Yesterday we gad a Professional Development session with Voces Digitales and I learned some very fun and interesting games that I can use in my classroom:
Stretch and Confess
A routine to do during the beginning of class or anytime a group needs a bit of grounding/regrouping/trust building/physical movement.
Group of students stand in a circle, or at their desks. One student begins a stretch of their choice, and the other students mirror that movement. The student who started the stretch shares something about themselves. This can be anything they’re interested in sharing, and doesn’t have to be a true “confession”. When that student has finished sharing, the next student in the circle begins a new stretch, and shares about themselves.
This can be done whole class, or broken into smaller groups. You can choose to go around the entire circle, with everyone sharing, or popcorn around to those who are interested/fits within your time frame.
The Drawing Game
Materials: One piece of white paper (copy paper or chart paper) and a marker per group
Game play:
This is a silent activity
Teacher starts the game by creating one mark, of any shape or size, on each group’s paper (the same mark on each paper). They hand the marker to one of the students in the group.
Students create a shared picture making one mark at a time, with each new line in some way connecting to a line already created. These lines don’t have to physically touch what has already been created, necessarily, but they must be adding directly to what has already been made. For example, if it is clear that a face has been created, and a student wants to add a mark that looks like an eyebrow, the eyebrow doesn’t need to physically touch the eye, hair, forehead, etc. It is clearly still part of the same drawing that the group has been created.
A “line” consists of any mark on the paper, no matter the shape or size. It begins when the marker touches paper, and ends when it is lifted up. Within those constraints it can go in any direction students wish, and can be as long or short as they feel it should be.
The drawing is “shared” after each line is made by the current student turning to look at the remaining group, and holding the marker in front of them. They cannot reach out to another student to hand the marker off, they must wait for someone to come and take it from them.This requires a level of trust that no one in their group will “leave them hanging”, and also requires the patience to sit in the still moments while others contemplate where the drawing should go.
Sharing of the marker does not go in any particular order, and a student does not have to “wait their turn” to add a line.
Students must silently decide when their drawing is complete. (If you have time constraints, you can set a timer of 6-10 minutes, and let students know when about 1 minute remains.)
When the time is up, or the groups have decided their drawings are complete, allow students some time to discuss their drawings. It is interesting to hear the calls of “that was supposed to be a _____!” Once they have spent some time discussing their own drawings, have them do a gallery walk to examine the others. It is fun to see the different ways the same initial mark made by the teacher has been turned into very different finished products.
Why this is good to do with students:
This activity is a trust and acceptance building activity. It is a visual representation of the improv principle of “Yes, And”, and asks students to both be creative, and accept others’ creativity. It builds classroom community and a feeling of belonging through shared creation, and instills a sense of trust and safety between students. Students learn that others will accept their ideas, work to lift their ideas up, and collaborate to make something better than they could have made individually.
WL Uses:
Describe the drawings in the TL
Debrief the process in the TL
“Ask a Story” based on one of the drawings, similar to One Word Image
