Battleships

Game for drilling - 1st, 2nd or 3rd years.

Grammar:
Adaptable for any grammar structure that involves a question with a yes or no answer, as long as the question contains two switchable sections - e.g. "Have you ever (watched) (a horror movie)?".

Materials:
Worksheet handouts - one per student (see right, or other examples at bottom of page).
Two large copies of the grid/whole worksheet.

Time:
20-50 minutes, depending on how much Japanese is used in the activity explanation, whether the grammar is new, and also how fast students catch on to the demonstration game.

Explanation: (taken from Gunma Prefecture's Copy & Go)
This game is simply a variation on the alphabet/number version most of us know from childhood - the goal of the game is to sink your partner's ships before yours are sunk.

Battleships is a little hard to understand, so try playing a short demonstration with the JTE. Hand out one worksheet to each student and split them into pairs. Students secretly draw in 4 boats (not overlapping, in a straight horizontal, vertical or diagonal line) on the main grid of their worksheet:
one 4-square boat: [X][X][X][X]
two 3-square boats: [X][X][X]
one 2-square boat: [X][X]

Now it's time to bomb each other. Students take turns firing a bomb by forming sentences with the entries on the X and Y-axes. The coordinates are checked by the partner. The partner answers with a "Yes, I have" if there is a boat in that square, and "No, I haven't" if there isn't. Both students should note the answer; the bomber on the small X and O map at the top, and the bombed with an exploded boat on their main grid.

If all the squares of a ship are hit, the ship is sunk and must be announced "Sunk!" (or alternatively "Titanic"!).

Blank version

Is the pencil
under the bed?

Did Emi play
soccer yesterday?

Have you ever
washed a car?

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