Hangman Balloons is a free classroom vocabulary game for EFL students at A1 to B1 level. Each team picks a tile, reads a clue about education and society, and guesses the word letter by letter before all six balloons pop. Play it on the board below, or press Full screen to project it for the whole class.
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How to play Hangman Balloons
The game works like the classic hangman, but instead of drawing a gallows you keep a bunch of balloons in the air. Every wrong letter pops one balloon, and the team loses the round when the last balloon is gone. Here is the full routine:
- Choose a tile. The number on it (100, 200, 300 or 400) is the number of points the puzzle is worth.
- Read the clue aloud. It is a short definition, so students must think about meaning, not only spelling.
- Guess a letter by clicking the keyboard on the screen or typing on your own keyboard. Correct letters appear in the word, wrong ones pop a balloon.
- You have 20 seconds for each puzzle, and the timer bar shows how much time is left.
- Press Correct or Wrong to close the puzzle. The tile then disappears from the board so nobody plays it twice.
- Award the points to the winning team with the plus button, or remove them with the minus button.
Scoring and penalties in Hangman Balloons
The board has 20 puzzles in four levels. The 100-point tiles contain the easiest words, such as school or teacher, while the 400-point tiles contain longer words and one phrase, such as government or learn by heart. Up to six teams can play, and you can switch a team off if you have fewer groups. Team names and scores are saved in your browser, so you can close the page and continue in the next lesson.
Discipline matters in a lively class, so every team also has three penalty buttons: Arabic (minus 50 points) for speaking Arabic instead of English, Interfere (minus 30) for shouting answers when it is not your turn, and Snitch (minus 20) for telling on others. A mistake with the buttons is easy to fix thanks to the Undo button, and Reset starts a brand new game.
Why use vocabulary games in the English class
Games turn revision into a challenge, which keeps students attentive and lets shy learners join in as part of a team. Guessing words from a clue also trains students to define, to spell and to recall vocabulary under a little pressure, exactly what they need in the Baccalaureate exam. If you enjoy this format, try our Vocabulary Animals Game PPT or the Vocabulary Occupations Game PPT, and browse more ready-made activities on the page Download Vocabulary Grammar PowerPoints.
The idea comes from the traditional word-guessing game described on Wikipedia. We replaced the gallows with balloons so that the game feels positive and friendly for young learners. For more practice on the same theme, see our Moroccan Bac English exercises.
Tips for teachers using Hangman Balloons
- Project the game with the Full screen button so every student can see the word and the balloons.
- Before you start, review the vocabulary list below with your class, then hide it while you play.
- Let one student from each team come to the board in turn, so everybody has a chance to speak.
- Ask the winning team to use the word in a sentence before you give them the points.
Vocabulary list (spoiler: these are all the answers)
- 100 points: school, teacher, student, family, friend
- 200 points: classroom, homework, lesson, library, neighbour
- 300 points: university, subject, society, culture, volunteer
- 400 points: education, knowledge, government, unemployed, learn by heart
