Recommended level: Elementary grade 4

Element Game

Description

Firstly, explain the strengths and weaknesses of each element. Water beats fire, fire beats earth, earth beats water. Air beats water, fire and earth. Pollution beats air, but water, fire and earth can all beat pollution.

Give each student three random element cards. The students stand up and find a partner, then practice the target English. The students then both pick one element card from their hand. Instead of saying “rock, paper, scissors,“ they count down “3..2..1.. Show!” Whoever has the winning card takes their partner’s card.

In case of a tie, both students place their cards somewhere (like on a desk or chair) and continue to the next round until there’s a winner. The winner collects all the cards.

If a student runs out of cards, they ask the teachers for two more cards. The student with the most cards at the end wins the game.

Notes

  • Make sure they count down “3…2…1…Show!” or any other chant you would like in English. If not, there is a chance for students to just say “せーの” if the English is not emphasized.
  • Print enough cards so you will have spares for the losing students.

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Gacha Basket!

Description

In this team game, students will take turns pantomiming a vocabulary verb for the other members to guess. This game’s purpose is for students to effectively say sentences such as “She can swim” and “They can’t play kendama” on their own.

Put at least as many gacha as there are members in each team. For example, if there are 4 members, there should be four gacha in the basket. Each gacha will have two cards inside: the verb vocabulary card, and the point card. Sandwich these cards together, backside facing outwards, to keep the cards a mystery. Bend the card slightly into a U shape to fit into the gacha. Place the gacha in the container.

Each group gets a set of cards, face down, on their desk to make their sentence. For example if the target English is can/can’t, they would get a set of pronoun cards and modal can/can’t cards.

Player 1 turns over the cards and opens one mystery gacha. They secretly peek at the action verb, then pantomime/gesture it (without saying the word themselves) for the remaining players to guess as a team. For example, if the two cards on their desk are ‘she’ and ‘can’t’, and the gacha card is ‘swim’, player 1 pantomimes someone who CAN’T swim. The correct answer would be “She can’t swim!” The players must say the whole sentence for the game to be effective English practice. If the remaining three players can guess correctly within 3 tries, they will win the number of points within the gacha ball.

Notes

  • This game can be played as a group, as a pair, or as a class! When in groups or pairs, the students will work together to accumulate points and compete against all other teams. When this game is played as a class, the class will simply see how many points they can accumulate together, and there will be no opponent. Even without an opponent, it can still be a rewarding game.
  • In a group setting, the members janken to decide the first player to the last. As a pair, two students janken and the winner goes first. As a class, the teacher will volunteer as the first player as an ice breaker, then volunteers can come and participate in the front of the class as they like.
  • Pass out the group point sheet after the game demonstration is performed. If played as a class, points can be recorded on the board instead.
  • The points should not be checked until the end of class both to save time, and to keep the excitement and wonder in the class high.
  • A variation of the rules is the group looks at the gacha card instead, and pantomimes for the current player to guess the correct sentence. This could be decided by what card is drawn on the desk, for example. An example could be if the ‘they’ card is picked, the group pantomimes to the current player, otherwise the current player pantomimes to the group.

Review Extravaganza

Description

Prepare the PowerPoint and alphabet point cards on the board. Have the students make groups of around 4. Assign each group a number and write the group numbers on the board. Also assign each student within a group a number between 1 and 4.

The game begins when you ask the first question. After revealing the question, give the groups time to peer check. Then draw a group number and a student number. If the student answers correctly, their group gets a chance to pick one of the alphabet point cards. They score whatever points are on the back of the card. Once a point card has been picked, it can’t be picked again. The game continues until there are no point cards left.

Notes

  • For the point cards, I print two per page, so the pages are ordered as such.

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Elimination

Description

Show students 9 possible points they could get. Secretly write/place the points under each. Repeat with a timer. Reveal the points under the last card called. Those points are gone. Keep repeating until you are left with one card. The class then gets the points from the last card.

Notes

  • A possible variation is having one more point card than vocab words. Those points go to the teacher (secret is best). The goal is to have more points than the teacher at the end.
  • I say 9 possible points. This is based on how many vocab words you have. 

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Monster Game

Description

Divide the class into groups and assign each group a flashcard on the blackboard. You can either draw or prepare the monsters (I found pictures on Irasutoya and printed + laminated them because you need multiple monsters). 

Place or draw the first monster on the board. Assign the monster health points (I recommend keeping it under or just above 10 so more groups have a chance to win points) and secret points (I used number flashcards and put it face down on the blackboard. The teacher sets a timer and calls the target English. Students repeat the teacher.

