A selection of English ESL word square printables

A boardgame on defining parts of speech for children. Roll the dice and move a check to the certain square. Read the word, define what part of speech it is and translate.

Parts of speech (noun, adjective, verb) for children (boardgame)

This is a board game for reviewing animals. Rules: Divide the children into teams of 4-5 and provide each team with a dice and some game pieces. Each square on the board features an animal. When a child rolls the dice, they must correctly identify the animal depicted on the square. The other team members must pay attention to ensure the answer is correct. If correct, the child can stay on that square; if incorrect, they must return to the previous square.

Animals Boardgame

There are some short conversations. Students have to fill in the blanks with the correct words. The options are in a square in the low part of the worksheet. Thanks.

SMALL TALK

This is a worksheet with German and English vocabulary of the family members. The children have to find the matching word. In squared brackets [..] you find the English pronunciation.

My family

This is a memory game. Cut out each square and have students turn them upside down on their desk. Students take turns picking up two cards and turning them over for everyone to see. If the student picks up a verb and noun form of a word (for example. inform-information) they keep the cards as a pair. The student who has the most pairs when all cards have been turned over is the winner.

Suffix -ion Memory Game

This is a memory game. Cut out all of the squares and mix them up. Then put the squares face down on the table. Students take turns picking two random squares and turning them over for everyone to see. If the student for example turns over one square that says "cat" and another square that says "noun", then the student has a match and keeps the pair. If they turn over the word "cat" and the word "verb" it is not a match. They put both squares back a face down in the same spot and its the next students turn.

Nouns vs. Verbs memory game

Students play in pairs. Print a board for each pair in the class.  Use small plastic colored poker chips to shoot with.  Take turns flicking a coin with your finger on to the board.  Say the word and then color the square.  If the coin lands on a square which is already colored or the coin goes off the board, the players turn is over and the other players shoots.  If a coin lands between 2 spaces the other player decides which square the coin is mostly in.  When all of the squares have been colored the game is over and the player with the most squares colored is the winner.

Stationary vocabulary review game

My school uses the Let's Go series of books for primary school English teaching. In these books the vocab is introduced in groups of 4, 6, or 8 words/phrases with a question answer dialogue where they can substitute the given vocab. To practise these I have been using D4, D6 and D8 dice to determine what vocab the students substitute when practising over the last year. Although this works, it's always the same - always using dice. So, I came up with these two board games. Students play normally with a D6 dice, but when they land on a square there are 3 numbers in coloured boxes in that square. The numbers in the red boxes cycle through 1-4, yellow cycle through 1-6 and blue 1-8. They use the number in the appropriate box to determine the vocab they are to substitute in the dialogue.

Two Board Games for Practising the Dialogues in the Let's Go Books

Icebreaker activity where students interview each other and find out about others. First they play rock, paper, scissors. The winner can ask a question. If the answer to their question is "yes", they can receive the students signature on that square. If the answer is "no" they do not receive a signature. Both students take turns to ask one question. This worksheet was made for Japanese students and it tailored to Japan, however the word file can be easily updated and adjusted to the teachers needs. 

Find Someone Who Conversation Activity

A pair game to revise days of the week, time and free time activities. Based on New English Adventure 3 Unit 6. The aim of the game is to name the activities, unscramble words, fill in the missing letters, tell the time and then if it is done correctly cross 1 square. Players take turns to cross a square. The first who crosses 4 squares in a row wins.  

A pair game. Revision of days of the week, free time activities, time. Based on NEA 3 Unit 6

This is a board game that you can use with primary aged pupils (6 - 10 yo).
You will need a dice, playing counters, and a couple of classmates (2 or 3).
Pupils roll the dice, move forward counting in English, when they stop on an image
they say the word.  You can also play bingo with this board game by cutting it into 
strips of 7 squares.

Board game Classroom Objects

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

71 Word Square English ESL worksheets pdf & doc