Henry Prosack
Kurobe BOE
Games
Up, Down, Left, Right – Look out! It`s Godzilla!
Target audience: ES 1st Grade – game is adjustable for other grades!
Objective: To teach directions (up, down, left, right) effectively with a simple, controllable, and exciting game that will have your students ecstatic to use the target English.
Materials: A CD to sing an English song of your choice, big flashcards of the target English (up, down, left, right); Board Game Materials: 1x2 meter sheet of paper drawn to show a 4x9 A5 rectangle grid (size adjustable to your liking), A5 colored sheets of paper (to contrast against the 1x2 meter sheet of paper), printed-out colored images of your favorite monsters and/or villains that are pasted on the back on some of the A5 colored sheets of paper (ex. zombie, Godzilla, ninja etc.), destinations for the goal of the board game (images of food such as pizza and/or restaurants are fun!), various options for the class`s board game character (I used Mario Kart characters), small-sized magnets to hold the colored A5 pages and board in place on the blackboard.
Procedure:
Greetings: Start with your normal greetings! }Good morning, everyone! How are you?~ Greet with each student!
Song: Sing a song as a fun English warm-up for your students! Be sure to dance!
Today`s Goal: Eye contact, looking at the ALT`s mouth to work on pronunciation, listening, and using a big voice are important personal goals the HRT reiterates to the students. Then, the HRT introduces the English topic of the day: up, down, left, and right.
Teach and Practice New English (up, down, left, right): Check that the students understand the meaning for each word, and commence repeating practice!
Warm-Up – Command Game: This game consists of repeating an English word while doing the accompanying gesture, all mimicking the ALT. Gestures: up = jump, down = squat, left = turn 90° left, right = turn 90° right. Make sure the students are saying the target English while they are doing the gestures. It can be easy for them to do only the gesture.
Main Activity: Fighting Bosses Board Game:
Set up: Place the 1x2 meter board on the blackboard. Second, make a random path from one side of the board to the other using A5 colored pages (bosses and monsters hide underneath some of them!). Then, decide the class`s character to go on the path (I used Mario Kart characters). Fourth, decide the destination or goal of the class`s character and place it at the end of the path. Now, we are ready to play the game!
start / goal*the example above shows the path that the students must take to reach the goal
How-to-Play:
Movement: For each space, the students have to yell in unison the direction their class character has to go. For example, the students would yell, }right! ~ in order for their character to move 1 space to the right. Always check comprehension by asking what the next direction is before having them shout in unison. Have the students repeat after you if necessary.
Battle: The students` character will slowly progress through the path in order to reach its destination. However, there are obstacles that stand in the way of their character and are unknown to the students. Under some of the spaces, monsters and obstacles exist (~7 per game was a good number of bosses, but please use your preferred amount). When the class`s character lands on one of these obstacle spaces, the boss is revealed. The ALT or HRT transforms into the boss, and the students have to defeat them in a game of rock-paper-scissors in order to move onto the next space! All of the students participate by throwing their own rock, paper, or scissors on the count of 3! To keep it simple and fun, I did only one throw per monster and allowed the class to move onto the next space automatically, regardless of the result. Try to play the game more than once with different paths, and introduce new bosses the next game to keep the excitement level on MAX.
Reflection: Discuss and reflect on the lesson by getting student and teacher thoughts. To finish, check comprehension and do brief repeating practice of the target English.
Additional information:
Changing the board size may be more beneficial in order to utilize both right and left in the same game (5x9 or 6x9 as opposed to 4x9 in my lesson). It can be used for different grades and for different target English as well! Please use and/or adjust this game to your liking! My students and I really enjoyed it!
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