Games and Activities for ESL Classes

By Shaney

Collected by Shaney Crawford, Former Participant of the Japan Exchange and Teaching
(JET) Programme (Fukushima)

These games and activities have been collected from various sources: past issues of the
Fukushima JET newsletter, games books, various CLAIR and AJET teaching resource guides,
and stuff left over from my predecessor. I apologize for not quoting sources, but I collected
them in such a hurry when I first got here that I can’t find the original sources in most cases. It
is safe to assume that I did not come up with all of these games, so please do not give me
credit for doing so. You can, however, assume that all mistakes are mine.

1. ‘A’ and ‘AN’

Draw a large ‘a’ and a large ‘an’ on separate pieces of paper. It is best if these words are
written inside amusing animal shapes. Divide the class into two teams. The first child from
each team puts their hands on their heads. Show the children a vocabulary flashcard. They
both touch (or slam) the ‘a’ or ‘an’. The one to touch the correct paper first gets a point for her
team, provided that she says, “It’s a …” or “It’s an …” correctly. If she makes a mistake, the
other child is offered a chance to make the correct sentence. After the class gets the idea, one
of the children can hold up the cards instead of the teacher.

2. A-B PAIRWORK
Student A is given half of the information and Student B is given the other half. Students have
to work together and ask each other questions to fill in the missing information on each of
their sheets.

3. ADJECTIVES 1
Write down three adjectives and ask pairs of students to write down as many things they can
think of that all three adjectives apply to. For example, “big, cold, beautiful” might apply to
snowman, mountain, Alaska… Get students to come up with their own adjectives. See who
can get the most number of words.

4. ADJECTIVES 2
Choose some advertisements with big print and not too much writing on them. Number them
clearly. Black out two adjectives from each and make a list of the missing words. Before the
lesson, post the ads on the walls of the classroom somewhere. Dictate the list of adjectives
and tell the students that these are the words that have been blacked out on the walls. The
object is to match the adjectives with their ads. Students write the number of the ad that they
think that adjective appeared in.

5. ALPHABET 1
Use big cards. Go through the alphabet once in order then mix them up. Introduce the
pronunciation of B and V, M and N, and L and R carefully.

6. ALPHABET 2
Use chalk as a baton. Arrange teams behind a line before the blackboard. The first student
writes A in her/her team’s designated space, then passes the chalk to the next student. The
fastest team wins. The Japanese teacher monitors the kids to keep them behind the line.
Friends can call out from behind the line to help. Give points for speed and neatness. When
the students are confident with A to Z, get them to try Z to A. If some students can write the
whole alphabet, pit them against each other. Instead of running to the board, you can try
having wheelbarrow races or hopping races. The movement and the competition are important
in an elementary school.

7. ALPHABET 3
Use sets of alphabet cards. Make groups of 5 students. In the classroom, clear the desks to the
side. The students must make an alphabet line, card to card, from A to Z. Can use to check
recognition of capitals and small letters.

8. ALPHABET 4
Make two sets of alphabet cards, each letter about half the size of B4. Divide the class into
two. Distribute the two sets of cards amongst the students. Some of the students may get two
cards. The teacher selects a word for spelling. Each team has to spell the word by its members
rushing to the front and holding up their cards in correct sequence. The fastest team wins.

9. ALT’S APARTMENT
Draw an empty apartment on the board. Have students try to guess the contents. Draw them in
as they name them. For example, the students could ask, “Is there a chair?”.

10. ANAGRAMS (WORD SCRAMBLES) 1

Mix up vocabulary words and get the students to unscramble them. Can be played in teams, in
pairs, or with the whole class. The team who can unscramble the word (i.e. say it in English)
and give its meaning in Japanese gets a point. The team with the most points wins. You can
also get the students to spell the words correctly for points.

11. ANIMAL GAME

Give each student the name of an animal. After practising the different animal sounds, the
students make the sound in order to find the other students who are the same animal. Japanese
animal cries (nakigoe) are different from their English counterparts. Explain the sounds using
pictures. The kids find the differences amusing. They tend to know ‘dog’ and ‘mouse’ (after
you mention Mickey). I also used ‘kangaroo’ with a ‘tch, tch’ sound. Have a card for each
student, but make sure they don’t show it to anyone else. After finding their partners, they can
show their cards to each other, then the JTE and ALT. Presentation is important as without the
preparation of cards and the explanation (i.e. “you can’t show your card to anyone else”), this
game can be a flop. It took some fine tuning before it succeeded.

12. ANYTHING GOES

Students try to come up with as many different answers to one question as they can. The
teacher asks something like, “How many fingers do you have?”. The first student will
probably say, “I have ten fingers.”. The next student can say, “I have more than nine fingers.”
The next, “I don’t have sixteen fingers.”. The next, “I am an alien, so I have sixty fingers.”,
etc. Try to get them to use any grammar point that they have ever covered.

13. BACK TO BACK

Teams of two stand back to back and hook their arms around each other’s arms. Race to a
marker and then back to the starting line giving both the chance to run forward and backwards
once.
14. BACK WRITING 1
After reading a text, each student selects about 5 new, difficult or unusual words. In pairs,
they write the words one at a time (with their fingers) on their partners’ backs. The partner
guesses the word. Variation: the partner must use the word in a sentence. Books closed makes
it a memory game. Books open makes it a scanning activity.

15. BACK WRITING 2

Each row is a team. The last person in each row comes up to the teacher’s desk and looks at a
flash card. When all students have returned to their seats, the teacher says “Start!” and the
game begins. The students at the end of the row write the word (with their fingers) on the
back of the person in front of them. When that person seems to understand the word, they
write it on the back of the person in front of them. The person in the front of the row writes
the word on the board, then goes to the teacher’s desk to look at a different card. Once he has
remembered the card, he goes to the back and writes it on the back of the person who used to
be at the end of the row. (All the students should move forward one seat while the person at
the front of the row is looking at the new card.) The winning team is the one that can write the
most (correctly spelled) words on the board.

16. BASEBALL 1
The class is divided into two teams. Four chairs are placed in the shape of a baseball diamond.
The AET/JTE proceeds to ask each team member a question which must be answered in a
complete sentence. If the correct answer is given, the player moves to first base. If the answer
is wrong, the player is “out”. When the team has three “outs” the other team comes up to bat.

17. BASEBALL 2
Draw a baseball diamond and a score board on the board. Students, in turn, are “at bat” and
choose how difficult a question to attempt: a single, double, triple, or homerun. If a student
answers correctly, s/he moves ahead the appropriate number of bases. The students who are
already on base advance the appropriate number of bases. Players who advance to homeplate
score a point for their team. If a player answers incorrectly, s/he is out. Once a team makes
three outs, the other team is up. This works well with spelling practice because it is fairly easy
to compile lists of easy to difficult words.

Note from Steve Mendoza

I teach at a Japanese high school, and I have some additional ideas for the game “Baseball 2″.
It may be a good idea to use playing cards, i.e. ace = single, 2 = double etc. Also the joker
card can be an automatic walk, and king can be an automatic strikeout. The cards are put face
down and the students pick one randomly. This adds a more random element to the game. In
Japan, most students would just pick single each time, if given the choice.

18. BASEBALL 3
Draw a baseball diamond on a piece of paper and place a pile of flashcards in the middle of it.
Divide the children into two teams and give each team some counters. The team takes turns at
bat. The first child on the batting team puts her counter on home plate and draws a card from
the top of the pile. Either the rest of the team or the pitching team ask her one or more
questions about the card (e.g. What is it? What colour is it?). If she answers the questions
successfully, she moves her counter to first base. There are various ways of proceeding from
here. (1) The same child can draw more cards. If she gets three more correct, she gets a home
run. If she makes a mistake, the turn passes to the other team. (2) The next child on her team
draws a card. If four different children make correct answers consecutively, their team gets a
home run. (3) She can choose not to go to first base, but to try for a two-base hit. If she makes
another correct answer, she can choose to move to second base or try for a three-base hit, etc.
Each team is allowed three outs before the turn passes to the other team.

19. BATTLESHIP
Students get into pairs facing one another. Each student gets a game sheet. The game sheet
includes two grids. One grid is for the students to place his battleships on. The other grid is
for the student to record his guesses on. On the student’s own grid, he places various “ships”.
For example, one battleship (taking up 4 connecting squares), two cruisers (3 squares) and
one submarine (1 square). Ships can be placed anywhere on the grid (horizontally, vertically,
but not diagonally). Students must not show their game sheets to other students. To make the
game sheet, put beginning parts of sentences in the squares of the first column (for example “I
am”, “You are”, “He is”). Then put the endings of those sentences in the squares of the first
row (for example “Japanese” “a good baseball player” “a high school student”). Students then
say these sentences to indicate which square on the grid that they are going to guess. For
example, “He is Japanese”, might indicate the square that is in the first row, third column. If
the partner has placed a ship in that square, he says “hit” and marks that square with a big
“X”. If the partner has not placed a ship there, he says “miss”. Then the other student makes
his own guess. Students record their own guesses on the grid made for that purpose. Students
try to “sink” each other’s battleships in this way. The student who sinks their partner’s entire
fleet wins.

20. BINGO
The game board can be any size as long as it is square (3X3, 4X4, etc.). If you are teaching
elementary school children the alphabet, use a 5 x 5 grid, which allows the children to fill in
almost every letter of the alphabet. Students are given the bingo grid and a bunch of words
that they are supposed to fill the Bingo grid with — have more words than spaces — once
they have finished, start calling out words or sentences that contain the words. Can also be
played with vocabulary words. Call out words and the students write them on the bingo grid
wherever they like. Then call out the vocabulary words one by one until someone gets bingo.
Vary the ways to win. Sometimes make it one row, sometimes make it two rows or a special
design (e.g. “T” or “X”)

21. BINGO WITH NAMES

Prepare a bingo grid with a question and YES/NO written in each square. For example, “Do
you like to swim?”, “Are you a good baseball player?”, or whatever target sentence you are
currently studying. Students interview each other by asking the questions on the grid. For
example, Kenji asks Kanako “Do you like to swim?” Kanako says “Yes, I do”. So Kenji
circles “Yes” underneath the question and Kanako signs her name at the bottom of the square.
Students cannot ask the same person more than one question. Give the students about 10
minutes to fill their grids with names. Then, students sit down and the teacher calls out the
students’ names. Keep playing until someone gets Bingo. This can also be played with
students racing around to make Bingo with the students names themselves. Students who
answer “yes” sign their names on the sheets, students who answer “no” don’t sign anything. A
straight row of students who answered “yes” makes Bingo. After a few students call out
Bingo, get all of the students to sit down and check the answers of the winning students. Ask
the students who signed their names if they really answered yes to the question. If they answer
“no”, you know that the students haven’t been playing correctly.
22. BLINDFOLD
One of the children is blindfolded and counts to ten. While she is counting, the other children
can move around the room. The blindfolded child can also move. (If the room is large or the
game is played outside, it may be necessary to restrict the area). On the count of ten, the
children have to stop moving immediately. The blindfolded child then asks the children where
they are by saying, “Emi, where are you?”. The children answer, “I’m near/in/on/under …”.
After any answer, the blindfolded child can move and try to catch any of the children. As soon
as she moves, all the other children can move too. If she catches a child, she must guess who
she has caught. If her guess is correct, that child is the next to be blindfolded.

