Junior High School Activities

General/Review

• Backwards Bingo

1st Years

• Weekday Card Collector
• Description Drawing

Shouting Warm-up Game

I divide the class in half. Half is A. Half is B. Get the As to make partners with Bs. Give all the As a different English sentence each. Give the Bs a bit of paper so they can record what their partner says. Put As in one line and Bs in a line at opposite sides of the room, but facing their partner, so there is a few meters distance between them. On the count of go, As have to scream their sentence to Bs all at the same time and Bs have to write it. Because all the As have different sentences it makes for one hell of a lot of noise... so it may pay to check if surrounding classes will get annoyed about it.

Running Sentence Dictation Game

Write a simple dialogue, about 5-8 lines (Contents are unimportant as long as it makes sense). Tape a copy of it on the door (or for real chaos, in the hall just outside the door). Divide the class into pairs. Student A has a piece of paper with the names of the speakers on it. Student B has nothing. Student B must get up, go to the dialogue and memorize as much as possible. He runs back to A and dictates it. A writes it with B checking to make sure it is OK. There is no chance B will be able to memorize it all in one go, so he'll have to run back and get more of the dialogue. A is NOT allowed to get up from his/her seat. B is not allowed to write. First team to finish (correctly) gets a small prize (but then I make them demonstrate the dialogue as well). - The beauty of this game is that they will speak almost only English. Japanese really won't help them. And they practice writing, listening, reading and dicatation. WARNING - every time I did this, the kids REALLY got into it and routinely crashed into each other running back and forth to the taped up dialogue.

Rows and Column Partner Game

The rows and columns is a good one, but if you have more time do the partner game -exactly the same as rows and columns but the person who answers the question can only choose one person to sit down- either someone on the right, left, front or back of them. (this also reviews direction). If however the student is on the right edge for example (no one to the right of them) they can still say 'right', and it jumps over to the other side of the class (the person on the left end can sit down). More students have an oportunity to answer, and they pay more attention, cause there is less chance of cruising it and still getting to sit down.

Pronunciation Slap Game

et everyone up into partners and write two similar sounding words on the board next to each other, eg. ship/sheep, light/right. Get everyone to stand up facing their partner with their hands out in slaps position (hands toether, fingertips touching their partners fingertips). When everyone is ready call out one of the words. the person on the right has to listen out for the right hand word, and Vica versa. When they hear their word they try and slap their partner - while the partner draws away. I review the words and pronunciations first and have around three sets of words ready. It's a hoot. (JTE can join a student if the numbers arent even).

Hot Onigiri Game

It is sort of like "Hot Potato", in that the students pass around an object to music (just sitting in their chairs is fine) and whomever is holding said object when the music stops is "it". You can then bring in whatever question/grammar/vocab point you want to address for that student. I call my game "Hot Onigiri" as the object I use is a really adorable onigiri pillow that is definatly the star of the show! The students also adored that I played Beyonce for the music!

Truth and Lies Game

Start with 5 statements, 4 of them lies 1 true. Students have to find which one is true... (Make it easy by putting in some stupid ones you will be suprised how many students actually believe it! And it will make the whole class laugh!). For example, Today I drunk a beer for breakfast. I have 8 girlfriends, one of them is _______ sensei. I will go to Nara this weekend to eat a dear I am 32 years old I like to eat strawberries The students have to then vote on which one is right. The last one is correct. I like to eat strawberries. You can advance the statements or make them really easy depending on the class. Also a great way to introduce new words and the days structure.

Jeopardy

See Jeopardy

Picture / Word Review

Divide the class into 4 teams and divide the blackboard into 4 sections. Half of each team stand at the board and the other half sit at their desks. Those at the board are given a very small amount of time, maybe only a minute or two, to draw as many pictures of words that they know in English as they can. For example, if they know the word "house", they quickly draw a house, then pass the chalk to a teammate who repeats the process until time runs out. Next, the teacher looks at all the pictures and any that are repeated on more than 1 (or 2) team's area gets a line through it. This inspires the students to think of the more unusual or difficult words they know.

When this stage is done, each team can then score a point for each of the remaining drawings. Ask the second half of each team what each picture is, and if the rest of the team don't know what it is, it is also excluded. Those things that are successfully named earn the team a point. The team with the most points win. This can be quite a quick and fun game.