When the timer sounds, the last called flashcard indicates the group that gets to attack the monster. Either the teacher or a student volunteer from the group rolls a die. Subtract the number from the monster’s health points. If the monster’s health reaches 0, the monster is defeated. The secret points are revealed and awarded to the group that defeated the monster. The next monster is brought out.

The game continues as such until either all monsters have been defeated or time has run out. Group with the most points at the end of the game is the winning group!

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Bad Day Game

Description

Each student starts with five lives. They get a worksheet and choose a vocab. The teacher says the word and students repeat until the lighting strikes. If the lighting strikes on the same card that they have chosen they lose one life. Repeat until all vocabs are finished and check who survived the day. 

Notes

  • This game is a great match for daily routine. 
  • It could be used as a warm up or review game.  

Bomb Sweeper

Description

Put all cards on the board, and hide the star and bomb card under any two cards. Repeat with the students until the timer goes off. Remove the last card called. If there is nothing under it, the class gets one point. If there is a star, the classes’ points are doubled. If there is a bomb, the round ends and the class keeps whatever points they gathered. Reset and try to get more points the next round. 

Notes

  • You can introduce more special cards as you go to make it longer. Please comment if you discover any good variations!
  • This could be used as a warmup or input game depending on your variations and delivery.
  • The could also be turned into a group game, although I’m not sure how they would hide the special cards. Please comment if you find a good method.

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Balloon Pop 2.0

Description

There is a PowerPoint with five balloons. Behind each balloon is a point. Have the ALT/teacher choose a number. The vocab flashcards should be on the board and labelled 1-5. You can add more balloons if you have more vocabulary or you can put two flashcards under one number, i.e. “Red, yellow” – 1, “blue, green” – 2. It’s up to you how you manage it.

Set the timer and have the students repeat, when the timer goes off, you can pop the balloon that matches the number flashcard you landed on. The goal is for the students after three tries to have beaten the ALT/Teacher’s number. You can pop the balloon each round or wait until the game is over to pop them.

Hit and Blow

Description

Students play in pairs. Each student gets a matching set of vocabulary cards (i.e. dog, cat, chicken, lion, panda, koala and kangaroo), and each pair gets one set of 5 set of X cards.

Ss do RPS. The winner is the 1st Master. Master chooses 5 cards and an order, and places them face down on the desk in a line.

One by one, Master points to a card and asks the target dialogue, for example, “What’s this?”. The other student picks one of their own cards and places it next to the indicated card, saying, for example, “It’s a ____.”

After Master has asked all 5 cards, they will then indicate if the answers are correct.

If the card is one the Master has chosen and in the same position as the Master, the Master will turn that card over. If the card is one the Master chose, but in a different position, the Master will do nothing. If the card is not one the Master chose, they will put down an X card next to the other student’s card.

The other student can then change their card position or which cards they had selected from the initial set of cards to try and guess the correct cards and order. The student has 3 chances (including the first round) to guess the correct cards and their correct order.

After 3 chances, the other student gets 1 point for every upside-down card, and 2 points for every card face-up. No points for any cards with an X.

Then students switch roles.

Depending on students grade level and difficulty of vocabulary, adjust the number of cards in the original set, but, in general I’ve been using 7 cards in the initial set.

Notes

The demo is very important for the students to understand this game. When working on it, even ESG3 could understand quickly when they saw a good demo.

– The X cards, for ease of understanding, should be placed next to the cards chosen by the other student, not the master to indicate that the card chosen by the other student is incorrect.

– Can be used for only vocab, question or answer. 

– Definitely demo this game in your meeting with your TT beforehand. 

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The Unlucky Donut Game

Description

This game can be played 2v2 in teams.

1. Each group receives a deck of mini cards that contains 3 donut bomb cards and one dice. The cards are shuffled and arranged on the desk in a circle shape.

2. Team 1 rolls the dice. They then flip over cards into the center of the circle up to the number they rolled (minimum 1). They do not have to flip over every card, they can stop at any time. Everyone repeats the target English on each card that is flipped over. If they have not flipped over a bomb card, the team keeps the cards they have flipped over.

3. If a donut bomb card is flipped over, the turn immediately ends. The team does not receive any cards. All cards flipped over are returned to the circle and the bomb card is removed from play.

4. Team 2 then take their turn. Turns repeat until all cards have been collected. The team with the most cards wins 1 point. All cards are then shuffled and the game is reset for round 2.

Notes

  • The cards in the attached file can be edited for any target English. ‘Right click’ + ‘change picture’ is the easiest method.
  • Feel free to make any changes to the rules. Variations are welcome.

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