So with greater Covid restrictions back in place at some of my schools I've had to alter my final lesson plans for my 3rd grade students. This was something I had been working on as a replacement for Castle Battle Japan but I've remodelled it from a write and race group game to a row based game.
In the past when I've done this type of activity as a row based game I had two rows teamed up. Both rows answered questions separately but they could win as a unit. You can see this with an earlier activity I called Space Feud. This time I couldn't decide which Yokai to cut so rather than cut it from 4 as I originally intended to 3 I added 2 additional yokai. This worked fine but I included a 3 yokai version because I actually think the game works better that way. It involves less clicking.
How to play.
Introduce the theme and the armies and then go onto the how to play screen. This screen lets you demonstrate with the ALT and the English Teacher.
Explain each row is a different yokai army. I prepare 6 boxes beforehand and each box has a die. The students in the front row each get a box. Click on the start here banner to show the first question. Each front row student gets a chance to answer. Once the student answers they roll the die and if they get a 4, 5 or 6 they can take a castle then sit down If they get a 1, 2 or 3 they can't take a castle and sit down. You click on the castle until the correct yokai appears. I generally make the groups occupy all the empty castles before they can start attacking each other.
Continue until all front row students have answered and sat down then click on the question to see a sample answer and have the students pass the boxes to the student sitting behind them and repeat the process. There are 12 questions so each student in the class should get two chances to play. For kids with a lot of social anxiety about speaking aloud I'd encourage your teaching partner to go to that student and let them whisper their answer.
Like a lot of my activities even with Covid restrictions I want all students to participate and have a chance to play the game and speak up and not just the quicker students as happens with traditional quiz games such as the bomb games. I think this is especially important for the last class of the year.
The small silhouettes have the hyperlinks to the victory screens for each yokai but if you get to the end and there is a tie which is very likely to happen you can click on game over to go to a writing page. This page has a question and the students should write a three sentence answer. I have them bring it to me and I give them stickers if they answer one.
On the victory screens the yokai on the left has a hyperlink back to the play screen and the one of the right has a hyperlink to the writing screen. The Writing Time box has a hyperlink back to the play screen if you went there by mistake.
I give out worksheets before we start and explain that when it is a students turn to speak they don't have to write but while waiting because they must wait a while before their turns they shouldn't waste the time and instead they should write down an answer.
Note this activity is a lot less fun than the write and race versions such as Space War or Gang War or the Race and Speak activities like Battle for Japan but it allows for full participation which is important to me even in this restricted situation. It is cute enough to inspire the students and if you keep the questions reasonable everyone should do okay.
I've included the 4 army template. This was meant for a Write Race activity like Gang War. I was planning on using it to replace Castle Battle. Hopefully I'll get to use this that way next year.
Thanks for this one. I think I'm going to adapt it for my JHS 1nen because we have similar restrictions right now.
I’ll be doing the same over the next few. That and using stuff based on bullet bill’s revenge. I think it can be used well for row based activities.
Hi there! The game looks interesting. I have a question though, how do players loose control of the castles? How do you decide which student row or line wins the game? If possible, please elaborate on this? Thank you.