Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a great activity to play with groups of students of pretty much all sizes. Technically it is reverse jeopardy, with the teacher asking questions and the students answering, and not the other way around as in actually Jeopardy. If your kids are really advanced, it may be worth it to try making the students ask the questions, however for all intents and purposes this guide will deal with the reverse variety.

Procedure

Six question categories, each with four questions (for a total of 24 questions) will easily fill up most or all of a 50 minute class no matter the level of the students -- especially when including the time it takes to draw the question grid on the board, put students into teams, and then hand out prizes at the end.

The best role for JTEs is to keep score and maybe translate when necessary, while the ALT asks questions and then erases point values from the grid.

It may be best to not allow students to choose the point value of questions, but only a topic. If students are allowed to choose the point value as well, you'll likely find that some groups will always choose the most difficult questions first and then, seeing how hard they might be, give up on the game as "too difficult". Forcing them to start off with the easier ones and progress down is probably wise.

Question Categories

You have to really take care to pick categories and questions that students are likely to know the answers to and be interested in. For example, something like "what is the longest river in Japan?" is something the kids are likely to know the answer to but you the ALT may very well not. Luckily we have the internet and can get answers to basic questions pretty easily.

One great thing about the Jeopardy game is that it will motivate students who may not like English but enjoy trivia questions about this topic or that topic -- it's a great way to get kids who don't normally raise their hands to participate.

Below are some tried-and-tested categories that have worked well in numerous games.

Kanji

This is one of my favorites. Some kids who love Japanese and kanji but hate English will really try at these, getting out their pen and paper and really listening in earnest to what you are saying.

Basically take a kanji and break it up into its parts. "Parts" can either be its actual radicals, or just some other (often more simple) kanji that makes up part of the kanji you are asking. Then you say the parts in English, and they must construct the kanji in their heads and give the answer. Unlike most questions, where kids just say the answer, it is probably best to have them draw the character on the board that way other kids who don't get it can see in a more visual manner why a particular kanji is the correct answer.

There are potentially thousands of these questions, but picking ones where the part names are fairly easy to understand in English is the goal.

Jeopardy Kanji Examples
Kanji	Parts	Common Containing Words	Notes
明	sun moon	明日 (ashita) - tomorrow 明るい (akarui) - bright	Probably the easiest one there is
仲	person middle	仲間 (nakama) - friends, mates, fellow group member	Really easy
森	3 trees	森 (mori) - forest	Really easy
担	hand day one	担任 (tan'nin) - homeroom (teacher) 担ぐ (katsugu) - to carry on one's shoulders	Pretty easy
語	to say five mouth	英語 (eigo) - English 語る (kataru) - to talk about something	Easy
泉	water white	温泉 (onsen) - spa 泉 (izumi) - spring (water, etc)	Kids may be liable to also guess 「泊] here and they would still be correct.
特	cow temple	特別 (tokubetsu) - special 特急 (tokkyū) - limited express train	Temple will trip kids up
具	eye one eight	道具 (dōgu) - tool 文房具 (bunbōgu) - stationary supplies	Easy, though some may hear "eye" and think "I"
読	to say to sell	読書 (dokusho) - reading 読む (yomu) - to read	Easy-ish
解	corner sword cow	理解 (rikai) - understanding 解く (toku) - to solve (a problem)	Sword will trip a few kids up
実	crown husband	実は (jitsu wa) - actually... (bad news) 実現 (jitsugen) - to realize (a dream or goal)	crown will be a stretch for some
薬	grass fun	薬 (kusuri) - medicine 薬局 (yakkyoku) - pharmacy	The top part of this kanji is known as the "grass crown" in Japanese, so kids should be able to make the connection with just "grass". Ironically, this fun grass kanji is used in the Japanese word for "drugs".
騒	horse again bug	騒ぐ (sawagu) - to run about and be loud, scream	Again is the tricky part here.
壊	ground ten eye clothing	壊れる (kowareru) - to be broken 破壊する (hakai) - to destroy	The "eye" is sitting on its side, and some might slip up on "clothing".
響	hometown sound	影響 (eikyō) - influence, effect 響き (hibiki) - echo	Hometown is the challenge here.
虹	bug construction	虹 (niji) - rainbow	Construction may be a challenge for most kids.
幸	ground yen	幸せ (shiawase) - happiness (in life)	This is kind of a trick question. "Yen" refers not to the yen kanji (円), but to the yen symbol used in western countries (¥). The bottom part of this kanji, underneath the "ground" part, bears a strong resemblence to the yen symbol.
総	thread public heart	総合 (sōgō) - general, cumulative, overall, all-in-one (hard to define, check ex. sentences in jisho)	Thread is pretty tough. Talk about clothes or your shirt or something. Say public is the opposite of "private".

Geography

Questions about geography work really well, though has the unfortunate tendency to highlight the fact that geography isn't a strong suit of most kids. A few kids will probably be good though and really get into it.

Japanese Geography

• What is the longest river in Japan? Shinano River
• What is the smallest prefecture ("ken") in Japan? Kagawa
• Which prefecture/ken has the smallest population? Tottori
• Name every prefecture/ken that touches Mie. Aichi, Gifu, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, and Wakayama
• Name the top 3 (or 4, or 5) biggest prefectures in Japan. Hokkaidō, Iwate, Fukushima, Nagano, Niigata (in that order)
• What is the second-tallest mountain in Japan? Mt. Kita / Kita-dake
• What is the tallest mountain in Mie? Mt. Ōdaigahara / Mt. Hinodegatake
• What is the longest river in Mie? Kiso River
• What is the longest river that runs ONLY within Mie? Miya River
• What is the capital of Iwate Prefecture? Morioka

World Geography

• What is the biggest country in the world? Russia
• What is the biggest state in America? Alaska
• Name three countries that begin with 'C'. Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech, and more...
• Name six countries where English is a main or national language. Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, US