Activity

Flip cup

The drinking game adapted for a quick review/warm-up activity

Flip cup.

Items needed:
Paper cups from the ¥100 shop
A big list of questions (1 print each for ALT and JTE)

It is my dream for some of my students to one day, many years from now, be at a party and realise that a considerable number of the games they played at school were actually drinking games!

So, let's play flip cup. In case you don't know, usually 2+ teams line up for a relay race. The cups are filled with beer and each player in turn first drinks their beer and then tries to flip their cup (from the right way up to upside down) by flicking the underside of the cup when it is placed with the edge sticking out from the edge of the table. When they do it, the next person drinks their beer and so on. Please search it on youtube if this isn't clear. It's actually super simple, but quite tricky to do consistently.

The English class version is a little different. I do the teams in rows in the class (some juggling might be necessary to try to make them equal numbers. You can ask for volunteers to fill gaps too if there are some uneven rows). I split the class into 3 (2 rows race at a time. ALT takes one row and JTE the other). In smaller classes I have split the class in half and did a Z shape relay across the two teams.

Each student has a cup and I have a timer ready to check times. First, the front students flip their cups, when they do that successfully they run to the ALT or JTE to answer a question (I find quick super-simple questions work best ("Do you like ~?", "What OO do you like?", "Is there ~?", etc) but it can be any grammar that you want to review. Then when that students sits, the next student behind them can try to flip their cup, when they do they run to answer a question. Repeat until the last student sits, then stop the clock! I note the times on the board and stop each round when one row finishes. Fastest team overall can get a sticker each.

You can conceivably do a knock-out for the fastest teams but I never have as I want it to be a quick-ish warm-up activity.

Enjoy peeps!

Note: Some of the question lists are adapted from Mr Rob Uonuma's question lists. Thanks Mr Rob!

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Submitted by jiggswalsh January 23, 2024 Estimated time: 10-15 minutes depending on class size
  1. Mullberry February 7, 2024

    Hahahah I love this! One of my JTE just asked me to do anything but we wants it to be fun. because all they have left to do in the text book is reading. And this is also for the best behaving greade in the school. I am so down to do this this with them.

  2. hamirareza November 21, 2024

    I LOVE THISSSS! thank you so much for the idea! ^_^

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