As one of the core subjects for Key Stage Two, and one that will stay with students throughout their academic life, English lessons provide the foundation for their understanding and use of language later in life.
There are many different topics to learn in English, including grammar, spelling and punctuation, phonics and reading and writing. English games are a fantastic addition to the classroom, especially with an interactive display. Get your students involved in a range of fun learning activities and games that cover the whole KS2 curriculum.
Our ultimate list of English games for KS2 will help you put together the best possible lesson plans to help keep your students engaged. If you’re looking for inspiration for other subjects, we also have an ultimate list of classroom games for KS2.
8 KS2 English games and activities for students
Below you will find a great list of fun English games that will engage and excite your whole class. We’ve split the games by each topic in the curriculum to help you find interactive activities relevant to the topic you are teaching!
English grammar games for KS2
Crystal Explorers – BBC Bitesize
Protect your crystals from the sneaky pirate Salty Dan in this thrilling puzzle adventure game by BBC Bitesize! Solve the crafty chameleon’s riddles, jump over the snapping crocodiles and swing across the waterfalls to victory while learning all about grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Compound Complex
This simple grammar game lets students highlight parts of an example sentence to identify nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs. All you need to do is create a range of complex sentences which include these various grammar features, and let your students loose with highlighters or interactive whiteboard pens.
Punctuation games for KS2
Punctuation Splat
A game perfect for an interactive whiteboard, Punctuation Splat gets students thinking about different types of punctuation. Help your students learn the correct usage of the full stop, question mark, comma, apostrophe, exclamation mark and inverted commas and their placement in a sentence. Students should read the sentences, line up the target in range and fire the correct punctuation where they think it should go in the sentence.
KS2 spelling games
Nine Letter Word Puzzles
Improve your students spelling with this collection of Countdown-themed word puzzles to engage and enthuse children to apply their literacy skills to find all possible words, including the nine-letter word. This fun activity could be a great way to round off a lesson or provide your students with a fun break in the middle of a subject.
Reading and writing activities for KS2
Tales From Shakespeare Resources – The Royal Shakespeare Company
Using resources provided by the Royal Shakespeare Company, introduce your students to one of the literary greats, William Shakespeare. You can explore reading and writing activities around A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet, which will improve students’ literacy skills.
Phonics classroom games for KS2
Phase 2 to 5 Tricky Words on Popping Balloons PowerPoint
As one of our favourite interactive English games, this Popping Balloons PowerPoint will help your students’ vocabulary and phonics skills. Using phases 2 to 5 tricky words, this interactive resource is sure to be a classroom favourite in no time.
Improving speaking and listening in KS2 with gamification
Chinese Whispers
A classic playground game, you can easily use Chinese Whispers as a recourse in the classroom to teach speaking and listening skills to your students. Encourage children to sit quietly in a circle, whisper a sentence to the first child, who then needs to whisper it to the person next to them. Continue this way until the sentence has made its way around the circle and back to the teacher, who reveals what the sentence became.
Identifying different types of text in KS2
Text Types Gameshow Quiz
Test your students against the clock with this fun learning activity that teaches the different types of texts you can see in everyday life. You could split your class into two teams and make this activity competitive to see which team recognises more text types.
Need more games for KS2?
There are so many more classroom games and activities for KS2 available that your students will love to play. Why not discover fun activities and games for Science, History, Geography or Maths?
English games on interactive displays
All of the games listed above can be played seamlessly on a Promethean interactive display. The online games can be downloaded and played from the display and also mirrored onto student devices for ultimate engagement.
Interested in learning more? Speak with a Promethean expert and request your FREE demo today!
Further Resources:
Classroom games for KS2 students – Full Guide
Science games for KS2
Maths games for KS2
If you have enjoyed this guide, why not check out some of our other expert interactive whiteboard resources.