the money in the world, I would ____________, etc.

Learn More: Gunnison Extension Colostate

Hide an object in a box so only the speaker can see it. Have the speaker describe the object to the class without saying what it is. The other kids must guess what the object is as fast as they can. You can adapt this for older kids by making the objects more obscure.

Learn More: ESL Activity

8. Imaginary Animal

Have a student describe an imaginary animal to the class. While the student describes the animal, have the entire audience draw the animal. Students can take turns describing. This is a great activity to teach both speaking and listening skills.

Learn More: The Classroom

For this activity, you need dice like these. Put students into small groups. Students will roll the dice and then discuss the topic that appears on the dice. It is helpful to set a time limit for the conversation and do this with different groups and multiple rounds.

Use pieces of paper to make several well-known pairs. For example, macaroni/cheese, Oreos/milk, peanut butter/ jelly, etc. Each paper should only have one piece of the pair. Then disperse the slips of paper so each student gets one. Students will then find their partner that completes the pair.

Learn More: Mom Junction

Play this game at the end of the school day or at dinner time. Each child will say her "rose", the best part of the day, her "thorn", the worst part of the day, and her "bud", the thing she is looking forward to the most for the next day.

Learn More: Seattle's Child

I challenge students to explain how to tie a shoe without using gestures. As they explain, the other students try to follow the directions to tie their own shoes. This is a great activity to practice oratory skills like using descriptive language and presenting a process.

I have students practice saying "I can't believe that" in different tones. I begin this activity by having students write down different tone words on slips of paper (ie sarcastic, funny, depressed). Then, I have students pick a tone out of a hat and say "I can't believe that" in that tone.

Start by having the first students say, "I went to the market and bought chocolate", then each subsequent student must repeat the previous items, then add their own. So the 5th student might say, "I went to the market and bought chocolate, bread, cheese, eggs, and milk".

Learn More: Learn Podium School

Play the traditional game of Taboo or add a variation. This is a great impromptu game for vocabulary-building and review. I enjoy playing Taboo tournaments in my classroom with several groups competing against each other to win a prize.

Learn More: Edutopia

Each student reads a well-known story, rhyme, poem, etc. (think "Mary Had A Little Lamb" or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star") in a predetermined voice, tone, or volume. Have roles prepared for students to draw out of a hat? Examples of roles include whisper, exasperated, queen, Matthew McConaughey, etc.

Learn More: Fluentu

Create a situation where the students must make up an excuse. A good example is showing up to class late. Have the students present their made-up excuses to the class. The best excuse wins! This is a fun and engaging impromptu game.

Learn More: Charlie's Lessons

This hilarious game is great for a speech class or a class teaching a novel or play. The teacher assigns a scene or story to a group of students, and they have 30 seconds to act out the scene. In addition to improving public speaking and acting skills, this game also can be a great review tool.

Learn More: Now Spark Creativity

Begin by having a box of mundane items (think stapler, candy wrapper, clock, etc.). Have students pick an item from the box. Give them 2 minutes to prepare an impromptu sales pitch. Then have them pitch the item to the class. This game encourages the must-have public speaking skill of persuasion.

Learn More: Teach Wonderful

20. Teach Wonderful

Break students into even groups. One group sits in the inner circle, while the other group sits in the outer circle. The inner circle participates in a student-led discussion about a topic or text, while the outer circle evaluates the discussion. Then, the groups switch.

Learn More: The Teaching Factor

Games like Balderdash, Malarkey, or 2 Truths and a Lie encourage creative thinking as well as close listening skills. Each game requires listeners to seek out the truthful statement, and speakers to create a lie or tell the truth (but make people think it's a lie).

Learn More: ESL Games

Groups of students act out a scene in a given amount of time, then the next group performs the same scene in half the time, and the next group performs the same scene in have of that time, and so on. 90 seconds is a good time to start out, but you can make this as long or as short as you want.

Learn More: Session Lab

Put students in small groups and assign them a role of a famous person. Tell them their boat is sinking and they have to kick one person off the boat to survive. Each student gives a 15-second persuasive speech as to why she should stay, then all the passengers vote someone off the boat. Do this for several rounds until only one passenger survives.

Learn More: United Ambassadors

Use this story cards game in your classroom in small groups or with partners. This is a fantastic game to practice narrative structure. Each card has a topic or prompt. Students pick a card and tell a story related to the topic or prompt. You can also easily make this game if you're creative!

