The Silent Six

 

AGES	5-13
FORMAT	Whole Group
MATERIALS NEEDED	None
DURATION	5-10 minutes

PREPARATION REQUIRED None
DESCRIPTION
1. Choose 6 silent volunteers to go to the front of the room.
2. All other students need to close their eyes and put their heads
down and are quiet.
3. While the heads are down the Silent Six quietly move around the
class. Each volunteer softly touches the head of one of the
students at the desks.
4. The student who is touched puts their hand up.
5. Once done, the Silent Six return to the front of the room and say
“Silent Six Successful”.
6. At this, all the students lift their heads and open their eyes.
7. The six students whose hands are up take turns trying to guess
who touched them. Each student gets two guesses.
8. If they are correct, they become part of the new Silent Six. If they
are incorrect, new members are chosen.
9. The old Silent Six take their seats and the game is played again.
Telephone

AGES	All ages
FORMAT	Whole Class
MATERIALS NEEDED	None
DURATION	5 minutes

PREPARATION REQUIRED None
DESCRIPTION
1. Make two or three lines of students.
2. Tell the first person in line 1 a command (jump three times)
3. The first person, whispers the command to the second person.
4. The second person whispers it to the third person.
5. This continues all the way down the line.
6. The rest of the teams are trying their best to hear the command and
write it down before the end person does the task.
7. If the other team(s) writes it correctly, they get a point.
8. If the last person on the team sending the message performs the
task correctly, they get a point.
9. When team 1 is done, give a command to the first person on team 2.
Slow Motion

AGES	5-9
FORMAT	Whole Class
MATERIALS NEEDED	None
DURATION	5 minutes

PREPARATION REQUIRED None
DESCRIPTION
1. Using a slow motion voice (drawing out all of the vowels:
IIIIIIIII neeeeeed youuuuuur aaaatteeeeeentiooooooon), and slow
movements get the students attention. Most will stop what they
are doing to see what your strange behavior is about.
2. Explain in a normal voice that:
a. the whole class needs to move and talk in slow motion
for the next few minutes.
b. only one person talks at a time.
c. in order to talk students should raise their hands and
wait to be called on.
3. Ask the students to perform a variety of tasks:
-walk around the room
-do 3 jumping jacks
-climb an imaginary tree
-flap your arms like a bird.
4. Invite volunteers to suggest movements.
5. Sing a movement song with the students in slow motion
-“The Itsy Weensy Spider”
-“Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”
-“The Wheels on the Bus”
Add on to My Story

AGES	8-18
FORMAT	Individual
MATERIALS NEEDED	Per person: paper and pen
DURATION	15-20 minutes

PREPARATION REQUIRED None
DESCRIPTION
1. Start the entire class off with an interesting beginning. It can be
taken from a book, a student’s writing, or you can invent your
own.
2. Ask students to continue the story from the point at which you
stop.
3. Tell students how much time they and remind them to
include a problem, climax and resolution.
VARIATION
1. Begin the same way as above.
2. After 5 minutes, ask the students to put his/her name on the
paper and pass it to the right.
3. All students get a new paper and continue the new story
developing the problem and heading toward a climax.
4. After 5 minutes, ask the students to put his/her name on the
paper and pass it to the right.
5. This student should try to finish up the story with a climax and
resolution.
6. When finished, allow the students time to go back and read each
of the stories they participated in.
7. Allow students to share ones they feel are particularly good.
Secret Message

AGES	7-12
FORMAT	Individual
MATERIALS NEEDED	Per person: paper and pen
DURATION	10 minutes

PREPARATION REQUIRED None
DESCRIPTION
1. Use the “secret code” provided to write a message on the board.

A 	B 	C 	D Ω	E 	F 
G Э	H 	I 	J 	K ※	L 
M 	N ɸ	O ᄊ	P 	Q ჻	R 
S ♡	T 	U 	V ¢	W ﾖ	X Ⴞ
Y ホ	Z 亼

Example Message (Don’t forget to do your homework tonight):
Ω ᄊ ɸ ‘ ᄊ Э ᄊ Ωᄊ ホᄊ 
ᄊﾖᄊ※ ᄊ ɸ Э
2. Ask students to decode the message.
3. When students finish, ask them to write a message using the
secret code.
4. Students can trade papers to decode each other’s messages.