Materials: Dice

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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Lucky Carousel

Description

Place six flashcards in a line and roll a dice. The flashcard that matches the number rolled is the lucky keyword. The students repeat the target English with the teacher, who calls out the target English in order from left to right in a loop until time runs out. If the last called target English is the lucky keyword, the class wins one point. Roll the dice again and pick a new keyword for the next round.

Crossfire 2:0

Also known as:

  • Crossfire

Description

Students are in groups and the goal is for the entire group to be seated. They do not need to move their desks, just keep the class as is. We then follow the regular crossfire procedure: everyone stands up and the ALT asks a question. Then we break from tradition. Set the timer to 10/20 seconds. Each group then peer checks an answer between them. When the time is up, students can volunteer to answer. The JTE then chooses one student. The student answers then rolls the dice. Depending on what they roll, select students sit down. The first group to have everyone sitting down wins…until someone rolls a one and everyone has to stand up again!

Notes

Crossfire is often used at JHS as a review game. While students may be answering questions they have previously studied, they’re put on the spot to answer the question with no review time. It’s not a review game. It’s very high pressure, high stress and has a huge amount of downtime for other students. Students can easily pass the entire game doing absolutely nothing. I was asked to play this game at a JHS and couldn’t bring myself to do it, despite the insistence. I went to Paul for advice and this was the result. It’s not a perfect game, I don’t think it really has a place in our classes but it’s a huge step up from crossfire in the current form and it worked well. 

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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Damsel in Distress

Description

Students are in groups. Each group gets a game board, a set of quest cards, a set of small flashcards and a die. Student’s place their ohajiki at the stairs of the castle. The set of small flashcards is shuffled and placed in a pile face down. The quest cards are shuffled and placed face down in the spaces on the game board.

The group asks the first player the question. The first player then rolls the die and moves their ohajiki to the number on the board. They then take the top card from the set of small flashcards and answer the question using the target English. Once the student has said the answer, they turn over the quest card associated to the number they rolled. Each round has certain rules for certain cards:

Round 1: If the quest card is the key, potion, shield or sword, nothing happens. The card remains face up and the next player has their turn. If the quest card is the dragon, all quest cards are shuffled and reset. All players are moved back to the stairs and the game continues. If the quest card is the princess, the player that found the princess gets 1 point. All quest cards are shuffled and reset. Players are moved back to the stairs.

Round 2: In round 2 there are 3 dragon defeating cards. If the potion, shield or sword is found BEFORE the dragon is, then the dragon card has no effect if found. If the dragon is found before the potion, shield or sword, then the quest cards are shuffled and reset. 

Round 3: In round 2 the key must be found BEFORE the princess. Once a player finds the key, any player who finds the princess after gets the point. Once the princess is found, the quest cards are shuffled and reset. Players are moved back to the stairs. The rule about the dragon, shield, potion and sword remains the same as round 2. 

The player at the end of the game with the most points is the winner!

Notes

I played this game with my 5 graders for ‘what do you want’ ‘ want~’ and it worked pretty well. We only did the rules for round 1 (but we did 2 rounds of it) but I plan to play it again sometime this year with a rule escalation. 

I have also made a 2nd version of the cards in case you don’t plan to use the key rule (I have replaced the potion card also). I added a ‘nothing’ card in which nothing happens when that card is revealed. There is 2 per set. 

This game was designed for question and answer lessons, but should also work for answer only lessons too.

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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Shut the Box

Description

This game can be played 1v1 or 2v2. 

Each group receives a game board, 12 mini cards and two dice. The mini cards are shuffled and placed face-up in the spaces on the game board. Repeating cards are ok if you have less than 12 target English terms. Students then decide which pair will go first.

Team 1 rolls both dice and adds the two numbers together (e.g. 3 + 5 = 8). They then flip as many cards on the board face-down as possible adding up to their total (e.g. 8 = card 5 & 3 or card 7 & 1 or card 4, 3 & 1 etc.) Students repeat the target English for each card as they flip it over. Team 1 then takes a second turn rolling both dice and flipping over cards. Team 1’s round ends when they can no longer flip over any cards. Team 1 then count how many cards they managed to flip over. 

The cards are then shuffled and returned face up on the board. Team 2 roll the dice and take their turns. Once team 2 can no longer flip over any cards, both teams compare how many cards they flipped over and the team with the most cards wins 1 point. Both teams can continue playing until the teacher calls ‘finished.’ Pairs can then shuffle around the room if time allows for more rounds.

Notes

  • This game can be played 1v1 but playing 2v2 allows for more peer support. 

    A potential variation is to have one team trying to flip cards face-up while the other team tries to flip cards face-down. That way teams can alternate their turns. Feel free to try any variations to the rules.

Quick Lucky Dice

Description

The entire class versus the teacher. Assign 3 numbers to the class and 3 to the teacher 1-6 (e.g class = 1,2,3 and teacher = 4,5,6). Set a timer and call the target English. Students repeat the teacher. When the timer sounds, roll a dice. If it lands on one of the three numbers assigned to the class, the class gets 1 point. If it lands on one of the three numbers assigned to the teacher, the teacher gets 1 point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner!

Teacher Race

Description

A race track is drawn on the board with a start and finish line and 8 spaces in between. The teacher is assigned a magnet and the class is assigned another magnet. Both are places on the starting line. A timer is set and the students repeat until the timer sounds. A die is then rolled first for the teacher. The teacher’s magnet is moved as many spaces as rolled. The die is then rolled for the class, and their magnet is moved as many spaces as rolled. The first magnet to cross the line is the winner!

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Lucky Dice

Description

Students are in groups of 4. Each student is assigned a number 1-4.

ALT/HRT sets a timer and calls the target English. When the timer sounds, the ALT/HRT rolls a die. If a 1 is rolled, then all students numbered 1 get 1 point. If a 2 is rolled, then all students numbered 2 get 1 point. If a 3 is rolled, then all students numbered 3 get 1 point. If a 4 is rolled, then all students numbered 4 get 1 point.

If a 5 is rolled, all students get 1 point. If a 6 is rolled, all students lose 1 point.

Notes

The first time I played this we used a spinning wheel instead of a die which also worked well.