Here are some easy games that can be adapted to almost any ESL/EFL classroom at a moment's notice:

Cardhead - Guess the name on your card using Yes/No questions. All Levels. The Symbol Game - A great icebreaker game for new classes! All Levels. Murder Winks - A classic party game that is easily adapted to the ESL classroom. All Levels. Circle Memory Sentences - Students must remember all of the sentences said before his/her turn. Great for killing time at the end of class or reviewing vocabulary words at the beginning of class. All Levels. Read for Speed - Read as fast as you can - can you beat the teacher's time? All Levels. ESL Categories - Similar to "Scattergories," students must come up with words for different categories, using the same first letter for each word. Intermediate / Advanced. The Question Game - You read the answer, and students must come up with the correct question! All Levels. Tag Question Game - Fun and simple review activity to practice using tag questions like "...do you?" or "...can we?". All Levels. Don't Say the Words! (1) - Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to "Taboo") All Levels.

Don't Say the Words! (2) - Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to "Taboo") All Levels. Don't Say the Words! (3) - Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to "Taboo") Intermediate / Advanced. I've Never - A great game for practicing the Present Perfect Tense. Think of things that you have never done, but everyone else has done! Intermediate / Advanced. The Lying Game - Students take turns coming up with lies about themselves, and their classmates must guess which statements are true, and which are the lies! Intermediate / Advanced. Conversation Cards - Students answer the questions on the cards, or they can take turns saying one word each until the question is answered. Intermediate / Advanced Interactive Writing - This is a great writing activity in which each student writes a part of each story. Intermediate / Advanced

DICE GAMES! An oversized plush dice can be a great tool in a classroom, and there are several ways to use these at a moment's notice to make reviewing lessons or reciting sentences slightly more enjoyable:
DICEBOMB! NEW - Complete a task and roll the dice for points...but don't roll the wrong number, or else! All Levels. Dice Gambling NEW - Test your students' gambling instincts with this fun way to review previous lessons. All Levels. The Dice Chooses NEW - Tired of asking for volunteers? Let the dice decide who does what! All Levels. Three Dice - Say the sum of the dice and suffer the consequences! All Levels.

Here are some excruciatingly simple games for young learners:

Phonics Hammer -This is a great game for reviewing phonics, especially with kids who are having problems with phonics. First, put the kids' desks in a circle. Then, give each kid a phonics flashcard and have them hold it up so everyone can see it clearly (we have many free, printable phonics flashcards here). You stand in the middle of the circle, holding a plastic hammer (you can also just use your hand). Choose one kid to start he/she has to read one of the other kids' flashcards, and the person who has that flashcard must read another kids' flashcard, and so on. If you can hit the desk of the kid whose card has been read before he/she is able to read another card, then that kid comes to the circle, and you take his/her place. Kids always have a lot of fun with this game, and it can do wonders for their phonics ability.

Words in Words -This is a good time killer, when you have 10 minutes left at the end of the class and need to do something fun. Break the kids into teams and write a vocabulary word (the longer the better) on the board. Then give the kids 2 or three minutes to write as many words as they can, using only the letters in the word on the board. After the time is up, review their words. I usually give one point for each word. (The first time, they will inevitably miss words such as "a" or "I", and make sure to point this out and hear their groans.)

Word Chain (known as "the dragon's tail" in Chinese) - This is an excruciatingly simple game that can be played in classes that are very young or quite advanced. To play, the teacher first says a word (such as "apple"). The next student must then say a word that begins with the last letter of apple, such as egg. The last letter in egg is G, so the next student must say a word that begins with G, and so on, and so on, and so on. A typical string of words looks something like this: apple - egg - ghost - table - eat - take - eleven - night - two

You can simply take turns, going around the room, or have them stand in a circle and sit down if they are wrong. Also, I sometimes have them play in two teams: I write 1 - 10 on the board for each team, and they make a line at the back of the room and take turns, one at a time for each team, running to the front to write ONE WORD. The first team to finish wins, and gets a frilly super stamp or whatever floats their boat. It's important to stress, however, that they cannot repeat the same word twice. Otherwise they may end up in one of these ESL Cartesian loops: elephant - table - elephant - table - elephant - table - elephant - table elephant - table... To make this game more interesting and challenging for more advanced students: limit words to a certain category, to force them to think and be more creative. Examples of useful (and tested) categories include: nouns, verbs, adjectives, English names, animals, foods, drinks, something big, something small, something noisy, something ugly, etc. The Alphabet Game / The A-Z Game - This is very similar to the Word Chain game, above, but with a slight change, if you've worn out the Word Chain game (as I tend to do). In this game, students take turn saying words beginning with the successive letters in the alphabet. So the first student says a word that begins with A, and the second student says a word that begins with B, the third student C, then D, E, F, and so on. A normal string of words looks something like this: apple - banana - cat - dog - elephant - find - go - house...etc. To make this game more interesting and challenging for more advanced students: make them say only nouns, or verbs, or adjectives, or plural nouns, things you can eat, or some other category that you come up with (as with the Word Chain game). Also, to really make them moan and whine, you can require that, in order to get a point, they must both say a word with the correct letter AND identify the part of speech (noun, verb, or adjective). To make them truly explode with exasperation, demand that they say a noun AND a verb AND an adjective for each letter, and give them a point for each one they can say successfully. Around the World - A game that instilled in me a highly competitive nature as a child. Start with two students, and hold up a flashcard (phonics, or whatever else you're studying). The first one to read moves to the next student, and the loser sits down (sorry, Loser). The next two then compete. The goal is to move all the way around the class, defeating all of your classmates (hence the name). The winner gets something shiny or sweet, or a reserve of pride. Typhoon - This is a stickyball game that younger kids tend to enjoy a lot. First, separate the class into two teams. Then draw a big grid on the board (4x4 should be fine). Ask each student a question (spell a word, say a sentence, answer a question, or whatever). If they answer correctly, they can choose a square on the board and draw a boat for their team (assign each team a certain color boat to draw). Then do the same for the next team, and keep going until every square on the board has a boat in it. Then...

It's time for the typhoon. Each team gets a certain number of chances to throw the stickyball - this is the "typhoon." If the stickyball hits a boat, that boat is "sunk," and you erase it from the board. (When the student - Vicky, for example - comes up to throw, yell, 'Oh no! Typhoon Vicky! No school; everyone go home!' and the kids go nuts.) So team A tries to hit all of team B's boats, and vice versa. You can let everyone throw if you want. When the throwing is done, count the boats; the team with the most wins. It's not the most educational of games, but it's a nice break from the tediousness of class, and elementary kids like it a lot. 20 Questions - This is a standard kid's game, and you can tweak the rules however you like. You are a person, or perhaps a place or a thing, and the students must ask you questions to find out who or what you are. But you can only say the words "yes" or "no" (So the question, "What are you?" is unacceptable, because you can not answer it with a simple "yes" or "no"). As I usually already have my teams divided into two teams, I simply let them take turns and I award two points for a "yes" answer, one point for a "no" answer, and 5 points for a correct guess. I Spy - I often play this with the younger kids, although I change the name to "I See Something..." You start by standing in the front, choosing something in the room, and saying, "I See Something...Red (or blue or small or round or whatever)." The kids then take turns asking, "Is it the ____?" When one kid guesses right, he or she can come to the front and say, "I See Something..." Tic Tac Toe - An obvious game that can be used to reinforce anything and everything. Oddly, the kids don't get too sick of it. Hangman - Another obvious game that kids seem to have a high tolerance for. I mean, "for which kids seem to have a high tolerance."