Classroom Activities Junior High School
Classroom Activities Junior High School
Classroom Activities Junior High School
CLASSROOM
ACTIVITIES
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
TEACHING
MATERIALS
COLLECTION
2013
Classroom Activities Junior High School Live Action Wheelchair Quest 60
Target Group: All grades of JHS (Physical & Mental) Special Needs (designed for wheelchair
use)
Activity Objective:
To enjoy learning and practicing directional vocabulary
Procedure:
1. Begin by introducing directional vocabulary using Vocabulary Cards, using movement, pictures,
and language. Practice saying each word in English, and again using movement.
2. Next, watch the video “The Directions Song” found on YouTube. Watch the video with
students. After showing the video once, watch it again, this time inviting students to move their
wheelchairs with the directional vocabulary in video or ask students` aids to move the wheelchairs,
creating a “Dance/Sing Along Experience”.
3. Invite students to play the game, themselves becoming the game pieces! On a small game board,
students begin at a designated point outside the board. On a large game board, students begin
within a square on the game board. One by one, students roll the die by knocking it off their
wheelchair tabletop. Then, they `move` according to the die. Once they arrive at the GOAL
square, they win! Play as long as time allows.
BLIND SNAP
Submitted by Soon Lai Teoh (Nagahama City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice listening and speaking of numbers and letters
Procedure:
Divide cards into equal amounts for each player.
Players close their eyes and take turns putting cards out on the table (card pile).
Teacher reads each number/letter out loud.
When players hear the same number/letter called out, they "snap" the card pile.
The first player to correctly "snap" earns the card pile while incorrect "snaps" give the pile to the
opponents.
Play until one player has all cards.
First to lose all their cards must read for the next game.
WORD PUZZLE
Submitted by Jeff Windham (Seika Town BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice/reinforce good spelling
Procedure:
Divide the students into groups. Anything is fine.
Write a word/sentence on the board, but only use dashes where the letters would normally go. For
example, write “__ __ __ __ __” for “hello.” The groups will take turns guessing letters. If they
correctly guess a letter, they get as many points as there are letters in the puzzle. In the previous
example, a group that guessed “e” would get one point. A group that guessed “l” would get two
points. There is no penalty for a wrong guess. The students can raise their hands at any time if they
want to take a shot at the whole thing. Guessing the entire puzzle correctly gets that group five
points (or whatever denomination of your choosing).
The game can last for as short as five minutes, or as long as fifty minutes. It depends on how many
puzzles you give the students.
ALT JTE
Write the puzzles on the board and fill in the Keep track of scoring.
letters as they are correctly guessed.
Avoid using sentences taken straight from the textbook. The students will figure this out, and then
just count spaces to figure out the answer. You will end up with groups guessing the right answer
without guessing any letters at all, which defeats the purpose of the game. You can use textbook
sentences, but be sure to change things around to throw them off (for example, take the textbook
sentence “I have rice and miso soup for breakfast” and make it into “I have pizza and chocolate
milk for dinner”).
You may want to keep an answer sheet to help you keep track of the letters. In puzzles with long
sentences, it is very easy (easier than you think) to accidentally miss a letter.
You may notice that this game is just a barebones version of the American game show “Wheel Of
Fortune” (or, depending on your point of view, an expanded version of the game “Hangman”).
You can turn it into Wheel of Fortune by bringing in a spinning wheel and some game money. As
per the show, have the groups spin the wheel first. After they land on a number, let them guess,
then multiply their winnings by whatever number they landed on. For example, if a group spins the
wheel and lands on 4, then guesses the letter “e” and there are three of them, three “e” ’s times four
will net that group twelve game dollars (if your game money is in $1 bills). For a game wheel, you
can make one, find one in a novelty store, or yank one from the Game of Life/Jinsei Game. You
can also use a big stuffed novelty dice as a substitute for the game wheel.
Classroom Activities Junior High School Guess Who? 63
'GUESS WHO!'
Submitted by Dylan Adam Joffe (Toyoka City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To review questions and vocabulary that are commonly used in everyday English communication
Procedure:
After the activity has been explained to the students, each team in each group selects which
character they are for the game, but does not tell the other team which character they selected. The
other team must 'guess who' the character they selected is. That is the goal of the game. The
students can only answer 'yes' or 'no' , if asked a question about their character. Any question that
can be answered with a yes/no answer is permitted during the game. Each team member takes
turns in asking the questions about the other teams' character. Each team takes turns asking
questions of each other, in the order of one question at a time each time. Examples of questions
that can be used include, 'Are you a boy?' 'Do you play soccer?' 'Can I see a ball?' etc.). If the
answer to a question is 'no,' then the team that asked the question crosses out all of the characters
that the 'no' applies to. If the answer to a question is 'yes,' then the team that asked the question
crosses out all of the characters that the 'yes' does not apply to. The final question is 'Are you
[Character's name]?' The team that guesses the correct character of the opposing team first/the
fastest wins the game. In order to decide which team gets to ask the first question, the teams
conduct 'Rock, paper, scissors ('Janken'),' with the winning team allowed to ask the first question.
