May I Janken Out?

Submitted by: Joyce P. Le    Borrowed or inspired from: N/A     Date added: 11-06-07

Brief Outline:  Students interview each other and play janken. The point of the game is to try not to ‘Janken out’.

Materials Needed:

Preparation Needed:

• N/A

Teaching Suggestions:

• ALT and JTE do a role play.
• If possible, encourage students to answer in complete sentences like “Yes you may use the toilet OR no you may not use the toilet, instead of yes, you may or no, you may not.

Detailed Explanation:

1. Student A and student B will interview each other. Student A chooses a question from the worksheet (for example, “May I use the toilet?”) and student B can answer however s/he likes. (Yes you may use the toilet. OR no, you may not use the toilet).
2. Then vice-versa, student B will ask a question (for example, “May I eat pudding?”) and student A will answer. The student A and B will play Janken.
3. The student who loses will have to cross out what s/he said during the interview. In this case, if student A loses, student A has to cross out the box that says “May I use the toilet” and if student B loses, student B has to cross out the “May I eat pudding” box.
4. At the end of class or whenever you end the game, ask students to add up the number of squares that ARE NOT crossed out. The student with the most squares NOT crossed out win the game.
5. Reincarnation option: students can interview & play janken with the ALT to revive the crossed-out squares. (one interview/ question per square). Once the student revives the square, the square becomes one of the untouched ones until the student loses the square again. (The ALT should sign the revived square if the student wins the janken).
6. JANKENED–OUT: if a student loses all the 16 squares and did not revive any, then the student loses the game and is 'jankened-out'. OR if students still have 16 squares untouched by the end of the game, then they are jankened-out as well.

Variations and Options:

• Instead of having the losers cross out their box, the winner can circle their box. The first student to have all of his/her squares circled wins the game.
• Play in teams. Have students team up in group of 4-5. They will still do their own interview but at the end of the class, the teams will combine their numbers of untouched squares. The team with the most squares wins the game.

Tips or Cautions:

• It is inevitable that some students will skip the interview part and go straight to the janken, or rather, not janken at all so they won’t lose their squares. If this is the case, set up a point system where students will get extra points added to the # of untouched squares at the end of the game if they interview more than certain #s of students or interview the ALT.

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