Scribblish! (or What do you get when you cross telephone with pictionary?)

Today is my last working day in Mexico, so I'm making a super fast board game suggestion.




I've actually written about this game before in a post two years ago called, "Write, fold, pass, draw, fold, pass, repeat" (that's a mouthful!)

Basically the premise is explained in the previous post but again, it is basically like Pictionary and Telephone combined to make a different game.

You can play this game on your own, but there are some advantages to purchasing the board game.

First off, in Scribblish each of the players gets their own tubey-thing that allows them to easily roll (instead of fold) the previous clue so the next person can't see it.

Secondly, the papers are already provided as well as the starting sentences. That means that if you use this board game in class you'll have virtually no preparation.

Thirdly, there's a clock included to make sure students have a set amount of time.

 Finally, I feel that when students use a "real board game," in class instead of a "teacher game," they feel that their English level is higher and that confidence boost can be helpful.

You can alter the game to focus on paraphrasing. Instead of drawing students will paraphrase the previous sentence. Then the next students paraphrases the paraphrase. etc. etc. At the end you can compare the starting sentence to the final sentence and see why it is so important to choose words carefully in paraphrasing (otherwise meaning can change)

This game can be played quietly making it a good activity to have students who have completed today's task work on while you focus on those still working.