Outdoor Language Learning Games
Active Play in French, Spanish, German, ESL, and More
Take the kids outside for foreign language fun. Motivate your students with relays, tag, jump rope songs, and circle games.
The sun is shining; the birds are singing . . . the great outdoors makes a perfect classroom for active language learning and vocabulary practice. Get out in the fresh air and let your students play, run, and shout in Spanish, French, German, ESL, or any other foreign language.
Laundry Basket Relay Race
You will need:
- 2 laundry baskets for each team
- 5-10 identical vocabulary objects for each team
How to Play:
- Divide the group into two or three equal teams.
- Each team lines up behind one laundry basket filled with vocabulary items.
- Place another empty laundry basket several feet behind each team’s line.
- Give the signal to begin.
- The first person in each line removes an object from the basket, shows it to the second person in line, and identifies the object in the target language.
- The second person takes the object, repeats the word, and passes it back.
- When the last player receives the object, he places it in the empty basket, runs to the front of the line, and chooses the next object out the front basket to name and pass back.
- Continue steps 5-7 until every object from the front basket has been transferred to the back basket.
- The first team to finish wins.
Picnic Waiter Race
You will need:
- Several picnic blankets
- One picnic basket filled with 15 or more plastic foods (use an odd number)
How to Play:
- Divide the group into two teams.
- Each team chooses a waiter.
- The other members of each team sit on picnic blankets that are scattered around the lawn.
- Give the signal to begin.
- The waiter must go to each member of his team, take a food order, run to the picnic basket to retrieve and deliver it . . . before the other waiter tries to get the same food.
- If the food is already gone, the waiter must return to the same student and take a new order.
- The team with the most food delivered correctly wins.
Steal the Beret (or Sombrero, Bavarian Alpine Hat, etc.)
You will need:
- One hat from the target culture
How to Play:
- Divide the group into two teams.
- Count off the players, so that each team has a one, a two, a three, etc.
- Line up the teams so that players are standing shoulder to shoulder, looking across at the other team several feet away.
- Place the hat between the two teams.
- Call off a number in the target language. The two players assigned to that number each try to be the first to grab the hat and return to their line without getting tagged by the other team’s player.
- Keep score and declare a winner once you reach a predetermined number of points.
Steal the Bacon Variation
You will need:
- 5-10 vocabulary items
How to Play:
- Just like “Steal the Beret”, with one twist . . .
- Instead of a hat, line up the vocabulary items between the two lines of teams.
- Call off a number and name an object.
- Players must “steal” the correct object and return to their line without being tagged.
Greetings Duck, Duck, Goose
How to Play:
- Sit the students in a circle.
- One player walks around the outside of the circle and taps one other player on the shoulder.
- These two players stand, shake hands, and exchange greetings in the target language.
- After the greetings and introductions, they say “Goodbye” and run in opposite directions. The first to return to the empty space wins.
- The player left standing walks around the circle to choose the next player.
Take advantage of a beautiful spring day and move the language learning outside. Explore the rich kid-heritage of jump rope songs, circle games, and handclapping rhymes from the target culture. Hit the basketball court for a game of Language Learning Basketball. Use sidewalk chalk for games of Pictionary, Hangman, and Tic Tac Toe. Or just sit under a tree and enjoy some foreign language storytelling.
Learn a language outdoors.
