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20 Questions

Think of a word — classmates ask yes or no questions to guess it in 20 tries.

⏱ 15-20 min⚡ Low energy👥 Whole class

• any lesson vocabulary

• question formation

• yes or no questions

• is it...? does it...? can it...?

• No materials needed

• Optional: vocabulary word cards to pick from

📋 How to Play

One student thinks of a word — it can be a person, animal, object, or place.
They tell the class the category only — "I am thinking of an animal."
The class asks up to 20 yes or no questions to try to guess the word.
Example questions: "Is it big?" "Does it live in water?" "Can it fly?" "Is it a pet?"
The student can only answer YES or NO.
Keep count of questions on the board — stop at 20.
If the class guesses correctly before 20 questions, they win.
If they reach 20 without guessing, the student wins and reveals the word.

✓Pre-teach useful question starters — "Is it...?", "Does it...?", "Can it...?", "Has it got...?"

✓Write the question count on the board so everyone can see how many are left.

✓Encourage logical questioning — start broad and narrow down.

✓This game is excellent for practising question formation in context.

→Restrict to lesson vocabulary only — child picks from a set of word cards.

→Play in pairs — each pair plays simultaneously at their desks.

→Reduce to 10 questions for a harder challenge.

Want full 50-minute lesson plans for Ages 7-10?