The students walked in to a dimmed room with the opening theme to The Amazing Race playing on repeat. We watched a quick clip to help orient students that have never seen the show before and then I explained how it was going to work today.
- Students were on teams of three or four.
- Each team was assigned a color and symbol.
- Clues for each team were in envelopes with their symbol.
The Teams
Unlike the actual amazing race, the goal wasn't necessarily to be the first team to finish. Instead it was a point-based game where you can earn points for various tasks:
- Completing a route: 20 points
- Completing a road block: 15 points + points for creativity, quality, and originality
- Bonus points: 5 points each (given at the end of the match, similar to Mario Party)
Students were also told there were ways to lose points. I really wanted to focus on them working together and using each other as a resource:
- Getting help from an adult or other team: -5 points
- Running or unexpected hallway behavior: -5 points
- If your group is split up / not together: -10 points
- Opening the wrong envelope: -10 points
We also talked about 'sabotage' and how it wasn't allowed (for instance, seeing someone else's envelope and moving or otherwise interfering with other teams.)
That is a great haiku about China - but you didn't talk about the government... ROAD BLOCKED
After that I put them in their groups and said their first clue was in the commons. They left the classroom, found their clue and the game began.
We played a total of 4 route cards and one road block. The route cards reviewed skills from all the major subjects that my partner teacher and I presented in term two. To add to the game I bought some programmable padlocks from amazon. Certain route cards led you to a locker number with a lock. The clue also had the combination to that lock embedded in the clue. A few groups came up to me for clarification, but when I used the phrase, "is this an official asking for help question?" many of them chose to figure it out as a group rather than lose the five points.
$10 on Amazon. Great purchase.
After the game was finished, students completed a reflection / feedback survey. The results were very positive. Students rated their partner's helpfulness at 3.2 out of 4, Fun rated a 3.3 out of 4 and 93% of students said they'd want to do this again. It took quite some time to create this, so I'm glad that it went so well!
I really enjoyed this activity for a number of reasons. Students were encouraged to ask each other for help rather than asking a teacher. Only two groups asked a teacher for help throughout the entire game, and that was after they realized they all were stuck. I got to incorporate a mix of topics - science, social studies, math, and language arts were all represented. On top of academics, the social pieces - communication, team building, and all the skills that go with that were also emphasized. I'll be excited to try this again in term three!
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