Recommended Level: Junior high grade 1

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.

Similar Games

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.

Pictionary

Description

The students make groups. Each group gets one set of small vocabulary cards, one whiteboard and one pen. The first player takes a random small vocabulary card without showing anyone else. They then draw a picture of that vocabulary on the board within a short time limit.

When the time limit is up, the students asks try to guess the vocabulary, using the target English. The first student to guess correctly wins one point. The whiteboard is erased, and next student then picks their card and draws their picture.

Notes

  • The time limit should be very short, even around 20 seconds. The idea is there is not enough time to draw a perfect picture.
  • For younger students, it’s better to have every group ask and answer their questions at the same time to keep the rhythm for the game going smoothly.

Perfect Set

Description

Students make groups and get a deck of cards. They shuffle the deck and get 5 cards each. The rest of the cards are placed face down in the middle of the group.

The group asks the active player the question, and they answer by putting down one of their cards into a discard pile. They then take one of the face down cards.

The students get one point for each unique card they have when time is up. A timer is set for about 5 minutes, but it is hidden from the students (so they can’t ‘run down the clock’ if they have an advantageous hand and want to stall).

Mystery Friend

Description

The students fill out questionnaires to give their answers relating to the target English. The teacher collects all their papers and picks a random one. The students ask questions and the teacher answers as the ‘mystery friend’ (the student whose paper they picked). Students can volunteer to guess who the mystery friend is, and when they guess correctly the teacher picks a new questionnaire.

Notes

  • It is worth spreading this activity into multiple lessons – one for the students to write their own answers and interview each other, and one to play mystery friend. If the students write their interview answers on a separate worksheet, they can use this in the mystery friend game to help them guess the answer.