Japanese+Vocabulary-related+Activities

Students get into teams. Divide the board up into columns (the same number as the number of teams). The first student on each team gets a piece of chalk or a marker. The teacher can call out a letter/character. The first person on each team runs to the board and writes a word in the target language that starts with that letter/character. Then they pass the marker off to the next person in line. That person has to write a word that starts with the letter/character of the last letter/character that the person before them wrote.
 * Shiri-tori**

For example:

ApplE ElephanT TricK KangaroO OldeR

The teacher can call time after about two minutes. Then each team counts the number of correctly-spelled words that they were able to come up with. The team with the most number of words gets a point. You can play several rounds of this. This game can also work with categories (animals, food, classroom objects) or general vocabulary to make it more challenging for advanced students.

This is a variation of a popular game played in Japan on New Years Day. Because a lot of foreign language classrooms have students making flashcards for words, it is really easy to prepare
 * Karuta**

For example, my students made flashcards for greetings. Students can get into pairs, or groups up to four (it is a little difficult for students if the groups are bigger). The teacher calls out one of the greetings and the students compete to slap the correct flashcard first. It is usually pretty easy to tell because their hand will be on the bottom. The winner of that round gets to keep that card. If there is a tie, the students must //jan ken// (rock, paper, scissors) for the card. The teacher can show the appropriate flashcard to make sure that the students are right. As the number of cards on the table get smaller and smaller, the students get more into it because they try to anticipate which one you're going to say (especially the last two). At the end, the students have to count the number of cards they received in the target language to determine the winner.

This game is really easy to adjust because the teacher can either call out the English and the students slap the Japanese word, or vice versa. Additionally, this can be used for a lot of different topics like greetings, colors, numbers, characters, animals...etc.

I'm not sure what is so amusing about stabbing a pig, but the students get a kick out of it. My mentor teacher did this with his second year class but I also got this idea from my TE407/408 teacher a few years back. You can make a template by cutting and pasting simple pictures of pigs onto a piece of paper. I like to draw my own because the students seem to like when it's a little cartoon-ish. You can doing it two ways. You can either use the template to write your own vocabulary words on the pig bodies or you can have students write it themselves. However if they write it themselves, they also have to check the answer themselves because their pigs will probably differ.
 * Poke the Pig**

Students get into pairs. Each student gets a different color marker from each other. Call out the vocabulary word and the students complete to "poke" the pig before the other student. If you have already written your own vocabulary on the pigs, you can easily make an overhead copy. After each round, you can quickly turn on the overhead projector with a pen pointing to the correct pig. At the end, students can count (in the target language) how many correct pigs they poked.

Poke the Pig Template

We play bingo a little differently in our class. Instead of passing out chips and boards, the students make their own. They make a 3x3 grid on a piece of paper and fill out the grid with vocabulary words. Elect a student to cross out two squares which are now considered "free spaces." For some reason, the students will groan no matter what squares are crossed out. Instead of getting three in a row, the students have to cross out every square on their board. When a student calls out the bingo, they have to read each word in order to win. This activity is great because you can check homework while the students are making their boards. It's good vocabulary reinforcement and it really doesn't take that much time once the students are used to the procedure. We play bingo about twice a week and some students have notebooks devoted to their bingo boards. It's also good motivation for them to study.
 * Bingo**