And the winner is....

The effectiveness of games in the classroom is a topic that I wish I had more time to study.  I love playing games with my students, but the challenge is always how to keep every student engaged, while providing for effective learning experiences.  I feel as if a well-designed game is much more beneficial to most students than a worksheet. I have been in this teaching game for a while now, and one thing that has really changed, in my experience, is the willingness for the average student to do homework.  Most of my Level 1 kids just don't do work at home.  With that being said, in order for my students to practice the material, I need to be creative in the classroom.  There are some awesome classroom games that help with this issue.

One of my new favorites that I have used lately is great at engaging all students.  I call it "Tuez la Tortue" (Kill the Turtle).  My colleagues all have different names for the game.  It might sound a bit sadistic, but the kids love this game and it provides awesome practice for the material.

Set up:  
Students work in groups (I always have pre-determined groups of about 4 students who work together over the course of a unit. In these groups, each student is assigned a number)  Each student needs a white board, marker, eraser.  Before the game, I create a series of questions/practice sentences with my SMART notebook software.  On the game, I have a dice.

How it is played:
1. I show the students a question/practice sentence.
2. Students have a certain amount of time (15-30 seconds depending on the difficulty of the question) to write their answer on their own white board, without consulting their group-mates.  During this time, I stress that everyone is quiet, so that they can come up with their own individual answer.
3.  After I call time, each person shows what they wrote.  They have 15-20 seconds to consult each other about the correct answer.  --This is when awesome discussions take place because they have to support their answers to the rest of the group.  I love this part!
4.  I give a 5 second warning, and each student should be writing what their group agreed to as the correct answer on his/her board.
5. I have them put down their markers, and I roll the dice.
6. The student with that number (since I only have four member groups: 5 is wild, 6 is a re-roll) holds up his or her board.
7.  This is the fun part!!  The groups with the correct answer get to go to the board to draw a part of a turtle.  Turtles consist of five parts: a head, a body, two legs and a tail.
8.  Once a group completes their turtle, they become "Turtle Killers".  When they get correct answers, they may choose one part from another group's turtle to erase.

They are so engaged in this game! Since everyone must write something, each student is forced to practice.  And, they get so creative with their turtles.  It is a blast to watch!