If you’re feeling bored with the same old predictable class structure, chances are your students are too! Sometimes as teachers we need to let learners do something just for the fun of it—not turn it into a listening activity or use it to teach vocabulary or anything else besides enjoying the language.

In a class I’m currently teaching, I decided to make every Friday “Fun Friday.” This means I share something fun with my class every single Friday without giving them any accompanying activities or assignment.

Isn’t this a wasted learning opportunity? you might be asking. Perhaps. . .in the same way that allowing students to read for pleasure without assigning any follow-up activities is a waste! If learners have enjoyable experiences in their second language, they can start to enjoy the learning process as a whole, just as reading an engrossing story allows kids to discover that reading is something you can actually do for fun.

Whether you use these ideas every Friday, or keep them handy for a random Tuesday when everyone’s eyes are glazed over and you need to shake things up a bit, I hope you (and your students) enjoy trying out some of these Fun Friday activities!

Understanding a joke in your second language can be an incredibly satisfying accomplishment! The cheesier the better, since corny jokes and puns tend to be easier to follow than more subtle story-form. “Dad jokes” are a great choice, just make sure your students will understand the references and any double word meanings or that it will be fairly straightforward to explain.

Here are a few videos and YouTube channels to try, but keep in mind that you don’t need to show a video, you can opt to tell one to your class instead:

Riddles are a great way to get your class instantly engaged as they try to guess the right answer! You may need to explain that there is a funny or “trick” answer, or tell a few simple riddles with answers first to help your students get a feel for how they work.

Here are a few to get you started:

Tongue twisters are a fun pronunciation challenge for any age! Don’t put individual students on the spot in front of the class, unless you have a confident volunteer who wants to try saying it! You can practice in unison as a class—be sure to let your students hear you messing up, too! This is a great activity to show learners that it’s okay to make mistakes and laugh at yourself.

I wrote an entire post about using songs for listening practice, but you don’t need to craft an entire lesson plan around songs—try playing one just for fun! I personally love introducing my students to old classics like “What a Wonderful World” or playing songs by lesser known artists that they are unlikely to have heard before.

A simple poem can demonstrate how to play with language and rhyme. Selecting poetry written for children avoids complicated themes and vocabulary, although it is possible to find poetry written for adult audiences that is simple enough not to need much explanation. The Poetry Foundation website is a great resource for searching for poetry. Here’s a funny one by Jonarno Lawson. Also try poems by these authors:

I don’t recommend starting a search for funny videos to use in class unless you have nothing else that you need to get done today! But you can save funny videos you come across on social media and create your own collection to pull from on days when you want something just for fun. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

That’s all, Folks! I would love to hear how you use these Fun Friday activities, as well as your own ideas for incorporating elements of fun into your classes!