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Grade 2 English Classroom Games

Eight games for a Grade 2 class, each tied to what this grade is actually learning: short sentences instead of single words - plurals, this and that, family, the body, and simple questions.

  • Grade 2
  • Classroom games
  • No equipment
  • Large classes
  • Free

What a Grade 2 class needs from a game

Grade 2 is where a pupil stops naming things and starts saying something about them. Ball becomes this is a ball, and then these are two balls. That step is the whole year, and it is harder than it looks, because a child who can name fifty objects may still not produce a single sentence unprompted.

So the games below all have a sentence in them, not a word. The rule of each one makes the sentence the only way to score, because a child who can win by pointing will point.

Eight games, no equipment

None of these needs a photocopier, a projector or a set of cards. Every one says what to do when the class has forty-five pupils in it, because that is the class most teachers reading this have.

1 One or many

  • Time 6 minutes
  • Learners work Whole class, then two teams by half the room
  • You need None

Language Singular and plural: this is a book / these are three books

  1. Hold up one pen: the class says this is a pen. Hold up three: these are three pens.
  2. Do six or seven objects with the whole class together, alternating one and many unpredictably.
  3. Split the room in two. Hold up objects; the half that says the correct full sentence first scores. A half that says only the noun scores nothing, and say so before you start.
  4. Finish with something awkward on purpose - two dusters, or a handful of chalk - and let them argue about it in English.

Variation Harder: use objects whose plural is irregular, and teach these are three children as a whole phrase rather than as a rule.

Large class Halves rather than rows, because the sentence has to be said together and forty-five pupils in two groups can chant a sentence in unison where six teams cannot.

2 This one or that one

  • Time 5 minutes
  • Learners work Whole class, standing
  • You need None

Language This and that, near and far

  1. Stand next to a desk and say this is a desk. Point at the door across the room: that is a door.
  2. Everybody stands. Point at something near you and the class says the sentence with this; point at something far and they use that.
  3. Then let a pupil do the pointing while the class supplies the sentence.
  4. End by pointing at something at the very edge of near and far, and let the class decide which word it takes.

Variation Add these and those once this and that are secure, but not in the same round.

Large class Standing matters here: the words mean near me and far from me, and a child sitting down has no sense of the distance.

3 The family chair

  • Time 7 minutes
  • Learners work Whole class, one chair at the front
  • You need None

Language Family words, and he is / she is my...

  1. Put one chair at the front. A pupil sits in it and is not themselves any more: they are a family member the class must guess.
  2. The class asks yes-or-no questions: Are you a man? Are you old? Do you cook?
  3. The pupil answers only yes or no, which is why even a shy child can take the chair.
  4. When the class guesses, everybody says the sentence together: She is your grandmother.

Variation Easier: write five family words on the board first so the guessing has a short list.

Large class Take questions by row - row one asks, then row two - or forty-five children shout at once. Two pupils in the chair per game is plenty.

4 Head, hands and freeze

  • Time 5 minutes
  • Learners work Whole class, at their places
  • You need None

Language Parts of the body, and touch your...

  1. Give instructions: touch your head, touch your ears, touch your knees. The class follows.
  2. Speed up, then say freeze - everybody stops, hands where they are.
  3. While frozen, ask individual pupils what are you touching? and they answer my nose. The freeze is what makes a one-pupil answer possible without the rest getting restless.
  4. Unfreeze and continue, with a freeze every thirty seconds or so.

Variation Harder: give the instruction wrongly on purpose, touching your ear while saying touch your nose, and see who follows the words rather than the hands.

Large class The freeze is the whole reason this works with forty-five: you get individual answers without ever losing the other forty-four.

5 Who does it?

  • Time 7 minutes
  • Learners work Rows as teams
  • You need None

Language Simple present, third person: he cooks, she teaches, he drives

  1. Board four or five jobs the class knows: teacher, driver, cook, farmer, doctor.
  2. Say what somebody does: This person drives a bus. The first row to say the full sentence He is a driver or She is a driver scores.
  3. Then reverse it: you name the job and the row must say what the person does - A cook cooks food.
  4. Note on the board any row that said he drive instead of he drives, without a name, and fix all of them together at the end.

Variation Harder: use jobs the class has not been taught and let them describe rather than name.

Large class Rows are ideal here because the missing -s is the point of the game, and a row correcting itself before answering is the lesson happening without you.

6 My bag has

  • Time 6 minutes
  • Learners work Pairs, then the whole class
  • You need None - the pupils use their own bags

Language There is / there are, and school objects

  1. Show your own bag and say in my bag there is a book and there are two pens.
  2. In pairs, each pupil tells their partner what is in their bag, using there is and there are.
  3. Walk round and listen. Pick three pupils whose sentences were correct and let them say them to the class.
  4. Then play it as a memory round: one pupil says their sentence, the next pupil repeats it and adds their own.

Variation Harder: the memory chain continues to six or seven pupils before resetting.

Large class Pair work first means all forty-five speak before anybody performs, so the three who speak to the class have already practised once.

7 Yes I do, no I don't

  • Time 6 minutes
  • Learners work Whole class, standing and sitting
  • You need None

Language Do you like...? with the short answers

  1. Ask do you like milk rice? Pupils who do stand and say yes, I do; the rest stay seated and say no, I don't.
  2. Go through eight or nine foods, so that the class is up and down and everybody says both answers several times.
  3. Then let a pupil ask the question. They will need the question form, so board Do you like ___? before you hand it over.
  4. Count the standing pupils for two or three items and write the numbers on the board: the class has made a small survey without being told so.

Variation Harder: follow a yes with why? for two or three pupils only.

Large class Standing to answer means you can see forty-five answers at once, and a child who is unsure can watch their neighbour - which at this level is learning, not cheating.

8 Colour it as I say

  • Time 7 minutes
  • Learners work Individually, at their desks
  • You need None - pupils draw four shapes in their own books

Language Colours, shapes and prepositions: in, on, under, next to

  1. Everybody draws a big square, a circle, a triangle and a line in their book. Two minutes, no more.
  2. Now give instructions: colour the circle red. Put a small cross in the square. Draw a flower next to the triangle.
  3. Give six or seven instructions, saying each one twice and no more.
  4. At the end, hold up your own version and let them compare. The pupils who followed every instruction will have the same picture, and the differences show you exactly which preposition was not understood.

Variation Harder: two instructions at once - colour the circle red and the square blue.

Large class This is the quietest game on this page and the easiest to run with forty-five, because every pupil works alone and the comparison at the end does the marking for you.

Questions teachers ask

Should Grade 2 pupils write during a game?

Very little, and only by copying. The programme at this level is oral, and a game that stops for writing stops being a game. If you want the language written down, put the best three sentences on the board at the end and let the class copy those - which takes two minutes and gives the pupils who need to see a word the chance to see it.

They answer in Sinhala or Tamil.

Expect it, and do not punish it. Accept the answer, say it back in English, and have the class repeat your version. A child who has understood and answered in their own language has done the harder half of the work; the English is the part you can supply.

The same five pupils always win.

Change what winning means. Score by row rather than by individual, or give a point for any correct sentence rather than the first correct sentence. Most of these games can be scored either way, and scoring by row means the confident pupil's job becomes helping their row rather than beating it.

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More for your classroom

All classroom games by grade

The hub, with a page for every grade and the four rules that decide whether a game teaches anything.

Printable Flashcards and Classroom Games

Make a set of cards from your own word list, with eight games that use them.

Classroom Activities

Short activities for an ordinary lesson, not only for a game.

Classroom Management

Getting a large class into teams and back out again without losing the period.

Back to English Classroom Games