The Bananas ESL game is a short, light-hearted exercise designed to get students talking at the start of class.
2+
5-10 mins
None
Setup
Divide the class into small groups of two or three.
Game
- One person in each group is selected to be the ‘Bananas’ student. This person can only say ‘bananas’ in response to any question/statement.
- The other student(s) have to ask them questions, trying to make them smile/laugh. As they become familiar with the game students will get more and more creative with this!
- If the bananas student smiles, laughs, or says any other word apart from ‘bananas’, then the person who asked the question wins a point.
- Every one or two minutes, switch the roles so another group member is the bananas student.
- Repeat for as long as desired. The student with the most points at the end wins.
Target Language
There is no specific target language for the Bananas ESL game, and it’s generally just used as a quick, fun warmer or time-filler. However, it is a great way to practise questions, and you could ask students to focus those questions around a certain topic/grammar you have been studying.
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