This cool idea is by @LadyJJams, but I made my own spin on it, including some art, worksheets and rules.
There is:
1) The powerpoint (explains rules with visuals)
2) Hint sheet (a sheet with sentence examples, vocabulary, and spelling of prefectures for the students to use)
3) Sentence Worksheet (where the teams will write their sentences)
4) Pixel-art map of Japan
5) Inkling artwork by me
Notes:
-Only 1 sentence sheet (printed front and back) is needed for each team to share
-I traced a map of Japan with pixels so that it can be filled in using the paint bucket tool in MS Paint. This is because I don't have a tablet at school and the touch screen display in my classroom is not the best for this. So students can easily fill in their color using my laptop & mouse.
-It's best to print two of each of the inkling artwork, so there's 6 of each color inkling. If you have a class of 30 or more, there will be 5~6 students per group. I laminated, hole-punched, and turned them into necklaces with some string. (It's an optional thing, but fun for the kids) Also, it makes it easier to find the team they need to Janken.
There's several versions:
Ver. 1 sentence structure: (Prefecture) has (noun)(to+verb). 2年
Ver. 2 sentence structure: We go to (prefecture) (to+verb). 2年
Ver. 3 sentence structure: In (prefecture), you can (verb). 1年
Ver. 4 sentence structure: It is (adj) for us to (verb) in (prefecture) 3年
Ver. 5 sentence structure: We want to (verb) in (prefecture). 1年
Ver. 6 sentence structure: We are going to (verb) in (prefecture). 2年
Ver. 7 sentence structure: I want you to (verb) in (prefecture). 3年
Ver. 8 sentence structure: I know where (noun) is/are. It's/They're in (prefecture). 3年
Instructions:
1) I changed the original rules for the game a bit. The class will make 6 teams. You should hand out the worksheets and colored inkling props. They have 5 minutes per round to write as many sentences as they can and claim prefectures.
2) They must write a sentence (using the grammar point of your choice) about what they can do in the prefecture they want to claim.
3) They must show each sentence to you and you will give them the OK every time to fill in the prefecture with their color (via MS Paint on your laptop, or touch display) if the sentence is correct.
4) If one team wants another team's already-claimed prefecture, they must rock, paper, scissors for it AFTER you check their sentence. They still have to write the sentence. If the challenger wins, they get the prefecture. If they lose, the team they challenged gets one of their prefectures. (So challenging teams can be risky!)
5) Each person in the group should get a chance to be the "writer," "deliverer," or "researchers," so they should take turns. There will be 4 researchers in a group of 6.
6) Each round is 4-5 minutes. Teams must try to claim as many prefectures as they can in 1 round. Then, you can check who is in the lead in between each round. A full class period is usually 4 to 5 rounds. Towards the end, they will have to Janken a lot!
7) After all rounds, the team with the most prefectures wins.
-Update: It gets complicated if groups write more than one sentence at a time for you to check. (because they have to color in several prefectures at once and it's unclear who claimed it first when they are all writing too many sentences.) You should emphasize that they can only bring you one sentence at a time, which means they can only color one prefecture at a time to make things easier.
-It's best to have a printout of a Japan map (labelled) so that they can check where each prefecture is when they color it in.
I don't usually bother to leave comments but man this is the best thing I've ever found on this website. Just tried it today in my low level SHS and both classes went absolutely wild, even one I've been struggling to get excited for a few weeks. In one, I had 5 boys in a circle screaming 'Hokkaido ga hoshii hito!!!' and doing a 5 way janken (multiple times, they really wanted Hokkaido for some reason lol). I changed the grammar to be 'In ____, you can ______ _________.' and I imagine you could fit this to any grammar you want.
Great way to finish the week. Thanks again. :)
@greenbloke That is great!! I'm so glad it ended up being an enjoyable activity. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it! And definitely, you could use this for many different grammar points I'm sure.
This looks really awesome!!! I definitely want to try it with my kids. My only thing, I don't understand what the inklings are used for? Are they just a fun thing for each team member to have and denote which team is which color? Or are they meant to be used to mark the prefectures in some way? Thank you!
＠anpanswag It's optional! I turned the inklings into necklaces for the kids to wear so they easily know who is on what team and it makes it more fun. But you don't really need them for the game itself.
