Comparing Pokemon

I used this activity for the student's first time learning the ~er comparison grammar and only used the ~er grammar. It can be used with the other grammars too if you want.

Materials

• Pokemon Powerpoint (provided or make your own)

How to Play

1. Review or teach the target grammar before playing this game. The textbook should have a page (probably at the back) with a list of all the adjectives, so have them look at that while playing the game.
2. Show the example slide with Magikarp and Gyarados (the names are in Japanese for the students to use). Ask the students what kind of sentences they can make about the two pokemon. For example, "Magikarp is smaller than Gyarados." After the students (hopefully) say a few sentences, remind them of other adjectives. For example, they probably won't use "scary" or "cool," but those are good words to use.
3. Split the class into groups and have them decide their speaking order.
4. One student from each group stands up, and it's a race to make new sentences about the pictures. The first new sentence gets 5 points, the second new sentence gets 4 points, etc. If the students cannot think of a new sentence, they can repeat what another student said and get 1 point. So for each round, the lowest number of points they can get is 1. After the student has said a sentence, they can sit down. Of course, their teammates can help them.
5. Once the students have started to get the hang of making sentences, change the rules a little to make it harder. For example, have them make 2 sentences instead of 1 or tell them they can't use certain adjectives. Making 2 sentences is extra difficult because the students have to remember what the other students said if they want more than 1 point (it also makes your job more difficult since you need to remember too).
6. The team that has the most points at the end is the winner.

Other Notes

• For the first few pokemon, I used ones from the same evolution line (like magikarp and gyarados). But, for the ones that come later, I chose pokemon that are totally unrelated because it usually helps them to be more imaginative. If you add more pokemon, think about if you want them to be able to compare their size or not. Making sentences becomes more difficult when the students can't use "big, small, or large" as their adjectives.
• If you use this with the "more" grammar, be sure that there are enough adjectives for the students to choose from. The point system rewards creativity, so you don't want them to feel like there's only a couple words that they can use.
• The Japanese names are for the students to use in their comparison. I didn't put the English names because that just becomes another thing for all the students to worry about.
• The slides with 3 pokemon are meant to be used with the ~est or most grammar points. If you decide to use this activity with multiple grammar points, change the order of the slides so that the students have to answer those questions. Since my students hadn't learned that grammar yet, I moved those slides to the bottom.

Files:

Medium files (requires an account to download) -

More information

Comparing Pokemon.pptx (27.8 MB)