This week’s game comes from Michael Jeffcoat in Hong Kong, it’s a very cool reward game!

I have never seen this game fail to actually (as hard it may be to believe) get the whole class engaged. Even my 11/10 yr old girls in Hong Kong really get into it!!

This is an excellent motivator as the children absolutely love both the creative freedom, competing against one another and voting for their favourite.

Instructions:

The teacher starts by drawing three or four (not too many as the 4 artists need room) identical basic shapes (e.g. 4 squares) across the board (allow plenty of space between and around the shapes.) The teacher tells the children that he / she is looking for 3 – 4 (depending on how many shapes you drew) people to come up to the front and draw where they will have 1 minute to change their basic shape into something a lot more exciting!

They can draw whatever they like starting from that shape.

The teacher explains that if a student speaks English / asks a question / answers etc in class then he / she may be one of the lucky 3 – 4 students who can come up and play.

So basically, the teacher uses the game as motivation.

The children quickly see how exciting and creative it is and the audience (children not drawing) also stay involved as they really enjoy admiring the drawing taking place and also having to vote for their favourite

(This is a great chance to use good / better than / best.)

Yes, the children not drawing must vote for their favourite picture, the student who drew the picture that was the overall crowd favourite stays to play again in the next round with the others returning to their seats.

The teacher then asks the winner to help clean the board while he / she (teacher) continues with the teaching point and drawing 3 – 4 of a different shape and inviting more deserving children up to challenge the reigning champion.

It is true that some children don’t receive any votes for their pictures yet you can help them to understand that you really like their picture and it’s just that we can’t be the best everytime.

3 shapes may be too few as it’s great to get as many children involved as possible although remembering that the children need enough space.

5 shapes may be just the trick!

I should have taken photos of some of my students’ results. While they are all very good in their own right (it’s actually a challenging task turning a square into something else with the pressure of only having a minute,) some of the pictures were truly remarkable.

Naturally children from Asia tend to love cartoon / animated characters so I’m sure you will be amazed too at what they come up with. Some creations are truly “out of the square / box”!!

Good luck and enjoy. Drop me a note regarding how well it went for you.