Pass It Up

This is the fifth activity write-up for Wooly Week 2019, go read that post to find out what other amazing activities we tried in our class over the past two weeks.

This was such a fun way to review! At this point my students had predicted the story, read the story, learned the lyrics, and viewed the video. They had done an exhausting amount of work, and I really wanted them to feel like I was rewarding them with a day off. Haha, silly children, we will never just take a break from good quality input!! (But, please, never ever tell my kids that we don’t take breaks. They honestly think that sometimes we do.)

Here is the biggest issue with this activity: it REQUIRES students in multiples of four. This was an issue for me in both my classes. This game needs both teams to have two equal rows of students, so to adapt rotate students out of the game in the back of the room. They have to just sit there for one turn, then they will rotate back in as the students move. (There is a very strong musical chairs vibe to this activity.)

Before class you will need three types of materials:

  1. A set of pictures from the story for each team, we were given 8 images, about 4×6 size. They need to be small enough to be easy to spread out and see them all at once.
  2. A set of speech bubbles with text for each team. While not every sentence in the speech bubble directly related to the story, the vocabulary was focused on the targets from the story. We were given 10, and they will also need to be spread out to all be seen at once.
  3. A call sheet for you, which combines descriptions of pictures in Spanish combined with a line of text from the Speech bubble. NOTE: however you want to do it, read the text from the call sheet in the opposite language as the printed speech bubbles that the teams have. I read Spanish and they found English in my first year class, but read English and they found Spanish in my second year class. I’m not sure which one I prefer or if one is significantly harder than another.

With the students, before the game:

  1. Set up the room to have four equal lines of chairs facing the board, four magnets on the board, and desks behind the last chair in each row. (Perhaps these are actually columns…)
  2. Divide the students into two teams, and have them sit. Any extra students on each team will stay behind the desks in the back until they can rotate in.
  3. Place the images on the desk behind the left row of each team, and the speech bubbles on the desk behind the right row.
  4. Discuss movement: when the first round is over students will rotate clockwise. The right row will move forward one seat, the left row will move backward one seat. If you have the right amount of students then front right slides left and back left slides right. If you do not have the right number of students then the student in front of the pictures will rotate out, and the student sitting out already will rotate to speech bubbles.

Now you are ready to begin play:

  1. Establish the rules: while you read, the teams must be still and silent. If anyone talks or begins to touch the papers behind them then take points from their team.
  2. Read a description from your call sheet, and the translated text from a speech bubble.
  3. The last person in each line has to find the paper that matches what you have read, then pass it forward. The first person will use the magnet to put it up on the board. If both teams are right then the winning point goes to the team who was seated and silent first.
  4. If a team has put up something which is incorrect they can take it down and fix it, but the person in the back cannot send another paper forward until the original paper is returned. (Students who are currently rotated out can serve here as judges and honestly enforcers.)
  5. When a team has earned a point, review both answers quickly. If they are the same then congratulate them both and reread the prompt confirming the proper answer. If a team gave an incorrect answer, take a second to review what the prompt called for and what was provided by the team.
  6. Have the first seats take down their papers and pass them back down the line as students rotate chairs. Wait for absolute calm before reading the next prompt. (If you want to add a level of difficulty then take a point from the second team to get settled.)

We really loved this. I love how it had teamwork incorporated, but not at a level where the kids really had a chance to get upset with each other. It worked very well with my kiddos. I can’t even think of how I would modify it at all. I just hope that the Wooly team will make this for all of their videos, because it will be absolutely my go-to whenever we need an “off” day. Because, you know, we didn’t “do” any Spanish during this game… (shhhhh).

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