This game was awesomeeee! Thank you so much for sharing! I used the "to infinitive vers 2", and made some adjustments to make it work for my JHS 2nd years:
I ran the game in 4-5min rounds, and had students change their roles (e.g. writer, researchers, etc.) each round, so that everyone got a chance to do everything. We were able to do 4-5 rounds in 40mins (including explanation of the game and distributing materials).
We practiced a slightly different sentence each round. For example, round 1: 私たちは〜するためにOOに行きます。, round 2: 私たちは〜するためにOOに行きました。, round 3: 私たちは〜するためにOOに行きましょう。, etc.
Agree with the update about allowing teams to check only one sentence at a time. It'd be too hectic otherwise (too many teams would overlap and have to janken each other at the same time). My JTE checked sentences while I managed the map/coloring/janken after.
I used my chromebook tablet and the canvas app on it to color the prefectures (I let my students color their prefectures themselves), and casted my screen onto the big tv in the classrooms so every could see real time updates of the map.
I kept a scoreboard on the blackboard, and did a recap after each round, counting and updating the number of prefectures each team had. It made the game more fun I think, since the students can see who's leading and decide to challenge that team in the next round.
This game was a dream... it got all the students writing and using the grammar point while having fun at the same time. Thank you again for all your hard work in producing the materials and sharing! : )
@wongmm Ooh I like your idea! I think I'll try that at my other school next week actually! Thank you for the suggestions!! Also, I'm glad you and your students enjoyed it too!
Hi there. Thanks so much for this fantastic activity! My students loved this game today :)
I took the liberty to spruce up the intro presentation and simplify the rules a little. I've also cleaned up the Japanese examples. If you'd like to download the files I used please feel free to see them here! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ocMNtfAbXVB6PFmFv-hdboILrMeLPkiI?usp=sharing
-Cam
@biz2y Thanks so much for sharing your additions!!
My kids love this game! Currently adapting it for lower levels as I think they would get a kick out of it too.
Completely my thing but I printed out about 4 of each of the inkling sheets and laminated, put magnets on them and used those to denote who has what prefecture. The game moves much quicker and its easier to count at the end.
This is an excellent game! Thank you so much. Instead of using worksheets we gave each group a whiteboard and they would bring it to the JTE first, then to me to colour the prefecture. This worked well by keeping each group to only one sentence at a time, and each student would rotate in writing. Looking forward to using it in other classes with other grammar points. Thanks again!
This is an absolutely awesome game!! My kids loved it. I have made an America version with version 1 (or2?) and 5 (and a cleaned map which took me hours with Paint ><`). If you'd be OK with it, I'd like to upload it here, with credits to you, of course.
Thank you so much for this amazing game! I tried version 4 yesterday with my 3rd year JHS students and they loved it! It's the first time I've seen them so excited!
Instead of the worksheets, we gave them whiteboards to write their sentences on. In one of the classes, I had two teams who would continuously challenge each other's prefectures instead of taking ones that available lol.
After the first round, my JTE told them not to use "possible" and "fun" anymore because the students would all write "it is possible/fun for us to eat x in x".
If creating fun lessons was an art then you'd be the Picasso of it!!! This is absolute genius!
Just used this with my 1st years... they went WILD XD. Thanks so much for sharing!! I love that this is flexible enough to use for lots of different sentence patterns.
Class was so wild. In a good way. Students were having way too much fun.
It was also hectic for me and the JTE. The JTE was checking sentences, I was in charge of the map. But i dont know where the prefectures are so I often flicked between the PPT Map and the Paint Map so students could tell me where to colour.
We decided to remove the janken because it created more confusion and supervision from a teacher. There was so much going on. Instead, the prefecture just changed colour automatically if a team came up with a correct sentence.
But still a great activity, everyone found it interesting and exciting.
I don't know if you will be able to see this but this is really a great activity! I was just wondering, how did you make that map sharp that you can fill it out in the Paint app?
Anyway to get these pdf worksheets as docx to customise them for other target grammar?
I love this game! This is such a great concept that is very adaptable to any grammar point. All my middle schoolers have enjoyed it so far. I also have small classes, only 4 teams, so keeping up with the rock paper scissors was less complicated since they could sort it out themselves. I wasn't able to use MS Paint, but I did spend some time in PowerPoint making the coloring possible by clicking on squids on the slide show map.