Materials: Worksheet

Janken Bingo

Description

Students make pairs and share a sheet. One student is a “O” the other is the “X”. The ALT/HRT/JTE sets the timer and the class repeats the target English. When the timer beeps, students play janken. The winner goes first and places their shape on their BINGO sheet. The loser goes second and places their shape. Reset the timer and continue playing. The goal is for the students to get three of their shapes in a row. At the end of the game, see how many BINGOs students could get. 

Notes

  • This game needs a demonstration. 
  • If you can orchestrate the demonstration to show blocking your partner, the students (in my experience) get a little more excited. 
  • In the past I’ve made the board too small. A bigger sized board is better because it gives the students space to spread out a little and have a real chance at making a BINGO or blocking their partner. 
  • Common questions after the demonstration include asking if diagonal and overlap counts as BINGO. 
  • If you made the board bigger, you could play in groups. 

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Blockbuster

Description

Students make pairs. The ALT/HRT/JTE sets the timer and says the target English. Students repeat. When the timer beeps, students play janken. The winner makes their move. They can choose any color block and draw it on their shared board. They then write their initial on the color block they used. If the color block is initialled, they can not use that shape again. The ALT/HRT/JTE sets the timer again and the game continues. The student who can’t place a block is the loser.

Notes

  • The game follows the rules of other popular falling block games. Starting off, students can only place the blocks on the very bottom line and from there, they can place them on top of another block.
  • This game can be played in a group but you need to change the rules. 
  • A block can’t be placed if there is no space on the board or if their block will go above the top line. 
  • Just because a student wins janken a lot does not mean they’re guaranteed to win. I’ve had winning students block themselves into a loss. Sometimes students also draw and make a perfect grid. 
  • This game definitely needs a demonstration.
  • This can be played as an output game but the nature of the game is quite exciting and students tend to go straight to janken and block placing and skip the English – I think it’s better suited to a controlled input game. 
  • The example I’ve uploaded includes vocabulary for daily schedule. 

Make 20

Description

Students are each given a worksheet and write a number in each space (I did 1~15 in my lesson). 

Students then make pairs and exchange the target English. Students can choose if they write their friend’s answer down or not. If they choose to write it, they cannot erase it. Once both students have done the question and answer, students make a new pair and exchange the target English.  Again, students can choose to write down their friend’s number or not. 

The goal is to get exactly 20 items. So if their friend’s number will make them go over 20, they cannot write the number down. Once they get exactly 20 items, they score one point. They start from 0 and try to collect 20 again!

True or False

Description

Each student gets a worksheet and writes down their true answers for each option on the worksheet.

Students make a pair and janken. If you are only practicing the answer, the winner of janken says their answers first. If you are practicing both question and answer, the loser of janken asks the question and the winner answers.

The student giving the answer can either say their true answer or they can say a fake answer. Their partner then guess if they told the truth or lied by saying yes or no. If they guessed correctly, they get one point! If not, 0 points. Once both students have had a chance at answering and guessing, they make a new pair!

Notes

I played this for unit 3 of grade 6 for ‘I [schedule] at [time]’ so I made a worksheet where they wrote the true time they did each thing. From that they then could tell the truth or lie. But for simpler units (for example grade 3 unit 4 ‘do you like ~’) you might not need a worksheet.

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Tree Game (Output Variation)

Also known as:

  • Tree Game

Description

Students make pairs and receive one copy of the game sheet, one dice and 3 ohajiki of a different colour (e.g.. 3 red and 3 yellow). Students then place their ohajiki in each of the boxes marked A-F along the top. Only one ohajiki can be placed in each box and players can’t share a box. An eraser is then placed in the [START] box at the bottom of the tree. The ALT/JTE starts a timer for 3-5min.

