13 Fun Games To Teach WH Questions

One of the best ways for students to practice asking and answering WH questions is through engaging games and activities. Learning the six WH questions—who, what, where, when, why, and how—can be challenging for kids and English language learners due to differences in sentence structure, grammar rules, and word order compared to their native language. As a result, students need plenty of practice to master these essential question words.

Luckily, there are many fun and interactive games that make learning WH questions enjoyable and effective. Below, you’ll find our favorite 13 WH question games and activities to help students confidently practice asking and answering questions in English.

Wh Question Games And Activities

Here are some of the best games and activities for teaching WH questions. When playing these games, you’re going to need lots of examples. But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered! Here’s an extensive list of WH questions with example answers.

Activity 1: Who Did It?

This first game is a great way for kids and beginner learners to practice the WH question “Who.” Here’s how to play:

1. Start by selecting three students and asking them to come to the front of the class.
2. Instruct the rest of the students to put their heads down on their desks, close their eyes, and hold their thumbs up.
3. The three students at the front will walk around and touch one student on the thumb each.
4. Once they’ve touched someone, they return to the front of the class.
5. Now, tell the rest of the students to open their eyes. The three students who were touched must stand up.
6. Ask each of them, “Who did it?” They must answer, “It was [name].” If they guess correctly, they get to replace the person at the front. If they guess incorrectly, they sit down, and the student who touched them gets another turn.

This game is an interactive and fun way to practice “Who” questions with beginners. If your students are more advanced, check out the next activity!

Activity 2: Who Am I?

This is a fun activity for practicing the WH question “Who” with higher-level students. Before the game begins, write the names of famous people, characters, or public figures on sticky notes—enough for each student to have one. Then, give each student a sticky note but make sure they don’t look at the name on it. Instruct them to stick the note to their forehead. Now, the game can begin! Here’s how to play:

1. Students have 5 minutes to walk around the classroom, asking each other, “Who am I?”
2. The students may answer the question, but they cannot say the name on the sticky note. For example, if a student has “Albert Einstein” on their forehead, they can answer with clues like, “I was a famous physicist” or “I developed the theory of relativity.”
3. After 5 minutes, gather the students together and ask them one by one, “Who are you?”
4. Each student must guess the name on their sticky note based on the clues they received during the game.

This activity is a great way for students to practice both asking and answering “Who” questions while also improving their deduction and conversational skills.

Activity 3: What’s This? What’s That?

This fun game is perfect for practicing the WH question “What” with kids and beginner his game is a fun way to practice the WH question “What” with kids and beginner learners. It’s a “Telepathy” game where students try to ‘read the teacher’s mind’ to guess the correct answer. Here’s how to play:

1. Play the video above from this page or from our YouTube channel. The video includes 10 rounds, and in each round, students will be asked, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?” and shown two possible answers.
2. Pause the video and instruct students to choose one of the two possible answers and write it down.
3. Play the video again to reveal the correct answer. Afterward, ask the students once more, “What’s this?” and they should answer with the correct response (e.g., “It’s a pencil”).
4. If a student guessed correctly, they earn a point.
5. After 10 rounds, the student with the most points wins the game!

Tip: To make this game even more fun, the teacher can pretend to ‘send’ the answer to the students using ‘Telepathy’. Kids especially love this playful element of the game, feeling as though they can ‘read the teacher’s mind’.

Activity 4: What Am I?

This next activity is perfect for practicing the WH question “What” with higher-level students. It’s a “What Am I?” quiz where students read riddles and guess the answer. Here’s how to play:

1. Put students in pairs or small groups and give each team a piece of paper. Ask them to write numbers 1 to 10 on the paper.
2. There are 10 rounds, and in each round, students will be shown a “What Am I?” riddle. For example:
   “I start with the letter E. I end with the letter E. I have a letter inside me. What am I?” (Answer: Envelope).
3. Play the video above (or create your own questions) and pause the video after each question to give students time to write down their answers.
4. After each round, ask students: “What am I?” and have them answer based on the riddle. If they wrote down the correct answer, they earn a point.
5. After 10 rounds, the student or team with the most points wins the game!

If you want to make your own “What Am I?” quiz, check out these What Am I? Quiz Questions With Answers.

Activity 5: Where Is It?

This activity is a super fun way for kids and beginner learners to practice asking and answering the WH question “Where.” All you need to do is play the video provided above. Here’s how to play:

1. Play the video, which contains 10 rounds. In each round, students will see a scene displayed for 5 seconds.
2. Instruct students to observe the scene closely and try to memorize where all the objects are located.
3. After 5 seconds, the scene will disappear, and a question will appear on the screen, such as “Where is the (watch)?”
4. Students must recall where the object was and answer the question. For example: “It’s in the box.”
5. Play through all 10 rounds. Students earn a point for each correct answer. The student or team with the most points wins!

Activity 6: Where are you from?

This activity is a fun way to practice asking and answering the WH question “Where are you from?” as students try to find their partner.

To play, prepare two sets of cards with country names—one card for each student. You can use these pre-made country flashcards or make your own. Here’s how to play:

1. Give each student a country card and instruct them not to show it to anyone else.
2. Tell students to walk around the classroom asking each other, “Where are you from?” and answering based on the country on their card, e.g., “I am from France.”
3. When a student finds their match (someone with the same country card), both students should go to the teacher and answer the question one more time, “Where are you from?”
4. If their answers match, the pair sits down together.
5. Once all pairs have been found, reshuffle the cards and start again.

Activity 7: When do you get up?

