English Speaking Activities for Kids: Fun Conversation Activities for Home and School

Teaching kids English only through textbooks and from the writing board can be challenging. First, children of non-native English speaking countries cannot connect with the language very early as they speak another language at home. In that case, a traditional approach to teaching may hinder more than help the language acquisition process.

Early childhood is the time of highest brain development. It’s easier for children to pick up a language if it is thrown at them through conversation than going by the book. English speaking activities for kids are going to make teaching much easier and enjoyable. It will evoke more interest in the kids than classroom learning can ever do. Let’s dive in further and explore such fun speaking activities for kids.

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Hide and Direct

This is a fun activity in which a parent can play with their kid at home, and the teacher can play with the students at school. The activity also includes physical movements to make the students feel more involved.

Ensure that the kid is aware of the directions right, left, up, down, turn, and go straight. You can also include directions like above, under, over, beneath, etc. if the kids are in a higher grade. You can divide the students into pairs of two; parents doing this activity at home can participate by playing as the partner.

Also Read: How to Add Fractions with Different Denominators for Kids? Step by Step Explanation for Kids

Hide a small object like a pen, pencil, eraser, etc., in the room. Then one of the students has to close their eyes, and their partner will direct them towards the object. The kids will have a fun time and become aware of directions.

Guess Who?

“Guess who” is one of the best interactive speaking activities for kids. It is another simple and fun game that can be played by making pairs of students. At home, this game can be played between you and your kid.

The game focuses on decoding famous personalities. You need to prepare a total of 20 or more chits with the name of one famous personality on every chit. Put them on a table, and one by one, call a pair of students. One of them will pick up the chit, and the other student will try to guess who’s the personality by asking some yes or no questions.

This activity will help them to speak more often and correctly in the English language.

Yes or No

The yes or no game is a lot of fun to play with the kids. Kids who are at the beginner level with the language will often reply in yes or no. Even the questions asked to them are yes or no types, but the players cannot answer in yes or no. This fun speaking activity for kids will help them answer in more elaborated sentences in future and strengthen their vocabulary.

This game can also be played in pairs. Call a pair of students out; one of the students will ask a set of questions to the other student like “do you like to eat…” and other yes or no type questions. And the other student isn’t allowed to answer with “yes” or “no”, they are forbidden to use these words and will lose if used.

You can call different pairs to come and answer the questions. At home, the parents can pair up with the kid and play this fun speaking game.

Following Directions

Following directions is an activity that involves the favourite subject of all students — drawing. Again, you have to pair up the students and tell them to draw. But, the drawing isn’t a simple one this time.

Ask one of the students to draw something while hiding the paper from their partner. Or, to make it easier, you can place a picture of an object or the name of an object. Tell one student to see it while hiding it from the other student, and describe it for their partner to draw. The other student will have to draw the object or replicate the same drawing or picture as described.

The objective is to get the exact drawing with the help of verbal directions. This is a difficult task, but the students will get better at describing things and listening and comprehending the language.

Secret Word

This game is very similar to the Yes or No game, and it isn’t required to be played in pairs. This activity helps the student to speak the right word and construct the right sentence when speaking. Call upon a student to give a speech. Give them two pairs of chits, one with the topic for speech and another with a random word unrelated to the topic.

The student has to give the speech on the topic; they are also required to slip in the random word smartly in the speech. The rest of the students will have to guess that secret word. It would be the responsibility of the speaker student to add the word very smartly so that the other students have a tough time guessing!

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Impromptu Speech

An impromptu speech is a game that will help the kids to speak up without any hesitation. You need to prepare a list of topics easy enough for the students to speak on according to their grade. Then split the class into two groups, and give a number to each student in a group to go by order.

Give every student a topic on which they have to speak without preparation. They should continue to speak for 45 seconds. As they speak, the opposite group will have to listen to the speech and look out for grammatical mistakes, vocabulary mistakes, and moments of hesitation. If the opposite group identifies the error, then they will get the point.

Conclusion

These English conversation activities for kids are very helpful to keep the kids engaged with the learning process. Kids will be able to learn and understand the language better, and most importantly, they will garner the confidence to speak. If you want your kids to learn through such innovative methods while at home, sign up for the masterclasses by The Real School Of Montessori. You can check the testimonials and then decide for yourselves if it is worth giving a shot or not.

Also Read: E-learning Websites & Apps for Kids: The Hassle-free Learning Experience Your Kid Needs