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🙅
Yes or No Game
Answer questions without saying yes or no — surprisingly tricky and very fun.
⏱ 10-15 min⚡ Low-Medium energy👥 Pairs or whole class
📚 Vocabulary
• question words
• alternative responses
• definitely
• of course
• not at all
• never
🛠 Materials
• No materials needed
• Optional: question list for teacher
📋 How to Play
- Explain the rule: "You cannot say YES or NO — but you must answer every question!"
- Teacher asks a question — "Do you like ice cream?"
- Child must answer without saying yes or no — "I love it!" or "Not really!"
- If they say yes or no, they are out for one round.
- Ask rapid-fire questions to try to trick them — "Are you sure? Really? Do you?"
- Each child has 30 seconds to survive the questions.
- The child who lasts the longest without saying yes or no wins.
- Let children take turns asking the questions.
💡 Teacher Tips
✓Pre-teach alternative ways to say yes and no — "Of course!", "Not at all!", "Definitely!"
✓This game is brilliant for building natural spoken English responses.
✓Speed up the questions to make it harder — no time to think.
✓Play in pairs so more children are active at the same time.
🔄 Variations
→Also ban the words "I" and "because" for a harder version.
→Play in teams — teams take turns sending one player to face the questions.
→Children can only answer with a full sentence — no one word answers allowed.
Want full 50-minute lesson plans for Ages 5-6?