Activity Objective:
The goal of this activity is to promote oral and written skills in English within a group, in a
competition based atmosphere, offering prizes as incentives to work hard.
Procedure:
Instructions for Mario Kart board game activity
The activity is a blackboard based game, playable for any amount of time, but I find that the
optimal time is one 50 minute session.
Students are divided into groups, usually of six students each, but this depends on total class
numbers. Before the class, the teacher will draw a race track of small squares in any design on the
board. A variation on this is to allow students that have played the game before to design the track
themselves. At the front of the class, magnet-backed character cut outs are placed on a table, and
one student from each group is then invited to come and choose their group’s character. These
students then place the character they have chosen on the starting grid of the race track. One A4
piece of paper is given to each group, and from this point the game begins.
Each round of the game begins with the ALT asking a question in English, questions being
adjusted to the class ability level, and then telling the students that they have a certain amount of
time, usually 30 seconds, to answer the question in their groups. Before starting the answer time for
each round, multiple choice answers, usually three, are written on the board, of which only one is of
course correct. Students must write down their answer in English on the paper provided, in the
allotted time. Here then we can see two of the educational aspects of the game, students practice
reading the possible answers from the board, discuss these answers orally in their groups, and
practice writing in English at the time of submitting their answers. Questions are usually tailored to
the material that students have covered in class, but also include more interesting, popular culture
related questions from video games, sports teams, popular music, movies, and anime. This
concludes the first stage of each round.
Once the time is up, one student from each group submits the team’s answer to the front and then
the correct answer is called out by the JTE.
In the second stage of each round, the teams with the correct answers send a representative to the
front, and the teams that answered incorrectly are out of play until the next round begins. Students
at the front then roll a dice (I downloaded a digital iPhone dice app so as to bring a little modern
technology into the classroom), and the number they roll represents the number of spaces they
advance on the board. Each group that answered correctly advances on the board after rolling the
dice and passes to stage three, staying at the front.
In stage three students get to compete for the chance to get a special power up card.
Classroom Activities Junior High School Mario Kart Board Game 65
The one remaining winner then gets to choose one of a selection of face-down cards. I chose to
make cards that have varying degrees of utility, some effecting the player negatively, for example
causing them to go back spaces, others advance the player forward squares, and others can be used
to attack the other players sending them backwards. These cards are very specific to each teacher,
and I will outline my own personal choice of cards in the advice section below.
Stage three ends when the winner of janken has taken their card and used its effects.
The game returns to stage one again using different questions for each subsequent round.
JEOPARDY REVIEW
Submitted by Alexandra Zindel (Yosano Town BOE)
Activity Objective:
Engage students in a review of material prior to an exam in a fun and interactive manner
Procedure:
Jeopardy is a popular trivいa game in America. For this activity, a board with categories and points
is displayed for the class to see (either on PowerPoint or on the blackboard.) Students get into
groups of around 4 people (there can be more or less depending on class size). Groups Janken to
see who goes first. The winning group chooses the category and the point value. The ALT clicks on
the category and point value (PowerPoint), or turns the appropriate paper over (Paper) to reveal the
question. The ALT reads the question out loud. Groups raise their hand as fast as they can with the
answer. The first group to raise their hand answers the question. If they are wrong, the question
goes to the next group. If they are correct, they get the points and can choose the next category and
point value. Anyone can answer the question. Points are kept track of on the board. The group with
the most points wins.
Make sure to test out the board beforehand and make sure you are able to display it in class.
The low tech version of this game can also be used as an effective study tool and is less likely to
cause technical difficulties.
Because of the interactive nature of this game, an entire class of 45 – 50 minutes is recommend to
play, particularly if this is the first time you are playing it with the students.
Classroom Activities Junior High School Easter Egg Preposition Hunt 67
Activity Objective:
To practice prepositions (under/on/in/by) & target question (Where is/are?) while reviewing
grammar (blue egg)
Procedure:
Find the (paper) eggs and fill in the blanks (using prepositions) on worksheet to show where they
are.
Activity Objective:
To review any material previously covered in class (grammar, vocabulary, etc)
Procedure:
1. Students are split into teams and given their designated coloured paper.
2. The trash cans are placed at the front of the room (one on a desk-1 point, and the other on the
chair which is on top of the other desk-2 points)
3. Teams are then split into shooters, writers, and picker-uppers. So if there are nine people on a
team, then four people are writers, three people are shooters, and two people are picker-uppers.
4. ALT will ask/show a question (show: fill in the blank, unscramble the sentence, etc.). The writ-
ers will get 1 minute to write the answer on the paper.
5. The shooters will then get 1 minute to crumple up the paper and try to get the paper into either
the 1 point or 2 point trash cans.
6. Then for 15 seconds the picker-uppers will get to pick up the paper that had not made it into
the trash can.
7. Finally, the last minute is a combination of steps 4-6, where everyone can do their tasks.
8. At the end of the minute, the game stops and points are counted. Of course, only correct an-
swers will get points.