Learn More: Amazon

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Category: Classroom Ideas

Kids ESL Speaking Games: Top 20

Let’s be real. Teaching English to kids sometimes isn’t easy. They are often not that interested in speaking English to each other, or to you! That’s why you’ll need a variety of speaking activities for kids to keep things fresh and interesting.

Check out these fun ESL speaking games for children that are engaging, interactive and student-centred. Your students will love them and keep coming back for more of these speaking games for kids.

Kids ESL Speaking Activities and Games

A variety of fun, engaging speaking games for kids is the key to success. Keep on reading for my top picks for speaking games for kids that are proven to work in the ESL classroom.

If you’re looking for some fresh new ideas for Kids ESL speaking games, you’ve come to the right place. Here are my top games that I like to use in my own classes. These ESL activities for children are guaranteed to make your life easier because you can plan interesting, engaging and fun lessons without spending a lot of time on it.

I know you’re tired of searching around on the Internet for the good stuff, right? Search no more for kids speaking activities.

Try out some of these kids ESL speaking games in your classes today! Your students will be happy, engaged and learning English. You’ll be able to plan your lessons quickly with a few top-quality ESL activities in them. Let’s get to the best TEFL talking games for kids.

Password is a fun ESL speaking game that is challenging, interesting and fun. It makes an excellent way to review some vocabulary that you’ve taught at the end of the class. You can also use this a warm-up at the beginning of the next one. I love to review vocabulary with my students and this is a great way to do that.

Check out this post for more details: Password ESL Speaking Game.

If you’re looking for a fun filler activity that helps students remember vocabulary and sentence structure, try out this game. You write up a full sentence on the board, and gradually erase it, word by word. The challenge is that students have to remember what disappeared and say it back to you. It’s also an excellent way to catch any sort of pronunciation mistakes that your students might be making.

More details: Disappearing Text Game.

ESL Classroom Management Tips and Tricks: For English Teachers of Students Ages 6-12 who Want to...

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Smith, Jennifer Booker (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 72 Pages - 12/24/2015 (Publication Date)

If you’re looking for a fun ESL game for a party or activity class, you’ll need to try out charades. It’s a sneaky way to review some vocabulary as well and is probably more beneficial for the students than just playing Uno or something like that. I love to review in a fun, engaging way and this ESL game does just that.

More details about how to set this activity up: Charades ESL Speaking Game.

Speaking activities for primary students

If you want to have some fun and help your students get to know each other at the beginning of the semester, you’ll need to try out this version of Bingo. It’s one of my favourite Kids ESL speaking games and I use it in most of my classes. It’s a nice variation on traditional Bingo because the kids are up out of their seats, moving around and talking to their classmates. It actually requires students to be active, instead of being very passive as they usually are in traditional Bingo.

More details: Find Someone Who Bingo Game.

I love to play board games in real life, so I make my students play ESL ones in my classes. They always have a really fun time and want to play again the next time! You can make ESL board games for just about any sort of grammatical concept and they only take a few minutes to make once you get the hang of it.

Quick tips: have a small prize for the winner in each group to make it a bit more fun. To “roll” the dice, it can be pretty loud with actual dice. I get each group to use two coins instead. 2 heads =5, 1 head, 1 tail = 3, 2 tails = 1.

Check out this short video where I explain how I use ESL board games in my own classes.

#6: Chain Spelling

A fun way to review key vocabulary words is to play chain spelling. Not only is it great for review but it also has the added advantage of requiring absolutely nothing in the way of preparation or materials. It’s always nice to have a few of these in the back pocket, right?

Want to know more? Here are the details you need:

ESL Chain Spelling Activity for Kids.

If your students are a bit older and more advanced in their English skills, then you might consider incorporating some presentations into your classes. Even simple ones that require speaking for 30 seconds to 1 minute can be a valuable exercise.

There are plenty of topics and ideas for presentations to choose from here:

ESL Presentations.

39 ESL Warm-Ups: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Get their TEFL Classes Started Off...

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 74 Pages - 09/11/2015 (Publication Date)

If you’re looking for a quick speaking activity that’s ideal for a warm-up, then consider trying out Would you Rather? For example, would you rather break your right arm or left leg?

