Wednesday, June 9, 2010

STRIP!!!!

Three weeks of school left. Part of me is cheering inside and part of me is barely hanging in there!! These last weeks switch between being the most fun of the year and the biggest struggle of the year. The field trips are fun, the wrap up parties are fun, the teacher vs student baseball games are fun...the trying to keep students engaged is not fun, the clean up is not fun, harnessing the restlessness is not fun and indoor recess caused by this incessant rain is not fun!!!

In order to keep kids interested in French, I have been playing games that I make up (usually on the spot) to do with clothing since that is the unit I have decided to end the year with. I have also decided that everyone from grade 4 to 8 should spend a couple weeks learning vocab about clothing, though it really only falls in the grade 5 and 8 curriculum. I am a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of girl, so today, for the grade 6 French class, I pulled a pretty fun game out of my ass. I called it "Strip go fish."
First, I sent all the kids to their lockers to put on all the clothing they had at school, gym strip, shoes, hats, mitts, costumes leftover from Halloween, anything they had. Next they all sat in chairs in a circle and I gave them playing cards. When it was their turn they had to ask anyone in the room for a card (they had to say the number in French ofcorse,) to make a pair with something they had in their hand. If the person they asked had the card and had to give it up, they had to take an item of clothing off. If the person they asked did not have a match, the asker had to take off an item of clothing. If anyone ran out of cards before the period was over they had to "buy" another card from me by removing an item of clothing. They had to keep playing until they were down to their original clothing, less socks and shoes. OMG, soooo fun!!! The kids loved it even though I had to make up a couple of rules as we went. They are all planning to wear a lot more clothing next class.
Here's hoping that no one goes home and tells their parents that they have to wear layers so they can strip in French class!!!!!!!!

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