23. BOARD GAMES

Make up a board game for any grammar point. Model the game after a well-known game,
such as Snakes (chutes) and Ladders, or make your own. Have squares for missing a turn,
getting an extra turn, rolling again, etc. You can use true/false questions, questions and
answers (i.e. trivia), or scrambled words or sentences.

24. BOGGLE
4X4 grid with letters. Students try to make words out of the connecting letters in any direction
(as long as the letters are in fact touching one another).

25. BOP, BOPPITY, BOP

Students sit in a circle. One student goes in the middle. The person in the middle must
approach one of the people in the centre and say either “bop” or “bop, bippity, bop, bop, bop”.
If the person in the middle just says “bop”, then the person in the circle must say nothing. If
the person in the middle says “bop, bippity, bop, bop, bop”, the person in the circle must say
“bop” before the middle person has finished saying “bop, bippity, bop, bop, bop”. This
continues until someone slips and says “bop” when they are not supposed to, or doesn’t say
anything when they are supposed to say “bop”. The person who makes the mistake must go
into the middle. If everyone has caught on to this, let the middle person say some different
things. She can say “Aliens, 1, 2, 3″. The person in the circle who this is said to must react by
contorting his face to look like an alien. The people on either side of the “alien” must hold
their hands up to their faces and scream. Or, she can say “Hula, hula dancers, 1, 2, 3″. The
person in the circle must jump into the middle and do a hula dance and the people on either
side of the victim must wave their hands from side to side, hula-like. Or, she can say “Viking
ships, 1, 2, 3.” The person in the circle must put two fingers pointing outwards by his
forehead to resemble a Viking ship and the two people on either side must do a rowing action
with their arms. Play this game as quickly as possible.

26. BROKEN TELEPHONE

Someone whispers something to a student. Message must travel through the class. Last person
says what s/he hears.

27. BULLRUSH (BRITISH BULLDOG)

The students stand at one end of the gym. There are one or two students in the middle of the
gym. A student in the middle calls out the name of one of the students at the end. That student
has to run from one end of the gym to the other without being tagged. If tagged, he joins the
students in the middle. If not tagged, he can call “Bullrush” which means that all the students
have to run from one end of the gym to the other at the same time.
28. CARD GAMES
Adapt any card games you know to a grammar point. E.g. Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy Eights,
Speed, etc. Also, these games can be taught to an English club.

29. CAR RACE

Place some flashcards end to end to resemble a race track. Include two or three brightly
coloured blank cards in the track and place a starting and finishing line at a convenient part of
the track. Each child chooses a car (or counter) and places his/her car on the starting line.
Decide the number of laps. The first child draws a number or throws a dies, says what the
number is, and moves her car around the track that number of flashcards. When s/he stops on
a card, she must say what it is, make a sentence about it, or answer a question about it. If she
makes a mistake, s/he returns the car to its original position. If a child’s piece lands on a
brightly coloured card, s/he has another turn. Either make a “crash” flashcard, or say that
throwing a “6″ on the die will make you crash. The student must move his/her marker to the
side of the track and wait out one turn.

30. CHARADES
It’s usually best to introduce this game after playing Pictionary a few times. This game works
well for verbs. Students pick out a verb card then they act out the verb. The other students try
to figure out what the verb is. Can be played in two teams. For advanced students, ask for a
full sentence response. For example, “He is running.” instead of “run”. Can also be done with
nouns and adjectives. Another way to play is to get the whole team to act out a word so that
one of their members can figure out what the word is. The team has one minute to figure out
what their team-mate is trying to act out. If they guess properly, the team gets a point. If at the
end of one minute the team still hasn’t guessed, the other gets to try to steal the point. Yet
another way to play is to give one team a limited amount of time to go through as many cards
as they can (e.g. give them 90 seconds to do as many cards as they can).

31. CHUNK READING

Good for all levels, but first years in particular really get into it. The AET reads the text at a
certain pace. At various stages, the JTE raises his/her hand and the students mark with a
pencil the part of the text where they think the AET was reading when the JTE’s hand went
up. You can also use brief pauses and get them to try to guess where they occurred.

32. CIRCLE MIME

The children sit in a circle. One child stands in the centre and mimes an occupation/animal,
etc. The other children try to guess what she is miming by asking, “Are you…?” The rules of
the game are as follows. (1) Any child can ask the question. If her guess is incorrect, she loses
one point. If she is correct, both she and the child who is miming get a point and they change
places. (2) If three children’s guesses are incorrect, the whole class asks “What are you?” and
the child who is miming answers, “I’m…”. Nobody gets any points. Another child (possibly
the one who is sitting to the left of where the child in the centre was originally sitting)
changes place with the child who was miming. (3) The child in the centre cannot mime
something that has already been mimed. (4) It is probably a good idea for a child who wants
to guess to put her hand up first. When this happens, the child in the centre has to stop
miming immediately. If more than one child put their hands up, the teacher (or a child)
decides who should ask the question (usually the fastest, but this can be a good chance to
cheat a little and let some of the quieter children ask the questions). Or, the children can
janken to see who gets to ask first.
33. CLOZE
Make two copies of a passage, each with (different) words missing. Blanks identify the
missing words. The students read the passage aloud together to fill in the missing parts.
Alternately, the students can ask each other questions about the missing parts after reading the
passage silently. For example, a student might ask, “What is the mother’s name?”.

34. COLLECTION
Collect one thing from every student and put it into a bag. Get students to close their eyes and
take things out of the bag one by one. Students go one by one and ask each other “Is this
your…?” They have three chances. Then they must go in front of the class and ask “Whose …
is this?”

35. COLOURS
Draw up an alphabet chart. Each letter is a different colour, but stick with about 5 colours.
Review these colours, then say the alphabet. Then, tell them from now on, they must clap on
the colour orange instead of saying the letter. If they get good at doing that, get them to do
something else for another colour.

36. COMMANDOES
Make up even teams. The first student falls down and then says go and then the next student
straddles the first student and falls down and says go. This is repeated until the team has
reached the end of the gym.

37. CONCENTRATION 1
Chant “Concentration, concentration now begins!”. Select a category. Students must say a
member of that category within a time limit (usually within four handclaps).

38. CONCENTRATION 2
Magnetic cards are put on the board with blank backs. The cards are arranged in pairs so that
English words match Japanese words. Students must turn over the cards until they find a
match. If they find a match, they can go again. Team or student with the most cards wins. For
beginners, get the students to leave the cards overturned. Then, if a student turns over a card
that has a matching card already showing, they have made a match. For advanced students,
get them to tell you which cards to turn over. E.g. Go up three and left two. Also, you can ask
students about the cards. E.g. What is it? What colour is it? Do you like it? If the student
answers incorrectly, they don’t get to keep the cards.

39. COUNTING CARDS

Use about 20 flashcards. Have a student say a number between one and twenty. Then start
reading the flashcards. If the number is “7″ for example, stop and do something special on the
seventh card — and on any multiple of seven. The special thing can be shouting, or not saying
the card, etc. Do this in a group at first, but later go through the class one by one. Any student
who does the wrong thing on the special number is out.

40. CROWS AND CRANES

The students make two straight lines. One line is called “crows” and the other “cranes”. The
teacher calls out “crows”. The crows try to catch the cranes before they reach the wall. If a
crane is caught, they become a crow and join the crow team (and vice versa).
41. DICE GAME
Make dice (saikoro) about 10cm x 10cm or larger. Go through the numbers with the students.
I explain eleven (7-11) and twelve (difficult) for 5th and 6th graders. I play boys vs. girls in a
line. The first girl and boy come forward. They roll the dice, then the teacher calls out a
number between 1 and 6. The students must add the dice number with the number the teacher
says. The quickest gets a point and the next two students come forward. No hints from team-
mates allowed – instant penalty. The Japanese teacher keeps score.

42. DICTIONARY ADVICE

Using one or more English dictionaries, present some common problems, such as: not enough
money, relating to a difficult person, the future, etc. After the class picks a problem, you open
the dictionary at random and pick a word from that page and read it aloud. The word must be
used to give advice on the problem. For example, if the problem is “not enough money” and
the random word is “macaroni”, then a sample solution might be: “You are so poor that you
must eat macaroni everyday.”

43. DRAW THE MONSTER

The teacher instructs the students to draw a monster according to his oral directions. The
teacher says things like, “My monster has three heads. It has one long green arm and a short
blue arm. It has a pointy nose…etc.” Compare notes at the end.

44. DROP THE HANKY

Make a circle and sit down. One person is IT and has the hanky (handkerchief). She walks
around the outside of the circle and drops the handkerchief behind someone. As soon as that
person realizes that the hanky has been dropped behind him, he gets up and runs around the
circle twice, trying to tag IT. If IT manages (after two runs around) to get to the vacated place
in the circle, IT is safe and the other person is IT. If IT drops the hanky and the person doesn’t
realize it, and IT walks around the circle once and tags that person on the shoulder, that
person becomes IT.

45. DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE

Make a circle and sit down. One person is IT. She walks around the outside of the circle and
taps people on the head and says “duck”. She can repeat this as many times as she wants, but
at some point, she will tap someone one the head and say “goose”. The goose and IT run
opposite ways around the circle and the first person to get back to the vacated spot is safe. The
other is IT.

46. ERASE A DIALOGUE

Model the dialogue or key sentence. Write it on the board. Read it line-by-line and have the
students repeat it. Practise then erase a part of it. Have the students repeat replacing the erased
bit. Keep erasing until the students can recite the entire sentence from memory. Good for
“Let’s Read”.