Backward Quiz

The backward quiz is always a fun game to play and one that students enjoy. By giving students the answer and having them give a question that matches, students get to review many question forms and gain a better understanding of question structure. Answers given can be things like "My name is Fred" (What's your name?), "It's sunny" (How's the weather?), "Yes, I do" (Do you play soccer?), "I like pizza" (What food do you like?).

Comparative / Superlative Review Game (2nd Grade)

Make a sheet of paper with 6 names on it, Tim, Bob, Mike, Karen, Jane and Rebecca, and room for notes next to each name (preferable 4 blank lines). At the end of the page, put 3 questions:

1. Who is the tallest?
2. Who is the most popular?
3. Who is the most interesting?

Then make a 6 small bits of paper to stick in different parts of the room, one for each person. Each sheet should have the following information:

Tim:

1. Tim is taller than Rebecca.
2. Tim is taller than Mike.
3. Tim is more popular than Bob.
4. Tim is more popular than Rebecca.

Bob:

1. Bob is taller than Mike.
2. Bob is more popular than Rebecca.
3. Bob is more interesting than Karen.
4. Bob is more interesting than Jane.

Mike:

1. Mike is taller than Jane.
2. Mike is more popular than Bob.
3. Mike is more popular than Tim.
4. Mike is more interesting than Tim.

Karen:

1. Karen is more popular than Jane.
2. Karen is more popular than Tim.
3. Karen is more interesting than Jane.
4. Karen is more interesting than Mike.

Jane:

1. Jane is taller than Karen.
2. Jane is more popular than Mike.
3. Jane is more interesting than Mike.
4. Jane is more interesting than Tim.

Rebecca:

1. Rebecca is taller than Bob.
2. Rebecca is taller than Jane.
3. Rebecca is more interesting than Bob.
4. Rebecca is more interesting than Karen.

Put the students into teams of 4 to 6. One person is the secretary and must remain in their seat while the other group members go off and read about the different people, then return and repeat the sentence to the secretary, who writes it down on the paper. When a team has written down all the clues, they can work together to solve the 3 questions. The first team to answer all 3 questions in sentence form and bring their sheet to the ALT wins!

This game works really well and the students tend to enjoy the puzzle aspect of it. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes, plus explaination time. The solutions are (1) Tim, (2) Karen, (3) Rebecca.

Grammar Battleship

Make a grid 6 by 6. Down the left hand side write the first part of sentences you want to practice, and across the top write the second part. For example, down the left may be things like "The ball is", "The bag is" etc, and across the top things like "under the desk", "in the box" etc. These combinations can be used to make sentences. For example, "The ball is in the box", or "the bag is under the desk".

Under the large grid, make a smaller one, exactly the same. The students then put a circle for each start of a sentence. "The ball is" can only have one circle in the across column, and "under the desk" can only have on circle in the down column. This allows every sentence part to be used once only.

When students have finished that, they sit in pairs, back to back, and change the sentences into questions. "Is the ball in the box?" The other student will answer "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't". The student asking the question will mark the smaller grid with a "O" or "X" indicating a hit or miss, just like battleship. The first student to find all 6 of the other's sentences, wins!

Janken, Who Are You? Game

Print out pictures of 5 or 6 well known people or characters. Put them on the blackboard and write under them a sport and an instrument. For example, some can play soccer and some tennis, some can play the guitar and some the piano. Make a set of cards with the same people/characters on them and hand each student 1 card. Keep a stack of extra cards handy.

Students start the game by walking around the room and finding a friend. They then junken and the winner gets to ask three questions. The first is "Do you play <a sport>?", then "Do you play <an instrument>?", then finally "Are you <person>?". If they are lucky, they'll be able to indentify the person from the first two questions, otherwise they'll have to guess. If they are right, they get to keep the other person's card, if they are wrong, they have to give the other person their card. When a student has no more cards, they go to the teacher/ALT and ask for a new card and then rejoin the game. The student with the most cards wins. The students do seem to enjoy this game.

Question Bingo

Make a sheet with a grid 4 by 4. Each square should have enough information so students can ask a question using the grammar they are studying. For example, when studying past-tense questions you could write "Koji / play soccer / yesterday" and they could then make the sentence "Did Koji play soccer yesterday?"

So, every one of these 16 squares holds the elements needed for students to ask a question. You make a sheet for yourself with the answers to the question (like "yes, he did" or "no, he didn't"). Students come up and ask you the question and go back to their group and circle the box if the answer was yes, or put an "X" through it if the answer was no. The aim is to make a "bingo", a row of circles either up and down, left to right or diagonal. It's a race.