Doink!: In this fast-paced gesture game, students throw a Doink ball around the room acting out various adjectives.
Dondake Money:
どんだけぇ~! is said when the speaker is surprised about something done or said. It basically means
Really?!?! In this どんだけぇ~ warm-up game, students blindly bet money that they can spell words.
English Phrases: Students study basic useful English phrases. It works best for first year students, but it is recommended for second and third year students as well if they don't already know the phrases.
Geography: Students try to think of as many countries as possible within 5-10 minutes.
Guests, The: Students listen to a scary story and reach for an eraser when they hear the target word.
Hot Milk Bottle: This is a Hot Potato kind of game, except with chopsticks and a lunch milk bottle.
Imagine If: Students imagine their JTE as a sport, a car, an actor - any number of unusual and interesting things. Then, they guess the sport, car, actor, unusual and interesting thing that best describes the JTE.
Janken, Change, Retire: Students work in pairs to answer two questions in order for their pair to retire from the game.
Janken Taikai:
Taikai is Japanese for
event,
game or
competition. Students play Janken with you/JTE and the winners, losers, and/or tie’er’s must stand up and face the barrage of questions.
Lucky or Unlucky: Ten different things are listed and students must decide if those things are lucky or unlucky.
Mystery Word: Students help the ALT guess the words written on the chalkboard.
Phonic Fun: Students listen to the ALT pronounce words from the worksheet and choose the corresponding words in an 'amida' or 'ghost leg' activity.
Picture Shiritori: Students compete in an exciting row race to see which row can create the most pictures with their matching words in 5-10 minutes.
Pronunciation Pyramid Mummys: This activity is to help the students with difficult minimal pairs. It is a good warm-up activity for any grade at any school.
Pyramid Game: Students have to think of English words, phrases and sentences in order to help other students understand the mystery word.
Quick Draw: Students race to be the first person to 'shoot' their opponent's card in order to steal it.
Read My Lips: Students watch your lips in an effort to understand what you are mouthing.
Riddles Away: Students try to understand the English riddles and solve the problems.
Scrabble Time Bomb: A timer is started and students race to write words on the chalkboard and not to be the student holding the chalk when the timer sounds.
Shiritori:
Shiritori is the name of a popular Japanese game, whereas one person says a word and the next person must say a word that starts with the last letter of the word before them: dog, gate, each, hand, etc.
Sit Down: This variation of the Criss-Cross game has students listening intently to easy questions in hopes to sit down.
Slaps: Students slap each other’s hands for not speaking English.
Spelling Race: Students work in teams to spell words to sit down the first.
Spin the Bottle: Students play Spin the Bottle to review a grammar point or to wrap up a lesson's activity.
Team Hangman: Choose a sentence from the textbook. Students guess letters and try to guess the sentence. It's more fun than it sounds.
Time or Length Word Race: This is a word race game that has students trying to write long words in order to win the race.
Toilet Paper:
Using squares of toilet paper, students offer up bits of information about themselves.
Touch the Word: This is a simple warmup activity where the students listen for a word, find and touch it.
True or False: Students listen and decide whether various sentences are true.
Twisted Pictionary: Students have ten seconds to draw a picture and have their teammates guess it.
Winter Break Bingo: Students ask each other if they did different activities over Winter Break. If the answer is "yes," they sign their names under the activity. The first student to get a bingo wins.
Word Make Up: Students make up words using the letters given on the worksheet.
Word or Sentence: Students choose to receive a 'word' or a 'sentence' to put into Japanese.
Yamanote Line: Students pound on their desks and while practicing various English target vocabulary.
You Have: Get students predicting and practicing "you have" in this rhythmical one-on-one game.