Players janken and the winner rolls the dice. If the outcome is a 1, 2, or 3, the eraser is moved to the upper left box. If the outcome is a 4, 5 or 6, the eraser is moved to the upper right box. Both players then repeat the target English in the box. The next player then rolls the dice and the game continues until the eraser lands in one of the top lettered boxes. Whoever’s ohajiki is in the final box wins one point. The eraser is then reset at the [START] and players can rearrange their ohajiki. 

The game repeats until the timer ends. Players then compare points to determine the winner. Players can then rotate pairs for another round with a new partner. 

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Secret Alphabet Colouring

Description

Each student is given a small flashcard which is kept secret. For round one, give them one card of ‘E’, ‘T’, ‘A’, ‘I’, ‘J’, ‘H’, ‘P’, ‘Y’, or ‘Q’, and a worksheet (for round one the worksheet with ‘E’ in the top left space). Students colour in the square corresponding to the secret card they were given. 

Students make a pair and janken. The loser tells the winner their secret card. The winner colours in the square corresponding to the letter they were told. Students then make a new pair and the flow continues. As students colour in more letters, the shape of a specific letter should become apparent on the grid. This is the secret letter (Round 1 = ‘F’). 

Notes

For round 2, the flashcards that need to be handed out are ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘G’, ‘L’, ‘M’, ‘N’, ‘S’, ‘X’, ‘W’, ‘V’ and the worksheet is the one with ‘A’ in the top left corner. Secret letter = ‘S’

Missing Word Hunt

Description

Before the lesson, set aside sets of flashcards made up of 5 out of the 9 words. Make sure there is enough flashcards for each student to get 1 card. Each student is given a worksheet and a small flashcard. They keep the flashcard secret from their friends. There are 4 secret flashcards that no student has been given. The student’s goal is to work out what these 4 flashcards are.

First students mark on their worksheet what flashcard they have been given. Students all stand up and make a pair. Pair exchanges the target English and they mark down what flashcard their friend told them. At the end of the round, all students then write down their guesses for what the 4 secret flashcards are. Reveal the answer and check how many students got right!

Notes

I played this with just vocabulary but it can probably be played with answer only and question/answer.

For the demonstration, I only had 3 cards: 2 which were handed out (one to ALT and one to HRT) and we had to guess what the 1 secret flashcard was. Then we explained that during the game there is actually 4 secret flashcards and 5 flashcards that friends might have.

Secret Word

Description

Worksheet instructions:

  • Choose a secret word you want the STS to find. Make it a word they will know. I also recommend doing a noun.
  • Depending on the word, make target English sentences (e.g if the word is ‘tiger’, which has 5 letters, make 5 sentences)
  • Each sentence should have 1 word missing, and in it’s place squares (e.g if the missing word is ‘run’, where ‘run’ would be in the sentence is 3 squares).
  • In 1 space of the squares, either put a star or some other defining feature. This part is important. The star must be in a square of the letter that will spell out the final word (e.g if the secret word is ‘tiger’ and the missing word is ‘run’, the first square for the ‘r’ will have the star/defining feature)
  • At the bottom of your sentences place the number of squares for the secret word (e.g if the word is ‘tiger’, put 5 squares)

Game rules: STS are in groups and each ST gets the above mentioned worksheet. On the blackboard/PowerPoint have the list of words needed for the blank spaces in the sentences. STS work together to put the correct words into the blank squares and then work out the word that the special letters are spelling. 

Notes

I have attached the worksheet I made for my class, but sadly I can’t make a template for this as it is dependent on the language of the class. 

Crazy Stories

Description

STS are in groups and each ST is given a worksheet. The worksheet has the target English questions. For example, I did this for reviewing ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ so I had these 6 questions with some spaces below. As a group, STS come up with answers that answer the question. The goal is to write the craziest answers and make the craziest story in the class! At the end of the writing time, have groups present their stories to the class.

Notes

If you have spare time, you could also have the class vote on the best story. 

I played this with my JHS Grade 2 students and they got really into it. 

This kind of activity also works as a fill in the blank – so give STS set sentences with blank spaces that they have to fill in (again with the idea of making crazy sentences).

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.