The way it works is that students have to choose between two options and then explain why they made that choice. Students can make their own questions for a partner or you can make a list for them to ask each other. Want to know more? Find out all the details here:

ESL Would You Rather Speaking Activity.

A big part of English speaking is pronunciation. After all, you can know the word but if you can’t say it correctly, your conversation partner won’t be able to understand you.

The good news is that there are lots of ESL speaking games for kids that deal with this important area. Check out some of our top choices here:

ESL Pronunciation Games.

If you want to create a bit of a buzz in your classes, then consider trying out one of my favourite kids’ ESL speaking games. It’s exciting, can be used for a variety of topics and is an ideal way to get your students to speak English.

The way it works is that students have to pass around an object of some kind and then when the music stops, or the timer goes off, the person holding it has to do a speaking task of some kind. Learn more here:

Hot Potato Game.

I love to share games and activities that require absolutely nothing in the way of preparation or materials. Telephone is one such activity and the even better news is that you can tailor it to whatever theme, grammar point or vocabulary set that you want.

Have some fun with your kids today with this speaking, listening and pronunciation game:

ESL Telephone Game for Children.

A very common grammatical structure for kids to learn is like/dislikes and I find that it usually goes over very well. Most kids have strong preferences for foods, sports (more ideas: Sports ESL Games) and people they either like or don’t like which makes it a great conversation activity for kids.

Here are some of the best ideas for how to get the conversation ball rolling:

ESL Like/Dislike Activities.

This is a fun speaking activity for children that you can try out in your classes. The way it works is that one person has a secret picture that they need to describe, using English to their partner who draws it. Things like monsters or aliens work quite well for this purpose.

It’s fun, interactive and ideal for working on both speaking and listening skills. The results are usually hilarious too! Learn how to do it here:

Draw a Picture Speaking Activity.

101 ESL Activities: For Teachers of Kids (6-13) Who Want to Have Fun, Engaging and Interactive...

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Smith, Jennifer Booker (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 133 Pages - 03/31/2016 (Publication Date)

In my opinion, flashcards are one of the most underutilized ESL teaching tools. They can be used for so many purposes and there are lots of talking games that can be played. To find out some of the ways to use them in  your classes, have a look:

ESL Flashcards.

In most ESL textbooks, new vocabulary or grammar are introduced through a reading passage. But, maybe your students are kind of like mine and just blow through them without really paying attention to what they’re reading. Of course, it’s not their fault. It’s that they don’t really have a reason to pay attention to what they’re reading.

Instead, a better way is to remove some of the words. Then it turns it from strictly a reading activity to one that’s focused on meaning, as well as conversation because students have to listen to what their partner is saying.

Have a look at this English speaking for kids activity:

Dialogue Substitution.

An excellent way to get the conversation started with kids is to use some pictures. Then, depending on the level of the students, you can elicit some words, ask what the people are doing, or get students to relate their own lives to the picture in some way. Here are some more ideas:

ESL Picture Prompt.

If you want to get kids speaking English, then talk about animals! Young learners love this and I find that this unit is one of the best in terms of engagement and interest.

The good news is that are so many interactive and fun things you can do related to this unit. Here are some of the best ideas:

ESL Animal Activities and Games.

ESL speaking games for children

This is a fun review game that students of all ages love. It’s best for the class before an exam of some kind and for smaller classes so that everyone can participate.

Whenever I play it, the students talk about it for weeks and keep asking me to play again! Try it out for yourself:

Typhoon.

This basketball game is one of the most fun speaking games for kids and I’m sure your students will love it as much as mine do. It’s ideal for reviewing vocabulary or simple grammatical structures. Learn more about it here:

Basketball ESL Game.

#24: Classroom Expressions and Phrases

I love to spend time at the beginning of the semester teaching classroom English. It just makes the rest of the course go that much more smoothly if students are able to understand basic directions in English, as well as ask to go to the bathroom, etc. Have a look here at some of the activities I use to teach this:

Classroom Language ESL.

ESL Activities for Kids FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about fun ESL games and activities for children. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

How can I sound like a native English speaker?

How can I teach ESL to kids?

It’s possible to teach ESL kids in an engaging and interactive way by using some of the following ideas:

• Have a routine to start class off with.
• Use hands-on-activities that get students moving around the class.
• Consider videos, songs, and chants.
• Use lots of review.
• Always set the context for any lesson.
• Get students to use self-discovery of new vocabulary and grammar.
• Use actual objects in the classroom whenever possible.

