Getting students to answer "How are you?" in a more natural manner. Preparation: Worksheet
Music
4 different colored balls from 100 yen store Procedure: Give the students the handout.  Briefly explain that answering, "I'm fine thank you, and...Getting students to answer "How are you?" in a more natural manner.

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How to use:

Preparation:

Worksheet
Music
4 different colored balls from 100 yen store

Procedure:

Give the students the handout.  Briefly explain that answering, "I'm fine thank you, and you?" is not a natural way of answering, "How are you?"  Then go through each emotion on the sheet, acting them out.  Have the students tell you the meaning in Japanese based on your acting.  (Admittedly, some of these are beyond my range of acting and we would just tell them the Japanese).
 
Break the class into two circles.  Each circle gets two balls, the answer ball and question ball.  I usually draw question marks and exclamation points on the balls to make them easy to identify.  Have the students essentially play Hot Potato.  When the music stops, the question ball holder asks, "How are you?" or "How's it going?"  The answer ball holder answers ANYTHING but "I'm fine!"  Once the two circles have finished the dialog, start the music again.