This next game is a variation of the Four Corners game and is perfect for practicing the WH question “When” with kids and beginner English learners. The best part? It requires no preparation! Here’s how to play:

1. Start by eliciting 5–10 daily routine activities from the students, such as get up, take a shower, eat breakfast, and write these on the board.
2. Assign each of the four corners of the classroom a specific time, such as 7 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and 6 o’clock.
3. Tell the students they have five seconds to move to one of the four corners of the classroom. Once the time is up, students must stay in their chosen corner.
4. Choose one of the daily routine activities from the board and have all the students ask you, “What time do you (get up)?” Respond with, “I get up at (7 o’clock).”
5. Any students standing in the corresponding corner (7 o’clock in this example) are out of the game and must sit down.
6. Continue the game by repeating the process with another daily routine activity and a different time. Keep playing until only one student remains—this student is the winner.

Activity 8: When is your birthday?

This is a great activity for practicing the WH question “When” while getting kids moving around and talking. Here’s how to play:

1. Start by reviewing the 12 months of the year with the students. Practice asking and answering “When is your birthday?” with the answer format: “It’s in (January).”
2. Instruct students to stand up and walk around the classroom, asking each other, “When is your birthday?”
3. When a student finds someone who has the same birthday month, they should link arms and walk around together, continuing to ask “When is your birthday?” as they try to find more students with the same birthday month.
4. At the end of the activity, count how many students are in each birthday month and see who has the longest chain.
5. After playing once, give each student a random birthday month on a card and play again.

Activity 9: Why are you so happy?

This game is perfect for reviewing the WH question starting with “Why.” Students will engage in a dialogue before playing rock, paper, scissors to try and level up through the four corners of the room.

1. Before starting, prepare a set of cards. On each card, write a feeling at the top (e.g., “happy”) and a reason at the bottom (e.g., “because I won the lottery”).
2. Designate the four corners of the room as “Level 1,” “Level 2,” “Level 3,” and “Level 4.”
3. Students must start at Level 1 and meet one partner. They will act out the feeling on their card (for example, someone with “happy” will smile, and someone with “sad” will act like they are crying).
4. The student acting out the feeling must be asked, “Why are you (happy)?” The other student answers with the reason on the card, for example, “Because I won the lottery.”
5. After the dialogue, both students play rock, paper, scissors. The winner advances to the next level (Level 2), and the loser stays at the same level.
6. Everyone then meets another partner at their respective levels, repeats the dialogue, plays rock, paper, scissors, and advances or stays based on the outcome.
7. A student who progresses through all levels (Level 4) high-fives the teacher and earns 1 point. They then start again at Level 1.
8. After about 10 minutes, stop the game. The student with the most points is the winner.

Activity 10: Why Line Bingo

This fun line bingo game is an engaging way to practice the WH question “Why” and helps students reinforce their understanding of reasons behind actions or events. It’s a great game for kids and beginner learners to think about causes while working with WH questions.

1. Prepare a set of reason cards (6-8 cards with different reasons, such as “Because it was raining,” “Because I was tired,” “Because I needed help,” etc.) for each student or small group.
2. Students will arrange their reason cards in a horizontal line in any order they prefer.
3. The teacher prepares a corresponding set of Why question cards (e.g., “Why did you stay inside?” or “Why did you go to bed early?”).
4. The teacher randomly selects a Why question card and reads it aloud.
5. Students must then look at their line of reason cards to find the matching reason.
6. If the reason card is at the far left or far right of the line, the student can turn it over and say the reason aloud.
7. If the reason card is in the middle of the line, the student cannot turn it over.
8. The first student or team to turn over all their cards is the winner.

Activity 11: How many puppies?

This game is ideal for practicing asking and answering the WH question “How many?” and is perfect for young learners. To play, simply show the video above in class. There are 10 rounds, and in each round, students will be asked “How many (puppies)?” and shown two possible answers.

1. Play the video and pause after each question to give students time to choose one answer and write it down.
2. Resume the video to reveal the correct answer.
3. If a student guessed correctly, they earn a point.
4. The student or team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Activity 12: How Much is it?

This game is a fun and interactive way for students to practice asking and answering “How much?” while learning about expensive items. To play, simply show the video in class. There are ten pictures of expensive things, and students must guess the price of each item. Here’s how to play:

1. Play the video, showing each picture of an expensive item.
2. After each item is shown, students must guess the price.
3. There are different ways to play:
   • Pause the video and ask students to write down their guess.
   • Have students shout out their answer.
   • Ask students to raise their hands to guess the price.
4. The student or team with the most correct guesses at the end of the game wins.

Activity 13: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How

This final activity is a great way to review all the WH questions in one fun game. It helps students practice quickly identifying the correct WH question and reinforces their understanding.

Before starting the game, prepare some question strips with the WH question missing. For example: “…time is it?” or “…are you from?”. Here’s how to play:

1. Divide the class into small teams of 3 or 4 students.
2. Give each team a whiteboard and a marker.
3. Have the students write the 6 WH questions (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How) as headings in a table on the whiteboard.
4. Give each team a set of the prepared question strips and instruct them to place the strips face down on their desk and mix them up.
5. When the teacher says “go,” the teams should turn over the question strips and place them in the correct column on the table.
6. Once they finish, they should clap twice and put their hands on their heads.
7. The fastest team to correctly place all the strips in the right places is the winner.

More WH Question Resources

Thanks for reading! I hope your students have lots of fun playing these WH question activities. Before you go, be sure to check out these related resources:

List of Wh Questions And Example Answers
How To Teach Wh Questions
Wh Question Worksheets
Wh Questions PowerPoint