Animals Games for ESL Kids

Don't Drop It! This is a great vocab practice game for animal vocab. Have all students sit in a circle. Use a ball (or even a plastic animal) and toss it to one student. But you must say one animal word as you pass. The student then throws to another student and says a different animal word. If the student you threw it to drops it, he/she is out. Also, if the student can't think of an animal word within a few seconds he/she is out. The game keeps going until you have one winner.

Hint Animal Game. As a review of animals flashcards, the eacher holds some cards without showing any to the students.  Then the teacher tells the kids that they are going to receive 3 hints, so they need to listen carefully. For example: 1. I am yellow. 2. I have long hair. 3. I am strong. Who am I? Well, a lion of course!  You can make it in different levels depending on how much English you use or which vocab you use.

Lesson plans about animals. We also have two FREE lesson plans about animals which include games and activities as well as other lesson materials.

Click here to download our Farm Animals and Zoo Animals Lesson Plans.

Songs about animals. We have two songs available for download about animals:

• Old MacDonald
• Let's Go to the Zoo

Click here for our songs page.

Zoo Game. This is a fun activity for young learners on the topic of animal noises.  After teaching the animals and their noises, sit each student in a different part of the classroom and assign them as different animals (to make it clearer you can give each student a flashcard of the animal they are representing).  Walk around the room and talk to each student, who can only reply as an animal.  E.g. Teacher: "Hello Yumi", S1:"Moo! (cow).  Teacher: "What's your name?" S2: "Roar!" (lion).  Teacher: "How are you, Kenta?" S3: "Hissssss!" (snake).