6 Exciting English Games for Kids

Engaging kids through games can make English practice enjoyable and less intimidating. Games can often bring concepts that children find tricky to life in a way that’s active, memorable, and fun.

That's why we’ve complied an exciting list of super interactive games that will improve your child’s spelling, grammar, writing, and more! They’re great for teaching English at home, and also make fantastic classroom games.

A great tip is to mix these games into your weekly routine to keep learning enjoyable, and give your kids something to look forward to! You’ll be amazed at how quickly your child’s confidence in English grows!

Here is our list of fun games that will have your kids improving their English language skills without even realising it…

1. Story Maker

Story Maker turns grammar and writing practice into an exciting game. It helps children build strong sentence and paragraph structure while boosting creativity, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar - all in one fun activity!

How to play

In this game, you and your learner(s) will work together to structure a story. Here’s the challenge - each person can only contribute one word at a time. For example, player one can begin with ‘the,’ then player two can add ‘dog,’ then player one can add ‘went,’ and so on. Each time a full sentence is formed, get your child to write it down. Check their work, and then continue until you have a full story. We recommend 2 or 3 short paragraphs.

One of the best things about Story Maker is its flexibility - you can easily adapt it to suit your child’s learning goals! For example to practice tenses, ask your child to write a story set in the past, present, or future. Or to boost vocabulary, give them a list of target words to include in their story.

2. Mad Libs

Mad Libs is a fantastic way to help your kids identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Your kids will be laughing and learning at the same time, all while improving their speech and improve reading comprehension skills.

How to play

To play Mad Libs, your child will fill in blanks in a pre-written story (you can create one yourself, or choose from the many free worksheet options available online). Each blank space will indicate whether to insert a noun, verb, adjective, etc. Your child can read along as they fill it out, or wait until the end for a hilarious story surprise!

3. Phonics Bingo

This playful twist on a classic game makes phonics practice fast-paced and fun! Phonics Bingo helps children recognize phonetic patterns and understand how letters and sounds work together, while adding a dash of friendly competition.

How to play

Each player gets a Bingo card filled with phonetic sounds instead of numbers. The game leader calls out words or shows images containing the phonetic sound, and players mark the sound on their card if they have it. The first to complete a row and shout “Bingo!” wins.

4. Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse is a spelling game that’s great for engaging children of all age groups. You can use it to introduce new words, idioms, and expressions in English. Cat and Mouse is fun to play at home, but it’s also a great way to engage the whole class and improve a range of skills including vocabulary and pronunciation.

How to play

In this rendition of hangman, the goal is to guess the word before the cat catches the mouse. To play, draw a simple set of stairs with a cat at the bottom, and a mouse at the top. Then, choose a word and draw a blank space for each letter. For each incorrect letter your child guesses, draw a swoop showing the cat moving up a step. If they guess the word before the cat reaches the mouse, they win! We recommend playing on a whiteboard, as it makes it easy to reset the game and start again with a new word.

5. Word Jenga

Word Jenga is an exciting way to improve your child’s language skills in any area they may be struggling with. If there are words they struggle to remember, or general areas they have a hard time with, Word Jenga is a light-hearted way to target those struggles.

How to play

Write out a set of word challenges on notecards. Some examples of word challenges include reciting tongue twisters, identifying synonyms, spelling words, and defining vocabulary words. Then, set up your Jenga blocks as instructed on the game. Each time a player successfully pulls out a block, they have 3 tries to complete a word challenge. If they answer incorrectly, they must pull out another block and complete another challenge.

6. Night Zookeeper

Developed by education professionals, Night Zookeeper is a unique gamified reading and writing program that helps children build key literacy skills including reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary. Through skill boosting challenges and games, kids can progress through the Night Zoo, and level up their imaginative animals! Plus, every piece of work receives personalized feedback from real tutors, ensuring your child stays supported and motivated throughout their learning journey.

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