ESL Games that make your students not only have to use their English but want to use their English aren’t as common as a language teacher might want to believe. Hide and Find is one of those rare games that will have your class excited about practising their newly learned English vocabulary.

This ESL /EFL game should be used after your class already has a basic understanding of the vocabulary required for giving and following directions e.g. go straight, turn right, back up, turn left, etc.

Hide and Find is an EFL game that requires students to be able to both give and follow directions.

The only material required is a thing for each pair or group of students in your class. Anything. An eraser, a toy car, a pencil….anything!

How to play:

Divide your class into small teams. I find partners works the best.

Give each group an object to find.

Select one partner to give directions and one partner to follow those directions in order to find their group's object.

ESL Game #42 – Hide and Find

Have one person from each pair or group leave the classroom. This person will have to find their group's object when they return.

Hide each of the groups objects in various places around the room. This should be in plain sight of the group members that are still inside of the room.

Invite the “finders” back into the classroom.The group members that remained in the classroom have to give their partners the correct directions so that they can find their target object.

Ex -> go straight 3 steps, turn right, go straight, put your left hand up, etc.

Once each pair has found their objects they should sit down quietly. *It’s usually quite amusing to watch the last few groups trying to find their targets.

Have the group members switch roles and repeat.

After the first round of Hide and Find I like to let the students hide the targets for the groups their competing against. In general, their hiding places are much more difficult than anything I can come up with and it saves a lot of time.