10 Fun ESL Summer Games and Activities

Get your students excited for summer with these 10 fun ESL summer games and activities. To talk about the summer weather, upcoming vacations, and things they like to do during the summer, ESL students need to learn summer vocabulary and language. Luckily, there are plenty of fun and easy summer-themed activities you can use in the classroom. Here are our favorite ESL Summer activities.

Activity 1: Summer Top 5 Quiz

This first activity is a great way to activate students’ existing knowledge and see what they already know about summer. The idea is simple: students are asked a series of summer-related questions that have multiple possible answers. For example, “Name something you might take to the beach.”

Each student/team then writes down one answer. If their answer appears in the top 5, they score points. The game can be played individually, in pairs, or in small teams. Students really enjoy this activity, especially when they guess the top answer!

Activity 2: Summer Chain Game

This fun summer speaking game is a great way to get students talking while practicing summer vocabulary. The game starts with one student saying, “I’m going on summer vacation and I’m bringing…” followed by a summer-related item, such as “sunglasses.” The next student repeats the first item and adds their own: “I’m going on summer vacation and I’m bringing sunglasses and a beach ball.”

Each student continues the chain, repeating all the previous items in order and adding a new one. If a student forgets an item, they’re out. The game continues until only one student remains, or until the class runs out of ideas. This is a great no-prep way to review summer vocabulary and build speaking confidence in a fun and active way.

Activity 3: Summer Clothes Bingo

This summer-themed bingo game is a fun way to review vocabulary related to summer clothing. Download and print this Summer Clothes Bingo Worksheet and give one to each student. The worksheet includes pictures of nine summer clothing items. Students must cut out the pictures and arrange them in a 3×3 grid in any order they choose. Then the teacher then calls out the items one by one, and students turn over the picture until someone gets one or two lines of bingo.

To make the game more engaging, try using real clothing items instead of just calling out the words. Place actual summer clothes in a bag and pull them out one at a time to show the class. This adds a visual and hands-on element that students love and helps reinforce vocabulary through real-world context. See More Summer Clothes Worksheets.

Activity 4: My Summer Vacation Poster Project

This next activity is great if you want a longer project for students to complete over one or more lessons. In this summer classroom activity, students are given a large sheet of paper to create a poster about their ideal summer vacation. They draw the destination, what they would pack, what activities they would do, and who they would go with. Once complete, each student presents their poster to the class using simple English sentences to describe their vacation. This project combines drawing, writing, and speaking practice, and works especially well in summer programs or multi-day lessons.

Activity 5: Summer Vocabulary Quiz for Kids

This video-based activity is ideal for beginners who are learning summer vocabulary for the first time. Students will listen and repeat as they are introduced to 12 common summer words, such as sun, ice cream, beach, and sandals. After the introduction, the video includes a fun quiz where students see a picture and choose the correct word from three options.

This is a great low-prep activity that can be used to introduce the topic, reinforce vocabulary, or review at the end of a lesson. It works well with young learners and helps build listening, pronunciation, and word recognition skills. If students are ready to learn more summer words, check out this Summer Vocabulary List.

Activity 6: Summer Word Sorting Worksheet

This simple vocabulary activity helps students review and categorize common summer words. Download and print this Summer Word Sorting Worksheet and hand it out to the class. Students must take the summer words from the word bank and sort each word into one of four columns: food, places, clothes, or other. Example words include ice cream, beach, sunglasses, and sunscreen.

This activity encourages students to think about word meaning and context while reinforcing key summer vocabulary. It works well as an individual task, a pair activity, or even as a warm-up before speaking or writing tasks. More Summer Worksheets.

Activity 7: Ice Cream Relay Race

This fun movement-based game brings a summer twist to the classic relay race. Students roll up a sheet of paper to make an “ice cream cone” and place a small ball or scrunched-up paper ball on top to represent the “ice cream.” In teams, students race one at a time while carefully balancing the “ice cream” in their “cone.” When they reach the end, they pass the “ice cream” to the next student’s cone and return to their team.

This game works well outside but can also be played indoors as long as chairs, bags, and other obstacles are moved to create a safe path. Use this game as a fun way to warm up and get students energized, or as a fun reward game when you have extra time in your summer lessons.

Activity 8: Summer Word Search

Download and print this Summer Word Search and give one to each student. To complete the worksheet, students must find all the summer-themed words and cross them off. This activity is a great way to review summer words and spelling and can be used as a warm-up, review, or as a task for fast finishers in your summer lessons. Create your own word searches with our Free Word Search Generator.

Activity 9: Summer 20 Questions Game

For this fun summer speaking activity, the teacher thinks of a summer-related word and writes it down without showing the class. Students must then ask yes/no questions to try and figure out what the word is. For example: “Is it something you wear?” or “Can you eat it?” The student who correctly guesses the word becomes the next person to choose a summer word for the class to guess. This game encourages students to think about summer words they know, practice forming yes/no questions, and use logic and vocabulary knowledge in a fun, interactive way.

Activity 10: Summer Flashcard Hunt

This fun movement game helps students review summer vocabulary while getting them up and moving. Print and cut out a set of summer flashcards (such as ice cream, beach, sun, sandals, etc.). Choose one student to be “it” and have them close their eyes or step outside the classroom. Then, hide one flashcard somewhere in the room.

The student returns and begins searching. As they move around, the rest of the class gives clues by saying “cold,” “warmer,” “hot,” or “hotter” depending on how close they are to the hidden flashcard. Once they find it, the student can hold it up for the rest of the class to say, and then choose another student to have a turn.

This game works well as a warm-up, review activity, or end-of-lesson reward. It’s especially great for younger learners and adds an extra level of energy and fun to your summer lessons.

Thanks for reading! I hope your students have lots of fun playing these ESL summer games and activities. Before you go, don’t forget to browse through our huge library of free resources for teaching English. Everything on Games4esl is completely free to use and designed to make your lessons more fun, engaging, and effective.