Adult Classroom Games

Classroom games can be useful for any level of learning, even adult. Alex Case, a writer for the Using English website, presents 11 good reasons to use games in an adult classroom, ranging from creating more drilling practice as well as improving memory and simply to have fun. Try to integrate games into your adult classroom without annoying your students.

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Use this game for any subject since it is easily adaptable. Use it to help your students master vocabulary as well as help fine tune teamwork skills. Start by dividing your classroom into two different teams. Send them to different sides of the room. Give them a few minutes to select a “representative” to send to the front of the class. Each representative sits with their back to the blackboard. Write a vocabulary term on the blackboard between the two representatives. This vocabulary word can be anything vital to the subject. For example, if you are teaching math, you can write an equation on the board. After writing the term, set a timer for two minutes. Each group must get their representative to say the word on the board by defining it. They can’t use the word in the definition nor can they use pantomime. Award teams points for each correct guess. After the game is over, have a discussion about what you learned.

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“Charades” can challenge your students to learn vocabulary and terms by thinking outside the box. Divide your class into two groups. Each team should send up a team leader. Hand each team leader a small piece of paper with a vocabulary term. The team leaders must use body motions to act out the vocabulary term. They can’t speak or make any noise during this time. If the team leader makes any noise, the round should be replayed with a new vocabulary term. His team members must guess the term by shouting it out loud. Hearing the correct answer will require careful listening. Award a point to the team that guesses the term first. Talk about the game after you’ve finished and discuss the terms and vocabulary you’ve learned.. Vary the difficulty of these terms. For example, a simple science term would be “atom” but a more complex term would be “quantum physics.” Varying the difficulty keeps your students prepared for a challenge.

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Interviews are a big part of an adult’s life. Job interviews can be frightening to many people, especially people who have struggled to get a career they want. Anxiety can show during an interview and in some cases can ruin the interviews. Use this game to teach your students how to relax during interviews. Pair up your students and have them separate to different parts of the room. Separating your pairs gives each team as much privacy as possible in a small classroom. Write a job on the board. This is the job your students will interview to get. Students take turns being the interviewer and the interviewed. The interviewer should ask questions that pertain to the job. After finishing, the interviewer should give tips to the interviewed person and let them know what they liked and didn’t like about the interview and whether they would have hired them. After the game is over, talk about the experience with your classroom and give them interview tips.