Sunday, February 9, 2014

Head Up, Seven Up with a Twist: Valentine's Day Fun with Idioms


      Most of us know Heads Up, Seven Up, because we played it when we were kids. These rules are nostalgically familiar: Seven people are chosen to be “it”. Everybody else puts their head down on their desk, closes their eyes, and puts their thumb up. The seven people who are it, each sneak around the room and gently push down one person’s thumb. When seven thumbs have been pushed down and all the “its” are back in the front of the room, the teacher calls, “Heads Up, Seven Up”. The seven students whose thumbs were pushed down, try to guess who picked them. If they are correct, the guessers switches places with the person who picked them and become “it”. If the guesser is wrong, he stays in his seat and the person who chose him is "it" for another round.
       In Heads Up, Seven Up with a Twist, the rules are essentially the same except for one thing. Instead of pushing down a person’s thumb when you are it, you leave a slip of paper on someone’s desk. The slip you drop matches another slip you keep in your hand. When “Heads Up, Seven Up” is called, people with slips on their desk stand up and try to match up two slips correctly.
       The possibilities for creating slips for this game are as endless as the content we are required to teach. Think math facts and answers, vocabulary terms and definitions, famous historical figures and their accomplishments. You can review just about anything using this game.
       For Valentine’s Day, the fifth graders in Room 202 will be playing Heads Up, Seven Up with a Twist to review idioms. This link takes you to a file that includes enough cards to play two rounds of the game. It is my Valentine's Day gift to you and your students. If you want to return the love, you can sign up to follow this blog or you can "like" my Facebook using the button on the left.
       If you'd like a more robust review of all the types of figurative language you have introduced to your intermediate elementary grade students, check out this activity in my TpT Store. Your students will appreciate this brief respite from all the standardized test practice they've been doing lately. They'll be happy to be playing a game and having fun, and you'll be happy to know that your students are actually reviewing eligible content with smiles on their faces.




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