47. ERASE A SENTENCE

Write a target sentence on the board. Read the sentence and ask the students to repeat it. Have
all of the students stand up. Erase one word from the sentence. Have a student from the first
row try to say the sentence including the first word. If the student says it right, her row may
sit down. If she says it incorrectly, her row remains standing and a student from the next row
tries.
48. EXPLANARY
Show the students several flashcards that they are familiar with. Tell them to try to remember
the cards. Then, shuffle the cards and start describing the top card without showing it to the
students. For example, if the top card is “apple”, you could say “It’s red. You eat it.” That
might be enough to let them guess the word if the cards are “apple, sun, jet, frog, milk”,
however, you might need to be more specific if the cards are “apple, banana, strawberry,
orange, tomato, cherry”. The first student to guess correctly gets to keep the card. The student
(or row) with the most cards at the end wins.

49. FAMILY TREES

This activity can be used to introduce members of the family (Mike is my brother), review
possessive adjectives (shoyuukaku), and the possessive ‘s’. Draw your own family tree and
explain its history. Better still, include photos. Explain and practise new vocabulary words.
You could use flashcards. Get the students to draw their own family trees and explain them to
a partner (pair practice). Check the students’ understanding by listening to them during pair
work and ask a few students to tell the whole class about their family, or introduce their
partner’s. You could make it an assignment and have them include photos. Good for building
up essential vocabulary.

50. FILL IN THE GRID

Draw a grid with the names of countries down one side and verbs across the top — e.g.
Canada, Italy, Japan, India, UK and play, speak, eat, study, use. Then fill in the middle with
appropriate answers (i.e. in Canada, we play hockey). Mairi used this for passive voice — i.e.
Hockey is played in Canada. Students are given an empty grid with the names of the countries
and verbs already on it. They must fill the chart with the words that you give them, then write
sentences or read them out to teachers.

51. FIND THE MISTAKES

Working in pairs, one student has a copy of a passage and the other student has a copy with
factual errors. These copies are identifies as correct or not. The student with the correct
version reads the copy aloud. The other student listens and identifies the errors on his/her
sheet. This game can also be played with both readers reading their passages silently and then
discussing the content and trying to find the mistakes.

52. FIND YOUR GROUP

Every student is given a card with some information on it. Students have to ask each other
questions to find out who belongs in the same group as they do. For example, if a card says,
“high school student, Japan, volleyball”, then student must ask others, “Are you a high school
student?” or “Are you from Japan?” or “Are you a member of the volleyball team?” Students
who answer “yes” to all three of these questions belong to the same group. When all the
members of the group have gathered, they must sit down. The first group to get the prescribed
number of members (perhaps five), wins.

53. FIND YOUR MATCH

Divide the class into two teams. Give one team Vocabulary cards and the other team Japanese
Meaning cards so that one card goes to each student. When the teacher says “start” students
from one team try to find the card that corresponds to theirs in the other team. To control the
chaos, you may want one team to stay sitting while the other team stands and walks around.
The students in the team that is walking around collects the cards from the students in the
team that is sitting. After a few minutes, the teacher says “stop” and all of the students sit
down. Each student holding a matching set of cards scores one point for his team. Play again
with the opposite teams sitting and standing. The team with the most points wins.

54. FIND YOUR PARTNER

Prepare a set of cards with different names, occupations, friends’ names, and likes and
dislikes. For example, one card might say “My name is Yumi. My friend is Chikako. I work
at a university. I like pickles and yakisoba.” This student would have to find her friend
Chikako and find other people who like and dislike the same things as her. In the end, the
student could write down the answers. For example, an answer might be “My name is
______. My friend is _____. I work at a _____. _____ also works there. ______ also likes
______.” etc…

55. FIND SOMEONE WHO

Make a list of qualities or actions, etc. Students must “find someone who” fits those qualities
— i.e. Find someone who likes natto.

56. FISH
Give each student 3 or 4 cards and put the remaining cards on the teacher’s desk. The object
of the game is to get as many pairs as possible. Students janken, and the winner asks, “Do you
have a ~~?” The other student replies, “Yes, I do. Here it is.” or “No, I don’t. Go fish!” If the
student gets the card they asked for, they keep the pair, then ask the same student again. If the
student is told to “go fish”, they must take a card from the “fish pond” on the teacher’s desk.
Then the students ask other students in the class (jankening first to see who will ask who). Set
a time limit, or make play end when the fish pond runs dry. The student with the most pairs
wins. Can be used for vocabulary review, or review of target sentence (Do you have…, I want
a…, I’m looking for…, Please give me…”).

57. FIZZ BUZZ

The first student in a row starts counting with “one”, the next student says “two”, the next
“three”, etc. The number “seven” is unlucky, so no one is allowed to say it. Whenever
“seven” should be said, students must say “fizz”. This includes “seventeen, twenty-seven”,
etc. The pattern should sound like, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, fizz, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, fizz,
18, 19, etc”. If the students get very good at that, try adding another forbidden number. That
number is “buzz”. For example, if 3 is “buzz”, then 37 is “buzzfizz”. If they can still manage
that with ease, make is so that multiples of “fizz” and “buzz” are also unlucky. That would
result in something like, “1, 2, buzz, 4, 5, buzz, fizz, 8, buzz, 10, 11, buzz, buzz, fizz, buzz,
16, fizz, buzz, etc”.

58. FLAP THE FISH 1

Cut some fish from paper, drawing on gills, fins, and colours. Then get a few uchiwa
(Japanese fan with a handle). Move the desks to one side of the room (if you’re in a
classroom) and divide the students into two teams. The idea is to wave the fan next to the fish
and make it move without touching it. It’s a race and the first to cross a finishing line (use a
skipping rope) wins. You can play this in a relay, or one on one, or boys vs. girls. This game
is perfectly suited to Japan because in the UK we used to use newspapers. Uchiwa are much
better. I have used this game with my 1st and 2nd years with great success by pitting the girls
against the boys, one by one, with 2 points for a win. Explain the technique of bending your
knees. Although this has nothing to do with learning English, it’s important to mix in an
international type game and get the students moving about.
59. FLAP THE FISH 2
Make a starting and finishing line on the floor. Each child draws and cuts out a paper fish and
places it on the starting line. Each child also has a magazine (or uchiwa). One child, or the
teacher) stands at the finish line, holds up flash cards one by one and asks questions about
them (e.g. What is it? What colour is it? What does she do?). The children who are taking part
in the race either answer individually directed questions in turn or try to answer the same
question first (in this case there should be a judge). If a child answers correctly, she hits the
floor behind her fish with her magazine (or uchiwa), making the fish move toward the
finishing line. The first child to make her fish cross the finishing line is the winner. If there
are more children than can race at the same time, there could be a knockout tournament (the
winner of each race goes through to the next round) or the game can be played in teams (each
winner gets a point for her team, or team-mates take turns answering and flapping).

60. FORTUNE TELLER (in progress)

Instructions:(make the origami fortune teller, then use it for whatever in class)

61. FRUIT BASKET

Make a big circle with chairs. Write 4 or 5 fruits on the blackboard. Practise pronunciation
then give each student the name of a fruit. The teacher calls out a name (e.g. apple). All the
apples must switch chairs. Have one less chair than students so there is always one student left
standing. This student calls out the next fruit. This game can be played with any vocabulary
category or grammatical pattern (I like…, I play…). You need visual aids with small kids to
get their attention and monitor their understanding. You can also cross-reference the game by
using the colours of the fruit. If a student is in the middle three times, think of some suitable
punishment. For third years, the person in the middle can call out sentences like “I play
volleyball” and those students who play volleyball must trade seats.

62. FUKUWARAI (PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY)

Use the traditional Japanese New Years’ game ‘fukuwarai’ and turn it into an easy English
game. We made eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. First, teach the students the parts of the face in
English, and last the words “up, down, left, right, stop”. Then, blindfold a student. The other
students tell him/her where to place the parts of the face. This can also be played with a
drawing of a face without a nose and a magnetized picture of a nose. Students give the
blindfolded students instructions on where to place the magnet. Also, you can put circles (like
an archery target) around the nose and give more points to children who put the nose exactly
on target.

63. GIVE ME…

Like “show me”. Students must give you the objects that you ask for. Can be played as row
race or by the whole class at once.

64. GO TO SLEEP
Divide the class into groups. Let students decide their order within the group (1 to 6). The
students in each group put their heads down except for the number ones. Think of a sentence
and write one word of the sentence for the number ones to memorize. Then tell them to go to
sleep and wake up the number twos. Give the number twos a word to memorize, and so on.
When all of the students have seen one word, get them to consult with the other members of
the group to put the sentence together.
65. GRAMMAR GAMBLE 1
Make a list of sentence pairs. The sentences can be either correct or incorrect (grammatically).
Students get into teams. Give each team voting cards. XX means both sentences are wrong.
OO means both sentences are right. XO means one is wrong and one is right. Give each group
$500. Read the two sentences then ask the students for their bets. Then get the students to
hold up their voting cards. Teams that are wrong lose their bets. Teams that are right win the
amount that they bet. Teams can bet for bonus money if the think they can correct the
sentences. The team with the most money wins. Can be played with betting minimums and
maximums.

66. GRAMMAR GAMBLE 2

The teacher writes a sentence on the board. Students, in teams, decide whether the sentence is
Correct (C) or Incorrect (I) and hold up the appropriate letter on a pre-made card. The teams
who raised the “I” card must write the correct sentence on a piece of paper and hand it in to
the teacher. If the sentence is correct, the team scores a point. If the sentence is still incorrect,
no points are given. If the sentence was correct, the teams who raised the “C” card get points.

67. GUESS THE COLUMN

Students play in pairs. Each student has a sheet of paper with a grid on it. The columns are
labelled A, B, C, D, etc. The row contain various possibilities and some repetitions. For
example, one row will have various times (1:00, 1:15, 1:00, 1:15, 2:00), the next row will
have various names (John, Paul, Mary, John, Mary), and the next row will have various clubs
(basketball, baseball, tennis, baseball, basketball), etc. Students circle one of the letters at the
top of the columns. Then, they work in pairs to figure out which one their partners circled.
Student 1 asks Student 2 questions. For example, “Did you finish lunch at 1:00?”, or “Are you
John?”, or “Are you a basketball player?” When Student 1 has figured out which letter
Student 2 circles, she says “Are you ‘D’?” Then Student 2 asks Student 1 the questions. The
winner is the student who needed to ask the least number of questions to find out their
partner’s choice.