Repeat steps 4-8 until class time is up
Activity Objective:
To practice using verbs in the present progressive while using various conjugations of the verb to
be
Procedure:
Create an initial list of ten words, six familiar words and four new words. On the board write the
present tense of the verb and then the present progressive tense. Ex: Play=> Playing. Review the
list with the students and have them repeat the words after the teacher while also making an action
to go with the verb. While repeating the words, teacher should say the verb in the plain form
followed by , “I am…” with the verb in the present progressive form. After students have become
familiar with the words, repeating them in random order about 5 or 6 times, have students stand
and form a semi circle around the teacher. On the board write “You are…” explain to the students
that the teacher will say the verb in the plain form while doing the action, then the students need to
use the present progressive form in the sentence, “You are (running).” The teacher will say one of
the plain form of the verb and the students need to repeat the “you are…” sentence while
performing the gesture. At random the teacher will go through the list of verbs with students
repeating the sentence. When student are familiar with the activity outline and structure, trade
places with a student and have them call the plain form of the verb and surrounding students repeat
the present progressive sentence. When students are familiar with this structure, on the board the
teacher should write the sentence structure, “Mieko is…” and “He/She is…” The teacher explains
now, going around the circle each student will choose an activity. They will do the gesture and say
“I am (running).” The rest of the class in the circle will repeat, “He/She is running.” then use the
student’s name, “Mieko is running.” The activity finishes with all the students saying an activity and
their classmates repeating their activity. At the end the students and teacher together can say, “We
are having fun!”
BROKEN TELEPHONE
Submitted by Amoy Pilliner (Sendai City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice listening and speaking skills for any particular grammar point.
Procedure:
Each row of students is a group, meaning there are will most likely be 6 groups in your class.
One of the teachers take the last student in each row into the hallway and has them memorise a
word, phrase or sentence (WPS). It should be based on the grammar point currently being studied,
or it could also be some type of review WPS.
When the teacher shouts "Go!" students race to whisper the WPS to the next student in line. They
can repeat it as many times as needed, keeping in mind the 'whisper' part so that other teams can't
hear.
When the WPS has reached the last student, you can have the student either write the WPS down
on a scratch piece of paper or have them come and whisper it into a teacher's ear. If they are
correct their team receives points. Points are awarded for speed: 5pts, 4pts 3pts, 2pts, while the last
two groups receive 1pt. If a WSP is incorrect, the person must go back to their group and figure
out they went wrong.
Each telephone line rotates so there is a new 'last person' and the game is repeated.
MEMORISATION GAME
Submitted by Winwit Li (Kikai Town BOE)
Activity Objective:
To test their listening and memorisation skills while practicing target grammar (ex. "I like (verb)
~ing")
Procedure:
All the students stand up and form a circle. One student is given a soft ball and says a sentence with
the target grammar [I like playing soccer], and passes the ball to another student at random. The
second student must say the first student's sentence and adds on their own phrase to the sentence [I
like playing soccer and playing piano.], and passes the ball to another student. The third student
says the last student's sentence and adds their own phrase [I like playing soccer, playing piano, and
swimming.], and passes the ball to another student. This continues until either a student cannot
remember the previous sentence, repeats a phrase that another student has already said, or takes
too much time and loses. The student that loses received a punishment and then has to start new
chain of sentences.
The ball should be passed to someone who has not already taken their turn in a given round, but
once everyone has had a turn, tell them to continue.
In this game, there are no clear winners and only clear losers, but if there should be a winner, then
it should be the person who remembered the longest chain by the end of the game.
Classroom Activities Junior High School Spelling Race 72
SPELLING RACE
Submitted by Sarah Hall (Miyakomachi Town BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice listening and improve students ability to connect English letters to English sounds.
Procedure:
Students are divided into teams of 4-6 and given a set of cards with letters printed on them. An
English word is called out. Students must spell the word. Points are given to the team who answers
the the fastest.
WHISPER RELAY
Submitted by Valerie Shore (Wakkanai City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice three sides of communication (speaking, understanding, writing) in a fun and
competitive way.
Procedure:
Sentences are written on slips of paper, and put face down on a desk/table in the back of the room.
The students are put into small groups (lunch groups, for example) and then stand in a line. The
student in the back of the line runs to take a random slip of paper. They read the sentence, give the
slip to a teacher, and then whisper it to the student in front of them. That student then whispers it
to the next, and so on. The last student must write the sentence on the board to the best of their
ability. The teacher checks the sentence, and awards a point if it's correct. Then the last student
moves to the end of the line. The game ends when all students have rotated and everyone has
written on the board, when there are no more slips, or after a preset time limit.
SLOW GAME
Submitted by David Flynn (Towada City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice word categories and/or sentence building
Procedure:
The purpose of this activity is to build vocabulary as well as increase awareness of word categories
and sentence structure, if you so choose. That being the case, before you begin anything, make sure
that students are familiar with the vocabulary/grammar by teaching/reviewing it. Hand out Work
Sheets. These are sheets that have all of the vocabulary being studied on them in Japanese only and
already CLEARLY divided by category. Beside each word should be a box or a line for students to
write in the English translation. Allow them to work on filling in all the English words for a few
minutes. Whether or not they can use a dictionary is up to you.
