Kim's Game: A Memorable ESL Vocabulary Game

Kim’s Game is an excellent ESL vocabulary game built for improving students’ memory of key vocabulary. It’s great for involving everyone in large classes and leading into lessons on all sorts of topics and grammar. Over the years it became one of my go-to games for all ages and I think you’ll find it easy to see why.

How to Play Kim’s Game

Primary school: In this ESL vocabulary game your students will have one minute to look at and memorize a set of words or objects. They can’t write anything during this time.

You will then cover the words or objects. At this time they’ll have two minutes to write down all of the items they can remember.

Your students can play in pairs or in small groups. Each pair or group will need one pencil and a scrap of paper. Only one student in each group can be the writer.

Once time is up you can get groups to check each other’s work or their own. Check who has the most and is the “winner.”

Preschool: We these students you just need a set of flashcards, toys or realia and a cloth or blanket. Let the students look at the objects for one minute and then cover them.

Get your students to raise their hands and say what they remember seeing. When they correctly recall a word then pull out the object and show everyone. Continue until they’ve recalled all the words.

Looking for more ESL vocabulary game ideas?

There are many ways to adapt Kim’s Game into different versions.

Realia & Picture Clouds
Take real items, such as fruits, toys, or classroom objects and lay them out on a tray. Cover the tray with a cloth. Once your students are ready and able to see the tray then uncover the objects and let them memorize.

This is especially good for younger and lower level students because it simplifies the visuals and looking at real objects tends to be more meaningful for small children. You can also use clip-art or flashcards if realia isn’t a practical option.

Scene Pictures

Prepare a scene picture such as a messy bedroom, a busy street, or an active playground. You can get these from language books or Google image search. Students can look at a picture and; pick out objects in the bedroom or things people are doing on the street or at the playground.

Older and more advanced students love looking at scene pictures because they have more opportunities to show off extra vocabulary that they know. You’ll be amazed by the words you can elicit with a good scene.

Word Clouds

Prepare a vocabulary set and write the words onto a large piece of paper in big letters so everyone can see. Hold up the paper for everyone to see.

This version is great for getting students to focus on spelling and phonics. It’s also great for when you’re short of time and quickly need a warmer or review activity.

Here’s a word cloud for reviewing “magic e” words:

Kim’s Game for Preschoolers & Grades 1 -2

No writing: Children under about 7 or 8 can’t do the writing portion of this game. Instead, they can raise their hands and say the things they remember. You can also ask “Is there…?/Are there…?” questions for the students to answer as a class.

Ham it up: Very young children love to guess what is under the cloth before you lift it. Increase their interest by pulling up the cloth and looking under and then acting surprised.

Puppets: Use a hand puppet to model guessing or remembering the items. You can ask the puppet “Is there a…?”

Not too many: Preschoolers can handle 6-10 objects. Grade 1 and 2 can handle up to 12. More than that is too many for them to remember.

Kim’s Game for Primary School

Peer Checking & Feedback: Get students to exchange papers and check each other’s answers. I like to check numbers by saying “Stand up if you have more than 5/10/15 correct words.” I double check the last standing team with the most correct words and give them extra praise.

Lead-in: This works great as a lead-in activity for a lesson. You can identify commonly known and unknown words and then focus on what’s necessary.

Concept Checking: After a Word Cloud Kim’s Game I like to check meaning by describing the words, such as “It has a tail and can climb trees. It likes bananas.” The students can raise their hands or shout the answers out.

Extending: After checking answers you can also get students to write or say true/false statements about the realia or scene card for games like Stand Up/Sit Down. For example “There is a teddy bear on the floor.” or “Kevin is driving a car in the picture.” You can also use the word cloud to continue with Lip Reading, Bingo, and Spelling Dictations.

Not too many: I find 8-year-olds find 12 objects to be challenging enough, while 10-year-olds are challenged by 20 to 24 objects.

Extra Kim’s Game Tips

Team Communication: You can push students to quietly speak more during the writing phase by putting them in pairs or small groups. Making sure that each group only has only one writer and one pencil forces the teammates to speak with each other. You’ll hear students whispering additional words to help the writer.
Overtime: You can shorten or extend times if needed. I like to sometimes give an extra thirty second lightning viewing round for students to check their answers and write more.
Instruction Checking Questions: Make sure to ask instruction checking questions such as “Can you write while you’re looking at the words?” so students don’t cheat.
Edtech: Interactive White Boards or projectors also work great in place of realia or paper for this ESL vocabulary game.

Related: Magic Eyes

What topics have you used Kim’s Game with? Share in the comments below.