ABC Karuta
Contents
Time
10-15 min
Materials
Alphabet card (approx 6 sets) paper is ok. Be prepared to lose cards each time you play.
Directions
Students do this game in 'Lunch Groups.' Depending on the size of your school and size of the classes this can be anywhere from 4-7 groups. Ask your teachers before hand. Lunch group in Japanese (han).
Make enough sets of Alphabet cards for each group. Then write the letters of the Alphabet on the board. Call out one letter at a time and when the students hear this letter they grab for the corresponding card. The first to hit the card keeps it. As you say the letters erase or circle the letter you have just called on the board. I find circling works better, but this is up to you. This way the students can double check to see which of the letters you have called. Ex: B and V sound the same to them. With the 6th graders I like to leave similar sounding letters until last. Ex A, B,C,D,E,G,P,T,V, and Z. Using easy to differentiate letters at the beginning builds confidence and the difficulty at the end helps to build the excitement level.
For the last letter, or the last few letters, have students put their hand on their heads, or straight in the air. In between saying letters I found that saying "the next letter is...." gets the students to quiet down and listen attentively for the next letter.