Once the sheet is completed, this will be used as a template or guide for the game they will now
play.
Divide the students into groups and hand out one deck of Vocabulary Cards per group. The
number of students per group can ideally match the number of categories you have, but does not
absolutely have to. Your Vocabulary Card decks should have 1 card per Vocabulary word only.
Ask the students to shuffle the cards and to deal them out to everyone in the group evenly and face
down. The number of cards that each student receives should match the number of words you
have per category. 5 is usually a good number.
Now each student should each have the same number of cards, and a mix of Vocabulary
Categories.
What they have to do next is discard 1 card, giving it to the person on their left. Everyone discards
at the same time, or at least everyone has to have discarded before the group can discard again. The
goal is to eventually accumulate all the words from any given category (they can reference their
Work Sheets).
Once someone has accumulated a full category, they stop the game by shouting SLOW! They show
everyone their cards and if it is in fact a full category that student wins the round.
Losers have to mark down a letter, Hangman style. The word is S-L-O-W. So the first time they
lose, they have to write “S”. The second time they lose, “L”, and so on, until they completely spell
out “SLOW”.
You can stop the game at any time and check who has no “SLOW” letters, or who has completely
written it out already. Conversely you can keep the game going longer by making it so that students
have to play until only one student per group hasn’t written “SLOW” out completely and is
therefore the ultimate winner, but this would probably take a really long time.
Activity Objective:
To practice modifying adjectives in different degrees
Procedure:
Students do "Rock Paper Scissors" and the number of fingers they throw determines their
conversation. They discuss various comedians and how funny they think they are (e.g. "very
funny," "kind of funny," "not very funny," etc.). For example, if both students throw scissors,
that's a total of 4 fingers; they look at the number 4 and what degree of "funny" that indicates, and
share their thoughts ("I think DOWNTOWN is kind of funny").
じゃんけん どのくらい面白い?How
芸能人の名前 Comedian’s name
の結果 Results funny?
10
so funny
すごく面白い
めっちゃ面白い
7
really funny
結構面白い
とても面白い
5 pretty funny
まあまあ面白い
4
kind of funny
(kinda) funny
ちょっと面白い
0 not funny
全然面白くない
WHERE IS PIKACHU?
Submitted by Mason Loch (Nagahama City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice asking questions about a person's location.
Procedure:
Small character flash cards are hidden behind bigger location flash cards on a board. The JTE holds
up a larger version of the character card and the JET asks, "Where is Pikachu?" Students then take
turns answering and guessing which location the character card is hidden on the board. "He's in
library."
Activity Objective:
To strengthen and apply listening comprehension skills
Procedure:
Although this is the English teacher`s self introduction presentation, it is important to keep in mind
that the main objective is to have students actively engaged and participating in order to apply
listening comprehension skills. The lesson plan includes both audio and visual components; the
teacher`s presentation is the audio component, and the visual component is the PowerPoint/
images displayed during the presentation. To actively have students engaged, the teacher should
asked students question during the presentation, such as, what is this? Or do you have any pets?—
they may or may not answer in English but any sort of participation is the important point, if
students answer in Japanese ask your JTE for the English meaning even though it may seem
obvious by the picture being displayed, you as the JTE, want to make sure there is no
miscommunication. You should also reinforce the new word by writing it on the board. After the
presentation it`s quiz time! The handout you prepared should be given to students before the
presentation so that they can take notes of what they heard. This may seem counterintuitive, but it
can give students more confidence when it comes time to participate in class. You will orally ask
students questions about what they just learned about you. This portion of the lesson is very fun
and is a great listening comprehension exercise as well as speaking practice. During this portion do
not simply say yes to a correct answer, you should follow-up with a complete sentence, such as,
“Yes, I have two brothers.”
SHARK CHASE
Submitted by Damon Mitchell (Takashima City BOE)
Activity Objective:
Various - However I have had good results using this activity for 'passive' sentence practice
Procedure:
Students (in teams) complete partial sentences challenge. With passives a challenge might be, '…..
was built in….', for example. Each team can move on a game board, by rolling a dice and moving
that many spaces, after they have finished the challenge, by writing a full sentence, and had it
checked by a teacher. The move order is decided by how fast they can complete the challenge. Each
turn is made up of (1) the presentation of a new challenge sentence (2) teams writing their answers,
having them checked by a teacher and moving (3) everybody repeats a model answer after the
teachers (4) a bonus quiz where one team can earn an extra move, repetition of the bonus quiz
answer. Next turn.
Activity Objective:
To practice describing descriptions of something using “looks,” ex: “Mickey Mouse looks happy.”
