Recommended level: All elementary grades

Touch Game

Description

The teacher puts up flashcards on the board, where all the students can see them. The students make groups and put an ohajiki (or eraser, etc.) between them. The teacher calls out the target English and the students repeat. When the teacher touches one of the cards, all the students try to grab their ohajiki. The first student to grab the it wins one point.

Notes

  • It’s best to always gesture towards each card as you call it regardless of if you intend to touch it or not, so the students can associate what you’re saying with the flashcard.
  • Make sure to stand to the side of the flashcards when gesturing towards/touching the cards so all of the students can see clearly!
  • Students who grab the ohajiki at the same time should play janken to decide who gets it.

Similar Games

Quick Janken

Description

The teacher picks one flashcard as the ‘keyword’. The teacher then points at random cards and models the target English, and the students repeat until the keyword is picked. The class then plays janken with the teacher. If they beat the teacher, a students gets one point. If they lose, they lose one point. If they have the same result, there’s no change. 

Notes

The whole class picks rock, scissors or paper when the teacher counts to 3. Make sure to keep the timing consistent!

Boss Game

Description

A flashcard or drawing of a monster is put on the board, with a ‘health bar’. The ‘health bar’ shows the monster’s ‘HP’. The students repeat the teacher until the timer goes off, at which point the teacher rolls the dice. Whatever number is rolled is subtracted from the monster’s ‘HP’. If the monster’s HP goes to 0 before the end of the game, the class wins.

Notes

It’s useful to draw boxes on the board to show how many rounds are going to be played, and check them off as you finish each round.

If you play this game for 5 rounds, then you probably want the monster’s HP to be around 17-20 points. If the class gets very lucky and beats the monster before the game is finished, then you can always draw a new monster on the board!

Lucky Wheel

Description

You can use the wheel however you want for different activities. Here are some examples:

“Me too!”

  • Everyone starts with 5 points.
  • Call out a phrase that the class has been practicing e.g. I like green/I like PE/I can play tennis. Something that they can form their own opinion about. Everyone then repeats the phrase.
  • Then, all students who agree with the sentence i.e. They like green/PE etc. Stand up.
  • Spin the wheel and all students standing receive the result. You can choose what the treasure chest and skull mean (e.g. +10 points/lose all points)
  • Students sit down and repeat with the next sentence.

“Me too! – Writing Edition” (this version is similar and can be geared towards JHS as a main activity.)

Hand out the sentence sheet to each student. Give them 5 minutes to complete the sentence with their own unique answer. You can change the topic of the sentence to whatever you’re studying as long as it can be a unique answer.

  • All students start with 5 points.
  • Randomly select a student to stand up and share their sentence. E.g. During winter vacation, I tried omikuji.
  • All students who also did the same thing during winter vacation stand up. It does not have to be the same as what they’ve written, they just have to have also done that activity.
  • Spin the wheel and all students standing receive the points from the wheel.
  • Students sit down and a new student is chosen to share.

Pointing Game

Description

Split the class in half. Assign group A and B (or whatever is appropriate) and set the timer. When you begin pointing and saying the flashcard, the JTE/HRT will point at the A side. The students will repeat. When you move on to the second flashcard, the JTE/HRT will point at the B side. The students will repeat. This will go on until the timer beeps. Whichever team the JTE/HRT is pointing at when the timer goes off gets one point. Repeat the process. 

Notes

You know your students. If they’re going to complain about the winning/losing team, don’t play it. I’ve had a class where the students really went after the teacher for their choices in selecting groups and points. If you think this might cause your teaching partner grief, avoid it. It’s not worth killing the atmosphere for your teaching partner and students!

Battle

Description

Put your flashcards on the board. Ask the HRT/JTE to write a number on the board. The goal of our game is to beat that number! Start the timer, begin the process of pointing at the flashcard, saying it and having the students repeat. When the timer beeps, roll the dice and write the number under the 1st flashcard. Continue the process. Between rounds you can point to the numbers under the flashcard, wince/look happy (depending on how well you’re doing) and then point to the HRT/JTE’s. At the end of the game, see who is the winner: the class or the HRT/JTE. 