68. HANDS DOWN

This game can be played on the ground, on a table, anywhere that is flat and big enough to fit
all of your buddies. Everyone intertwines their hands, palms facing downwards and you are
all in a circle. Introduce the game by explaining the hand motions. A palm-down slap on the
table = a move in the clockwise direction, one hand. A palm-down slap done twice = skip the
hand next to your hand. A palm on its side = reverse direction. Play this really fast. Anyone
who makes a mistake must take their hands out of the game. The last surviving person is the
hands down champion!

69. HALF AND HALF

Students are given half of a sentence and have to find the person with the other half. Can be
used with boring dialogues. Students must go to front of class and arrange themselves in
order. Then they have to read their part of the dialogue in turn.

70. HANG HIM

Variation on the normal game where the sole purpose is to hang a heinous suspect. The blanks
__ __ __ represent words instead of letters. Target a key sentence/grammar point practised in
class. Usually played at the end or beginning of a class. If hung, draw a beard on the stick
man, or better still, have a magnetised cut out of the hidoi boy himself. Recommended for 3
year junior high and older.
71. HANGMAN 1
Variation on the normal game. Students compete against each other in rows. One hangman’s
platform is drawn on the board for each row of students. Hanged man is already drawn. Use
chalkboard eraser to erase the parts of the person when someone in the row makes a mistake.
Good for practising spelling and new vocabulary. You can also get the students to tell you
which part of the man to erase if you want to practise the words for body parts and left/right.

72. HANGMAN 2
Involve competition. Each row is a team. The first student of each row says a letter, then the
next student in the row, etc. For every correct letter, award 1 point. Any student can guess the
word. The first hand up, if correct, gets 3 points to that row. If incorrect, minus 2 points. After
you’ve done a few words, get a student to think of a word and take your role.

73. HIDDEN CARDS

Hide vocabulary flash cards around the room (the game can also be played outside), making
sure that they are all clearly in, on, or under something. Tell the children how many cards
have been hidden. The children move around he room with notepads, writing sentences about
each card (e.g. “The shark is under the desk.”). The first child to write sentences for all of the
cards is the winner. Children can be disqualified for making too many mistakes or writing too
untidily.

74. HOW MANY THINGS

Students have to write down as many things as they can that fit the description you give. For
example, “How many things can you think of that are bigger than you?” Other categories: are
round, are long and thin, make a noise, work on electricity, are made of wood/paper/glass,
you can use to sit, people enjoy looking at, have handles, etc.

75. HOW TO
Take the instructions for doing something simple (making toast, doing the dishes, etc.). Cut
the instructions up. Students have to put the instructions in the right order. Don’t forget to
include words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “finally”.

76. INDIANA JONES GAME

Draw 2 cliffs, and a river with two crocodiles. Name the crocodiles after the teachers. Draw
Team A on one cliff and Team B on the other. They want to cross the river. It’s too far to
jump (show unlucky athlete falling to his doom). Draw a bridge and demonstrate that it’s
shaky. Get the JTE to be A and you are B. Pretend to be crossing the bridge and meet in the
middle. Get ready to FIGHT IT OUT (the kids crease up laughing when they realize it’s only
janken). The loser of the fight has to return, while the winner can continue along the bridge.
Set up the classroom. Two middle rows of desks are needed. Get the students to push them
together to make two bridges. Six desks and chairs squashed together make bridge. Use 2
bridges, one for each crocodile/teacher. Divide the class into 4 teams: A, B, C, D (two teams
for each bridge). Prepare about 20 questions on slips of paper. (e.g. First year: Are you a
banana?, Second year: past tense practice). Put about 4 questions face down on each bridge.
To cross the bridge, team members have to read the question out loud and answer correctly.
Mistakes (e.g. “Yes, I’m not” or “No, I do” are penalized by one point (crocodiles keep a look
out!). Eventually, team members will meet on the bridge and janken. The winner continues,
the loser returns to the back of his/her team. There are always 2 students trying to cross the
bridge. Students who make it across get 5 points, and they can keep score. Keep changing the
slips of paper so the students can’t just memorize the questions. Remember, one teacher per
bridge. You can try having team tournaments. This game works well to get the students
familiar with responding — great pattern practice. One good point is that the students seem to
help each other, giving hints for reading and answering questions. Very exciting if you have
the energy.

77. INSTRUCTIONS
One person stands at the blackboard with their back to the class. The other students can see a
picture. The other students give instructions to the person at the blackboard. Compare the
picture with the blackboard.

78. INTERRUPTIONS
Give the students instructions like “Clap when you hear a word that starts with S. Snap your
fingers when you hear the EEE sound. Stand up when you hear the end of sentence.” Then
read through a passage and get them to follow your instructions while you read.

79. INTERVIEW 1
Can be used with any grammar point. Make up a list of questions that the students must ask
each other. Leave a blank space after each question so the students can insert the name of the
person who they asked, and that person’s answer. It’s best if the students can write down a
longer answer, i.e. “No, Akihiko doesn’t know how to climb mountains” rather than, “No, he
doesn’t”. Can also be made competitive by giving one point for asking a student of the same
sex, two points for asking the opposite sex, and three points for asking a teacher.

80. INTERVIEW 2
JTE and ALT dress up and act out a TV interview. Students must listen and take notes. Quiz
at the end.

81. INTERVIEW 3
Write the names of famous people or the names of countries on the backs of a set of cards.
Shuffle these interview cards and place them on a pile face down on the table or floor. Each
child takes turns to pick up a card and answer questions asked by the other children. The child
with the card takes the role of the person whose name is on the card or the role of the country
and answers questions as if she were that person or that country. The children should first be
encouraged to ask questions like “What do you do?” or “Where are you?”, etc. The other
children must guess who the person or what the country is. This can also be played in reverse
where the class knows who the person at the front is, but the person at the front doesn’t. Then,
the child at the front asks “What do I do?”, etc.

82. JANKEN QUESTION GAME

Give each student five playing cards. Each playing card is a grid with five names down the
side and five actions on the top (e.g. James, Hannah, Gail, Peter, Sanjit and wash the dishes,
clear the table, mow the lawn, clean the house, walk the dog). The grid is filled in with X’s
and O’s — X means no and O means yes. All playing cards are identical. Students circle one
name on every card and then move around the room looking for an opponent. The students
janken to see who asks first. The winner (A) asks B a question like “Do you wash the dishes?”
B looks at the card and decides whether their person washes the dishes. An X in the spot
means that the person doesn’t wash the dishes, an O that they do. B must answer truthfully.
Next A can guess who B is. If A guesses correctly, A can take B’s card. If A guesses
incorrectly, both players keep their cards. In either case, students janken again and the winner
asks another question. After this round, the students must change partners. The student with
the most cards at the end of a time limit wins. Colour coding the cards for points makes ties
less likely.

83. JANKEN SHOULDER RACE

Students get into pairs and stand up. When the teacher says “start”, each pair jankens. The
loser must say something in English or ask a question. Then, the loser must hold onto the
winner’s shoulder. The pair then find another pair and do the same thing. The game ends
when all of the students are in one row. The winner is the student at the front of the row.

84. KARUTA (SNAP) 1

Most Japanese children already know this game. It’s a great way to introduce new vocabulary,
in that it only requires recognition — or even partial recognition — of the new material. First
spread out whatever cards you are using face up in front of you. Between 10 and 20 cards is
usually best, but more or less can often work better. Gather the students around the cards, then
say the name of each card as you touch it. Have the students repeat after you. The game is
played by slapping whatever card is called with either hand (or a fly swatter). Demonstrate
this once or twice by calling out a card and hitting it yourself. Then choose two students to
begin. Call the first card. If neither student responds correctly in a reasonable length of time,
say “stop” and touch the card yourself. Then call the next card. Once a student hits the correct
card, give it to him/her and pass the turn onto the next student. Play continues in this manner
until all of the cards have been correctly identified. Once students are comfortable with the
basic game, you can add the rule that an incorrect response loses a turn. This allows you to
make false calls (e.g. of cards that have been removed, or cards from a previous game), and is
especially useful with only a few cards remain in play. After the last card is won, have the
students count their cards and ask them how many they have. Then, either have each student
say the name of the card as they give it back to you, or ask for each card in order. For
reviewing vocabulary, or if one student is much better than the others, have the winner of the
first round be the caller for the next round. Take over or help if they get stuck. Stop to review
when students are stuck. Can be used with any vocabulary (e.g. numbers, colours, time
words). A good idea for a phonics lesson is to use letter-cards and call out words (or use
picture cards) — students have to slap the first letter. For advanced students, you can play a
guessing game (e.g. It’s a number. It’s bigger than four. It’s smaller than six. It’s an animal.
It’s green. It likes to jump.).

85. KARUTA 2
Spread some flashcards on the table or floor. The children put their hands on their heads.
When you call out a card, they try to touch or slap their hands on it. The successful child says
what the card is or makes a sentence using the word or picture on the card (preferably
repeated by the whole class). The successful child calls out another card, and the other
children try to slap their hands down on it.

86. KATAKANA READING

Read a passage pronouncing some of the words as if they were written in katakana. Give
students a copy of the passage and ask them to circle words that were pronounced incorrectly.
Assign points for each correct answer. Can also be done as a listening exercise without a
passage. Use word pairs such as “park” and “parku” and get the students to circle what they
hear.

87. KENDO
Review the names of the parts of the body. Get a student to draw pictures of people with all of
the parts studied. Using wrapping paper rolls, students must hit the drawing on the spot that
you call out. Pit teams against each other.

88. KIMBERLY’S GAME

Spread out a number of flashcards or real objects. Have students repeat after you as you name
each one. Then, cover all the cards or objects. The students must write down what they saw.
Or, take one object or flashcard away and get the students to guess which one is missing. Can
also be played in pairs. One partner looks at the flashcards or objects and tries to memorize
them. The other partner “goes to sleep” during this time. After a few minutes of memorization
time, the first student returns to the sleeping partner and tells him what he remembers. The
partner writes down what the other student saw. Can also be played with competition. Make
the list too long for everyone to remember every word. Present the list and get the students to
try to remember as many as they can. Then erase the list. Students write down the words they
can remember. Give them around 10 minutes. When the time is up, ask the students for
suggestions of what they remembered. Write the words on the board as the students suggest
them. When a word is suggested, find out how many students remembered that word. If more
than ten students remembered, that word is worth 1 point. If less than ten remembered, it is
worth 2 points. If only one person remembers a word, it is worth 5 points. Student with the
most points wins. (Can be played in teams with the same rules.)

