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Elementary school activities

From Akita Wiki

Contents 1 General use 2 Adjectives 3 Animals 4 Body 5 Colors 6 Conversation 7 Directions, places, and school rooms 8 Emotions 9 Food 10 Holidays 11 Numbers 12 Phonics 13 Self introductions and greetings 14 Shapes 15 Sports 16 Time 17 Worksheets 18 Other 19 See also 20 External links

General use

• TPR.
• Zookeeper.
• Card Grabbing Race. Grab vocabulary cards off the board when called.
• Fly Swatter Game.
• Fruits Basket. Students change chairs when their item is called.
• Gesture Game. The teacher makes a gesture while hidden. Students make their own gesture and guess what it is.
• Musical Chairs. Walk around a circle and sit when the music stops.
• Pac-man Review. Listen for vocabulary and avoid being eaten by Pac-man.
• Chair Race Also knows as "Crash" or "Janken Race Game". Two teams race to say vocabulary words.
• Janken Train. Students play janken and say a sentence.
• Get Down. Make a circle, point to a student who ducks, and quiz the neighbors.
• Match Finding. Find others with the same card.
• What's This? Drawing. Draw an item on the board one piece at a time. Students guess what it is.
• Karuta. The classic Japanese card-slapping game.
• Simon Says. Variations on Simon Says and TPR.
• Bingo. The classic game.
• Go Fish. The classic card game.
• Janken Card Collecting. Play janken and ask questions to win cards.
• Final Fantasy. Play janken and ask questions to win lives.
• Ball Pass Game. Good activity for question response practice.
• Paper Aeroplanes. Students answer questions then try to fly a plane into a basket.
• Red Rover.
• Running Relay Race.
• Rainbow Tag.

Adjectives

• Hand Jive. 1st-6th grade. Dance to Willie and the Hand Jive using adjectives to describe how to dance.

Animals

• Good Pet, Bad Pet. 1st grade.
• Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?. 1st-3rd grade. Read an easy story with colors and animals. Students repeat parts.
• Animal Cracker. 1st-5th grade. Roll dice and make animal sounds.
• Animal Chant. Chant animals in a circle.
• River Crossing. Students compete by saying colors and animals.
• Evolution Game. Also known as "Gokiburi". Students ask each other how they are, play janken, and level up.
• Duck, Duck, Goose!. The classic running around a circle game.
• Pictionary. The classic drawing game.

Body

• Bodyparts and Newspaper. 1st-3rd grade. Touch different bodyparts to newspaper, folding the paper in half when slow.
• The Hokey Pokey. 1st-4th grade. Dance to the Hokey Pokey.
• Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. 1st-6th grade. The classic song.
• Simon Says. 1st-6th grade. Variations on Simon Says and TPR.

Colors

• Color Touch Game. 1st-3rd grade. Touch objects of different colors.
• Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?. 1st-3rd grade. Read a story about animals of different colors.
• Color matching game Combining color with other taught topics.

Conversation

• Sentence Go Fish. 6th grade. Read sentences out loud using a variation of the classic card game.
• English Baseball. Group game using "I like ~." and "You like ~?".

Directions, places, and school rooms

• Follow Directions. 5th-6th grade. Say and follow directions to rooms in the school.
• Maze Solving. 3rd-6th grade. Solve mazes in pairs using directions.

Emotions

• Happy, Happy, Sad. 1st-2nd grade. Emotion Duck Duck Goose.
• Gesture Game. 1st-3rd grade. Students guess how the teacher is.
• How Are You, Mr. Wolf. 1st-3rd grade. Students ask a wolf how he is and are chased when he's hungry.
• Acting Emotions. 1st-6th grade. Act and guess emotions.
• Mr. Potato Head, Happy, Sad, Confused?. 1st-6th grade. Make faces on Mr. Potato Head for different emotions.
• Emotion Charades. 2nd-6th grade. Team charades game.
• Evolution Game. Students ask each other how they are, play janken, and level up until they're great.

Food

• Fruit, Please. 1st-4th grade. Simple fruit shopping.
• Cooking Class. 2nd-6th grade. Cook something.
• Bargaining Game. 3rd-6th grade. Bargain to buy and sell food.
• Color Dice. 2nd-4th grade. Roll a color and number dice and name that many fruit.

Holidays

• Valentine's Day.
• Saint Patrick's Day.
• Halloween.
• Christmas.

