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Teach your students how to make Christmas cards.
Note: I credit the snowman to Bahia. Thanks!

See attached

This isn't really so much a plan, but something that seems to be working well, and is enjoyable for students and teachers alike. Essentially students pick new names for themselves and make name cards, from that point on they'll be referred to as that in class. Teachers may also pick names (I currently teach with Scarlett-sensei and Xavior-sensei). It might also be fun to pick out a new Japanese name for yourself (I'm 'Akira').

I grabbed a list of the top 100 baby names from last year in the US and 'translated' them into katakana. I had a couple Japanese teachers go over it, but they may have missed a few... so some of the names might not be 100% accurate. In any case I suggest reading the list out loud so the students can hear the names.

I also made tried to make it clear that this was optional, and I knew lots of people with Japanese names in the US. If they didn't want a new name that was okay. In addition they were free to pick names not on the list. I was expecting to get a few kids to want to be named "Spiderman" or "Jack Bauer", but only one student picked an odd name: "Pork" (he was clear he wanted it to mean 'pig-meat').

As a fun side-activity I've begun researching the meanings of the names they've chosen. Xavior-sensei (for the record, he chose that spelling) was disappointed to find out that his name actually means "New House". I think he was expecting something more sinister.

There are three levels of time BINGO included in the attachments. These are intended as supplementary materials to be used after the children have been taught how to read time in English.

For all levels, it is suggested that you have the children ask "What time is it?" in English before giving them the time.

Level 0
This level can be used after the children have mastered the numbers 1-12 as it contains only the time at the hour. Since it's very easy to get BINGO at this level, it is suggested that winning should consist of getting two BINGOs. Two grids are included on this A4 sheet.

Level 1
This level can be done after the children have mastered the numbers 1-19.

Level 2
This level can be done after the children have mastered the numbers 1-59. This level is the most difficult level and contains numbers that are easily mistaken for one another. For example, 3:30 and 3:13 are both included in this version.

The object of this is to practice the English style of romaji.

The kids are generally taught the Kunrei-shiki or Nihon-shiki style of romaji at elementary school. Unfortunately, while useful to Japanese speakers, these stlyes are not very intuative to English speakers who have never learned Japanese. Thus, most words that have come into use in English use the Hepburn style of romanization. The kids have to learn to use this at the jr. high level.

There is a table of the different styles here on Wikipedia.

After explaining this to the kids and getting them to practice with their own names, this is a quick follow up. All of the words can be used in English, though some of them are not popular words depending on where you live. Feel free to adjust the words to your own region.

The explanation at the top of the page is about how there are some words that have their roots in other languages and then asks what the meaning of each of the English words below is.

After getting all the answers sorted out, it's a good idea to go over how the words are pronounced in English, and how the meaining is sometimes slightly different.

This is a very quick little worksheet. It shouldn't take most of the students more than five minutes.

Give each of the kids a copy of the attached worksheet. The object is to draw a line from the uppercase letter to its corresponding lowercase letter.

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.

After introducing the past tense, explain that there are some general rules that help when writing past tense forms of verbs. (This is for verbs that end in ed.) Give all the students one of the attached sheets and go through the rules with them. After explaining the rules let them try to make the past tense forms of the words on the sheet. Walk around and help the kids while they do this.

The basic rules:
ほとんどの動詞にedをつける。
- Hotondo no doushi ni 'ed' wo tsukeru.
- For most verbs you add ed to the end.
動詞の語尾(ごび)がeなら、dだけをつける。
- Doushi no gobi ga 'e' nara, 'd' dake wo tsukeru.
- If the verb ends in 'e', just add 'd.'
語尾(ごび)が子音字(しいんじ)+ yなら、yをとって、iedをつける。
- Gobi ga shiinji purasu 'y' nara, 'y' wo totte, 'ied' wo tsukeru.
- If the end of the word is a consonant plus y, take off the 'y' and add 'ied.'
語尾が一つの母音字＋一つの子音字なら最後の子音字をもう一つ入れてedをつける。
- Gobi ga hitotsu no boinji purasu hitotsu no shiinji nara, saigo no shiinji wo mou hitotsu irete 'ed' wo tsukeru.
- If the end of the word is a single vowel plus a single consonant, double the consonant and add 'ed.'
（例外動詞もありますけどそれらを一つ一つ覚えればよいでしょう。）
- Reigai doushi mo arimasu kedo sorera wo hitotsu hitotsu oboereba yoi deshou.
- There are of course exceptions to these rules, but you can learn those one by one.

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.

After giving the students some intstruction on what plurals are, explain that there are some general rules that help when writing plural forms of nouns. Give all the students one of the attached sheets and go through the rules with them. After explaining the rules, taking care to make sure that they know that a vowel+y at the end of the word does not follow rule 3, let them try to make the singular and plural forms of the words on the sheet. Walk around and help the kids while they do this.

The basic rules:
ほとんどの名詞にsをつけるだけ。
- Hotondo no meishi ni 's' wo tsukeru dake.
- For most nouns you just add 's.'
名詞の語尾(ごび)はs, ch, sh, x, zなら、esをつける。
- Meishi no gobi ha 's', 'ch', 'x', 'z' nara, 'es' wo tsukeru.
- If the tail end of the noun is 's', 'ch', 'sh', 'x', or 'z', add 'es.'
語尾(ごび)は子音(しいん) + yなら、yをとって、iesをつける。
- Gobi ha shiin purasu 'y' nara, 'y' wo totte, 'ies' wo tsukeru.
- If the tail end of the word is a consonant plus 'y', take off the 'y' and add 'ies.'

There are of course more rules than this, but trying to memorize more than this at once will really give the students a headache. Plus the words that they encounter that follow other rules are rare. More likely they will see things like child -> children which don't follow any pattern. They'll just have to memorize those ones.

Teachers often ask about 'o' being included in rule 2. I didn't put it in because many of the words ending in 'o' that the kids know do NOT take 'es' to make them plural. (video, piano, radio)

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.

Alphabet bingo is a good warm-up game to play with Sho 4,5,6 and Chu 1 students. Hand out one of the attached worksheets. Have the kids fill in their sheets with letters. Play bingo.

Having a deck of cards with the alphabet letters on them and letting the kids draw a card and call out the letter to the class is a good way to get the kids more involved.

There are two bingo grids on each of the attached sheets. One sheet is for CAPITAL LETTERS and one is for lower case letters.

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.