89. KOCHO-SENSEI’S MONKEY 1

Have a handout with a picture of a monkey. On the top write, “Kocho-sensei’s monkey is…”
then list the alphabet beneath. Students have to find one adjective for every letter in the
alphabet.

90. KOCHO-SENSEI’S MONKEY 2

The children sit in a circle or around a table. Start a chant, “Kocho-sensei’s monkey is a
clever monkey.”. Then gesture to the child on your left and help her make the same sentence
with a different adjective (e.g. K-S’s monkey is a good monkey.) Continue around the circle
until they get the idea. Get a rhythm going by snapping your fingers with your left hand and
then with your right hand. Encourage the children to do this with you. Start the chant by
referring to a different teacher or student (e.g. Kyoto-sensei’s monkey …) and keep the chant
going in time to the rhythm. In the strict version of the game, a child is out if she cannot think
of an adjective, or does so too slowly. It is not always appropriate to make the chant
competitive, though.

91. LADDER
Students get in two lines facing each other. Both lines must contain the same number of
people. The students then sit down, pairing up with the person who is in the same position in
the other line. They sit with their legs extended and the soles of their feet touching each other.
Then, each pair is given a number. When the teacher calls a number, the pair must get up, run
around everyone to one end of the line, and then run “up” the ladder (made by everyone’s
legs), past their spot, then around everyone to get back to their original spot. The person who
makes it back first scores a point for their team.

92. LEARNING TO DANCE

You need a large tarp or a large sheet of plastic, a tarp that you’d take camping works best,
and you’d always have it for the day when there’s 15 minutes left of the class and your
teacher says “OK, what do we do now?” Divide the tarp (using duct tape) into 6×6 squares.
Then, design a similar pattern in a notebook, and mark off a path from one side to the other.
This activity is best played with 5 to 12 people. The object of the activity is that the sensei has
the pattern (the correct squares marked off that are safe to walk on) and the group is given 10
minutes to devise a system to get everyone over to the other side of the tarp in 20 minutes
without talking. Gestures are one way to create a system of communication for the group as
talking is outlawed. This game promotes group and individual leadership, co-operation, and
creativity. Once the ten minutes of group planning is up, one explorer is set forth to brave the
tarp and discover the pattern hidden in it. The person starts by stepping on a square of their
choice. If the square is correct (i.e. it matches the sensei’s pattern), then they are free to
continue to the next step. If their step is incorrect, the sensei uses a signal (a whistle,
harmonica, boooo sound) to announce the wrong step. The other students are using what they
discussed as their communication device or are memorizing the correct and incorrect squares
or are gesturing the right square to step on or avoid. Remember, one student on the tarp at a
time and no talking. If a mistake is made, the person must backtrack through the pattern the
same way that he came. New explorers are encouraged to try their skill at the pattern until one
person makes it through to the other side. Then it becomes very easy for the remainder of
students to all get through the pattern one at a time. Emphasize that there is no talking. Make
sure to encourage all students. Steps must be made within the square and must be clearly
placed so the sensei and other participants can see where they’ve stepped. Go through the
pattern slowly. If a mistake has been made, the student has to retrace the whole pattern again.
Remember to time the amount of time that is needed to get the entire group across.

93. LEG WRESTLING

Two children of similar size lie on the floor on their backs, side by side, hips touching, but in
opposite directions. Their heads should be next to the feet of their partner. Together, they
count to three. On each count, they kick their inside leg straight up into the air, parallel to
their partner’s leg. On three, the legs are hooked with each other. Using only their leg, they try
to force their opponent’s leg over to the side. The child who is able to do this is the winner.

94. MADLIBS
This is a cloze activity where students must fill in the blanks of a storyline. The crazier the
better. An example of this activity could be: “This morning, I saw a _____________. It was
__________. It had many ____________ and ___________. It said ___________. Then I said
___________. Then it ____________. Then I ______________. Extra points for creativity.

95. MEMORY GAME 1

Divide the class into 6 groups. Give each group a pattern to practise and get them to fill in
their own answers. For example. Group 1 might have to practise and memorize “I get up
at…” Each member of the group picks a different time to memorize. So, Megumi will say, “I
get up at 7.”, but Takehiro will say “I get up at 6:30.”. All of the groups have different
patterns (e.g. I eat breakfast at…, My father works for…, My mother’s name is…, My sister
often watches… on TV, My mother goes to work by…, My brother/sister goes to … school).
After all the students have had time to practise and memorize their sentences, the game
begins. One group rolls a die. The groups are numbered from 1 to 6. If a group rolls a three,
then Group 3 must recite their sentences. The group who rolled the die have to try to
memorize Group 3′s information. For example, the students would have to say, “Megumi gets
up at 7. Takehiro gets up at 6:30…”. The group who rolled the die get a point for each correct
sentence. If the group rolls its own number, the students in the group just have to say their
own sentences. They can’t get any points.
96. MEMORY GAME 2
Each row is a team. Select a grammar point to practise. The first student in each row must
make a sentence using this grammar point and a topic (e.g. “I like…” and “food”). The first
student might say, “I like sushi.” The second student would say, “I like sushi and tempura.”
The third student would say, “I like sushi and tempura and yakisoba.” This continues down
the row until either a student forgets what his team-mates like, or everyone is finished. Give a
point per correct person. Good combinations are study/subject, play/sport, can cook/food,
sing/pop group’s song. If you really want to spice it up, use ‘like’ and the first names of the
girls/boys in the class.

97. MIDNIGHT
The students stand in a circle and number off from 1 to 5. The teacher calls out a number. The
students who are that number run around the circle and into the middle to touch something.
The first student to touch becomes “midnight”. After all the numbers have been called, the
teacher calls “midnight” and all the winners run. The winner of that set is the champion. (Can
be used with times — number the students from one o’clock to twelve o’clock.)

98. MULTIPLE CHOICE

Make up a test with multiple choice answers. Test their understanding of the grammatical
structure that you are working on. Offer several incorrect English sentences as options.

99. MUSIC FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Prepare a tape with bits of songs from near and far. Get students to guess where the music is
from, or what language a song is being sung in. Can be made into a quiz or team competition.
Also, can be used to liven up row race quizzes.

100. NUMBER GROUPS

The students walk around a designated area. The teacher calls out a number and students have
to make a group according to the number called out. If a student cannot get into a group, then
they stand on the side. The game continues until there are only two students left.

101. NUMBERS 1
Use flashcards to teach any group of numbers. Practise counting forwards, then backwards,
then by 2s, or 4s, etc.

102. NUMBERS 2
Have the students make a circle, sitting down, and hand out cards with the numbers you want
to teach the children. Every child need not necessarily have a number. Sit in the circle and call
number 1, having the child or children holding that number hold it up high for all to see. Have
the students repeat the number. Do the same with all the numbers. When the students feel
confident, call out numbers at random, and have them repeat after you. If not all the children
have cards, get them to pass their numbers on at some point.

103. NUMBERS 3
Let the children make groups, the number of children in each group corresponding to the
number card held by one child in the group. For example, a child holding an 8-card, must find
seven other people to be in his/her group. Once they are in their groups, get them to yell out
their number or get them to lay down on the floor and make their number with their bodies (2
or 3 dimensional).
104. NUMBERS 4
This is a game which many Japanese students will know. Get the students to form groups
according to how many times you blow a whistle or clap your hands. The students left over
must sit out (or they can face a penalty like having to sing an English song).

105. NUMBERS CHAIN

Assign every student a number. One student starts by saying her number and then says
another number. For example, “Three…Twenty-seven”. The “Twenty-seven” refers to one of
the other students in the class. That student must respond by saying his number “Twenty-
seven” and another number. If a student isn’t paying attention and doesn’t respond when his
number is called, he is out of the game.

106. ONE UP ONE DOWN

The teacher starts by stating, “One up, one down”. Only the teacher knows that that refers to
the position of the teacher’s arms: one is holding his/her chin, the other is crossed against
his/her chest. The students try to figure out what “one up, one down” means. Each student
tries to test out a theory. Tell the students that they can say “two up”, “two down”, or “one up,
one down”. Look at how their arms are placed and tell them if they are correct. Students will
just guess randomly at first, so they will be surprised when they are correct. Eventually, some
of them will be able to figure out the pattern. Get them to go along with you to tell the other
students whether they are right or not. Eventually, most of the students will figure it out, but
there will always be one or two who just don’t get it! This can also be done with the position
of the fingers on the right or left hand (not including the thumb): “one up, three down”.
Similar game: Whoops Johnny. Can be played with one other person or blooming crowds of
admirers. With one finger from one hand, point to and touch the tips of each finger (of the
opposite hand) in succession and say: “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, WHOOPS, Johnny,
WHOOPS, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. The Whoops is accomplished by sliding the
finger down and up on the inside of the fourth and final finger. Your audience of admirers
must repeat your actions exactly. The magic of it is that you do the above scenario, but you
fold your hands in your lap discreetly after you finish the final Johnny. Your audience will
probably be baffled and will repeat the Johnny, Johnny actions, performing them beyond
perfection except for the final act — the folding of the hands on your lap! Hints are worthy
after ten tries. When someone catches on, announce that they are in the Johnny Club and get
them to perform the Johnny act. Keep going until everyone gets it. Similar game: Canoe-head.
Tell your audience to do exactly as you do. Scratch your head very discreetly, then say, “I like
to canoe. I LOVE to canoe.” Emphasize the LOVE, it’s always worth gallons of giggles. Do
some crazy paddling actions to show how much you love it. Get the students to do exactly as
you do. If they scratch their heads first, they’ve got it. Similar game: Wakaranai. The basic
idea is that you cough, then chant some crazy thing and do some crazy action and then get the
students to mimic you, one by one. Then you tell them if they are correct. The only thing that
you are looking for is whether they cough at the beginning. Similar game: Counting 1.
Arrange some objects on the floor (or draw some lines on the chalkboard) and announce to
the class what number your arrangement represents. Use numbers from one to ten. The trick is
that the number has nothing to do with the objects or the drawing. In fact, you are arranging
your fingers after you finish making your arrangement. For example, you draw some crazy
thing, then put your hands on your lap, with four fingers of your right hand extended, then
announce that it is four. Students have to try to figure out your game. Similar game: Counting
2. Show the students the “Basic number” by raising your right hand and raising some fingers.
For example, say “Here is the basic number.” Then raise two fingers. Then change your
fingers to something else, and ask the students to guess what number they represent. For
example, raise all four fingers and your thumb. Ask “What number is this?” The students will
probably say five, but the correct answer is “two”. Then raise your fingers again. The trick is
that the number that went before is the real number for the next time. For example, if the basic
number is 3, then you raise four fingers, the correct answer is 3. Then you raise two fingers,
and the correct answer is 4. Then you raise five fingers, and the correct answer is 2. Then you
raise four fingers and the answer is 5. Get it?

