Activity

What's in my bag? (School Subjects)

Guess what subjects a student has each day based on items in her backpack.

This was made for Here We Go! 5 - Unit 3: What do you have on Monday? All the images are taken from irasutoya.

In this activity, students will guess what 5 subjects a girl has each day based on the "items" in her backpack. I say "items" in quotation marks because I struggled to come up with obvious ideas for some subjects, so not everything in her bag is school supplies. I used textbooks for some of them because I ran out of time and couldn't think of other ideas, so if anyone has suggestions (especially for moral education) let me know! I think it includes all the vocabulary except for homeroom, club activities and period for integrated study.

I normally preface the game by holding up a few items and asking the students which subjects they correspond to, after reviewing the vocabulary first (English textbook is for English, ruler is for math, etc.) so that they understand what they're expected to do. Then I run the powerpoint. After the girl trips over, it zooms into the ground near her backpack, where the items are thrown about. The powerpoint is structured so that if you click on the fallen item, the corresponding subject will appear on the top part of the slide.

The activity could run anywhere from 5-10 minutes, depending on how much time you give the students to discuss with each other, or how you elicit their answers. I've been giving them time to discuss in pairs, then just asking for the subjects in English by having students raise their hands.

My kids haven't learned the grammar point for this unit yet, just the vocabulary, so I don't have them answer in sentences, but if you're a bit further along then you could ask them "What do you have on Monday?" as though they're in the girl's class, and have them answer "I have ____ on Monday." After the students say the subject in English I ask for the item they guessed from, and click it to reveal the answer!

Files:
Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • School Subjects Bag Guess.pptx (4.21 MB)
  • 41
    Submitted by emchiladas June 29, 2023 Estimated time: 5-10 minutes
    1. Raimonds June 30, 2023

      Thank you for posting this, much appreciated! Will use to review the subjects.

    2. hashiryuta31 June 30, 2023

      Thank you for this nice presentation. I'll make sure to use this in my next class. :)

    3. thisbann June 30, 2023

      This is so nice! I could use it to my 1st grade JHS special needs class. Thank you for this :)

    4. Tokushii July 3, 2023

      Really fun idea thanks!

    5. Gaijingaiden July 4, 2023

      This is really good. I'll try it with my special needs JH kids. We've already been practicing the names of subjects in English, so this is a good extension.

    6. KobeALT July 7, 2023

      Love this. Great job!

    7. Airily July 11, 2023

      This is super cute, thank you for making this! I’m going to use it today with my 5th graders ^^

    8. ReySensei July 13, 2023

      superbly amazing, and you even used Japanese Png clip arts.

    9. instructor September 15, 2023

      Wow! This is amazing. Thank you so much.

    10. Imario82 February 14, 2024

      Really nice idea! Made it a guessing challenge and added some points. Trying it out in an hour. Thanks a lot

    11. juliejuls June 11, 2024

      I love this! So helpful! Thank you <3

    12. White July 10, 2024

      I modified it by hiding a subject and my students loved it. Thank you very much

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