Inviting to do Activities Game
The class divides into 2 and students circulate practising inviting and accepting/declining invitations to activities. The winning side is decided by luck, depending on how many acceptances they receive.
Throw the Dice Game
Students practise their numbers in Japanese in this fun dice game. Groups work together to try and get up to the total number chosen by the teacher within their limit of throws.
Vocabulary Enrichment Game
Students play a game where they must think of a word within a certain category to get a point. Play continues around the group and the student with the most points is the winner.
Directions Around Town
In pairs, students try to be the first to work out the mystery sentence by following directions. Using their map they go to different locations which have been allocated an area of the classroom.
Find My Family
Students are given a card telling them who they are in a family. They move around the classroom trying to find the other members of their family by asking questions in Japanese. The aim is to be in the family that finds all its members first.
Mime and Guess
Students work in teams to decipher the meaning of the sentences they are given. Each team then acts out the sentence to the class who must guess what it is in Japanese.
Inviting Someone Out Game
The class divides into 2 and students circulate practising inviting and accepting/declining invitations to places. The winning side is decided by luck, depending on how many acceptances they receive.
Descriptions Using an Identikit
Students role play in pairs, describing the face of a “robber”. The policeman must re-create the face that the informant is describing, feature by feature.
Play: Cinderella
Students act out this children’s story which can be easily understood by an audience with or without knowledge of Japanese. The play can be used by students not only in the classroom but also as a presentation for a school event. There are 9 parts.
Play: Rabbit’s Present
Students act out this children’s story which can be easily understood by an audience with or without knowledge of Japanese. The play can be used by students not only in the classroom but also as a presentation for a school event. There are 8 parts.
Play: Seven Goats
Students practise and perform the short play しちひきのこやぎ which has a cast of 9 players, including 7 “kids” (child goats), the kids’ mother and a wolf.
Card Game Ideas
Students play the following games with picture/word cards: Vocabulary learning, Grab, Card Matching, Concentration, Guess the word, Definitions, Soccer, On the Buses, Human Board Game, What’s Missing, Reading activities
Using Flash Cards
Students can learn new vocabulary and play various games using the flashcards which cover many topics.
Play: The Twin Millionaires and the Straw
Students act out this children’s story which can be easily understood by an audience with or without knowledge of Japanese. The play can be used by students in the classroom or as a presentation for a school event. There are 12 parts.
Choosing a Sports Kurabu
Students work in pairs to decide which of the four sports clubs (gyms) they will join. Each student and their partner go to two clubs, ask some questions and share the information. They then discuss which club they will choose.
Guess the Souvenir Group Activity
Students ask a series of questions to try to work out which souvenir another student is holding. If they guess correctly they win the souvenir.
Role Play: Japanese Tea
Students work in groups of four to write a script and role play a difficult situation involving some bad tasting tea! Julie doesn’t wish to offend her Japanese hosts so she distracts them with questions about their house.
Counting Shapes
Students use their spatial skills to count the number of shapes contained within a larger shape.
Time Bingo
Students listen to the clock times read out by the teacher and compete to be the first to fill out their bingo card of clock times they have chosen.
Role Play: Weather Reports
Students will learn expressions describing weather. They will be able to role-play giving a weather report from various cities around the world.
Role Play: World Events Report
Students prepare and perform a skit in which a TV show host asks for updates and events via satellite from several different journalists around the world. Language: Weather and time around the world
Sealife Games
Students learn the words for 12 sea creatures as they play card games and observation games using the IWB.
Skit: Koala at Customs
Students prepare and perform a funny, short (1 page) skit that takes place in Japan. There are two parts: the Passenger and the Officer. The passenger is found to have concealed a live koala in their bag.
Skit: Lost Pet
Students practice and perform a 2 person skit where a frantic person comes running into the RSPCA office desperately trying to find a missing pet. The officers try to help the owner as s/he describes the pet.
Skit: Make a Japanese TV Commercial
Students choose/create a product that will be promoted in their TV advertisement. Students work in teams to write and rehearse the ad. They can use the samples given or create their own. This activity could begin by viewing some Japanese commercials on the internet.
Skit: Strange Restaurant
Students prepare a restaurant skit in groups of 3. The skit takes place at a small Japanese restaurant called じゃあね. The waiter/waitress is new and makes a lot of mistakes taking orders, which is annoying to the customers
Skit: The Whole Family is Sick
Students perform the sick family skit multiple times according to the Director’s instructions. He makes them do it “slower”, “faster”, “scarier” etc. There are 7 parts, including the Director.
Travel Agent Activity
Students create simple statements about places where they would like to go and work co-operatively in groups to gather information and make decisions about the 4 travel destinations in Japan: Kyoto, Sapporo, Nikkoo and Hiroshima.Students create simple statements about places where they would like to go and work co-operatively in groups to gather information and make decisions about the 4 travel destinations in Japan: Kyoto, Sapporo, Nikkoo and Hiroshima.
Role Play: Asking for the Phone Number
By ringing directory assistance to get a telephone number, students practice greetings for telephone conversations, asking for and giving telephone numbers and asking for information to be repeated.
BOARD GAME: House
Students compete in teams to be the first to reach the top of the house. Teams advance by answering questions correctly and also creating sentences about the rooms they pass through.
Rooms of a Japanese House: 3 Hint Game
Students work in teams to be the first to determine the room of the house described by the teacher. The teacher reads clues from the list provided.
Skit: Tanabata
Students perform a short skit about the origins of the Tanabata Festival held in July. The skit emphasises the months and how the lovers can only meet once a year.
Information Gap: Daily Routine
Students work through a series of information gap exercises on the topic of daily routine; what time different activities occur.
Creating a Restaurant Menu
Students look at a Japanese menu and discuss Japanese food. They may also proceed to a role play which takes place in a restaurant.
Video Production in the Classroom
Students use their higher-order thinking skills and creativity to devise scenarios, student roles, props, lighting, editing techniques for a video project of their choice.
Survey: Daily Activities
Students circulate around the class asking questions of each other to find people who fit the description on the sheet. When found, students sign on the appropriate line.