Jobs games and activities
for ESL kids lessons

Games and activities for teaching “Jobs” to ESL kids

Art gallery

This is a great activity for reviewing jobs vocabulary. Draw enough squares on the board for each student to be able to draw in. Have them write their names above their squares. The teacher calls out a job and the students draw it (e.g. doctor, baker, musician, etc.). For each student give a score for his/her picture, and then move on to the next picture. The student with the highest score at the end is the winner.

Jobs brainstorm

Have students in small groups or pairs brainstorm as many jobs as they can in 2 minutes – they need to write down (as a group) on a piece of paper. Then get each group to change papers.

Write some questions on the board for the students to discuss, including:

• Which job would you most/least like to do?
• Which job is the most dangerous / safest?
• Which job has the highest / lowest salary?
• Which job is the most exciting / boring?
• etc.

Finally, collate all of the group answers on the board to find out overall which jobs were chosen for each question

Jobs lesson plan

We also have a FREE lesson plan on jobs which includes games and activities as well as other lesson materials.

Click to download our Jobs lesson plan.

Jobs song

We have a song available for download focusing on asking about different jobs called “What do you do?“.

It includes the following jobs vocabulary: farmer, bus driver, doctor, teacher, dentist, police officer, chef, hair dresser, nurse, soldier, fire fighter, student

Jobs snap

Print out flashcards of different jobs – make sure you print 2 sets per group. Then put students into groups and deal out the cards. Students play snap together.