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Detective Pikachu: Catch the Pokéthief

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For the PowerPoint version of the game, download using the button above. Click this link to access the Google Slides version.

NOTE: This game is for personal and educational purposes only. You are not allowed to sell this template or use it to make money. Thank you for respecting the work that went into creating these resources!

Game Features

A Clue-like game based in the Pokémon world (awesome original game concept by Sara on Korshare)
Flexible gameplay to play as many rounds as time allows
All printable materials needed for the game are included in the game file
Great for speaking practice

How to Play

An item from Ash’s house was stolen during his birthday party and students need to figure out what it was, who stole it, and where it was stolen from!
For this game, there are nine suspect cards, nine item cards, nine place cards, and an Investigation Notes worksheet.
Before playing the game, the teacher secretly chooses one of each type of card and puts them in their pocket or somewhere else hidden. These cards are the answer to the mystery.
After introducing the game using the PowerPoint, the teacher will hand out the rest of the cards to students along with the Investigation Notes worksheets. How many cards each student gets depends on how many students are in the class (8 students= 3 cards each, 12 students = 2 cards each, 24 students = 1 card each). If there are any cards left over, pass them out to students who want more (I usually give extra cards to higher level students).
To play, students will go around and interrogate each other about the party to find what cards they each have in order to figure out the three cards the teacher has (basically by a process of elimination).
For example: Student A asks Student B, “Where did you go at the party?” If Student B has a place card, they respond with the location on their card, “I went to the kitchen.” Then, Student A crosses out “kitchen” on their Investigation Notes worksheet as it’s not one of the answers to the mystery.
Once a student thinks they know the answer, they can come up to the teacher, whisper their guess, and the teacher will tell them if they’re right or wrong.
If they’re right, I usually have them quietly sit back down in their seat and wait for the other students to also figure it out (other students can still come up to them to ask them about their cards), but feel free to change this with what works best for your class.

Variations

To make the game more competitive, you could incorporate Rock, Paper, Scissors into the gameplay. For example, when two students meet, they first play Rock, Paper, Scissors and the winner is the only one allowed to ask the other questions.

Fonts Needed: N/A

You will get the following files:

PPTX (4MB)
PDF (1MB)
PPTX (6MB)

Teacher Feedback

(comments and runtimes from the previous version of my site)

So today, I tried this game three (3) different times with three JHS 2nd year classes—two were Regular Course (28 students each) and one was Advanced (18 students). The game took up the entire 50 minutes of class time—but that's no complaint from me, as I had fun with it! Overall, my students seemed to greatly enjoy it too! However, there were a few hiccups here and there:- Explaining the rules and how to play took quite a bit of time (and translating),- Continuously enforcing the aforesaid rules and encouraging the students to continue asking and answering questions to each other required both my (the ALT) and the JTE's ongoing efforts,- The boys would often huddle around only other male students and occasionally cheat by exchanging notes from their Investigation Sheets; while the few girls in each class, after interviewing each other only, would typically just be wallflowers—staring at the boys from across the room without having the courage to approach their male counterparts for communication practice.
(continues on next slide)
And the last class of the day (which also happened to be the Advanced/Honors Course) had the trickiest dynamics. According to the JTE, the "ningen-kankei" of that class is the worst of all the classes in the school. One boy, in particular, refused to join the game--instead preferring to crawl up in a squatted fetal position on the floor. My ultimate decision (after continuously offering him various words of encouragement, etc.): just let him be and provide support to all the other willing students. [This activity/game clearly reveals each student's attitude, motivation levels, personality, skills, weaknesses, etc.] My advice to other teachers before playing (depending on your student's levels) is: - Shorten or simplify the written rules and explanations as much as possible. Also, add visual and language cues in the PPT as to what you want them to specifically know and do. For example, on SLIDE 3, I added in parentheses the Japanese translations of the words THIEF (盗人), ITEM (盗品) & PLACE (犯罪場所).
(continues on next slide)
Also, on the DETECTIVE LANGUAGE Slide, I added "Q" and "A" before each respective question & answer AND I color-coded each answer type {with a GREEN fill color for positive responses (e.g. "I saw...") + a RED fill color for negative responses (e.g. "I didn't see...")}.- If you're team-teaching, try to get the native-language teacher to support the student's understanding of the rules, etc. as much as you can.- Practice, practice, practice before the game is played—getting the students to repeat all the names of the suspects, items & locations, as well as the DETECTIVE LANGUAGE Slide's key phrases (Q&As) several times will increase their confidence to play. - Give your students continuous encouragement & praise when they make even the smallest effort. - And at the end, remind them of the takeaways from this wonderful activity! Without persistence, asking questions, and working together, it's difficult to get ahead and reach our individual and collective goals. Continuity, confidence, and cooperation are must-have tools for success!
(continues on next slide)
Ooh!! I made my students do Rock, Scissors, Paper to add that exciting & competitive element to the game. And since most of my classes were large (i.e. more than 24 students), in the end, I decided to make each pair of students play RSP three times (before moving on to another student to interview), otherwise the game REALLY would have never ended. It gave both sides the chance to ask the other a question and guess their card. In hindsight, I realize a much easier (but perhaps less exciting way) may have been just to allow each student (perhaps the winner of each pair) to ask all 3 questions in one shot...? :/

TLDR: Great, fun speaking game/activity! Will likely require an entire class period. Quite a bit of patience & effort is necessary in explaining everything to an EFL class though. - Anon
Hello~~ just tried it today with 2 of my 5th grade classes. They struggled a bit, and weren't able to finish. I think we had about 30-35 mins for both classes. They did not finish, but I reckon if they had another 10 or so minutes they would have finished. 'll be trying again tomorrow with my 6th grade class - they're more apt so hopefully they understand it faster. I have 18 students in 6th grade so I have to get rid of some cards. - L
This is so cute!!! and looks fun :) Thanks for your hard work. - Anon