In the manner of the word
This is a fun game based on charades, used to practise the present continuous tense and adverbs. It can be used as part of a whole lesson to begin with, and afterwards as a flexible warm-up activity.
Directions
First of all I pass round a worksheet with various adverbs and their Japanese translations, and introduce the new vocabulary. I explain how we form adverbs from their adjectival base, and demonstrate how to use them in sentences on the board and through gestures.
Once that is out of the way, the activity can begin. Split the class into two teams and choose a student (or one from each team) to perform actions at the front. Depending on how difficult you want to make it, you can tell the whole class what action will be performed, or just the performers. Only the student performing the action will know 'how' to do it. (e.g. "eat ramen quickly", "play volleyball happily" etc.)
Students raise their hands and must use whole, present continuous sentences to guess the action and how it is being performed. ("He is eating ramen quickly", "She is playing volleyball happily") Award the teams points for correct answers. You can play as many or as few rounds of the game as you like, changing performers etc. to mix it up. The team with the most points at the end wins, simple!
Have fun! Sam
