Activity

Janken Character Cards

80 printable character cards used for conversation activities. The cards rock, paper, or scissors on them so students can read them and then win more cards or lose them to others.

There is:
1) a powerpoint with the printable cards on it. There are 80 characters. You can print it front and back because there is a design for the back (so it's not see-through) There are 10 cards per page, so in all, it's only 8 pages.

I laminated and cut them.
that part was easy.. it was putting together all the pictures and descriptions that took forever T~T but you don't have to do that haha


Instructions:

1) Each student gets one character card in the beginning (it's a secret from their classmates).

2) The card has the character's name, a rock-paper-scissors symbol in the middle, and three sentences (the 1年 version), or what it is -a dog, a human, an alien, etc.- and two sentence options (3年). 3rd grade must make the sentence by using the card -> "Hello Kitty is a cat who lives in London" but they can choose between the two options. 1st graders only have to read the 3 sentences.

UPDATE: I've added one more version for 1年. It's for gerunds. They have to read two sentences on each card, but change the verb to -ing form.

3) Basically, they will walk around ad introduce their characters to each other. Both people have to read the card to each other before they say "1..2...3..." and show their cards to each other. Whichever person beats their opponents card at rock, paper, scissors gets their opponent's card.

4) I have the deck of extras sitting at the front of the room. If students lose their only card, they can draw another one from the deck and keep playing.

5) After 5 minutes, ask the students how many cards they have. The person with the most cards is the winner, and I give them prize stickers.


The large cards in the powerpoint are so you can print two large ones to demonstrate with your JTE.

The students REALLY liked this activity. They kept wanting to play it again and again, but it's good practice for reading / using the grammar points too, so I think it was really fun.

Files:
Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • Character Janken Cards 1年.pptx (8.57 MB)
  • Character Janken Cards 3年.pptx (8.65 MB)
  • Character Janken Cards (gerunds).pptx (8.65 MB)
  • 79
    Submitted by Celestar129 October 20, 2023 Estimated time: About 5 minutes per round
    1. genieg October 24, 2023

      I love that you include so many characters. Thank you so much for your effort. i can't wait to use it.

    2. Celestar129 October 24, 2023

      @genieg I'm glad you like them! I think the kids just loved seeing what characters there were haha.

    3. kusobaba October 25, 2023

      These are great. Really nice cards and so many characters I've never heard of. Good learning experience for me and I'm sure the kids will love them. Thanks.

    4. jojo27 November 1, 2023

      Great warm up! The students seemed to really like it!

    5. crspence17 November 1, 2023

      This is awesome! Thank you so much

    6. HeyItsMori November 2, 2023

      Great material! Thank you for sharing them. Can't wait to use them in class! :)

    7. hannahacorn November 6, 2023

      This is literally so cool. Using it with my 2nd and 3rd years! Thank you so much for sharing!

    8. kyamada November 17, 2023

      I used this activity with my 1st year students and they loved it. They kept asking to play again, even after the bell chimed. Thank you so much for your hard work!!

    9. Angela December 5, 2023

      I was looking for an activity about plural verbs and thank God for this. I'll edit them and change some words so students can change the verbs by adding s and es. Thanks a bunch!

    10. shinjirarenai May 29, 2024

      Seriously the best!! My students love playing this for a warm up. The competition gets really fierce!
      I made a simple version for my ES students and it's been a hit as well. Also I've made a template and I'm letting them create their own original character cards to add to the deck to really amp up the excitement!

    11. nisaa1234 September 20, 2024

      Really the best! I want to use these cards with my JHS third grade students. I just wanted to ask if there is any special meaning to they symbol of rock? not a fist but a rock sign? I'm sorry in advance for not getting the nuance is it a cultural thing? Anyways, thanks a lot for your hard work!

    12. hamirareza October 21, 2024

      @nisaa1234 it's a rock sign as in rock and roll fist sign ^_^ it's a pun of sorts.

    13. joyceisachoice December 11, 2024

      Just wanna report that I was at an English Day Camp run by another ALT and he repurposed these cards to play apples to apples, where the prompt in the middle were various adjectives (cute, strong, rich, etc) and the students had to give reasons why their card was the perfect match (they had a deck of 7 to choose from). It was such a riot! And a great way to practice superlatives/comparatives.

      These cards are super well designed and can be used to play a lot of fun games!

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