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Child's Play


Simon Says!


This is a great game for students of all ages. Although you may find that the younger ones have trouble understanding that there are times that you don't want them to do what you said,. It is particularly useful for teaching verbs (run, jump, swim, etc.) and imperatives (come here, go to the door, etc.).

To play the game you must first make the students understand that they only do the action when you preface the command with Simon says. If you don't say simon says, they must stand absolutely still. The slightest movement and they are out, eg:-

    Teacher: Simon says, run.
    Students: run on the spot.
    Teacher: run
    Students: stand still

Instead of using "Simon says" I generally use "Teacher says". This is a word that the students are already familiar with and they are used to the teacher giving commands. My name is Doug but my students always call me "duck", so I sometimes use "duck says". This is a lot of fun as I throw in the occasional "duck says, quack" and the students have to act like a duck.

This game can be used in either a competitive or non-competitive form. To use the game non-competitively, simply indicate that a particular student has moved when they shouldn't have and get on with the game. And as a competitive game game, the student must sit down when they move out of turn. The only disadvantage of this game is from the teacher end of things. This has to be a fast paced game or it doesn't work. So the teacher has to stay on their toes. You have to remember all the commands, use them all equally and make sure that the students are only doing the actions at the appropriate times. Another caveat is that the teacher must be a strong person. To see ten or twelve extremely excited children rushing at you when you say "teacher says, come here" can be a very dismaying sight.