I'm always trying to come up with small-group activities that are still fun with limited English, so in case we're in similar positions, here are some warmup games that I've found worked well! I may add more to this post as time goes on.
All of these can be played with even just one student!
Katakana Listening Quiz
-Time: about 10 minutes
-Materials: worksheet, or just write the katakana on the board for each question and have them circle/write their answer
-This is a lighthearted quiz to get the students thinking about English pronunciation vs katakana and maybe instill some confidence in their listening skills. For each question, the ALT says a word in English that also exists as a loan word in Japanese. In the first 5 questions, the students pick the correct loan word from three options. After that, they try to transcribe the word into katakana on their own.
-There's room for 5 free-write questions on the worksheet, but I shortened it to 3 when we played. The words I used were: jacket, pudding, and the special challenge word, karaoke. Some other ideas: challenge, volleyball, suitcase, pool, present, sandwich, party.
Japan Alphabet Challenge
-Time: 5-10 minutes
-Materials: worksheet, or just write on the board
-A quick alphabet (and gentle reading) challenge. There's a list of prefectures, each with one letter missing - the student reads the name and fills in the missing letter, then also writes it in the blank at the bottom. The missing letters, in order, create the name of another prefecture.
-The answer to the first sheet is Kumamoto; the answer to the second sheet is Miyazaki. It can be more exciting if you give the questions out of order so the letters of the final word appear out of order, Wheel of Fortune-style.
Foods of the World Karuta
-Time: about 10 minutes
-Materials: country cards and powerpoint
-Good to top off a lesson about countries or food. Spread the country cards out on a table and show the students the powerpoint. Each slide has a representative cultural dish on it, and the players try to grab the cooresponding card. You can play with many copies of each flag so everyone gets a chance, or just one - for some dishes it's obvious, but other ones, the students may be guessing the country.
-There are some trick questions in here, like hot dogs and hamburgers being from Germany and California rolls being from America.
Always-Sometimes-Never
-Time: flexible (I have run this one for an entire period before)
-Materials: chalkboard
-A variaton of Four Corners, so it's pretty lighthearted and features some moving around.
-The ALT is the caller in this game. Designate one side of the classroom as Always, the middle as Sometimes, and the other side as Never. Call one participant at a time up to the board, and have the rest of them stand at the back of the classroom. Pick an activity, and ask the players how often the player at the front of the room does this activity. Depending on their answer, the players move to different sides of the room. The student reveals the true answer, and whoever got it right, that's a point.
-You can use a pre-meditated list of activities (hobby words, household chores, daily life verbs, etc), but I typically come up with the word list by having the students and teachers brainstorm things that they like to do in the different seasons, on rainy or sunny days, etc. You can also put a lot more speaking in this depending on your students' level (having the players state their guesses in "xyz-kun sometimes has a picnic" sentences or the student whose turn it is reveal their answer like "I never have a picnic"), but it's still perfectly fun(ctional) if everyone only says sometimes, always, and never.
Spelling Spoons
-Time: flexible
-Materials: alphabet cards and spoons (or an equivalent)
-Based on the card game Spoons. Choose a word, and spread out alphabet cards face-down on the table (make sure there’s enough of each letter for everyone to spell the word). Place the spoons on the other side of the room - there should be one less spoon than the number of players. Players race to collect all the letters in the word by flipping over the cards. If they can’t use the card they’ve flipped over, they put it back face-down. If they can, they take it. You can only flip over one card at a time, but there’s no turn system - once you say go, everybody is flipping cards, all at once. Once a player finishes the task, they can go grab a spoon. The last player to finish is left spoonless.
-This format can also be used for matching vocab words and pictures, building sentences with one card per word, putting the whole alphabet in order, etc. It’s mostly just chaotic and high-energy and low stakes, and involves a little bit of movement, so it’s fun for the students who don’t do as well sitting quietly.
Double Damage
-Time: flexible (3 rounds is ~10 minutes)
-Materials: something for everyone to write on
-I made this one up to practice "I want" sentences. Name a category (what do you want for dinner, what do you want for Christmas...) or a set of choices (ice cream flavors, menu items...) and have everyone write down what/which they want (so they can't change it later), then go around reading them out. It's a game of chance from there. If everyone has written a different answer, you all pass! If you get doubles or triples of the same answer, that's a fail! You could play to see how many rounds you can go in a row without double answers or maybe give points, but it's nice and casual to just see how each round shakes out.
-The options become wider when you introduce verbs - you can use "I want to eat...", "I want to watch...", "I want to go to...", etc. You could probably run this game with other grammar points like "I like", too, but I like "I want" because it's a little more spur-of-the-moment and unpredictable than saying your favorite things.
These look great! I'll definitely use these with my special needs (and regular) classes.
Very nice! Thanks for sharing these stuff!
I'm excited to use these- thank you! =D
I love these warm ups. Thank you for sharing. Is that possible to if you could post the color version of Japan alphabet quiz? My special needs students love something with colors.