Game in Japanese

How old are you? Genki English Bingo!

Target Grade: 1-6
Target English: "How old are you?"

The traditional version of bingo is OK-ish, but the kids just listen and don't speak. But in this version they get plenty of valuable speaking practice!

right click over the image and select "print" for an A4 copy.

Preparation

Teach the kids the "How old are you?" song (it's very funky and gets the question stuck in the kids heads!) and show them the "How old are you?" mini lesson. Then...
Traditional bingo is crazily popular, but doesn't provide much English other than a touch of listening.

With the Genki English version the kids get tons of English speaking practice but still love it because they get to play bingo at the end! Here's the video we took at the workshop the other day ....

Part A:



1. Give each kid a piece of papert.
2. In the middle square they write an age. Not their own age, but any age between 1 and 12. If the kids are all tending to write the same age, use dice to choose. Or tell them to write an age between 1 and 12 and then swap sheets with the person next to them!
3. They then go and ask their friends "Hello, how old are you?"
4. The friend responds by saying "I'm... " and then the age that is written in their middle square.
5. The person who asked then writes this age in one of his/her vacant places on the worksheet.
6. If they already have that age written down they must pass and go and find someone who has a different age!!
7. The game finishes when everyone has filled all 9 squares.



Part B



1. Everyone sits down in their seats.
2. You play the Ball and Music game.
3. When the music stops everyone asks the kid with the ball "how old are you?". And they respond.
4. If anyone in the class has the age they cross them out on their bingo card.
5. The first person to get 3 in a row wins!! (Or whichever bingo rules you wish to choose!)
6. Do the "How old are you?" song to finish on a high!


Instead of using a ball with the music, you can use a mobile phone. You can buy them for about 100 yen at second hand stores, and it really adds something to the game.

Make sure the kids write down a variety of ages. For example if everyone puts down "7" then it'll get pretty boring!!!.

For part B, another way to select the students is to have them make a big circle. At one side their are a pair of desks they must walk through, and at the other side of the circle there are another two desks to walk through. You play some music and the kids walk. When you stop the music, the kids stop. One kid should be in between each pair of desks. These two kids then do the conversation.

For more advanced classes you can increase the complexity of the conversation to include "My name is...." "What do you do?" "How are you.?." "What's the weather like today?" as a bit of small talk before the main "How old are you?". Also have a look at the "What do you like?" bingo game.

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Readers' Comments

Thanks for the game! Bingo is so much more interesting now!
When I played the game I found that the kids got Bingo really quickly because I had told them to only put in numbers from 1 to 12, to make it a bit harder for my older students I think I will give them any age between 1 and 25.
The telephone idea came in really handy and the students had alot of fun with my make shift plastic banana and aubergine telephones!! Thanks - Carrie


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