Charades 2
Minefields

This activity encourages full participation, student involvement, and grammar review. Split the class in half and have them turn their desks facing the center. Then have them 'scootch' (I don't recognise this word, but I've included it in the hope that someone else will. Ed.) their desks and chairs back so that the students of each team are closer together. This leaves a nice central aisle for the students to perform in. The first student from team 'A' picks a card and then acts out the action described thereon. Team 'A' tries to guess (in the given grammatical form) the answer, as team 'B' passes around the card (yep, so B-team knows the answer). Points are given that correspond to the number of attempts it took to guess the answer (just like the TV game). Then team 'B' is up to bat, and so it continues. At the end the teachers tally the number of points, which are then exchanged between the two teams.

This activity is a lot of fun for the students, and also fun to watch what gestures they come up with. It's best to stick with one sentence or grammar pattern at a time, as this makes for good practice and doesn't confuse the slower students (too much). First year students used this with sentences like: "I am sleeping under a tree", and "I am making a cake"....

Teaching Tip Offer to find Pen Pals for students. If your school doesn't have a sister-city relationship, contact your hometown junior high school, or one of the international schools in Japan. Although not as fast as e-mail, students can get a lot out of their new friendships. (See 'Pen Pals' in the 'Misc.' section)

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