I originally made these cards to use at elementary school but realized I could also use them for the second grade Sunshine textbook program 3-1. My set includes a lot of the jobs students learn about but I also added a few silly ones like muscle man, NEET, and impostor.
So this activity revolves around the classic Japanese game karuta. It's one of those games that basically everyone here in Japan knows how to play but here is how I do it. Students make groups, I use groups of 4, and students take their set of cards and spread them face-up on the table. Everyone should be able to easily reach the cards. Once, everyone is set up I'll explain my two rules. The first rule is that if you touch a card at the same time, you must play rock/paper/scissors. Winner takes the card. The second rule is that if you touch the wrong card, you can't play for one round. After the rules I then have my students put their "hands up." At elementary I use this cute rhyme I learned from another teacher, "Put your hands on your head" clap clap. But I don't do that at junior high. After that we are ready to start and for this karuta I use a keynote presentation. It's very simple but it will start with, "I want to make delicious bread." "I want to be a baker." Students race to touch the correct card and whoever is first or wins rock/scissors/paper gets the card. Whoever has most cards at the end wins. If I have extra time I'll have the students play again but this time instead of me leading the game they take turns describing a card which the other students in their group try to grab. The example slide after karuta is for students to reference when they do this.
I'll include the cards and the powerpoints I made as well. There are two powerpoints that are mostly the same. I believe we played karuta a second time and I made a similar presentation just swapping around and adding a few slides.There is also a file for a worksheet I made that has all the occupations in Japanese on the front and some practice problems on the back. The powerpoints contain the answers for the worksheet if you want to finish up with a little review of the worksheet. I made this around the time the Super Mario movie came out and the final slide after the worksheet wrap-up should be a link to the "Peaches" song by the great Jack Black as Koopa.