JHS 2 “Pokemon Catch” School Directions Activity

Hello everyone!! I hope you’re having a nice day ^-^.

This activity was a hit in my junior high school grade 2 classes! The students and the JTEs really enjoyed it.

The goal of this activity is to practice the dialogue on page 29 of One World 2. We used it as part of the lesson to introduce this dialogue for the first time, but you can also use it as a review. However, the dialogue and setting can be changed depending on your own goals.

Materials
Pokemon worksheets
Textbooks
Pencil/pen

Basic Instructions
There are Pokemon in the school, and the students have to find them by asking their partner for the location.

This is an information gap activity where Student A’s missing information can be found on Student B’s sheet, and vice-versa. Student A asks their partner where XX room is, and their partner guides them using the target grammar/vocabulary. In the end, the students try to find and catch all of the pokemon on their sheet.

In Pokemon, sometimes the pokemon is not successfully caught and runs away. I thought it would be fun to add this element to the activity. So, after finding the location, the students do rock-paper-scissors. If Student A wins, they have successfully caught the pokemon. If Student A loses, the pokemon runs away and they have to try again later. The students then switch roles and Student B asks for the location of their desired pokemon. Continue until all of the Pokemon are caught or until you run out of time.

1. Explain the basic premise to the students "There are pokemon in the school!! But where?? You need to catch many pokemon!"
2. Ask the students to make pairs. Hand out the worksheets so one student gets an A sheet and one gets the B sheet. If there is a group of three, give two A sheets and one B sheet (or two B and one A, it doesn’t matter). The students shouldn’t show their paper to their partner, so they can focus on listening to their partner’s instructions instead. But it’s not super serious.
3. Give a demonstration of how to play with the JTE. Show an example of what happens when you win rock-paper-scissors and when you lose, with exaggerated reactions.

Demonstration:
(Student A wants to find Pikachu, who is in the music room)
Student A: Excuse me, where’s the music room?
Student B: It’s on the third floor. Go up the stairs and turn left.
Student A: Turn left on the third floor?
Student B: That’s right! It’s the third room.
Student A: I see! Thank you!
Student B: You’re welcome.

(Do rock paper scissors, Student A wins)
Yay!! Catch! I caught Pikachu!

(As an example, do RPS again, but Student A loses)
Oh no!! Miss!! I did not catch Pikachu…

Have the students talk and check the instructions with each other. One student can volunteer/be volun-told to explain the rules to the class in Japanese. I asked the JTE to check if their description was correct.
The students can now start playing! Go around the room and make sure their English is correct and they’re playing the game properly. Don’t forget to applaud clear English! I liked giving reactions when they catch/miss a pokemon after rock-paper-scissors.

Note: I used the English names of the Pokemon because I thought the students would find the differences interesting. Some teachers were worried that the students would have trouble because they're not familiar with the English pronunciation, but they actually don’t need to say the names at all to succeed in the activity! In one class, we had extra time and tried reading the names together, the students enjoyed it. They got a kick out of "Incineroar" and "Greninja".

Target Grammar (from pg. 29 of One World 2)
First/second/third floor
First/second/third room
Go up the stairs
Turn right/left
Where is ~?
It’s on the ~ floor
It’s the ~ room

Note: This class was the first time the students ever saw the dialogue, so we explained and practiced it beforehand. In case you want to know, the way I did the initial practice was…
1) Ask the students to open their textbooks. 2) Show a skit/demonstration of the target dialogue with the JTE. 3) Ask students to check what they heard in the demo and have one or two students explain to the class. 4) Explain the situation of the dialogue. 5) Listen and repeat with the ALT, students repeat for the textbook example and one more time with the room changed. The textbook example is the teachers’ room, so I changed it to the art room for the second example. 6) Students read the teacher’s part to ask about a new room once or twice, ALT respond with the student’s part. 7) Students read the student’s part and direct the teacher, ALT reads the teachers’ part. 8) Students practice reading the parts in pairs, choosing and changing the room each time.

Note: I know that Pokemon teams usually have 6 pokemon, not 8....but I wanted to lengthen the activity. That's all.

Files:

Small files

Directions Activity.pdf (400 KB)

Directions Activity (1).docx (334 KB)