This game was brainstormed and thrown together by yours truly yesterday with the help of Naomi and especially her chat window. :)
Final Destination – a game for practicing directions
Overview:
This is a game to be used with the unit on giving directions. It is intended to be used as the final activity in the unit, so the students should already be quite skilled with place names and giving directions. Necessary instructions should include: go straight, turn left, turn right, and stop. Others can be used as well (if you can think of any).
Materials:
Blindfolds (one per team)
Large “Places” flash cards
Small “Places” game cards
A classroom full of desks and chairs arranged in a grid (not a horseshoe)
Setup:
If the desks are already in a grid, they should be fine like that, although you might want to spread them out a little bit (all the way to the walls). If they aren’t, have the kids arrange them that way. If your class is small, try using a different classroom or borrowing a couple of extra desks. If it’s especially big, this might be a hard thing to do. My classes are between 11 and 20 kids, and it works fine.
Take the large place cards and put them face-up on desks scattered throughout the room. Each of the place cards should also get a small stack of game cards next to it. The game cards could be random, or they could be of the same type and pre-selected to make the game flow better. Up to you, though I would only do random if you have plenty of game cards (you don’t want to run out at a station).
Finally, divide the kids into groups. I recommend 4 or 5 kids per group, though 3 or 6 could work.
Gameplay:
The teams each make trains. The first person in each train wears a blindfold. The second person will give the commands for now. Each team also receives a destination card. When the teacher starts a timer, everyone starts. The blindfolded person (who looks at the destination card before donning the blindfold) asks, “where is ~?” The second person proceeds to give directions to the first destination. Upon reaching the destination, the first person removes the blindfold, gives it to the second person, and goes to the end of the train. The second person draws a game card from the stack and asks, “where’s the ~?” for the new destination. He or she then puts the blindfold on, and the new second person starts giving directions to the new destination. The goal is to collect as many cards as possible within the time limit.
The trick is that there are other teams doing the same thing. The person giving directions must be careful to not run into another train. This makes speed even more important. You might teach some supplemental instructions (“slow down,” “speed up,” “go back”) to help them deal with these situations in stride.
I suggest a 10-minute time limit, but you could do shorter or longer, depending on how many cards you have. You can always do another round when the first is done!
The above files are licensed by the author