Procedure:
The ALT stands in the front of the class showing a picture of “Mickey Mouse” and asks “Who is
this?” as a warm up for the students‘ listening. As a form of scaffolding the JTE can assist in
guiding them towards remembering how to answer the question without giving them the answer if
they are unsure.
After showing the picture, the ALT will say “Mickey Mouse looks happy.” After repeating the
sentence 3 times, the ALT will put the parts of the sentence on the different coloured construction
paper up on the blackboard one by one having the students repeat the parts of the sentence out
loud as a class 3 times. The same process will be repeated with Goku’s picture but this time the
sentence under Goku’s picture will be “Goku looks sad.” emphasizing the words “looks” and
“sad”.
After repeating the sentences as a class the sentences will be taken off the board while the Mickey
Mouse and Goku pictures remain. SpongeBob’s picture will be introduced and this time the ALT
will change the word “looks” to “look” to demonstrate the third person plural conjugation. The
ALT and JTE will ask if any students heard a variance from the original sentence pattern.
The same will be done with Goku and the other sad Dragon Ball character. The pieces of
construction paper will be held on the blackboard with magnets and the class will repeat both
sentences three times a piece. From here the JTE will begin an explanation of how in English
“look” can have different meaning depending on the context. From this point a worksheet will be
handed out for the students to practice.
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Submitted by Jody Cheuk Wing Pang (Nagasaki City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To show students the cultural aspects of Halloween while reviewing recently taught grammar
points and vocabulary
Procedure:
First, divide the students in to groups of five or six. Within each group, give each student a num-
ber. Then, tell the students that they need to switch speakers for answering every question. Next, I
begin the game by asking the first question. Only the students numbered 1 can answer the ques-
tion, but group members are allowed to support their representative speaker. When a speaker
knows the answer, they may raise their hand. The fastest speaker to do so may answer the
question. Once a student answers the question correctly, he or she will get to pick a card from my
"Trick or Treat" bag. If the card says, "treat," the group will get the number of points on the card
automatically. If the card says, "trick," then a member from the group must perform the trick to
win the large amount of points written on the card. For example, a trick can say, "Wear devil
ears." I have a bag of Halloween costume props ready for each trick. The game continues
switching speakers for every question. The game ends five minutes before the end of class. Stick-
ers are given to the group with the most points and each student who was brave enough to per-
form tricks.
Activity Objective:
To practice writing simple sentences using third person pronouns (he/ she/ it) with various verbs.
Also review body parts, plurals and numbers.
Procedure:
1. Review body parts and check they remember the plural forms.
2. Tell the students they are going to be drawing a monster and introducing it.
3. Show them my example monster, introduce it, and check they understand what the sentences
mean. For example: This is Alex. He is 14 years old. He has 4 eyes, 5 ears, 2 legs, 10 arms and 1
nose. He likes apples and oranges. He does not like carrots. He plays the piano and soccer.
4. Hand out the worksheet and explain that they will draw their monsters at the same time. After I
announce a body part, they have 30 seconds to draw as many (or as few) of the body part on their
monster template as they wish.
5. Draw and announce the different body parts out a hat, and have them draw their monsters, one
body part at a time. Continue until you run out of body parts.
6. Explain they need to introduce their monster. They can make up all the information except for
the number of body parts they have drawn. Encourage them to be creative.
7. Walk around and help the students.
Activity Objective:
To practice asking and answering questions using the "to be" verb (are and am) and to give cultural
references
Procedure:
The JTE introduces "Are you from…? Yes, I am. No, I'm not" the class before. First start out with
a video of you and your JTE asking each other questions about where you are from and your
occupation. You should both pretend that you are from another country, ex: Indonesia and from
India. We purposely choose those countries because the first years are learning phonics at the same
time, so we chose countries that were alike. After watching the video twice ask the same questions
in Japanese Next, use a PowerPoint that shows people from different countries and make the
students guess by looking at the clothes of the person (introduce culture). Ask the students to think
of the person on the screen as you and use the grammar point "Are you from...?." Next, hand out a
worksheet like the "Guess Who" game using the "are and am" and have the students figure out
which person their partner had. Lastly the students would write on lined paper and translate
sentences into English of the grammar point they just studied.
INTERVIEW GAME
Submitted by Melissa Reed (Yunomae Town BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice phrases "Do you like ~?" and "Do you play ~?"
Procedure:
Interview Game is good to play when practicing vocabulary or key phrases. Student A will ask
Student B "Do you~?" If Student B's answer is "Yes, I do.", then he or she must sign Student A's
worksheet. If the answer is "No, I don't," then Student A must ask another student until the line is
signed. The first three students with all lines signed must sit down and are the winners. They will
receive a small prize.
Interview Game
A: Do you ~?
B: Yes, I do. No, I don’t.
Do you like natto? Do you play the guitar? Do you like English?
Do you play the piano? Do you like milk? Do you play tennis?
ALPHABET PEOPLE
Submitted by Emma Gibson (Shirakawa City BOE)
Activity Objective:
This is a consolidating activity for practicing lower and upper case letters and bonding with
classmates and teachers.