107. PAIR DICTATION

Post copies of a paragraph on the back wall. One member of each pair goes to a copy and
remembers as much of it as possible. That student then dictates it to the partner. They
continue as long as it takes to dictate the passage.

108. PASS THE FLAG

Prepare a list of questions, give a flag to the first person in each row. The first person to raise
his/her flag may answer the question. If the answer is correct, the student may pass the flag to
the student behind. The first row to finish wins. Can also be used with The English
Resource’s Pin Pon machine.

109. PICTIONARY
To introduce this game, pick out a picture card that the students are familiar with. Don’t show
it to the students, but draw the object on the board and get the students to try to guess what it
is. Once they guess correctly, show them the card. Do this again. Then, the student who
guesses correctly gets to draw next. After they guess this one, divide the class into two teams
and choose one student from each team to draw first. Give each student a piece of chalk and
show each of them a different picture to draw. It’s usually good to start with simple nouns.
Adjectives and verbs can be included later. The first team to guess what their picture is scores
a point. It may be advisable to keep the score fairly close by giving the team that’s ahead a
slightly more difficult picture to draw. The first team to score 10 points wins. When the
students are comfortable with this game, give them word cards instead of picture cards to
work from.

110. PICTURE ASSOCIATION

Draw various pictures that illustrate a Let’s Read story. Review the story with the children.
Then, divide the students into teams. Each team is given a copy of the pictures. The students
must arrange the pictures in the correct order and then write a sentence that describes the
action of the picture. Alternately, the teacher can say sentences from the story and the first
team to hold up the correct picture wins a point for their team.

111. PLEASE
Give some instructions to the children (e.g. Please open your books. Please stand up. Please
touch the door.). Mime or gesture to help them guess what to do. The children can then take
turns giving similar instructions to the rest of the class. Give an instruction without using the
word ‘please’ (e.g. Open the door.). Indicate that they shouldn’t move. Then say, “Please
open the door.” and indicate that they should carry out the instruction. Continue playing the
game. They carry out the instructions that are preceded by ‘please’ but must not move if there
is no ‘please’. Children can be eliminated from the game if they make a mistake. The last
child to carry out an instruction can also be eliminated.
112. POSITIVE-NEGATIVE RACE
First student says “I like X. I don’t like Y.” Next student says “I like Y. I don’t like Z.” Go
around the room. Time the whole class and race against the other classes, or time each row.

113. PSYCHIC
You must have two teachers for this game (which shouldn’t be too hard to get). The first
teacher is the psychic. That teacher leaves the room while the students give the other teacher a
word for the first teacher to guess (e.g. pencil). The word must be a noun. The other teacher
comes in and makes a big show about reading everyone’s mind. Then, the non-psychic
teacher asks the psychic teacher questions like, “Is it a door?” “Is it a person?” “Is it a
computer?”. The psychic teacher says “no”. Then, the non-psychic teacher asks about
something that has four legs: “Is it a cow?” The psychic teacher says “no”, but s/he now
knows that the next word will be the right word. “Is it a pencil?” The psychic teacher says
“yes”. Four-legged things are the clue: desks, table, beds, animals, etc. This game can be
played many ways with many different things being the “clue” word. For example, in the
game “Black Magic”, the clue word is something that is black. You can try to use visual clues
also, such as looking at a pre-arranged spot. Students will get a kick out of trying to guess
how you are doing it.

114. QUESTION WORDS

First, make sure the students know the meanings of basic question words: who, what when,
where, and how. Then, make a sheet with 10 or so sentences that answer some of those
questions. Below the sentences, list the basic question words. For example, the sentence could
be, “Madonna plays pachinko on Tuesdays”. The children circle which question words the
sentence answers. In the case of the Madonna sentence, the children would circle who, what,
and when. This game can also be used to develop good listening skills. The teacher reads the
sentence, putting different stresses on the words each time. For example, the teacher might
first say, “MADONNA plays pachinko on Tuesdays.”. Then, she might say, “Madonna plays
PACHINKO on Tuesdays.” The students write a number above the question words to indicate
which reading answered which questions. For example, a correct answer to the two
intonations of the Madonna sentence would be a (1) above “who” and a (2) above “what”. If
the students are advanced enough, get them to make up the questions that can be answered by
reading the sentences in different ways (What does Madonna play on Tuesdays?)

115. QUICKIE WORD GAME

Groups of students write down as many Christmas words as they can think of. Then, cross out
words which the other groups have thought of. Group with the most words left wins. Other
categories: sports, food words, school words, adjectives, etc.

116. QUIZ
Give the students a pop quiz on contemporary culture, your country, the school, or
vocabulary.

117. QUIZ BOWL

Make up 60 or so questions based on material already covered. The questions can be
comprehension questions, fill-in-the-blank, translation, etc. Divide the class into two teams.
Give half of the questions to one team and half to the other. Get the students to work in
smaller teams within the teams to find out the answers to the questions. Then, stage a contest
between the two teams. One team asks someone on the other team a question. If it is right, the
student gets a point for the team. If it is wrong, the asking team gets a point. Students can also
add their own questions to the ones that you give them. Also, you can add in an element of the
unknown by adding in questions like “Let Mr./Ms. ~ ask the other team a question.” Then,
you get a chance to ask the question.

118. RACE AGAINST TIME

Make a worksheet that has three types of problems. Divide the sheet into four parts. For
example, if your three types of problems are Translation, Answer the Question, and
Unscramble the Sentences, then divide your worksheet into four parts and make the fourth
section a mixture of all three types. The students must complete each section. After they finish
one section, the bring their sheet to a teacher to be checked. If their answers are all okay, they
can move on to the next section. Students who complete all four sections get a prize. This
game is good for review.

119. READ AND DRAW

Read the passage and draw a picture. Or, read a passage and draw a comic strip to show the
progression of the story. This can be the whole activity, or the final strip can be used to play
further games where students cut out the strip and ask other students to put it back in order.
Or, two groups can combine pictures to make another story.

120. READ AND RUN

Practise sentence structure, question/answer drill and dialogue memorisation. Get students
into pairs. Write on two separate sheets of paper, either questions on one and answers on
another, all jumbled up, or the start of one sentence on one and the end on the other. Even
dialogue/statements followed by a natural continuation are OK. Stick the first half of the
paper (the questions) somewhere in the classroom, preferably a corner, and the other half (the
answers) on the opposite side. One student runs over to the first half paper and memorizes a
sentence from the sheet and returns to his/her desk. Then the memorized piece is written
down. If it is forgotten, then the student can return and try again. Once finished, the student
shows his/her partner, who then runs over to the B sheet and tries to match and memorize the
answer. That student returns and concludes the sentence, or answers the question. Continue
until all sentences, questions, or whatever, are complete or the time runs out. Check the
answers. Remember that the students cannot carry their sheets to the corners of the room to
copy the sentences down.

121. READING WORDS GAME

Two teams play against each other. Each team lines up in front of one of the teachers. The
teams not in play should sit and watch the game being played. Each teacher holds ten cards.
One of the teachers says “go” to start the game. The cards are shown, one by one, to each
student in the team. The student must read the word aloud. If a student cannot read a word,
misreads, or mispronounces a word, the teacher calls “next” and the next student in line
attempts to read the same word. The first team to correctly read all ten words wins.

122. RELAY GAME

Students are in six rows. Several reading cards are made up. Students have to read the card
then pass it to the next person in the row. The person at the end of the row hands it across to
the next row etc. When the teacher yells stop, any team who has a card loses 10 points. (Or
you can write the point value on the back of each card. Or, you can have a secret list on paper
in front of you, so the students don’t try to horde the good ones and get rid of the bad ones.)
Use whatever grammar point you want on the card.
123. RINGO
Write a selection of about 15 random words or numbers on the board. Include difficult pairs,
like 13 and 30. Have two students come to the board and stand facing it with chalk of a
different colour. When you call out the words, the students must circle the one they’ve heard.
There can only be one circle (ring) around a word. At the end, the student with the most
number of rings wins.

124. ROLL THE BLOCKS

Stick selected common nouns on the six sides of one block. On another block, stick verbs or
pronouns, or articles. Each group has a set of these two blocks. Within a set time limit, they
take turns to roll the blocks and make a sentence using the words shown on the blocks. The
winning team is the group to make the most correct sentences within the time limit.

125. ROW RACE 1

Students in front row stand up. Teacher asks them a question. If a student responds correctly,
they get to sit down. When there is only one person left in the row, that person’s “column”
has to stand. Goes on ad infinitum. Good questions: Show me…, Name…, Spell… Also,
student could ask teacher question, students could come to blackboard, etc.

126. ROW RACE 2

Show the first person in the first row a flash card. That student must say the word. Each
student in her row must repeat the word. The last student gives the Japanese meaning as well.
If any student makes a pronunciation error, or if the last student can’t give the Japanese
meaning, the row must stand up. If the first row makes a mistake, use the same word, in the
same way, with the second row. If the first row doesn’t make a mistake, use a new word.
Continue like this until all of the rows have had a chance to go. Return to the rows that are
standing and give them a new word. Do this until all of the rows are seated. To make this
game competitive, the teacher can state that the rows that remain seated after the first round
are the winners.

127. ROW RACE 3

All students remain seated. Place five picture cards (use any nouns covered so far) on the desk
of the first student in each row. The first student picks up a card and asks a question about the
card. For example: “Is this your…?” plus the name of the thing on the card. The second
student replies “Yes, it is” or “No, it isn’t” and proceeds to ask the third person. This
continues until the last person in the row has been asked. The last person replies and then
takes the card up to the teacher and asks “Is this your…?” The teacher replies and tells the last
student to turn the next card over on the first student’s desk. This is repeated until all cards
have been used up. The first row to finish all cards wins.

128. ROW RELAY

Each row is given a sheet of paper. Teacher calls out a category and each student in the row
must write one word that corresponds to the category (e.g. day of the week, animals, name in
romaji). Can either run once through the row or have a time limit and let the paper go down
the row as many times as they can manage.

