This Ocean Animals Taboo Game is a fun and engaging speaking activity designed to help students practise vocabulary related to marine animals and ocean life in English.

Perfect for ESL/EAL learners, this no-prep resource encourages students to describe ocean-related words without using key (taboo) vocabulary, helping to develop fluency, confidence, and communication skills.

This resource also works perfectly for CLIL Science lessons focused on habitats, sea life, and underwater environments.

What’s included
– 32 Ocean Animals Taboo cards
– Thematic Language Support Card, including:
Sentence starters to describe ocean animals and habitats
Useful vocabulary to support speaking

Topics included
Ocean animals (shark, whale, dolphin, octopus…)
Marine habitats and underwater environments
Ocean concepts (waves, aquarium, submarine…)
Sea life and marine vocabulary

Ideal for
KS2 (Years 3–4)

• ESL / EAL learners
• Speaking and listening activities
• Vocabulary revision
• Ocean animal topics
• CLIL (Science + English) lessons

Skills developed
Speaking and fluency
Vocabulary recall
Describing animals and habitats
Sentence building
Listening skills

How to use

Students take turns describing a word without using the taboo words.
Their team must guess the word before time runs out.

Great for:

• Whole class games
• Small group work
• Speaking practice
• Science vocabulary revision
• End-of-lesson activities

Why teachers love it
No prep – print and play
Highly engaging and visual
Combines language and science learning
Encourages real communication
Supports mixed ability classes with structured speaking support

Keywords: ocean animals esl, marine animals esl, ocean vocabulary esl, ocean game esl, taboo game esl, esl speaking activity, speaking game ks2, vocabulary game esl, esl games no prep, esl activities ks2, marine life esl, clil science esl