Procedure:
Students use the attached worksheet (Appendix 1) to draw people using only letters of the alphabet.
For example, a face might be an 'O', a mouth a 'P' on its side. After an interactive demonstration
on the blackboard, students are given five minutes to create an original person using only letters of
the alphabet. Then a break is taken to walk around the room and look at the work done by other
students. Finally, another two or three minutes is given for finishing touches. The "people" are a
great talking point and are perfect for displaying on the English room walls.
'BUT' PRACTICE
Submitted by Thomas Simmons (Takamatsu City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice the usage of the word 'but,' as well as review the form of 'like' questions and responses
Procedure:
Students fill in the subject of the question from the choices listed near the top. Students then ask
each other the completed question and write down
SPORTS RULES
Submitted by Oi Yee Claudette Chan (Iyo City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice listening skills and to acquire an understanding of the use of "must" and "have to" in
sports rules
Procedure:
Once students have been organised into groups of four and a set of cards for the game has been
distributed to each group, a brief explanation of the game should be given. To start the game, select
a sport from those given and read the corresponding passage for that sport. This passage uses a
combination of the grammar patterns 'must' and 'have to' to describe the rules of a sport. As soon
as students realise which sport you are referring to, they must try to take that card first. The fastest
person in each group to take the card keeps it. The person with the most cards at the end of the
game wins.
Kendo
It has many levels. You can have a match against a person in the same level. You must wear a spe-
cial set of gear and use a long bamboo sword. When you attack you may sometimes hit the person
with a big shout.
Baseball
You must use a bat to hit the ball. Japan has a professional league. It must have 9 players on one
team.
Swimming
There are different ways of doing this sport; for example, breaststroke and freestyle. You may love
to do this sport in summer. You can do it indoor and outdoor.
Tennis
You must use a racket. You can play this sport softball style or hardball style. You must play it on
a court.
Judo
You usually wear a white wear. You can get a point if you can throw the person. Asami Haruna is
famous for this sport.
Volleyball
You must keep the ball in the air. You may ‘serve’ or ‘attack’. You must have six players.
Ice Skating
You have to put a pair of specials shoes on. You can play this sport indoor and outdoor. You
must play this sport on ice.
Gateball
Japan introduced this sport to the world. You have to use sticks, gates and a goal pole for the
game. It is a team sport and it is popular for Japanese old people.
Skiing
You have to wear special shoes and get on two long boards to play. You also must hold two
sticks. It is a major winter sport.
Table Tennis
You must use a small racket and a small ball. You have to play it on the table.
American Football
You must wear a helmet and body protection gear. You can tackle and have to run fast. In the
U.S., they have a professional league.
Basketball
You must not walk more than three steps with the ball. You can get three points sometimes. Mi-
chael Jordan is a legendary player of this sport.
Sumo
You can wear only one thing. You have to use both your skill and power. It is the national sport
of Japan.
Soccer
You must kick the ball, but you can use your hands sometimes. It has an international event every
4 years, and the next will be held in Brazil in 2014.
Classroom Activities Junior High School What Do You See? 94
Activity Objective:
For students to gradually create longer more descriptive sentences using the grammatical structure
'There BE VERB'
Procedure:
This activity is designed to take up a whole 50 minute class. Students are given a hand-out and are
shown a PowerPoint presentation. Simple pictures of 1 thing are shown to the students and the
students must respond with a 'There BE VERB…' sentence. For Example, "There is a princess."
After a slide or two, students are told to add an adjective to their sentences, e.g. " There is a
beautiful princess." After about the 5th slide, students are shown a more complex picture with
multiple objects, for example a painting of a park. Students can name all the different things they
see: "There are many big trees", "There is a big pond", "There are people eating", etc. The next
slide is to be used with the hand out. Students are shown a 'hidden objects' picture, e.g. a picture of
a kitchen with a plethora of vegetables, fruits, kitchen wares etc. They spend one or two minutes
taking turns with a partner describing things they see using 'There'. Next they spend two minutes
writing down as many as 5 sentences. The students are instruction to turn over there hand-outs and
put down there pencils so they are not tempted to write while they should be speaking. They are
shown a new picture. For this picture students point out objects with location descriptions. For
example, "There is an old hat on the table." Students again spend a minute or two telling each other
what they see. After the speaking section, students are instructed to write down 5 sentences of
things they see. Finally, a last slide is shown to the students and the same instructions are given.
This time student are instructed to say two sentence: one 'There sentence' and one 'non-there
sentence', e.g. " There is an expensive watch near the lamp" and " An expensive watch is near the
lamp". The last time students write the sentences down they must write down both versions.
Activity Objective:
To practice using the grammar point, "You look (sleepy)"/"You look like a (pro wrestler)."
Procedure:
This activity is meant to help the students practice speaking. The students will make groups of four
and take turns trying to correctly guess each other’s gestures while using the grammar point. Each
group must decide who will go first, second, third, and fourth. Each group will be given fifteen slips
of paper with different adjectives and nouns to be placed in the center of the desks between them.
