The count to 10 game

In this Edutopia post called “Creating A Classroom Culture of Laughter, vitamin ”  teacher Laura Davis shares with us games and routines that enable her to start her classes by getting students to let down their defenses and laugh a little together.  This simple approach, taking just a few minutes, contributes to the environment of experimentation, risk-taking, and helping each other out.

 

We have been playing “The 10 Game” for the past few days.  At first we played with our mixed age group of 11 – 17 year olds.  They got to 6 that first day before we moved on, but we all did laugh together, smile a lot and relax our stance.  We started our day in a different mood than when we first came together.  We liked it.

 

The next day when the group met, they asked, “hey lets try that game again, can we?”  This time they made it to 8, obviously an “improvement”, as if the only goal of the game is to get to 10.

The following day the students meet as a whole school, and include the younger students, ages 7 – 10.  We introduced the game to them, and they were excited to play with the older kids, who they look up to.  The first three rounds we got stopped at “one”.  Each time, it was one of the younger kids who exclaimed in unison.  After that we made it to 2 a few times!    The older kids’ patience was starting to show thin, and some of them started to bark directions at the group.  The younger listened though, and slowed down and listened more, and they eventually got to 10!

 

We love this game.  I can’t wait to play some of the others that are suggested in the blog.  These are really worthwhile in several different directions, truly multidisciplinary in a 21st Century sort of way!