129. ROW TAG

Two students form a row by holding hands. They run around a designated area where the
student on one end of the row tries to tag another student. If tagged, that student joins onto the
end of the row and in turn tags another. The game continues until all students have been
tagged. It’s important to have a closed-in space to play this in so that, as the row gets longer,
the students don’t have to rely on speed (which they don’t have), but can trap their prey.

130. SCISSORS, PAPER, ROCK (JANKENPON)

Teach the students how to play this game in English. Finish with a prize.

131. SECRET NUMBERS GAME

Students are assigned numbers randomly. The students say their numbers in front of the class
and the other students try to remember everyone’s numer. The students must try to keep their
number a secret. The students are then divided into two teams. A student from Team 1 calls
out a number. If the number belongs to someone on Team 2, then that person must move to
Team 1. If the student from Team 1 calls out a number that belongs to someone on her on
team, then that someone must move to Team 2. The teams try to have the most players by the
end of the game. The end comes either when the teacher declares the game finished or when
one team has all the players (or a set number of players).

132. SECRET PEN FRIEND

Students are given the name of a classmate to whom they must write a letter. Students write
the letter, describing themselves, but not signing their names. It will take at least one period to
write the letters. In the second period, students ask each other questions in order to find out
who their secret pen friend is.

133. SENTENCE FORMATION

Write three words on the board (Masato/tall/family). Give the first person in each row a sheet
of paper with the row’s number on it. The first person writes one word, the next person writes
the next word. Goes to end of row then hand in to teacher.

134. SENTENCE GAME

Each row is a team. Give each student in the row some cards that are a part of a sentence.
Students have to make sentences. Award points according to the fastest. You may want to use
sentences that are structured similarly, so each set of cards has 2 or 3 sentences, then shout out
the first word of a sentence.

135. SENTENCE SCRAMBLE

Scramble up the words in a sentence. Students try to put the sentence back in the right order.
Can be played as a whole class, in teams, or in pairs.

136. SHIRITORI
A student is given a word. The student must think of a word that begins with the same letter
that the first word ended with — i.e. hand –> door –> red –> desk… There is a time limit (e.g.
5 seconds). All students stand and the shiritori goes around the class. Students who do it in the
time limit stay standing, students who miss it must sit down. Good with English Resource’s
“Bomb”. Can also be done on paper. Each row gets a piece of paper. The first student writes a
word then passes to the next person in the row. There is a time limit and the paper keeps
going up and down the row until time is up. Teachers check the answers and award prizes for
the most number of words (with no spelling mistakes). This can also be done with syllables.
The first person must say a one-syllable word, then the second person says a two-syllable
word, the third a three-syllable word, and the fourth a one-syllable word again.
137. SHOPPING GAME
Divide the class into shopkeepers and shoppers. (You decide the balance.) Give shopkeepers a
kind of shop (e.g. fishmonger) and a list of things to sell. They make up their own prices.
Give shoppers a list of things to buy (different lists for each group). Each group tries to buy
their things at the lowest price. Some stores (such as grocery stores and convenience stores)
will sell some of the same things, so they may start discounting, etc. Make sure they all use
English — at least for the prices.

138. SHOUT
Introduce or review a set of flashcards by having students repeat them after you. Then divide
the students into teams and ask the students to identify a card. The first person to identify the
card wins the card for their team. You can also play two individuals against each other. This
gives you the chance to match students more evenly and give the shy or slow students more of
a chance to participate.

139. SHOW AND TELL

Students are asked to bring a photo or an object to class and describe it in front of the class.
Good idea to say that they must use at least three sentences.

140. SIMON SAYS (SENSEI SAYS)

Students must follow the teacher’s instructions. If the teacher says “Sensei says…” before an
instruction, the students must do whatever the sensei says. If the teacher doesn’t say “Sensei
says” first, then the students must not do the action. Any student who does the action is out of
the game. Use parts of the body (touch your nose), actions (turn around), objects (give me a
pen). Can also be played in teams. On each desk in a row, place a card of a different colour.
Then, call out the commands. For example, “Touch the RED card.” or “Simon says touch the
red card.”. The first team with all of its members following the command wins a point. If
there is no “Simon says” at the beginning, students have to sit down (or something) to show
that they are not doing what the command was. Can be made more difficult by including body
parts (touch the BLUE card with your ELBOW) or other classroom objects (Simon says put a
pen on the YELLOW card).

141. SNAKE READING

This makes a change from random chorus or individual reading. One sentence per student.
Start at one side of the class and wind your way to the other, up and down the rows. This
encourages listening and concentration as no one wants to be caught out. Make sure the
students try to read in a loud voice. If the next person doesn’t hear, as the previous person to
read again.

142. SNOWBALL
Hold a soft ball in front of you and say dramatically something like “I want to go home!” or
“I’m going to eat a hamburger!”. Throw the ball to one of the children, help her repeat what
you say and encourage her to add some additional thing she wants to do (e.g. “I want to go
home and watch television.” or “I’m going to eat a hamburger and an apple.”). The child then
throws the ball to another child who repeats what she said and adds another idea (e.g. “I want
to go home and watch television and listen to music.”) The activity continues in the same
way, each child adding one more item to the list.

143. SONG: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Students stand in a circle holding hands. The song goes like this: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (students walk
seven steps in one direction) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (walk seven steps in the other direction) 2, 3 (clap
hands) 2, 3 (slap knees) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (clap hands of the students on either side) This song
appears on the TV show “Eigo de Asobu” so ask someone what the tune is. If you make up
your own tune, the kids will probably be lost. Most of the kids should know the tune anyway.

144. SPACE RACE

Arrange flash cards on a table or on the floor in the shape of a race track. Insert cards to
represent the sun and a black hole. Give each of the children a set of counters and one rocket
(or something to represent a rocket) all of the same colour. If there are too many children,
they can play in pairs or teams. The all place their rockets on the same flash card to start. The
children take turns to throw two dice and move their rockets around the race track. When they
land on one of the cards, they have to read, make a sentence or answer a question about the
card. When they land on the sun or black hole, they have to answer a question from the
teacher or identify a card before they can move again. It is best if these questions or cards
target language from previous lessons. If the card they land on (except for the sun or black
hole) has no counter on it and if they successfully perform the language task prompted by the
card, they place one of their counters on the card. If another child’s counter is on the card, the
child whose turn it is challenges her for the card. After the challenger answers the question,
the two janken to see whose counter will stay. The janken winner places her marker on the
card. When a child lands on a card she already controls, she does not have to perform a
language task. The winner is the child who controls the most cards after a fixed amount of
time or number of turns.

145. SPEECH CONTEST

Stage a pretend speech contest. Use two or three students as judges, and you or JTE as final
judge. Have bronze, silver and gold prizes. For longer passages, have students work in teams
to present a full story.

146. SPEED READING

Students open their books to the reading and lay the books face down on their desks. The
teacher asks a question 2 times. When everyone understands, the teacher says “Go!” and the
students look at the text and try to find the answers. Once the students understand the game,
have them do it in groups of 3 or 4. One student has the question/answer sheet and acts as a
quiz-master. This game can also be played in teams, with the teams competing to find the
right answers.

147. SPELLING BEE

Students line up at the back and the front of the classroom. Each student is given a question. If
they get it right, they go to the back of the line. If they get it wrong, they must sit down. The
winning team is the one with the most players left in the line at the end of the game (which is
whenever you get sick of playing, or when there are no more students in one of the lines). Can
also be played with the whole class standing. Students stay standing if they get the words
right or sit down if they make a mistake. Last student standing wins. To make it more
difficult, ask for the spelling and the meaning in Japanese.

148. SPELLING GAME 1

Each row is given all of the letters of the alphabet on cards. Teacher calls out a word (no
double letters) and the students race to spell it. Can also be used with words and sentences.
149. SPELLING GAME 2
Each row is a team. Give each row a whole alphabet on cards, so each student gets about 3 or
4 cards. Shout out a word which does not have the same letter in it. Students spell out the
word by standing up within their row. Award points according to the fastest. Repeat for the
best three teams.

150. SPELLING SPRINT

Students come to the board, teacher calls out a word, first person to answer correctly scores a
point for their team.

151. STATUES
Play the traditional game of statues. All the children stand up and dance or move around to
some lively music. When the music stops, they have to stand completely still or else they are
eliminated from the game. Stop the game to show the children how to mime various
adjectives. Call out an adjective (e.g. strong) and find a gesture (or facial expression) which
you all feel indicates that adjective. All make the gestures together and call out, “We are
strong!” after each of them. Play the game again calling out different adjectives each time the
children dance around. When the music stops, they have to stand completely still making the
appropriate gesture (and possibly shouting out, “We are …”). This can also be done with one
student making a sculpture out of another student while the music is playing. The sculpture
must indicate some sort of feeling or emotion or adjective. Then, the class tries to guess what
word the sculptor was thinking of.

152. STORE
Open a pretend store in the classroom. If it is a restaurant, let the students place the orders etc.

153. STRIP STORY

Cut a passage into single sentence strips. Scramble the strips. Students work in pairs and try to
put the sentences in the correct order. This game can also be played in teams. Make teams
consisting of as many people as there are sentence strips. Each student gets one sentence and
memorizes it. The students must arrange themselves in the right order by saying their
sentences to each other. If you give each team a different passage, you can finish by getting
the class to recite the whole passage.

154. SUPERSTARS
Describe some person who all the children know (perhaps a singer, sports personality, or
another student or teacher) using the pattern ‘She’s from… I think she likes…and…”. Then
ask the child on your left to try to guess who she is. The children take turns to guess who the
person is (perhaps getting 10 points for being correct with the first guess, nine points with the
second guess, etc.) It may sometimes be a good idea to give other information like her age and
where she lives. The child who guesses correctly then describes another well-known person
for the other children to guess — the child on the left is always the first to guess.

155. SURVEY 1
Make a survey using what and who and when, and comparatives (bigger) and superlatives
(biggest). Compile the results and make a graph for the class.

156. SURVEY 2
Bring in picture of famous people from Japan and around the world. Each student has one
picture and a sheet with a space for the picture and a yes/no column. Students go around the
room asking the other students if they like the person in the picture. The student who answers
must sign in the yes or no column. A tally is taken at the end of the class.

