[Playable from lower grades] Japanese language games and activities
In elementary school language arts, there’s so much to learn—hiragana, katakana, kanji, and more.
Kids can get overwhelmed by how much they have to memorize and start to dislike studying… but before that happens!
How about easing their resistance with Japanese language games that are both fun and educational, so they can learn through play?
We’re introducing plenty of language games, activities, and apps focused on kanji and characters.
Some games are great for parents and children to enjoy together, so we also recommend trying them on weekends!
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- [Rec] Interesting! A roundup of wordplay games
- Fun quizzes for elementary school kids: a collection of questions everyone can enjoy together
- [Easy] Quizzes That Elementary School Students Can Solve! A Collection to Nurture Wisdom
- [For Elementary School Students] Cipher Quiz: Fun Puzzle Riddles
- [For Elementary School Students] Recommended Riddle Collection
- A game where you can learn the multiplication table while playing
- [Elementary School] Quick and Easy! Indoor Recreational Activities Perfect for Lower Grades
- Fun activities for junior high school students. Recreation games.
- [For Elementary School Students] A Collection of Games and Activities You Can Enjoy on Zoom
- Easy Riddles for Elementary School Students
- [Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
- [For Kids] Fun Either Way: A Collection of Rock-Paper-Scissors Game Ideas
[Playable from Lower Grades] Japanese Language Games and Activities (1–10)
Doraemon: Parent and Child Kanji Play
This is an app game that helps you learn kanji through the fun world of Doraemon.
It features kanji taught from first to third grade in elementary school, and lets you study various aspects of kanji such as readings and stroke order.
The questions are simple and divided by grade level, so you can choose ones that suit you.
Another highlight is the review feature for kanji you’ve encountered, with explanations that include words using those characters.
It’s an app where you can enjoy both kanji explanations and descriptions of Doraemon’s secret gadgets together.
Kanji Stroke Count Relay
This is a simple game that uses the number of strokes in kanji.
Decide the order of play: the first person says a one-stroke kanji, the next person a two-stroke kanji, and so on, increasing the number of strokes in turn.
Set a time limit per person; if someone can’t answer within the time, they’re out.
You can form groups and compete to see how far you can go, or adapt various rules to suit the situation—that flexibility is part of the appeal.
It’s also a good opportunity to check the correct stroke order and stroke counts with others, since those are often remembered incorrectly.
Kanji Ateji Composition
This is a game where you create sentences using kanji readings.
Participants come up with simple compositions, write them using kanji as phonetic substitutes, and then read each other’s sentences.
It’s fun just to figure out how each part is read, but it might also be interesting to turn it into a game where you compete on the number of kanji used.
As the game progresses, you can sense each person’s unique way of thinking—for example, one person might write “ta” as 田 while another writes it as 多.
It’s also an ideal game for helping you learn kanji readings.
[Playable from Lower Grades] Japanese Language Games and Activities (11–20)
Bob Jiten Kids
It’s a game where you describe words and have the people around you guess them, helping you develop your ability to explain and to think.
Draw a card from the deck and describe the word written on it without using any katakana.
If someone else hears your description and guesses correctly, they earn a point, and then that person draws the next card and gives the explanation.
The words on the cards are basically loanwords typically written in katakana, so the tricky part is that you’ll be tempted to slip katakana into your explanation.
You can also add variations, like giving a penalty to anyone who accidentally uses katakana during their explanation.
Word search game
This is a fun game using the Japanese syllabary cards called the “Word-Finding Game”! Some children who struggle with language arts may have a limited vocabulary and find it hard to understand what they read.
In this game, you present prompts like “a four-letter word that starts with A,” and work together with the participants to come up with words.
It helps build vocabulary, and even unfamiliar words are more memorable when everyone creates them together.
It’s also a great idea to show real-life images of the words on a smartphone after you’ve made them!
Two-letter Shiritori
Shiritori is a game everyone has played: you take the last character of a word and continue with a word that starts with that character.
Because it’s such a familiar game, one of its features is that you can think of many variations.
In 2-character shiritori, you proceed by taking the last two characters, continuing as in going from “shiritori” to “toriniku.” You need to decide how to handle the character “n”: do you lose if it’s the final character, or if it appears as the second-to-last character? Set the rule according to each version you play.
Essay of the Bear in the Forest
This is a game for exploring different ways of expression using the children’s song “The Bear in the Forest” as the theme.
It presents two different passages based on the same subject and asks what impressions each one gives.
By having players consider which parts of the text created those impressions, it teaches the effects of different writing styles.
If you then ask them to write a passage that matches a desired mood, it may also convey how challenging that can be.
Combined with reading aloud, it seems likely to spark broader reflection on expression as a whole.