Table of Contents
Kahoot Quizzes
I’ve made dozens of Kahoot quizzes over the last couple years. They are a great way of reinforcing vocabulary and grammar structure. I usually pause after each question and have the students repeat after me as I read the answer on screen.
I will note, however, that Kahoot gotten greedier since I started making quizzes. All of the quizzes that I make are free and available on my profile. The problem is, Kahoot keeps removing features from the free tier, despite all the free content that I have created for them.
The most offensive removal from the free tier was the “images as answers” option. This was a great way to teach 3rd and 4th grade elementary school students English words without overloading them with new vocabulary.
There are some open source alternatives that I have not tried yet.
Charades
Charades is a fun way to get students active and learning English vocabulary. The format can be whatever you want, separate groups, together as a class, v.s., etc. All you need is a list of flash cards. I was able to make something quickly in Google Sheets.
The rules are simple: the person performing the gesture cannot speak. The students can ask any question or guess any word. Depending on the students’ collective English ability, I will allow them to answer in Japanese. But I will always have them repeat the answer in English afterwards.
I always got great feedback from this activity. The students and JTE (Japanese Teaching English) all had a great time being silly and doing their best to make understandable gestures. As a foreigner, I was also able to learn various cultural references students would use to explain their given word.
English Sugoroku
One day, my JTE came to me and asked if I could make an English Sugoroku game. I didn’t know what Sugoroku was, so she showed it to me. It’s similar to shoots and ladders, which I loved to play as a child.
My version looks very similar to the example I found on Google. I used google sheets to make the game board. It is very easy to make, because the game board is a large grid. I used images from irasutoya.com, which is a free clip art website that many people use in Japan.
My JTE and I print these on A3 paper and student’s use erasers or other stationary as game pieces. Then, they roll a die and go forward that many spaces. They then have to answer the English question that they land on.
I think this activity is a great way for your students to practice their pronunciation. It is also a great break from the monotony of regular pronunciation practice. I recommend passively observing students and jumping in to help when they need it. Sometimes, students may try to just roll the die and move to the next person without answering the English question.
English Uno
I covered the process behind making English Uno in a previous blog post that you can read here.
But to summarize, English Uno is a great way to get students motivated and learning English by playing the classic card game, Uno. You follow the same rules as Uno, which makes explaining the game very easy, because many Japanese children have already played Uno. The only difference between regular Uno and English Uno, is that the students use English every time they play a card.
There are many existing designs that you can find on ALTopedia. Just pick you favorite, print them out, and start playing! The exercise you do depends on your student’s English abilities. For example, I have my elementary school students simply read the word or picture on the card that they play. I have middle school students use the word in part of a sentence. For example, the word ‘post office’ might be used in a sentence like, “I went to the post office.”
‘Let’s Learn!’ – My Original Puzzle Game
‘Let’s Learn!’ is my very own original puzzle game made using the Godot game engine. You can play it right now in your web browser!
The game loop is very simple. Students are given a solution to a puzzle written in English. Then, they have to use the solution to solve various puzzles in order to progress. The puzzles are primarily based on manipulating physics objects. However, I have recently added objects that players can control, such as the hands of a clock.
The game needs to run in a web browser because all of my students have IPads. Using github pages, I can display a QR code on the classroom projector and instantly distribute the latest version of my game to all of my students in an instant. It’s like magic!
If you are interested in following the development of ‘Let’s Learn!’, I have posted a few devlogs to the itch.io page. You can click here to see them all in a list.