Time: 10 minutes

Picture Quiz

Description

The students get a small piece of paper and have 1 minute to draw any fruit, shape, food or animal. They then hide their picture (by covering it with another piece of paper over the top, etc).

Students then make pairs and ask ‘what’s this?’, while revealing a small part of their picture. Their partner guesses. If the guess is wrong, they reveal a little more of the picture and ask again. When their partner guesses correctly, they switch roles and then make new pairs.

If needs be, the student can show the whole picture after a certain number of tries. If their partner doesn’t know what it is at this point, they can tell them the answer.

After a certain amount of time, students get 1 minute to draw a new picture and then start the next round.

Notes

It is best to encourage students to draw things that most students will know the English for. However, if their partner guesses by using the Japanese name, it should be acceptable.

Letter Exchange

Description

The students first get a worksheet that has 6 random letters. The students draw the letters in the squares using whatever colour/design they like. When they’re finished, they cut them out.

The students then get a sheet of paper with their name on it written in English, and six letters which were made in the previous lesson (they don’t need to be the ones they made originally). They use the paper to make pairs and ask for letters. If their partner has the letter they asked for, they give it to them.

When they have all the letters to make their name, they can glue them (in the correct order) to their paper.

After class, students can add their own design to the rest of the paper, and glue it to their new name card to use for the next year.

Notes

  • It takes the students a long time to draw their letters, so it is best to split the activity into two lessons.
  • If using lower case letters, the first letter of each name is left for the student to draw on their own name card as a capital.
  • When making the worksheets, make sure you have enough letters for each student’s name – certain letters will be much more common than others. One way to do it is to take each student’s name, shuffle the letters and put them all on one worksheet. This worksheet doesn’t need to be given to the student whose name it was, however. If there are more than 6 letters, add those letters onto the next worksheet that has a short name. If there are left over spaces, fill them with common letters so there are some spares.
  • It’s recommended that the name cards are laminated once finished. The letters will often fall off the card throughout the school year otherwise.

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.

Tree Game

Also known as:

  • Tree Game

Description

In groups, students pick 3 out of 6 animals shown at the top of the ‘tree’.

Starting at the bottom square of the tree, the students ask the teacher if they like the vocabulary in that square.

If the teacher says yes, the students go up and one square to the left. If they say no, the students go up and one square to the right.

If the final square has one of the animals they picked, they win one point.

The students change the three animals they want to pick, then the next round starts.

Notes

This can be changed into a production game, by having the students ask a volunteer to give their answer. If so, it is best to give some thinking time each turn, so the groups can decide the answer they want. The teacher then picks one group (by using a dice, pulling a card and so on) to give the answer.

Maze Game

Description

Each student gets a worksheet. The worksheet is a 9×9 grid with a vocabulary word in each square. The students make pairs. Starting in the bottom left, they ask each other question based on the vocabulary of the current square.

Their partner can pick either yes or no for their answer. If their partner answers ‘yes…’, the student moves to the space above the one they were on. If they answer ‘no…’, they move to the space to the right.

When they reach the top or right side of the grid, they will win a certain number of points. They then return to the bottom left space and continue.

Notes

  • There are multiple versions of the worksheet that have different points in different spaces. This way their partner can’t predict what that answer will mean for their partner’s score.

Telephone Game

Description

The students make groups (with as even numbers in each group as possible), and then make a line. The student at the front of the line gets a set of small cards. One member from the back of each group comes to the teacher and listens to them whisper the key sentence. They join the back of their line and repeat (by whispering) what the heard to the group member in front of them.

That student whispers to the group member in front of them and so on, until the student at the front of the line hears the answer. They pick the matching card from their set.

Once all groups have finished, the teacher confirms the answer. The student at the front of the line moves to the back and everyone else moves forward, and the game continues for the next round.

Notes

Ohajiki Zone

Description

Students make pairs and get a set of vocabulary cards. The cards are split into 3 groups. They also get one ohajiki (a counter/game piece) each. Each student puts their ohajiki on one of the cards. The teacher sets a random time on the timer (between around 30 seconds and 2 minutes), but turns the timer away from the students so they can’t see how long the round will be.

The teacher starts the timer, and calls random vocabulary. The students repeat them. When the timer stops, the students check the final vocabulary they said. Any student who has an ohajiki on the card that matches the last vocabulary called wins three points. Any student that has an ohajiki on the same group as the last vocabulary wins one point. The teacher then sets a new random time and the students pick a new vocabulary card for the next round.

Similar Games

Mini Mega Janken

Description

The students make pairs, and each pair gets set of flashcards. They place the flashcards in a line and each student starts at opposite ends. They say the target English that matches the card and move to the next card in the line until they meet in the middle.

They janken, and the loser restarts at the start of the line and the winner continues from where they were. When one player reaches the end of the line, they win one point.

Notes

  • It may be helpful to rotate pairs every few minutes.
  • It is more manageable to make sure the students say their vocabulary at the same rhythm – i.e. they cannot say the next vocabulary until their partner is ready to move on. This prevents one student from going too fast and not speaking clearly, or another getting stuck and losing out.

Similar Games

Up/Down Numbers

Description

Students get a small card with a number on it. They make pairs and guess a number. If their partner guesses a number below their card, they say ‘up’. If the number is above, they say ‘down’. The first student to guess their partner’s number wins.

Notes

  • ‘Up’ and ‘down’ are not likely to be words the students will be familiar with, so practice them before starting the game.