Time: 10 minutes

A Group B Group

Description

Students are in pairs and each pair has a set of small flashcards. On the blackboard are an even amount of flashcards, divided into two groups: A and B. The students decide who will be student A and student B. The cards are shuffled and placed in between the students.

Students take turns opening the flashcards and saying the target English. If the card they opened matches their group (for example if student A opened a card from group A) then they get one point and the card is put off to the side. If the card they opened does not match their group (student A opens a card from group B) then that student doesn’t get a point and the card is put off to the side. This continues until all the cards have been opened. Students count how many points they have, then shuffle the cards for another round!

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!

Snap

Description

Students are in pairs and each pair has a set of small flashcards (one set per student). For round 1, students begin with four of the same flashcards. The cards are shuffled and placed face down in front of each student (make sure that the students cards don’t get mixed with their partners cards). Set a timer for about 3 or so minutes. 

At the same time, students choose a card and turn is over. Both students say the target English for their cards. If they opened matching cards, they get one point and the cards are placed in the centre face up. If they are not matching, the cards are turned back face down. This continues until all cards have been matched. If students want, they can coordinate what cards to open to get the matching card. When all cards are opened, they divide the cards between themselves, shuffle them and add an extra card each (they should now have 5 cards each). This continues until the timer sounds. 

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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Secret Keyword Game

Description

Students are in groups and each pair has a set of small flashcards. They shuffle the cards and place them face down between themselves. Students janken to decide who plays first. 

Player one chooses a card, opens it and says the target English. They then get that card and put it near them. Player two then does the same. This continues until all the cards are gone. Once all groups have finished, the ALT/HRT reveals the secret keyword! All students with that card get one point! 

Students shuffle the cards and wait till the next round begins. ALT/HRT chooses a new keyword. 

Notes

I would recommend that between the rounds, have the pairs wait until all pairs have shuffled and placed their cards so pairs start at the same time. This will help prevent some pairs sitting there for a while waiting for other groups to finish. 

Small Talk Wheel

Description

Using the Wheel

Run the PPT in full-screen mode. Click the arrow on the right side of the wheel to start it spinning. Click again to stop the wheel. Click on the chosen segment of the wheel to reveal the question and answer guide (Try to click the coloured section instead of the text). 

Warm-Up Lucky Card Game

All students receive a coloured card. After checking and practicing the small talk question, everyone stands up and finds a partner. Students janken and the winner goes first, asking the question. The other student answers and then asks the question themselves. After both students have shared their answer, they exchange their coloured cards and find a new partner. After an allocated time (eg. 2min or 5 friends), everyone returns and stands behind their desks.  The coloured cards are drawn randomly from a box one by one. Any student whose colour is drawn is eliminated and sits down. The final colour that is drawn is the lucky card for the day. Those students receive a sticker. 

Notes

You can edit the questions on the wheel. Just scroll through the slides to change the matching question page. 

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Lucky Combination Hunt

Description

Students are in groups and each group has two sets of flashcards (the two sets that make the target sentence). The groups shuffle the cards and place them face down in their group.

ALT/HRT sets a timer and calls the target English at random, creating random combinations of one card from each set. When the timer sounds, the last called combination is the lucky combination. Continue this until all combinations have been created (e.g. if you have 9 flashcards in both sets, make 9 combinations).

Once all combinations have been created, students then take turns in their groups to turn over the cards, trying to find the lucky combinations. When they find a matching combination, the group gets one point. If the two cards they opened do not match the combination on the blackboard, both cards are turned face down. 

Notes

I play this as an input/output hybrid game so when students are turning over the cards in their groups, have them challenge the target English as a group. I did this with the schedule unit for grade 4 and found it was quite effective and the groups were able to say the target English to a level that I was very happy about. 

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Secret Bingo

Description

Students are in groups or pairs and each group/pair is given a set of small flashcards. Students shuffle their cards then make a 3×3 bingo grid with the cards remaining face down. ALT/HRT sets a timer and calls the target English. Students repeat. When the timer sounds, the last called flashcard is that round’s lucky word. Mark it on the board with either a magnet or any other identifiable mark (I circled the card on the board). Continue this pattern for another 4 or 5 rounds. When all the rounds are finished, students turn over their flashcards and check how many bingos they got based on the keywords!

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