The slips of paper must be placed face down so no one can read them.
After each group has received their slips of paper, explain the rules. Only one student at a time may
look at the clue and act out the gesture. The student must not speak, but use only gestures to help
the others figure out the answer. When one of the students in the group correctly guesses the
answer, they keep the slip of paper, which counts as one point. To receive the point, the student
must correctly use the grammar point. The student who answers the most clues in their group wins.
The game can have a set time limit or be played until all groups have finished.
Before starting the game, the JET and the JTE should go over the clues and make sure the students
understand by giving a demonstration. The JET chooses a clue and uses gestures until the JTE can
correctly guess the answer.
Activity Objective:
To practice grammar (...ing) and vocabulary using question and answer sentence structure (Do you
like…?).
Procedure:
Each student receives 1 card. The top part of the card has a question: "Do you like …ing". The
bottom part of the card has an answer: "I like…". Students walk around the room asking their
question to students until they find their match, write the person's name and then return to their
seats.
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Reading Writing
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Cleaning Singing
Classroom Activities Junior High School 98
Name___________________
Name___________________
I like…
I like…
Playing Table Tennis
Dancing
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Running Shopping
Classroom Activities Junior High School 99
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Jumping Watching TV
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Watching the Olympics Swimming
Classroom Activities Junior High School 100
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Eating Dinner Drinking Juice
Name___________________ Name___________________
I like… I like…
Drinking Milk Eating Lunch
Classroom Activities Junior High School Japanese Is Taboo 101
"JAPANESE IS TABOO"
Submitted by Benjamin Anderson (Togane City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice utilizing basic words and phrases in order to convey ideas and thoughts in English
Procedure:
The students are divided into groups of 4-6 members. Each group is given a deck cards. Each card
has one vocabulary word, of which the students are already familiar with. One student picks the
top card and, without showing the other students, must describe the vocabulary word without using
the word itself, or any descriptive gestures or noises. The other students in the group must guess
what the word on the card is. The students take turns reading the vocabulary word card and
attempting to describe the vocabulary word using different English words and phrases.
GRAMMAR AUCTION
Submitted by Christopher Brackin (Kamagaya City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To recognise and understand correct grammar in complete, correct sentences
Procedure:
Split the class into lunch groups. Give every group $1000 in fake money. Stick up English sentences
on the blackboard; half with correct grammar, half with false grammar. Select one sentence at a
time, read it out slowly and ask the students to repeat it. Say "Start the bidding!" and let the groups
shout out the amount they want to bid, in English, competing with each other. Either after
everyone but one group has given up, or after a set time limit, give the sentence to the highest
bidder and collect their money. Once all sentences have been bid for, have students read out their
sentences and translate them into Japanese. Give groups 1 point for every correct sentence they
have and take away 1 point for every wrong sentence. The group with the most points, wins. In the
case of a tie, the group with the most points and most money left, wins.
Procedure:
/ Means ALT and JTE both participate.
Denotes the parties exchanging information
Procedures Time Interaction Purpose Suggestions
Activity Objective:
I intended for a two-fold goal with this activity: explicitly, the students used present tense and the
future tense as well as calculated time differences, while implicitly they learned about the effect time
zones have when travelling around the world.
Procedure:
1. Arrange the students in groups. Pass each group a time zone map and a set of instructions.
2. Set up the premises for the activity with the JTE’s help. Answer any questions and translate more
difficult words if necessary.
3. Practice the two target questions with the class: “What time is it in (name of city) now?” and
“When will you arrive in (name of city)?”, as well as grammatically appropriate questions to the
questions.
4. The goal is to finish as many assignments as possible. When a group has an answer, they will
send a representative to report to the ALT/JTE. The ALT and the JTE will ask the target
questions, and the representative will respond as practiced. If correct, the group will be given the
next assignment. There are 10 assignments in total.
An interesting premise for this activity is to capture the general students’ initial interest. This is what
I tell my students:
“Today, for this one class, you are not junior-high students. You have a new job in a global
company, (company of your choice). Your first job is to call other (company of your choice) offices
around the world. But, we are very busy people. So, we will only give you a message with your
assignment. Please read the message and report back to us with the correct time.”
The JTE will: Review the grammar of future tense with students before activity. Translate any
words students have difficulty with, and explain how to use the map to calculate for time
differences. Depending on the number of groups, JTE will also ask target questions to group
representatives. If the class is small or struggling with the assignments, the JTE should wander
around the class answering questions and offering tips.
Either the ALT or the JTE should keep track of the groups' progress on the blackboard, to
encourage speed and competition.
Classroom Activities Junior High School Time Zone Race 108
Suggestions and Advice:
Most junior-high students in Japan have very little experience with calculating time differences,
even though they should already know about time zones. Take the time to point out in the
beginning where Japan is, and what GMT+9 means in relation to GMT +8(Korea).
