Recommended level: Elementary grade 3

Janken Discard Game

Description

The students make pairs. Each pair gets a set of small flashcards, and the teacher picks one card to be the keyword. The cards are shuffled and placed face down. The students take turns in turning over a card and using the vocabulary to practice the target English. The card is then discarded in a separate pile. This continues until the keyword comes up. After saying the target English, the students janken. The winner gets one point for each discarded card (including the keyword card).

The cards are then shuffled and placed face down again, and the students continue. After a few minutes, the round finishes and the student with the most points wins. The teacher then picks a new keyword and the next round starts.

Notes

  • Changing pairs between rounds may help keep the game more interesting for the students and will increase opportunities for peer support.

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Table Flip

Description

Players: 2-4

Card Types: There are five types of cards in this game.

• FOOD (target English card): placed on a player’s plate. Worth 1-3 points.

• ‘FLIP’: Placed on one of the corner spaces of the board. The game ends when all four ‘FLIP’ cards have been placed on the board.

• STEAL 1: A player may steal one food card that’s on the board from another player.

• MOVE 2: All food cards on the board are moved two spaces to the right. Cards may move to another player.

• -1 FOOD: Choose and remove one of your food cards on the board.

1. Players shuffle the deck and place it in the center of the board. All players then play janken to decide who starts.

2. The first player flips over the top card of the deck. If it’s a food card, they repeat the target English and place the card on one of their three plates. If it is a non-food card, the player follows the card’s instructions and the card is then removed from play.

3. The next player takes their turn and the game continues for each player.

4. Once a player has placed down three foods, they get to keep those three cards and the points are added to their total. The cards are removed from their plates.

5. If a player flips over a ‘FLIP’ card, it is placed on one of the corner spaces on the game board.

6. Once the 4th ‘FLIP’ card is placed on the table, the game ends. Any food cards still on the table are lost and not counted towards the point total. Players then count up their total points from the cards they’ve collected. The player with the most points is the winner. Teams can reset and play a second or third game until time is up.

Notes

• The food cards can be changed for any target English your class is currently studying.

• You can omit the non target English cards if you want. The ‘FLIP’ cards need to be in the deck though.

• You can use mini cards you already have on hand, just assign them point values on the blackboard. You will still need to print a set of ‘FLIP’ cards for each group. Alternatively you can select four cards and label them as ‘FLIP’ cards.

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Wrong Keyword Game

Description

This is basically the keyword game but instead of ‘Go!’ or a keyword, the students need to listen for target English that doesn’t match the flashcard that the ALT is pointing at.

For example if the ALT is pointing at ‘Red’ flashcard, but the ALT says ‘Blue’ instead, that’s the sign to go for their dice or eraser or something else. This means that the students will need to have good eye-contact with the cards, while listening for something that is amiss. Which hopefully avoids situations where students stare at their erasers and only listen for one word or a loud signal.

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Plus, Minus, Double

Description

In groups or pairs, each get one set of cards. Groups divide cards into Plus cards, Minus cards, and Double cards (For a standard set of 9: 4 Plus, 4 Minus, 1 Double). Repeat with timer. Groups see where they put the last card called, and get (or lose) a point. If the card is their double card, their current points double. 

Notes

  • Feel free to play around with the third card and what its effect is!
  • After a few rounds they can shuffle the cards.

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Roulette Game

Description

The students make groups and get one set of small flashcards. Each group has the same number of ohajiki (or erasers etc.). Students can put their ohajiki on any of the cards. More than one student can put their ohajiki on the same card if they like.

The teacher sets a timer and calls random vocabulary until time runs out. The students repeat. Each group gets one point for each ohajiki they have on the card that was last called.

Notes

In later rounds, the groups start with a certain number of points and lose one point for each ohajiki on the card that is called last.

Roles

Teachers: Demonstration, praise students for good communication. Call the target English until the timer goes off.

Students: Place their ohajiki, repeat the teachers, see how many points they win.

50/50 Move

Description

Split the classroom (not STS but actual room) into two sections: A and B. You can place signs on each side of the class if you want to for clarity or you can just say it. Split the flashcards on the board into groups A and B. 

STS have a short amount of time to decide what section they want to be in. STS stand up and move to the side they decided on. Once STS have decided, ALT/JTE sets a timer and calls the target English. STS repeat. When the timer sounds, STS standing in the section of the last called flashcard get 1 point! Give STS a chance to change groups if they want to between each round. 

Notes

I played this with my JHS class and found they didn’t change groups between rounds. So to make it more interesting I kept secret what group of flashcards was A and what one was B. I also did round 1 as plus 1 point and round 2 as -1 point. The final round I made a ridiculous number like -100 points and +100 points, and found this got a good reaction out of the STS

Quick Sequence Game

Description

A timer is set, and the teacher picks a card from the first set, and says the appropriate target English. The students repeat, then a card from the second set is picked, with the teacher saying the target English and the students repeating again. If the two cards match (that is, they form a correct sentence like [Vietnam] is in [Asia]), the class gets one point and a card from the first set is picked again. This continues until time runs out.

Notes

  • The game (when the rules specifically as defined above) only works for units with more than one set of vocabularies.
  • The vocabulary sets need to generally make objective rather than subjective statements, for example countries and continents, animals and habitats, and so on.
  • Subjective statements could be used but vocabulary from both sets would need to be preemptively ‘connected’ by the teacher on the board, for example ‘she is [Hanako], she can [run].’

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Unlucky Elimination

Description

STS are arranged into groups. Write each groups number on the blackboard and assign a flashcard to each group. On the blackboard next to the group numbers, shuffle and place separate number cards 1~9 face down (if doing 9 groups. Adjust the maximum number to the amount of groups you are playing with. E.g if there are 5 groups, do 1~5). 

ALT/JTE sets a timer and calls the target English. When the timer sounds, the last called flashcard indicates a group. This group can choose a number between 1~9. Once they have chosen the number, reveal the face down cards next to the group numbers on the blackboard. The group that has the number that was chosen is eliminated. Continue until one group remains!

Notes

  • When I played this, to make the game go faster I decreased the number range the students could choose from.
  • I had also 2 of each number so in some rounds, 2 groups were eliminated and in other rounds, no groups were eliminated.
  • If your class has less groups than flashcards you could also assign the JTE and yourself groups (if you want to practice all your vocab).

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Maths Line

Description

Each flashcard is assigned a random multiplier, for example ‘x2’, ‘+10’, ‘/3’, ‘-20’. A ‘high score’ is written on the board, which is the number to beat (this can be an arbitrary number, the previous class’s score, etc). Students repeat the teacher until the timer goes off, and whichever multiplier that is under the card that’s called last becomes the first part of the ‘maths line’ sum. This continues until there are no more rounds. The result of the sum is written down, and if it beats the ‘high score’, the class wins.

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Quick Crossfire

Description

Place the flashcards in an square grid (i.e. 2×2, 3×3, etc). Students repeat the teacher until the timer goes off, and whichever card is called last becomes the keyword. The dice is rolled. If it rolls a 1, the vertical line of cards the keyword card is on are turned to be face down. If it is a 2, the horizontal line is turned around. 3 is left diagonal, 4 is right diagonal, 5 is both horizontal and vertical and 6 is both diagonal directions, all centred from whichever card is the keyword. If a card is already face down when it is selected by the dice, it is turned back to face up.

Notes

If you don’t have enough magnets to turn the cards face down on the board, you can just remove them and put them back up as necessary.

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