Friday the 13th speaking activity?

9 comments

1. Be carful with Ouiji boards of the Japanese version Kokkuri. People are very superstitious and it can cause issues. It was one of my bad alt ideas when I first got here.

2. With a small vocabulary it’s tough to even explain with Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day, especially since it’s pretty hard to pinpoint the actual reason.

   Maybe you can expand on “unlucky” things like walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, having a black cat cross your way, wishing someone “good luck” inside a theater, opening an umbrella indoors, etc.

   And ask for them to give you some similar examples of things that are considered to be unlucky in Japan like the numbers 4 and 9, placing chopsticks straight up in a bowl of rice, that kind of thing.

   But try to end on a happier note so that you don’t send your kids home for the weekend obsessed with bad luck! You can end your class talking about stuff that is considered lucky like four-leaf clovers, a rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe, the number 7, etc.

3. A yokai / japanese monster themed version of liar’s poker? Like you give everyone a card or fold a piece of paper like a name plate to stick on their desk with their identity and they can’t see it but others can and they have to ask yes/ no questions to guess which monster they are.

4. True or false style Powerpoint about superstitions from many different countries. Then have them think and talk about what Japanese superstitions they know.

5. Not in Japan — yet haha looking into the Jet program currently, but I do teach middle schoolers a lot.

   Folk tales. Find an English translation to something they may already know (like maybe the snake woman one(nure onna ((sp))? Don’t know how middle school appropriate that one is. But it ties in with superstition while still not causing issues bc it’s Japanese culture!

   Just a thought? When I do my reading groups (when I’m a para for 3rd graders (a teaching assistant) I usually have kids read a sentence to me and I help them along the way and then we talk about what we learned.

6. Out of the box suggestion. ChatGT is my new go to for ideas. The more specific you are, the better. I know it isn’t the best solution but it has helped me out in pinch many times.

   The Snowball is a great game. Give everyone a piece of paper. Write a random adjective and a random noun. You’ll end up with some funny combinations “quiet America”, “noisy spaghetti”, “happy shark” and so on. You can also pre teach a bunch of new vocabulary, elicit some etc if you have time.

   Screw the paper up into a ball, split the class into 2 sides of the room and have them throw the snowballs at each other. Then go back to your side of the room, find a partner and they have to act, gesture and describe the words. Obviously they are banned from saying the words on the sheet, or spelling them (but they can give hints – it starts with a b, and has three letter.) At least one of them will be speaking, hopefully both.

   You can play this as a version called Hot seat. Make 2 or 4 teams (works better with 4). And have a volunteer from each team come up and face the class (they can’t turn around to see the blackboard) you write a combination of an adjective and a noun on the board. The teams have to gesture/describe /shout associated words to make the volunteer say the two word combination. You could steer that towards Halloween content.

7. On Friday the 13th ___person____ (bad thing) ___person____ because ___reason____ .

8. * Do you believe in ghosts? (chances are high they do)

   * Have you ever seen a ghost? (chance that some kid will claim they have, or know someone that has. Last time I did this, it sparked a pretty lively discussion)

   * Have ever seen anything you can’t explain?

   * Superstitions in different countries (match them up)

9. Get some dog poop. In a bag preferably.

   This is your future life in Japan.

   Point.

   Sit down.

   1st place.