Recommended level: Junior high grade 1

Shape Zone Ohajiki: Phonics

Also known as:

  • Ohajiki
  • Alarm Game

Description

-Each kid chooses any keyword on the worksheet and places their eraser on that keyword

-Timer starts and students repeat after JTE/ALT (A-a-a-apple for example is how we did it)

-Once the timer ends, the last said keyword right when the timer stopped gets two points; if kids chose a keyword that is in the same column, they get one point; if it is not on the exact keyword or not in the same column, zero points. Each shape on the top corresponds to each column.

Notes

Timer should be under one minute

Can do group points together or pair points as well

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Phonics: Connect Four

Description

-Between the pair, rock paper scissors and winner goes first

-The first person rolls a dice. The number that they roll corresponds to the column indicated by the dice number

-The first person that rolled the dice can choose any square within that column only and they have to write the letter that applies to the blank. As they write, they should produce the sound and the pair repeats.

-The other person does the same thing. It keeps going until one person gets four squares in a row diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. The winner gets one point and the game resets.

Notes

You can make game pieces, but I laminated and used whiteboard markers to cut time on making materials (since I did not have a lot of time).

Can also do three in a row if the board is too small

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.

Birthday BINGO

Description

Plays like a regular game of bingo. Students find a partner and janken to see who goes first. Use the practiced question format to ask ‘When is your birthday?’ and mark off either the day OR the month on the bingo sheet. E.g.” My birthday is March 27th” students can mark either the “March” box or the “27-31” box.

Phonics Battleship

Description

Plays like a regular game of battleship. Students mark their four ships on the large grid, keeping them hidden from their partner. They then take turns saying different sound combinations to try and hit their opponents ships. The smaller grid is used to track your calls so you don’t accidentally repeat. Game finishes when one player loses all of their ships. If time runs out, whoever has the least hits is the winner.

Notes

Wait until they’ve had some practice with phonics to try this game. I start the activity by reviewing the alphabet and the sounds of each letter. Projecting into to the screen during the demonstration works well with getting the rules across.

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.

Exploding Kittens – Year Review Game

Description

Students make a group and within each group, students choose a number (1-5). To start, the HRT chooses a letter from the game and the ALT reads the question that is revealed behind that letter. In their groups, students peer check the answer. The HRT then chooses a number and the corresponding student stands up. The HRT then chooses a group. Everyone else sits down apart from the one student from the chosen group. They answer the question. After correctly answering, the question the students in that group can either roll a dice or choose how many cards to draw a. The cards reveal their points or penalties. The group chooses the next letter on the game board and we repeat.

Notes

This is a JHS Grade 1 whole year review with question taken from the Here We Go! English course. It has been designed for JHS Grade 2 to play in their first ALT class as a warm up but is also suitable for JHS Grade 1 at the end of the year.

You can decide how to assign points – students can roll a dice to decide how many cards to draw (4+ and the risk of a penalty card is very, very high), students can decide in their group or you can decide how many cards can be drawn at the start of the class.

Slide 12 needs to be edited – the answer is set for April.

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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.

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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.