Jump

 Jump

This is an extremely effective game. The scoring system is a little difficult to grasp at first, but once set up and played a few times it can become a regular favourite for teachers and students.

As with Hit, this activity is important in bridging the gap between students receiving information from the teacher and repeating it, and students actually using the information they have learnt to win a game. Similarly to Hit, they learn by trial and error and by watching (and helping) their teammates. Capable students will also take turns in being the ‘teacher’.

As shown below, flashcards are placed on the floor in a line along the centre of the classroom.

WHITEBOARD

Team A                                      Team B

#1s                  FC                  #1s

#2s                   FC                  #2s

#3s                  FC                 #3s

#4s                   FC                  #4s

#5s                   FC                  #5s

#6s                   FC                  #6s

  FC

After laying down the FCs the teacher explains the game. Let us say for example that the FCs are activities: go fishing, go surfing, go bungee jumping, go hiking, go swimming, go jogging, etc. The teacher says, “Ok, when I say [go fishing] you must jump to that flashcard.” The teacher then demonstrates jumping along the line of flashcards until they are next to the [go fishing] FC. “Don’t jump on the flashcard!” says the teacher, demonstrating what not to do. “By the flashcard, not on the flashcard!”

Now one student from each team is selected (e.g., the #4 students) to come to the front of the classroom. (As previously stated, a good way to randomly select a pair of students is to roll a dice which will correspond to their student number.)

WHITEBOARD

TA                                  TB

#1s        #4s   FC   #4s        #1s

#2s                 FC                 #2s

#3s                  FC                 #3s

FC

#5s                 FC                 #5s

#6s                  FC                  #6s

The teacher stands in front of the whiteboard and commands the [the #4 students] where to jump to. For example, Teacher says, “Go bungee jumping,” and the two students jump to that FC. Teacher says, “Go jogging,” and the students jump to that FC.

The way that this game is scored is as follows:

A middle B

FC

FC

FC

FC

FC

FC

At the beginning of the game the teacher stands in the middle. If the students both jump to the FC in focus at the same time, the teacher does not move. If the student from team A is the first to land next to the FC in focus, the teacher moves to the A. On calling out the next FC, if the students both jump to that FC at the same time then the teacher again does not move, i.e., they remain standing on the A. If the student from team A is once again the first to land next to the FC in question, then again the teacher does not move. (They are already on A. Team A is in the lead and remain so.) If the student from team B is the first to land next to the FC that has been called out, then the teacher shifts one space along back to the middle. If the student from team B is again first to land next to the FC, then the teacher shifts to the B.

After playing the game for a minute or so, the teacher says, “Ok,” looks to where they are standing (A, middle, or B) and awards points accordingly (to team A, team B, or by calling it even).

The next two students (e.g., the #3 students) are called up to play and the fun begins again.

Usually it takes a while for students to fully understand the way this game is scored, but once they have grasped it and you have been playing for a while, you can get one of them to be the scorer, standing at the other end of the line of FCs, stepping between A, middle and B. As mentioned before, you can also get one of the students to stand in front of the whiteboard to call out the FC. In this way you can have two students playing and two students acting as ‘little teachers’. You may also find that the rest of the students sitting in their chairs will either be shouting and pointing to help their teammates, paying attention to what is going on because it is their turn next, or simply repeating the commands that the teacher is giving.

WHITEBOARD

#2s (little teacher)

TA                                  TB

#1s         #3s FC #3s         #1s

                     FC               #2s

FC

#4s              FC              #4s

                    FC             #5s

#6s              FC              #6s

A M B

#5s (little teacher)

Although this game is called Jump and in the above explanation it is stated that the students ‘jump’ to the FCs, often the students will run to the FCs instead. This is not a problem, and in fact once they have got used to the game, it usually works better with students running to stand next to the FCs rather than jumping. However, this obviously depends on your students: different classes prefer different versions.