This is a review quiz turned into a cooperative game. You can only win it if you get everyone on board.
It draws in the weaker students, gives responsibility to the stronger students (peer learning) and requires team consensus and positive leaders to step forward. As the facilitator, you can watch the group dynamics and act upon it.
In this game, a mistake is logically never a mistake made by an individual, but made by the team. It is very important to point this out as it will improve their cooperation. Watch also how Marek in the end decides not to push his idea, but goes with the group, because he is not sure he is right.
You also see kids who know the right answer, but are not assertive enough to convince the group. By pointing these things out, students become aware of it and might decide to do something about it.
Today I tried this game in 2nd and 3rd grade. I used the polar bear, fish and crazy monkey. The polar bear didn´t like crazy monkey.
In the 2nd grade, it was confusing at first, then they cooperated, consulted and worked as a team.
In the 3rd grade, they cooperated from the beginning, even the weaker student was really happy to help the polar bear move closer to the fish.
Great that you tried the game and observed what happened! It usually takes a bit of time for the younger ones to get it. It’s kind of a new concept to them.
The other day, one of my students brought her own candy and toy animal and got the others to play this game, while she played ‘Teacher’ even before the lesson started.
Today I played the game with the same group of third graders, but they wanted to move the polar bear back up to 2 cubes, when they won´t know the word, so that the game would last longer.
I played this game yesterday with 3rd grade. I made a big paper polar bear. It was fun, but they did not cooperate at all. It was a suprise for me. I will try it next lesson and I will see.
Hi Maria,
Yes, cooperation is often new to them. Just like new vocubulary it needs to be introduced and internalized. The rules of the game should ensure cooperation.
If they don’t cooperate or don’t get it yet, they need to ‘experience’ the consequences of not cooperating. I usually ask for a reply from a kid that doesn’t know, so that the polar bear has to move a step backward. The kids who knew then get upset and that’s when I tell them (show them) it is THEIR job to make sure everyone knows the answer. For the next answer I wait till I see everyone knows (often I still need to support this idea) before I ask a kid that didn’t know the answer at first (but now does thanks to one of the stronger kids). The polar bear moves forward and I compliment the stronger kid(s) who made sure everyone knew.
Try it and let me know if it helped.
Hi Gabriela,
That is so nice, that students added their own rule to make the game last longer and challenge themselves more.
I’m going to suggest this rule to my students too.
I now add 2-3 different colored stepping stones that indicate that we will have a group mini-challenge, like rub your belly while tapping your head. It also makes the game a bit longer and often kids end-up teaching each other how to do them.