Numbers

• Guess that Number! (Price is Right) Bring a variety of items in a number bag (backpack), and have students guess in teams the number of each item.
• Four Corners. 1st grade. Go to corners of different numbers and hope the teacher doesn't choose theirs.
• Duck, Duck, Goose. 1st-2nd grade. A student walks around the circle counting up, tagging someone, and running back to his seat.
• Number Tag. 1st-2nd grade. Teacher calls a number and students make groups of that number or get tagged.
• Rocket Countdown. 1st-2nd grade. Count down to 1 and jump.
• Otedama Game. 1st-2nd grade. Beanbags and counting up to 12.
• Alice the Camel. 1st-3rd grade. Dance to the song.
• Counting Race. 1st-3rd grade. Groups count as fast as they can.
• Listen and Order. 1st-3rd grade. Listen to the teacher say numbers out of order and put cards in that order.
• Midnight. 1st-3rd grade. Students listen for their number and run around a circle.
• Number Guessing Game. 1st-3rd grade. Students guess how many tokens their partner is holding.
• Number Janken. 1st-3rd grade. Janken and do actions some number of times.
• Seven Steps. 1st-3rd grade. Count and clap to the song Seven Steps.
• Steal the Bacon. 1st-3rd grade. Students race to grab an eraser when they hear their number.
• Wave Making. 1st-3rd grade. Count up in a circle, making a wave.
• Bowling. 1st-4th grade. Bowling, keeping score in English.
• Secret Number Game. 1st-4th grade. Guess a student's secret number to move the student to your team.
• Dice Game. 1st-6th grade. Practice numbers by rolling dice.
• Dynamite Clapping Game. 1st-6th grade. Make a circle and count with various rules.
• Snake Eyes. 2nd grade. Roll dice to win tokens from the pot.
• Spoons. 2nd-3rd grade. Students trade playing cards until they get a straight.
• I Doubt It!. 2nd-4th grade. Card game where you lie about what you're playing.
• Number Rocket. 2nd-4th grade. Roll dice and write numbers in order on a rocket.
• The Throne. 2nd-4th grade. Call numbers and move chairs until one team is sitting on the thrones.
• Pass the Number. 2nd-6th grade. Listen to music, pass number cards, and answer questions when the music stops.
• Unlucky Number 13. 2nd-6th grade. Count up to 13 by 1s, 2s, or 3s, trying not to say 13.
• Formula Game. 3rd-5th grade. Form equations that equal a number.
• Around the World. 3rd-6th grade. Call out numbers quickly.
• Writing Race. 4th-6th grade. Race to write numbers on the board.
• Fast Tapping Game. Tap numbers on backs and write the numbers' romaji.

Phonics

• The Syllable Game. 3rd-6th grade. Listen to words and guess the number of syllables.

Self introductions and greetings

• Hello Goodbye. 2nd-6th grade. Listen to and sing Hello Goodbye.
• What's Your Name. Students ask each other their name and give fake answers.
• Name Tags. Good game for 1st visits.
• Hello Circle Game. Good game for 2nd visits.
• Bingo - Self-Intro. 4th-6th grade. Self-introduce, sign names, and play Bingo.
• Collect Signatures. 3rd-6th grade. Self-introduce and sign names.
• Dice Game. 4th-6th grade. Roll dice and say things about oneself.
• Blind Date.
• Balloon Toss.
• Fishing.
• Greeting Ball.
• Greeting Gestures.
• Hot Potato.
• Janken up the Ladder.
• London Bridges Falling Down.
• Meishi Card Game.
• Murder.
• Musical Circles.
• Name Symmetry.
• Picture Finding Game.

Shapes

• Polygon Tag. Play tag where students listen for and run to shapes on the ground.

Sports

• Video Game. Students yell out the name of sports while watching a sports montage.

Time

• Tick Tock. 1st grade. Read analog clocks and clap the time.
• Time Guessing Game. 1st-3rd grade. Guess what time the ALT put on his clock.
• The Grandfather Clock. 1st-3rd grade. ALT acts like a grandfather clock. Students listen for the number of gongs.
• Midnight. 1st-3rd grade. Students listen for their number and run around a circle.
• What time is it, Mr. Wolf. 1st-3rd grade. Listen for the time and play tag.
• Clock Race. 2nd-4th grade. Students lie on the ground to make different times on a clock.
• Writing Race. 3rd-6th grade. Call out a time and students quickly write it on the board.

Worksheets

• Scramble.
• Tic-Tac-Toe For Numbers. Students make pairs to compete in circling and listening.

Other

• Birthday cards. 5th-6th grade. Write birthday cards to friends or family.
• Seasonal Nature Walk. Go for a nature walk, find objects, and learn their English names.
• Weather drawing. 1st-3rd grade. Draw the weather in different cities.
• Whose is this?

See also

• Elementary lesson resources.
• Elementary school topics.
• JHS activities.
• Teaching resources.

External links

• Discovery Education Puzzlemaker. Make word searches and crosswords.
• Englipedia's elementary school page.
• Genki English. Free games and ideas. Materials not free.
• Kids Games. The rules for a lot of fun games.
• Sendai JET Elementary School Page.