Classroom Activities Junior High School Sales Team 109
SALES TEAM
Submitted by Amanda Hahn (Kobe City BOE)
Activity Objective:
Students will use persuasive language to sell an object in English
Procedure:
First, the JET explains to the students that the goal of the activity is to persuade the ALT, the JTE,
and the other students in the class to buy a product. Then, the ALT and JTE give their own
example sales presentation.
Next, students form groups of 4-5. Each group receives a physical object or a picture of an object
that they are to sell
Students write their presentations in their notebooks or on a sheet of paper, and the ALT checks
them.
Students memorise and practice their presentations.
During the final presentations, the ALT, JTE and every student rank the other sales team
presentations. The most persuasive team in each class gets a prize.
Activity Objective:
To practice recognizing and using relative pronouns through readily-accessible foreign pop culture.
Procedure:
* JTE and/or ALT review use of relative pronouns
* Students form small groups (~3-5 members) and receive group worksheet
* Students watch short English movie clip and attempt to catch use of a relative pronoun within the
dialogue
* Replay video clip as many times as necessary for majority of groups to find the use of relative
pronoun
* Each group writes the sentence containing the relative pronoun on the group worksheet
* JTE and ALT check group responses, then write the correct English sentence on the board
* Replay the clip 1 more time for students to listen for the sentence.
* Next, instruct groups to translate sentence into Japanese
* All groups (or select groups in a large class) share their Japanese translations
* JTE and/or ALT reiterate correct English sentence and Japanese translation on the board.
JTE is responsible for reviewing selected movie clip for classroom appropriateness.
JET and JTE are responsible for reviewing use of relative pronouns with students in English and
Japanese. Both circulate around classroom and provide helpful hints as needed.
WHERE IS IT?
Submitted by Heidi Jensen (Yoshikawa City BOE)
Activity Objective:
To practice using "there is" and "there are" correctly. To use plurals correctly. To give advice and
describe a location.
Preparation: JET should draw a picture on large white paper that uses the target vocabulary. JET
and JTE should practice the drawing activity together once before showing the class. JET and JTE
should discuss topic ideas for the independent practice portion of the activity, as well as the
essential target vocabulary for the drawing activity. JET should prepare the handout for the
independent practice portion and get JTE approval before making copies.
Warm-up: JET and JTE will model by asking questions such as "Where is the science room?" and
responding with "It's next to the art room" or "Where is the library?" "It's across from class 2-1."
Then JET and JTE will alternate asking the students similar questions. This activity can be in the
"column/row" style, where after a student answers they can choose to have his/her column or row
sit down.
Guided Practice: Each student will receive a piece of blank paper. JET explains that students will
draw a picture on the top half of the paper. They will leave the bottom half blank for now. The
picture they draw must include the target vocabulary, which should either be included on the paper
or written on the board. JTE goes over the target vocabulary with students by asking for the
Japanese word. JET should then read the target vocabulary and students should repeat the proper
pronunciation. The students should be then given about 2-3 minutes to draw a quick picture. The
target vocabulary should include a variety of nouns and prepositions, such as: house, cat, dog, car,
tree, bird, next to, above, under, in, on, etc.
JET and JTE will model the next part of the activity. JET shows the large white paper with the
picture drawn on it. The students should see that the images on the picture correspond with the
target vocabulary. JTE shows the large blank paper and tells the students that the JET will explain
the picture to JTE , and the JTE will try to draw the same picture. JET cannot let the JTE see the
picture while it is being described. JET uses the target language and vocabulary while describing the
picture, by saying things such as “The house is on the left. There is a tree to the right of the house.
There is a bird on top of the tree. There are two clouds above the tree.” JTE attempts to draw the
picture as it is being described. Explain that the students will do the same with a partner. They will
take turns doing this activity. They will draw the new picture on the bottom half of their blank
paper. Next JTE and JET should review the use of “There is” versus “There are.” JET should write
a few examples on the board, such as: three birds, one basketball, two cats. Then JET and JTE
should take turns calling on students to tell them if “There is” or “There are” should be placed
before the noun. Students will then make partners and have about 3 minutes each to describe the
picture and draw the picture. If there is time available, have student volunteers tell either the JET or
JTE how to draw a picture. JET or JTE will draw the picture on the board.
Independent Practice: JET explains that he/she needs help learning about their city. The students
will help by describing where an important place is in the city. The students will receive a writing
practice handout. JET and JTE will individually assign each student a topic to write about. This can
Classroom Activities Junior High School Where is it? 112
be done by simply telling the student or having the student select a strip of paper with the topic
listed on it. Next the student will work on filling out the handout based on the topic they were
assigned. There should be some prompts/questions on the handout to help guide this process.
For example, “Where is the ______?” (students will fill in the blank with their assigned topic) and
then the student must give at least three descriptions of where it is, such as “across from Saizeriya,
near the train station, next to a big house. “ Other questions could be: What does it look like?
When does it open? When does it close? How can I get there? Both JET and JTE will help explain
the process to the students. Some Japanese may be needed in the explanation. Students should use
a dictionary or textbook to help describe the location. JET and JTE should walk around the
classroom and individually help students as needed.