Recommended Level: All junior high grades

Concentration

Also known as:

  • 神経衰弱
  • Shinkeisuijaku

Description

The students make groups, and each group gets two sets of the vocabulary cards. All cards are shuffled and placed face down.

Once they have decided an order, the first student turns over a card and says the matching vocabulary or grammar. They do the same with a second card. If the two cards match, they can take the pair and try again. If they don’t, they must turn both cards back over to the face down position and the next player’s turn starts.

Once all the cards are taken, they can be shuffled and played again. The winner is the player with the most cards.

Notes

  • This game can be used to practice either just vocabulary or grammar. It can also be used to practice asking and answering questions – the group can ask the player a question who then answers it based on the card they receive.
  • Some students try to shuffle the cards on every turn. While this won’t make the game unplayable, it does defeat the purpose of trying to memorise which card is which, so it’s best to discourage it!

Similar Games

Connect 4

Description

Students make pairs and a Connect 4 worksheet. Each student takes turn in picking a space and saying the associated target English that matches the picture. The first student to get an unbroken line of 4 wins. Students can ‘block’ their partner by picking a space that interrupts their partner’s line.

Notes

  • One way to play this game is with either one student drawing circles on their chosen spaces, and the other drawing crosses. If students use pencil, they could erase their marks between each round.
  • Another way is for the students to use ohajiki or small cards to put down on top of their answer. This makes it easier to reset the game between rounds, but logistically it means there would be a lot of materials needed for each student and it may not be practical.

Jeopardy

Description

Students are divided into groups and given a whiteboard. The first group chooses a category and value to reveal a question. All groups then write their answer to the question within a given time limit (more time for difficult questions) and hold up their boards. Groups that give a correct answer receive points for that question. Each group then changes their writer and the next group selects a question.

Notes

If your class could struggle with the numbers, use simple points like 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 instead of the dollar values. Credit to Johanna Liang for the original template.

Similar Games

Who are you?

Description

Each student recieves one sheet of six characters (2 per page) and secretly chooses one character. They then give their partner one hint at a time using “I like…” and the partner guesses which character they are.

Eg. “I like cats.” “Are you Keisuke?” “No. I like bananas.” “Are you Yui?” “Yes, I am.”

The number of guesses determines how many points they receive. Students then find a new partner and choose a different character. Tally up points after the aloted time.

Notes

Currently playing this game with JHS1 as they are revieiwing “I like…” in chapter one. Could also be played with 5th/6th ES.

Donut Game

Also known as:

  • Circle game

Description

Students get a deck of cards and place them face down in a circle. They play janken to decide who goes first.

The player turns over one card in the circle and uses that card to say the target English. Then, he/she puts that card face up in the center of the circle. If the card they turned over matches the card turned over on the previous turn, they take all the discarded cards from the center.  Once there are no cards left in the circle, the students count the cards they took. They get one point for each card they have. Then, they shuffle and play again.

Notes

  • This game can be done to practice just vocabulary or grammar. It can also be used to practice asking and answering questions – the group can ask the player a question who then answers it based on the card they receive.

Scattergories

Description

Students keep the sheet in their folders to take out whenever we play scattergories for a warm-up activity. The ALT chooses a letter and the students write the letter in the center of the grid. Students then have 5-10min to write a word for each catagory that starts with the chosen letter. I let them use their textbooks/dictionaries to help. For scoring points (if you want to), students share their answers and anyone with a unique answer gets 1 point.

Janken Soccer

Description

Students make pairs and each get game board with a soccer pitch on it, and a ‘soccer ball’ card. They also get a set of cards with the vocabulary on them. They shuffle these and put five on to the game board. First they janken. The loser asks the question. The winner answers. The winner moves their ‘ball’ one space towards their goal.

If one student wins enough times in a row and moves all the way to their partner’s goal, they score one goal (get one point) and the ‘ball’ goes back to the centre, while shuffling a new set of cards onto the board.

After a few minutes, pairs can change.

Notes

  • This game can be used to practice vocabulary, grammar and questions and answers.
  • If using the template version, print it at A3 size and the spaces will be the right size for small (roughly 9.2 x 6.5cm) cards to go on top. You can print and use the small ‘soccer ball’ cards, or the students can use an ohajiki or an eraser (or something similar) from their pencil cases.
  • If using the worksheet version, change the images in each section as needed to fit the current lesson’s target English.

Similar Games

Typhoon (PowerPoint version)

Description

The students make groups. Each groups take turns to pick a number, which leads to a question. There’s then a certain amount of talking time where the groups can discuss the answer with each other.

After the thinking time is over, the students can volunteer. The class asks the question to the volunteer. Once they get the right answer, they win or lose points, or cause another group to lose points.

Notes

  • In the PowerPoint file, click the numbers in the grid to go to each question. Click the icon in the bottom right hand side of the question slide to show the reward. Then, click on the bottom right icon again to return to the question selection slide.
  • When adding your own questions, you can copy the content of the first question slide to keep a consistent format, but please note not to copy the bottom right icon – otherwise every question will link to the same reward!
  • Asking for a single volunteer creates quite a high pressure environment. It may help to have the students make groups. Then, the group can be picked to volunteer together.
  • Alternatively, again in groups, each student can assign themselves a number. Then, after the thinking time, the teacher calls one number and every student who matches that number from each group can volunteer. For example, if the teacher calls ‘2’, every student who is number 2 can volunteer. This means students can’t know who will be picked beforehand, and encourages peer support.

Point Quiz

Description

Students break into lunch groups. Each group receives a mini whiteboard to write answers on. Each group nominates a writer for the first question.

Display the first question and give all teams time to write and hold up their answer. Once everyone’s finished, reveal the answer and check for correct teams. Teams that answered correctly can then choose a prize for a chance to win/lose points. I tend to let teams chose in order of who answered first.

Rotate the whiteboard after each question so everyone writes at least once.

Notes

There’re enough slides for 12 questions. I’ve never gotten to the end in a lesson.

Zombie Game

Description

The whole class is divided into groups (usually based on the line they are sitting in) and each group is assigned a word. 

For example, if the sentence structure is, “I like + food” then group 1 will be assigned the word ‘pizza’, group 2 will be assigned the word ‘pasta’ and so on. Students will talk with each other (depends on the lesson goal – I like pizza, how about you? / What food do you like? I like pizza) and then play janken.

The winner ‘infects’ the loser: so if the winner likes pizza, the loser now likes pizza, too. They say goodbye and talk with other students and the ‘infection’ spreads. At the end of the game, students can see which group ‘infected’ the most students and are therefore the winners. 

Notes

In the demonstration, make sure to show that when you have been ‘infected’ once, you continue to talk with friends. The game does not end when you have been ‘infected’!

Also demonstrate what happens if you meet someone who likes the same food as you to avoid confusion (and unnecessary janken bouts) in game.

Remember to do a good/bad demonstration. Students must produce the English before playing janken (as with most janken games, students can bypass the English entirely) and encourage peer support. Remind them it’s not a race because sometimes students can forget which word they must use in that moment as it changes often throughout the game.

Before the game, you can write how many students are in each group under the relevant flashcard. At the end of the game, you can count and write the new number underneath. This provides students a visual aid to see what team won/lost and by what margin.

You can play this game in rounds very easily.