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These are some warm-ups I have used in class. They went over well, figured I share them with you guys. Give them a shot, tell me what you think. Peace.

Play a reverse jeopardy style quiz game to teach about Valentine's Day. Point value is decided on the difficulty of the question. For low level students you may need translation help.

In a group of 4 or 5, take turns choosing the questions (Can teach "I would like the question for _____ points.) The students have 20 secs to find an answer. If they can't the question is opened up to all groups. (ready, go! First group to stand or ring a bell can try to answer). The group to answer correctly keeps the card. At the end, add the points to choose a winner.

Can be followed by description of V Day or talk about the history.

I used this for the deaf school, but can be used at non-special needs schools as well.

Some pictures, worksheets, and activities related to Valentine's Day. They can be used as is, or to make karuta cards, or other activities.

Similar to the game "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" This activity has a distinctly Christmas theme. Can be done in groups or individually, depending upon level and student preference.
Students are given a MISSING poster and a "police report" as well as their own "clue" paper in order to keep track of the countries visited and clues given.
The first clue is given on the "police report," leading them to find the first country by looking for key words in the short paragraphs about Christmas traditions for that country. Once Ss find the first country, they can read the clue pasted on the back of the country description. Ss read the next clue and go from there. When Ss think that they know the answer, they tell the JTE or ALT where Santa's sleigh is.

Warm up: your choice

Intro: introduce vocab needed for activity (if any)
form groups
pass out posters, etc.
　　　　
Go over instructions and read the first clue together. Then, set Ss loose to solve the mystery. Hints may be necessary and some monitoring is necessary as well to keeps some Ss on task.

I gave out Christmas stickers when the Ss found the sleigh, but tis not necessary.

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.

Basic lesson on how to write an essay.

Sarah Carter made this lesson plan for 2nd year High School students, but it could be used for other grades depending on their level.

These were skit starters originally prepared for the High School Summer Camp that has now been discontinued. At any rate, these can be used in any way that you want, either to help you write skits for your students to practice with, or for your students to use as inspiration in skit writing or improvisation.

In the summer camp, one role was played by an ALT or JTE to push the conversation, and the other role was played by the student. The students had about 5 minutes before beginning to look up words that would be useful to them, but with exception of the first few lines, the skit was improvised. Using gesture was also encouraged.

See attached files.

Notes:

This was also just after Christmas, so at the end I played "Auld Lang Syne" and asked the students when they hear the song in Japan. I then explained when we play/sing the song in the USA.

See attached lesson plan.

Materials:
Worksheet (I made 2 colums, 1 that said USA, and one that said Japan)
Christmas song
Christmas song lyrics

This is good for high school, English Club, and eikaiwa classes.

Materials:
Board game
Game pieces (I usually use foreign coins)
Dice

What to do:
Make a board game with different questions and topics in each square, or questions tailored to a specific topic or subject. You can change the level depending on who you will use the game with. If the questions are fairly easy, you can ask 1st year to say only 1 sentence for each, 2nd years to say 2 sentences, and 3rd years to say 3 sentences, or tailor it depending on the class. For high level eikaiwa you can ask them to speak as much as possible about the topic.

The first person in each group to reach the finish will win. Groups of 4 to 6 people are good, depending on class size. The fewer people, the more chance each student will have to speak.

Even my classes that are not interested in English enjoyed this. I also told them that if the JTE or I heard them speaking Japanese they would have to go back to the start. I mostly just gave them warnings rather than send them back, but it did encourage them to try to use English.

See attached lesson plan for more details.