This lesson will introduce the 3rd graders to "How are you?" and how they can answer that question, which you can then use at the beginning of every class, so this is an important one for them to master!
First, I scoured the depths of the Internet in order to find a picture of Pikachu in ten different moods (most included in Let's Try; some not, but I thought they should be included since they're common answers). Use these pictures to introduce the ten words, then go through them again to have the students practice saying them.
Next, there are pictures of various game and anime characters in different moods. Students should look at the picture and say the word for their mood. You can frame this by talking to the TV and asking "How are you, Kirby?" or something, and then the students answer as if they were the character.
Next, onto the main activity for the class: Forehead Cards. The instructions for this are all laid out in Japanese (with furigana) in the PowerPoint, so it should be crystal clear to the students, but in my experience, someone always finds a way to misunderstand something. Have the homeroom teacher help with any students who aren't extremely clear with the instructions. I also use a picture of myself in the instructions, so you'll have to replace that with a picture of you (or a clipart person or something if you don't want to use yourself).
This is a group activity, so first, have the students make groups after the instructions are finished. Then, give each group one deck of cards. There are 10 different cards (see attachment), and you'll have to laminate and make the cards beforehand. I typically make one deck 30 cards and make enough for 10 groups, meaning printing and laminating 30 sheets total, but you can use your own discretion for how many cards in a deck you think is necessary. Along with the deck of cards to each group, give every student a copy of the cards sheet (to use as the answer sheet) as well as a grammar sheet (so they can look at it if they forget how to say the stuff in English). Once the students have everything, they should rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. Then the winner should take a card from the bottom of the deck (because the paper is thin and you can kind of see the content if you take from the top) and put it directly on their forehead to show the other group members. Starting from the person sitting on the left of the person who took the card, they should give the person the hints written on the card. Each student should say one hint (for example, "You are angry!") and then continue clockwise around the group to continue giving hints. Once all hints are given, the person who took the card has ten seconds to say which character it is. If they answer and are correct, they can take the card and receive a point. If they answer incorrectly, or don't answer within ten seconds, they return the card to the deck. Then, the group plays rock, paper, scissors again to see who gets to go next. It continues in this way until the time limit is up (15 minutes I find is a good length). The person with the most cards at the end can receive a sticker (or whatever reward you want to give them).
I've included a lesson plan written in English and Japanese, so your Japanese homeroom teachers can read it and know exactly what the plan is.
The font used in this is UDデジタル教科書. It should be on all of your school computers, but I don't have it on my personal computer at home. I prefer it because it has the handwritten lowercase "a" as well as other handwriting differences, but doesn't look like garbage like Comic Sans. If you don't have it, there might be some formatting discrepancies.
Credit to the respective copyright holders for use of the characters' pictures.
Credit to flaticon.com for the use of the card icons.
@sui892001 So they have to guess the character's emotion, not the character? Like the first hint is "You are..." but then you say the person who took the card has ten seconds to say which character it is? So what are they answering with, ex.I am happy(emotion) or ex.I am Kirby(character)?
@hotokeki Sorry for the late reply. My intent was that the emotions are the hints and the characters are the answers. So the other members give hints ie "You are happy" " You are cold" and the person guessing answers with the character ie "I am Yoshi."
@sui892001 Thank you for the reply! I'm kinda starting to understand it more. But how are they guessing characters only based on emotions? Do you tell them which characters there will be, beforehand? How are they supposed to guess, for example, that hot and excited- is Pikachu? The hints are helpful in terms of learning vocabulary, but I'm a little confused on how it hints at the character...Sorry, but I hope you can clear that up! It looks like it'd be a good game!
This is a nice idea but I wonder if it's a little unnecisarily confusing for students. The goal of the Unit is "How are you?" "I'm " but in this game their dialog will be "You are ." "I am ."
I wonder if there's a way to alter the rules a little so that they can say the target stucture instead. I can't think of a way to do that without fundamentally changing the game though.
I haved used a couple of these activities with my special needs class and they are going over SO well! I truly appreciate all the work you put into these! If you have or make more, I would be very very grateful if you could share those as well, but only if you do ;P My special needs class is.. not easy, having 8 students from 1st to 6th grades with very different abilities and skills, so the fact that these have worked really nicely has helped me immensly, thank you again!
@hoteki (sorry for the late replay again, I wish it would email me if I have a reply >.>) You print off the answer sheet (the cards sheet) and give it to all the students, so they're looking at the sheet with all the cards on it while guessing the answer. Only one character on the sheet has the combination of the two emotions, so by listening to what the emotions are, they should be able to tell which character card they've drawn (since they are looking at the answer sheet while guessing).
@Bonjure289 You are welcome! I've got one full premade 45 minute lesson made for each of the 3rd Grade textbook (Let's Try 1) units, so take a look at those if you haven't already. I've got three so far uploaded for the 5th grade textbook, but I ran out of time at the end of last year as I was editing and updating those with better pictures, more explicit instructions, and larger fonts, so the rest of that textbook will be uploaded later, as I've got time to update my old lessons into higher quality presentations. Might be a bit, but I'll get to it. XD
Wonderful cards!
This was fantastic! Thank you so much :) You're REALLY good at predicting what parts of the game will be sticky and explicitly instructing the rules beforehand, thanks again!