How do you deal with difficult ESL students?

You may run across difficult ESL students occasionally. Here are a few tips for getting back on track.

• Try to figure out where things went wrong with that specific student.
• Talk to the student in private.
• Have a system with clear rules and punishments.
• Never play favourites.
• Use lots of positive reinforcement.
• Get help from other teachers or administration.
• Plan interesting lessons.

How can I teach ESL to beginners?

Teaching ESL to beginners can be a little bit difficult but keep in mind the following things:

• Use a routine and stick to it!
• Make sure instructions are very simple and use ICQs
• Listening and reading come before speaking and writing.
• Use lots of drills and review.
• Teach classroom language explicitly early on.
• Avoid metalanguage.
• Always set the context for any lesson.

How can I make English fun for kids?

It really is possible to make learning English fun for kids. Just be sure to include lots of songs and chants into lessons, always set the context for new grammar and vocabulary, encourage movement in the classroom and be sure to use a variety of interactive and student-centred ESL activities and games.

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Kids (7+) Who Want to Have...

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 75 Pages - 07/12/2015 (Publication Date)

Did you find these kids ESL speaking games useful? Then you’ll need to check out 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+). It’ll make your lesson planning easier, guaranteed.

I wrote the book because I was so sick of searching around on the Internet for some fun, engaging and awesome ESL games and activities but finding only junk. I wasted so much time that it was ridiculous! This book has 39 ESL activities that you can actually use in your classes to add some variety and keep your students engaged and interested in your lessons.

Each activity starts off with a brief overview so that you can see, at a glance whether or not it’s the right one for your students. Then, it gets into the detailed, step-by-step instructions that start off with the prep you need to do before class (usually very minimal), then what happens during the activity with the students, and then some optional follow-up.

Of course, don’t forget to read the teaching tips. They’ll help make the speaking game even better. And, they’ll also help you to avoid some of the most common things that can go wrong with each specific one.

Does it sound like the book of speaking activities for kids that you need in your life? It probably is if you teach English to kids!

You can get the book on Amazon, in both digital and print formats. The (cheaper!) digital book can be read on any smartphone, tablet, Mac or PC simply by downloading the free Kindle reading app. It’s some ESL teaching awesome, guaranteed!

Do you have a go-to speaking activity or game for kids? Any tips or tricks for doing it the awesome way? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Fun speaking activities for kids

Last update on 2022-10-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

‎My Talking Tom 2

Description

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From Outfit7, creators of My Talking Tom, My Talking Angela 2 and My Talking Tom Friends.

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Terms of use: https://talkingtomandfriends.com/eula/en/
European privacy policy: https://talkingtomandfriends.com/eea/en/
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Brazilian privacy policy: https://talkingtomandfriends.com/ privacy-brazil/en//
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Support: [email protected]

Mar 7 2023

Version 3.8

SPRING NEWS
Spring is here and it's covered in sugar this year! Tom is waiting for a piñata and other sweets.

Ratings and reviews

Ratings: 194.2 thousand

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Outfit7 Limited has indicated that, in accordance with the app's privacy policy, data may be processed as described below. Detailed information is available in the developer's privacy policy.

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Sensitive data may be used differently depending on your age, features involved, or other factors. Read more

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Provider

Outfit7 Limited

Size

213.5 MB

Category

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Age

4+

Copyright

© Outfit7 Limited

Price

Free

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Talking Cat is perhaps the most popular application that is in almost every phone, because what could be better than a little friend in your pocket. Cat Tom appeared recently, and immediately won the hearts of many with his charm and devotion. Today, Talking Cat is very popular, because every child knows about the existence of games with this fluffy and funny character. So what is so unusual about this cat? Now we will try to answer your question. Talking Cat Tom can do a lot to cheer you up and become your favorite. For example: when you get bored, quickly turn on the games with a talking cat, which will immediately be able to cheer you up and talk to you. To do this, you will only need to say any words, and Cat Tom will immediately repeat them in a very unusual sound that can cheer you up. But also, in addition to Tom the Cat, there are other animals, such as: the evil dog Ben - this character will seem very rude and naughty to you, who will quarrel with you over any trifle. There is also a very cute white cat named Angela, who will be the decoration of the entire Talking Cat section and will conquer you with her charm and beauty.

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