Materials: Dice

Dice Path

Description

Flashcards are placed in a row, and positive and negative numbers are written randomly above each of them (between -3 and +3). A magnet is placed over the first card, as the class’s ‘ohajiki’. Students repeat the teacher as they call out the target English within a time limit. When the timer goes off, the teacher rolls a dice. Whatever number is rolled, the magnet is moved forward that many spaces. Depending on the number that is above the card they land on, points are added to or subtracted from the class’s score. If the number rolled moves the magnet beyond the last card in the row, move back to the first space and continue.

Teacher Battle

Description

The students repeat the target English with the teacher until the timer goes off. A dice is then rolled two times, once for the class and once for the teacher. This continues each round and each score is added to that ‘team’s’ total. The ‘team’ with the highest score at the end is the winner.

Notes

Alternatively, you could roll the dice once each round, the first round going to the class’s score and the second round to the teachers, and so on. However this way you would need to do an even number of rounds for the game to be ‘fair’.

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Dice Battle

Description

The students make pairs and get a dice each. The teacher picks a keyword. The students repeat until the keyword is called. Then, the students roll their dice. Whoever gets a higher number wins one point. If both students roll the same number, they both get one point.

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Lucky Roller

Description

The students make groups. Each group gets a dice and each student gets a worksheet. The teacher picks 5 vocabulary words and assigns them numbers from 1-5.

The group asks the first player the target English question. They roll the dice and answer using the vocabulary word that matches the number they rolled. If the student rolls a 6, they can pick any answer from 1-5. The student puts a mark under the number they rolled (or picked, if it was a 6) on their worksheet. The group then askes the next student the question and they do the same thing. For each line they can complete, they get one point.

After a certain amount of time, the teacher can change the vocabulary for each number. 

Notes

This game can be done just for an answer without a question, but make sure the students don’t start rushing and not saying the target English!

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Quick Lucky Roller

Description

The teacher draws 3 groups on the board – 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. The students repeat the teacher until the timer goes off, at which point the teacher rolls the dice. If they roll a 1 or a 2, they put a check mark under the 1/2 group, and so on. This continues each round. If the dice roll results in a group that has already been checked in a previous round, it doesn’t count. If all 3 groups can be checked off before the game finishes, the class wins!

Notes

It’s useful to draw boxes on the board to show how many rounds are going to be played, and check them off as you finish each round.

Boss Game

Description

A flashcard or drawing of a monster is put on the board, with a ‘health bar’. The ‘health bar’ shows the monster’s ‘HP’. The students repeat the teacher until the timer goes off, at which point the teacher rolls the dice. Whatever number is rolled is subtracted from the monster’s ‘HP’. If the monster’s HP goes to 0 before the end of the game, the class wins.

Notes

It’s useful to draw boxes on the board to show how many rounds are going to be played, and check them off as you finish each round.

If you play this game for 5 rounds, then you probably want the monster’s HP to be around 17-20 points. If the class gets very lucky and beats the monster before the game is finished, then you can always draw a new monster on the board!

Number Match

Description

A warmup game! It’s pretty simple. You have the flashcards on the board. Ask the JTE to choose a number from 15 – 20. Write the number on the board. Set the timer, say the target English while pointing to the respective flashcard. When the timer beeps, roll the dice. Write the number rolled underneath the first flashcard. Do another round. When the timer beeps, roll the dice and write the number rolled under the second flashcard. Do another round. When the timer beeps, roll the dice and write the number rolled under the third flashcard. 

The goal is for all the rolls to add up to the number the JTE said at the start! 

For example, if the JTE said 20 and the first roll was 6, the second roll was 4, the third roll was 5 and the fourth roll was 6 – that makes 21. So under the fourth flashcard, you would write the rolled number – in this case, 6 – but cross it out. We can’t use it because it is too much. 

Continue on with the game. If the fifth roll is 3, write it under the fifth flashcard but cross it out, it still adds up to too much and so we can’t use it. We need to roll a 1 before we reach the end of the flashcards. If we do roll a 1, great! We were lucky. If we don’t end up rolling a 1 before the game ends, oh well – we can try again next time!

Notes

Students don’t need to produce anything – even if they don’t know numbers yet, they’re not being expected to use them at all aside from looking at them/acknowledging them and as we’re using numerals, the language itself doesn’t matter.

You need to keep up with the math, so keep the numbers low or ask the JTE to track them on the board. This way the students can also visualize it.

If you choose a number between 15 – 20, you’re not going to match the JTE’s number in the first two rounds and you’re unlikely to match it in the third. We set the time, so we can get a lot of repetition from the students in this game even if we do make a match.

Warmup Dice

Description

The teacher places large flashcards for each of the vocabulary being practiced on the board. Under each card, the teacher writes ‘3’. They then write the sum total to the side (for example, if there are 5 cards, the total would be 3 times 5, 15). This is the class’s current score.

The teacher then sets the timer for around 30 seconds. The teacher calls out the vocabulary/grammar and the students repeat. Once the timer goes off, the teacher rolls the dice (or gives the dice to a random student to roll). The number under the last flashcard called is replaced with whatever number was rolled. The current score is updated to reflect the change. This continues for as many rounds as needed.

Notes

To make the game more interesting, the total score can be awarded a certain ‘star value’. For example, assuming the initial score is 15, a ‘1 star’ result could be 10 points or fewer, a ‘2 star’ result could be between 11 and 20, and a ‘3 star’ result could be 21 points or more.

Showing the students these ranges from the start could be used to increase the excitement of each dice roll. Having the initial score be the middle result increases the chance of a change, whether it’s an increase or decrease. The number of points needed to earn each star value will depend on how many flashcards are being used in the game, and what the starting number of points is.

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

Pair Dice

Description

Students make pairs. The teacher says the vocabulary in any order, and the students repeat. When they hear the keyword, both students roll their dice. The highest number rolled is the number of points that their pair wins. If both students roll the same number (even if they roll 1 twice), they get 10 points.

Notes

  • It’s easier if students don’t need to repeat the keyword before trying to grab the dice.
  • It’s best to introduce this game after the students are familiar with the regular version of the game.

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