Hot Seat
Hot Seat is a free classroom describing game: one student sits with their back to the board while the hidden English word shows behind them, and the class describes it until they guess. It’s a brilliant speaking and vocabulary warmer, with words levelled from Pre-A1 to B1, and takes no preparation to run.
Press Start game when your student is seated
How to Use Hot Seat in Class
Hot Seat is a free describing game for the projector. One student sits with their back to the board while the hidden English word appears behind them, and their classmates describe it — in English — until they guess it.
Ways to use it in class
- Team competition: two teams, one player each in the hot seat, fastest guess wins the point.
- Taboo variant: ban the most obvious clue words so describers stretch their language.
- Topic revision: load a single topic to recycle a unit’s vocabulary.
- Roles rotate: swap the guesser every word so everyone gets a turn.
Why it supports learning
To describe a word without naming it, students have to use circumlocution — talking around the idea with the language they already have. That’s a powerful fluency skill, and it forces real, meaning-focused speaking under gentle time pressure. Because the class is helping one classmate, the spotlight is shared and the affective filter stays low, so even hesitant speakers join in.
Who it’s for
Works with any level from Pre-A1 up; vocabulary is capped at CEFR Pre-A1 to B1.
More teacher tools: Teacher Hub · Odd One Out · Random Word