Time: 20 minutes

Discard Game

Description

Students make groups and get a deck of small cards each. They shuffle the cards face down and put them in the middle of their group. The teacher then calls the target English randomly using the large flashcards, and the students repeat. When the timer goes off, the last card that was called becomes the keyword. Each group then discards the top card from their deck. If the card matches the keyword, they get one point. If it doesn’t match, they can discard another, until they find the keyword card. They get one point per card they discard (including the keyword card).

Notes

In later rounds, you could add a new rule that instead of getting one point per additional card they discard, they start with points that equal however many cards they have total, and lose one point per card that is discarded.

Lucky Pyramid

Description

Flashcards are arranged on the board in a pyramid shape – e.g., 4 along the bottom, 3 on the middle and 2 on the top and a ‘winner’ space at the top. Each group picks one card on the bottom row. The students repeat the teacher until time is up. Whichever groups chose the final card that was called out ‘ascend’ to the next row. Whichever groups are the highest at the end win. Any groups that reach the top of the pyramid in the meantime can win one bonus point and reset to the bottom.

Notes

Depending on the number of flashcards you have in your set, you may need to exclude some to make a proper pyramid shape. You could also include multiples of the same flashcard if you need to make the pyramid larger.

Card Drop

Description

Students make groups and divide small vocabulary cards between themselves. They repeat the teacher until the timer goes off. If the last called target English matches one of their cards, they can put it down.

After a certain number of rounds, whoever has the least cards wins one point. If more than one student has the least cards, they each win one point. If any student has no cards left, they win five points.

Notes

If, for example, there are 9 cards in your set, it’s good to have 3 students each with 3 cards in their hand. Any left over students could be put in groups of two, and the remaining 3 cards in their set can be left aside.

Lucky Guess

Description

Students make groups and get a set of small vocabulary cards. They shuffle the deck and place them face down. The students ask the first player the target English question, who answers with a guess as to what the top card of the deck is. They then turn over the card. If it doesn’t match, they discard it face up. If it does match, they win one point for that card and each remaining card in the deck. They then shuffle all the cards and reset the deck.

In later rounds, a ‘joker’ card could be added – if the joker is found before a student guesses correctly, that player could lose a certain number of points.

50/50

Description

Each group gets a set of cards. Each group splits these cards into two sets – ‘yes’ and ‘no’. They can put as many cards as they like into either set.

The students then repeat the target English with the teacher until the timer runs out. The teacher puts the last called card into their own ‘yes’ or ‘no’ set, depending on what their last answer was. Once all the cards have been sorted into one of the sets, the groups check their own cards. They get one point for each card that is in the same set that the teacher chose.

Notes

  • Generally this game works best grammar that has two possible choices, like ‘yes’/’no’ questions, ‘can/can’t, ‘do/don’t’, and so on.
  • Every card doesn’t need to be used in in every round. The teacher could pick, for example, 4 cards that the students need to put into a set then use those. More cards could be added every round.
  • A simple rule change for later rounds could be to have all groups start with as many points as there are cards being used, and they lose a point for each matching card at the end of the round.
  • Another rule escalation could be that the students need to turn their cards face down before putting them in groups, and they can’t reveal what they are until the round is finished.

Time Travel Game

Description

Students are in groups and each group is given either a sheet/flashcards with all the vocab or a set of number cards to correspond to the numbers in the game. On each slide insert images corresponding to the target English.

ALT/HRT/JTE sets a timer and goes through the target English on the screen. When the timer has gone off, give STS some time to guess where they think the real image is. They guess by placing an ohajiki on the flashcard that corresponds to the space. After, click the next button to reveal where the real image is.

STS who guessed the correct place get 1 point!

Castle Game

Description

STS are in groups and each groups gets a game board and a set of small cards. Each set of small cards should have 1x princess, 1x dragon and 4x nothing cards. On the blackboard, assign 6 target English flashcards a number 1~6. STS shuffle the cards and place them facedown on the game board. 

ALT/JTE sets a timer and calls the target English. STS repeat. When the timer sounds, the last card call indicates a number. Groups turn over the card on their game boards that corresponds to the number of the last called flashcard. If a group turns over the princess card, they get 1 point and shuffle and reset their cards. If a group turns over the dragon card, they do not get any points and must shuffle and reset their cards. If a group turns over the nothing card, nothing happens. No points and no shuffle. 

Similar Games

Ichi

Also known as:

  • Uno

Description

The attached file is for one set. Game is played the same as Uno, but using whatever grammar form you want to practice. Students/ALT can choose if they want to have +2 cards stack rule, or any other variations they know. The cards are blank and can be printed out, written on, them laminated and cut. 

Notes

  • Most students know the game, and its fairly easy for the group to teach anyone who doesn’t. Wouldn’t hurt to demonstrate though, of course.
  • I had the verbs buy, eat, visit, and see. The students could put down cards of the same verb as well as the number and color. I thought those 4 were fairly versatile, but you can do any. Another option is doing all different verbs and they don’t stack.
  • The attached file is for one set. They are pretty small in order to save on materials, as you’ll have to make multiple sets (I did 6)
  • I recommend using this after they have already studied the grammar, but depending on how difficult it could possibly work the same class. I did this with “I want to go OO” and encouraged them to use Japanese foods, places, etc to reduce the difficulty.
  • Card background made by Paul 😀

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!

Similar Games

Zombie Virus Game

Description

For this game, there are humans, zombies, and doctors. The teacher will choose select students to start off as zombies or doctors (how many depends on the size of your class). Small cards can be given to each student to let them know what they are.

When the game starts, students go around and play each other in rock, paper, scissors. The loser asks the question and the winner answers OR if your target language consists only of a statement, just have the winner say the statement.

Depending on what the student is (human, zombie, or doctor), they respond with different answers if they win rock, paper, scissors. Make sure students whisper their answers in the other student’s ear so they don’t reveal what they are to surrounding students. Zombies turn humans into zombies and doctors turn zombies back into humans, but only if they are the winner of rock, paper, scissors. If a human wins, nothing happens. At the end of the game, if more than half the class are humans, humans win! However, if more than half are zombies, zombies win!!

Notes

This game has never been played. If you do try it out, please leave a comment!

Similar Games