157. SURVIVAL
This is a game to practise grammar structures. It is especially good to practise irregular verbs
and tenses. Have all of the students practice the structure first. For example, if you want to
review the present tense form or the word “be”, have them practise “I am, You are, He is…,
etc.”. Then, have all of the students stand up. Go down the row , giving each student a subject
word or words (I, Junko, we, Takeo and Hisae, she…). The student must answer by giving the
correct version of the verb you are practising (I am, Junko is, we are, etc.). If the student gives
the wrong answer, or cannot remember the correct one, he or she must sit down. The students
who remain standing at the end of the game are the “survivors”. This game is best played very
quickly, so if the student gives the wrong answer or hesitates for more than a few seconds,
have them sit down. You can always play another round to give those students who sat down
an extra chance. If you play one round of the present tense of “to be” then another round of
the past tense of “to be”, you can play a third round where the students don’t know what they
will get ahead of time. For example, you can say “He, present” (ans: he is), or “They, past”
(ans: They were). You may have to use the Japanese words for “present” and “past” to start
off with.

158. TAJIMA TOWN

Turn the classroom into a town with the desks representing different locations in the town.
Make up signs to go on the desks. Get the students to direct other students around the room.
Students can ask where certain locations are or they can be directed to a mystery location.

159. TANGLE
Everyone in a group stands in a circle with their eyes closed. Each person then extends an arm
into the middle of the circle and grips whichever hand they come into contact with. When
everyone has a partner, the other hand is brought in. When all hands are linked, eyes are
opened and the group must disentangle itself without anyone letting go of their partners.

160. THUMB WARS

Students grip each other’s hands so that their thumbs are on top. They chant “One, two, three,
four. Let’s have a thumb war.” Then, they try to pin their opponent’s thumb under their own
thumb.

161. TIC TAC TOE

Divide the class into two teams and place some flashcards on the board in a square grid. The
first child on one team points to any card and tries to say what it is, make a sentence about it,
or answer a question about it (perhaps asked by the other team). If s/he is correct, the whole
team repeats what was said and the card is turned over. The first child on the other team does
the same. The correct cards for one team are turned over and placed horizontally, and the
correct cards for the other team are placed vertically. The winner is either the first team to get
a complete line of cards, or the team with the most points. Points are given for any line of
three cards.

162. TOUCH AND POINT

Call out an instruction, for example “Touch this book”. As you do so, touch or point to the
object with the whole class until they get the idea. If there are not many objects which the
children can see, place vocabulary flashcards around the room. Gradually withdraw from the
activity until you are only vaguely looking in the direction of the object you say. Anyone who
touches or points to the wrong thing is out. If all the children perform the action correctly, the
last child is out. Eventually, get one of the students to call out directions.

163. TRANSLATION 1
Teacher says words in Japanese and students must translate them into English. Make it a race
for points. 1 translation = one point.

164. TRANSLATION 2
Give students a page of something printed in Japanese. Get them to translate any words that
they can into English. Give them points for every word that they translate. TV guide pages
work well.

165. TRANSLATION 3
Keep a list of the new words and phrases that the students have learned so far in Japanese and
English. Using each row as a team, I pit the first student of each row against one another and
so on down the rows. I say Japanese and the students must answer in English. The fastest
hand raised gets first crack at the answer. I usually give 1 point for each correct answer. If no
one knows, I’ll up it to 2 or 3 points. If none of the 6 students can answer, it’s a free-for-all
with anyone in the class having a chance. If one row has five students and the rest six, the
fifth student gets a second chance. Five or so minutes at the end of class is all you need for
this. You can really confuse them sometimes by repeating the same word which may have
two meanings (e.g. takusan-no [a large number of, many, a lot of] or hayai [early, fast]).

166. TRANSLATION 4
Prepare cards that have 5 English words on them or 5 Japanese words. In rows, students
compete to finish the most translation cards. The first person in the row goes to the teacher’s
desk and picks up a card. She translates the first word on the card and writes it down on her
team’s paper. She hands the card and the paper back to the person behind her. He translates
the next word, and so on. The student who finishes the last word brings the card up to the
teacher and takes another one. The card gets handed to the next person in the row to continue
translating. The team that translates the most cards within the time limit wins.

167. TREASURE HUNT

Draw a treasure island map on a piece of paper then draw a grid (e.g. 4×4) on top of it.
Reading and writing version: Hand out copies of the maps to each of the students, then dictate
words or sentences that they must write in each of the squares. Reading version: Hand out
copies of the map with the words or sentences already on the map. The teacher has a copy of
the map that the children must not see. Write or draw gold, diamonds, sharks, and monsters in
some of the squares. The sharks can only be in the sea squares, but the others can be
anywhere. Taking turns, the students say a number and read what is written in a square. If a
child reads correctly, she gets any positive or negative points that are in the square. For
example, gold = +10 points, diamonds = +5, sharks = -3, monsters = -5. It is also possible to
give 1 point for all the other squares. Points are awarded either to individuals or teams.

168. TRUE OR FALSE

Make a quiz with true or false answers (or correct/incorrect) and test their grammar. Divide
the class into groups and give each group a true card and a false card — students vote for the
answer.
169. TUMMY RUB, HEAD PAT
Try to pat your head with one hand while rubbing your stomach in circular motions with the
other hand.

170. TWENTY QUESTIONS

The teacher thinks of something and the students have 20 opportunities to ask the teacher a
yes/no question to try to figure out what it is. The teacher can only say “yes” or “no” in
response to the questions.

171. VOTE
Rows of students work as a team. Each row is given three number cards (1,2,3). The teacher
asks a question with three answers. Students guess which one is right as a group and place
their group vote. Points for the right answer (or you can use fake money).

172. WEATHER REPORTER

Make up map and weather possibilities, then do a weather report. Get the students to try.

173. WHAT AM I?
Students stand in a circle. Clip a picture to the back of each student — they should not see
their own picture. They must not tell each other what picture is on their backs. They must
circulate and ask each other questions which can only be answered by yes or no until they
figure out what they are. After they have figured it out, they keep circulating to help others
find out what they are. You can make it more challenging by giving each student a class list
and getting them to check off each student that they ask. They can only ask a student one
question. If you have advanced learners, after the activity, you can discuss the appropriateness
of the person’s object to their own personality.

174. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

This game is to be played in pairs. One person starts by saying an action: I’m walking on
stilts, what are you doing? The partner must then act out this action and at the same time, say
another action for their partner to perform (e.g. I’m jumping rope, what are you doing?). Then
the partner acts that out, etc. Play as quickly as possible.

175. WHAT’S THIS?

Get an ordinary object, like a pen, and ask the students, “What is this?” The students will
probably answer “It’s a pen.” Then tell them that it’s not, and mime what it really is. For
example, pretend to use it as a toothbrush, or a chair, or an airplane. Get them to guess what it
is.

176. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Have two different copies of a picture. Label one picture as correct and one as incorrect.
Arrange the students in pairs and give one student the correct version and the other the
incorrect version. The students must talk about the pictures without showing each other their
copies. They discuss and write down the differences. The differences, for example, can be
missing or extra objects, or different positioning of objects (e.g. in one picture a box is on a
table, in the other it is under the table).

177. WHICH PICTURE?

Give students a reading passage with 2 to 5 pictures on the bottom. Get them to read the
passage then guess which picture goes with the passage.
178. WHISTLE DICTATION
Select a passage that has a lot of whatever grammar point you want to focus on (e.g.
adjectives). Dictate the passage. When you read, leave out the adjectives. Instead, whistle
when there should be an adjective. Students write the paragraph, inserting any appropriate
adjective. Compare notes later. To play this in a game, give points for using adjectives that no
one else used.

179. WHO AM I?
A student stands at the front of the class facing the blackboard. A student in the class stands
up and says, “Good morning (name). Who am I?”. The student at the front has to guess who
said it. This game encourages students to speak in a loud, expressive voice. This can be used
for various greetings and statements. Make the guessing student reply to the greeting (e.g.
Good morning (name).) After a couple of times, suggest that the students alter their voices.
Finally, involve the teacher. You’ll find that the person who usually can’t identify the voices
that well is the teacher.

180. WHY?
Ask the students questions like: “Why have you got ~~ in your bag?” For example, the ~~
could be a monkey, an axe, Kocho-sensei. Students who come up with the best/most
outrageous answers win a prize. Best to give them some time to think about this one. Give the
question to them at the beginning of class or assign it for homework.

181. WORD INTO SENTENCE RACE

Each row is a team. Use words from the last few lessons and put them on cards. Give each
row about 1 or 2 minutes. Show the first student of a row a card (e.g. write). That student has
to say a sentence with that word in it (e.g. I write a letter.) The next student is shown another
card and so on until time runs out. If a student wants to s/he can say “pass”. For each correct
sentence, award a point. See how many points they can get in the time limit. (Use a stop
watch.) Give each row a word and they have to make a sentence out of it within a time limit.

182. WORD RACE

First student from each row comes to the board. Teacher calls out a letter. Students must write
down all the words they can think of that begin with that letter. Teacher calls “time’s up” after
about 10 seconds. Second students come up. Give them a different letter. The row with the
most (correct and correctly spelled) words wins.

183. WORDS AND PICTURES

Give each of the children one set of picture flashcards and one set of words which
corresponds to the flashcards. Each child places a set of picture cards in a column in front of
her. The written cards are mixed together and placed nearby. Each child places a counter on
the nearest card. Each child plays individually. The throws a die and moves her counter the
appropriate number of cards. When she reaches an end, she moves the counter back in the
opposite direction. When her counter lands on a card, she looks for the corresponding word
card and places it on top of the picture. If she has already covered the card, she throws again
until she has covered all the cards. This game can be played in groups of two or three. Each
child has a column of cards in front of her in the same way, but the children in the group take
turns to throw the die. The winner is the first child to cover all her cards. (This can also be
played with the word cards upside down, so the child has to try to remember the position of
the word cards.)
184. WORD SEARCH
Make a list of words and hide them in a grid of letters. Students must find the words. To make
it more difficult, give the students the present tense and tell them to look for the past tense, for
example.

185. YES/NO 1
Teachers ask students yes/no questions. In their answers, students must NOT use yes or no.
Give a prize to the student who lasts the longest.

186. YES/NO 2
One child thinks of an animal and the other children try to figure out what it is. The children
take turns asking yes/no questions like, “Do you have four legs?” or “Are you bigger than a
dog?”. If the answer is yes, the child can guess the name of the animal by asking, “Are you a
…?” But, if the answer is no, the next child asks a yes/no question. The child who guesses
correctly then thinks of a different animal and the other children try to guess what it is. It is
possible to give points for each correct guess, but the game can also be played without
competition.

187. YOU’RE THE TEACHER

Give each student a sentence to either correct or say that it is OK. Get each one to explain
their sentence.