Notes

We have a lesson plan and flashcards – we know how many words the students are going to be using. Before class, quickly do the math. Say there are seven flashcards, the biggest number on the dice is six therefore on an insane lucky streak, the highest possible number is 42. Ask the JTE to choose a number up to 42. If they choose 100, of course that’s impossible. We need to be able to beat them!

If you have time you could print a picture of a trophy, stick a magnet on the back and put it under the JTE’s number. If we win, we can move it to our number.

It doesn’t matter where the timer stops, we’re writing the rolled number in order. So if we’re on the first round but the timer stops on the fifth flashcard, we still write the rolled number under the first flashcard.

Balloon Pop

Description

Draw a cluster of balloons on the board – nothing fancy, as long as they’re distinct oval shapes with string coming down. Put the flashcards on the board and split them in to two distinct categories: -1 and +1. Set the timer. Point at the flashcards, say the English and have the students repeat. Go between the two categories. When the timer beeps, have the JTE/HRT erase or add a balloon depending on what category the last flashcard was in. The goal of the game is to have at least one balloon left! 

Notes

If you want, you can quickly draw a house (like UP!) or whatever character (Anpanman) or animal you sketch up very quickly and attach them to the bottom of the strings. Give the students something to invest in.

At the start of the game, tell the JTE/HRT briefly that they need balloons. When the first round is done, have the JTE react. If they’re -1, make a show of erasing one balloon. “Oh no!” or make a worried face. If they’re +1, have them cheer or react. Or you can react on their behalf!

Lucky Group

Description

The class is broken into groups, and each group is given a number. The teacher puts number cards (as many as there are groups) face down on the board in a random order. One flashcard for the target English’s vocabulary is put on top of each number card.

A timer is set, and the teacher randomly picks one of the vocabulary cards to model the target English. Students repeat them and this continues until time is up. The teacher then reveals which group number was under the last card that was called, and that group wins one point. This continues for as many rounds as needed.

Notes

Even though the cards are being placed face down, the teacher can cheat and have some kind of mark small by each card, to rig the results and keep things more even!

Number Match

Description

A warmup game! It’s pretty simple. You have the flashcards on the board. Ask the JTE to choose a number from 15 – 20. Write the number on the board. Set the timer, say the target English while pointing to the respective flashcard. When the timer beeps, roll the dice. Write the number rolled underneath the first flashcard. Do another round. When the timer beeps, roll the dice and write the number rolled under the second flashcard. Do another round. When the timer beeps, roll the dice and write the number rolled under the third flashcard. 

The goal is for all the rolls to add up to the number the JTE said at the start! 

For example, if the JTE said 20 and the first roll was 6, the second roll was 4, the third roll was 5 and the fourth roll was 6 – that makes 21. So under the fourth flashcard, you would write the rolled number – in this case, 6 – but cross it out. We can’t use it because it is too much. 

Continue on with the game. If the fifth roll is 3, write it under the fifth flashcard but cross it out, it still adds up to too much and so we can’t use it. We need to roll a 1 before we reach the end of the flashcards. If we do roll a 1, great! We were lucky. If we don’t end up rolling a 1 before the game ends, oh well – we can try again next time!

Notes

Students don’t need to produce anything – even if they don’t know numbers yet, they’re not being expected to use them at all aside from looking at them/acknowledging them and as we’re using numerals, the language itself doesn’t matter.

You need to keep up with the math, so keep the numbers low or ask the JTE to track them on the board. This way the students can also visualize it.

If you choose a number between 15 – 20, you’re not going to match the JTE’s number in the first two rounds and you’re unlikely to match it in the third. We set the time, so we can get a lot of repetition from the students in this game even if we do make a match.