Simple Classroom Language

Students form two or more teams and sit in rows as if on a bus. (They can also stand in rows.) The first student from each row takes turns to compete. The teacher shows a card and the first student to get up and answer scores. The teams move forward, with the first student going to the back and the next student moving up.

There are two teams, the standing team and the seated team, and their aim is to get to their goal. Starting from the center line the teacher flashes a card, and the two contestants, one seated one standing, compete to say the word. The teacher moves towards the goal depending on which of the two contestants says the word list.

Place flashcards on the floor next to one another. Students throw the dice and move accordingly to the appropriate card, saying the word. Alternatively they can make a phrase or sentence with the word.

Students are asked to form groups of 4-5 to play the card game “snap”/かるた. Each group is given a set of picture cards and asked to spread them out face up in front of the group, so that they can all see all of the cards. One student in each group is then asked to call out a classroom instruction, which is represented on one of the cards. The other students are challenged to see who can grab the picture card which corresponds to the instruction that has been called out. The caller should then confirm whether or not the player has grabbed the right card. If they have they move on to the next instruction,if they have not they replace the card and repeat the call-out. When the group have worked their way through all of the picture cards, the player who has the most cards is the winner.

Groups of students shuffle a set of cards containing pictures and words, and lay them face down separately in rows. They then take turns to turn two cards over to see if they match up. The student who turns over a matched pair takes the two cards and has another turn. The winner is the student who collects the most cards when all cards have been matched.

Groups of students are given a set of cards containing both pictures and words and when the teacher says, 「よーい、はじめ！」 students quickly match the pictures to the appropriate words. The group to finish first wins.

A series of flashcards is shown to the students or placed on the blackboard ledge. Students in turn are asked to close their eyes or are blindfolded while the teacher takes one or two away. Students must identify the missing cards.

Display the flashcards at the front of the classroom. Each student is given a blank bingo card. Ask students to select some of the pictures and make up their own bingo card by writing the matching words in Hiragana in the boxes. Eg, たって、みて、きいて etc. The teacher then calls out a classroom instruction eg, たって/たってください, Students then mark their bingo card if the words appear on their card. The winner is the first student who can mark off all of the pictures or words in a row or column.

The teacher gives instructions or cues for the students to follow. Alternatively, the students can be asked to take turns to give instructions for the rest of the class to follow.

The teacher teaches students a dance giving instructions in Japanese. Eg.ichi,ni, san, shi, たって、すわって、みてetc. This is a great way to introduce and reinforce understanding of the instructions in Japanese especially for younger learners. The teacher may choose to introduce additional verbs for more advanced learners. Eg. あるいて walk, はしって run, スキップして skip, とんで jump, まわって spin, みぎ right, ひだりleft.

This is a Japanese variation of Simon Says. The teacher explains the rules and calls out the instructions to the students, who have been told to only follow instructions prefaced with the word ‘みなさん’, e.g. みなさん、たってください. Players are eliminated from the game when they follow an instruction that is not immediately preceded with the words みなさん, or when they fail to follow an instruction which does include ‘みなさん’ . The winner is the last student remaining after all of the others have been eliminated.