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Category

Game Features

• Tons of flexibility – This game can go as short or as long as you’d like depending on how many rounds you have
• 4 prompts and mystery rules already provided
• All text is editable, so easily update the game as needed
• Great for speaking and critical thinking practice

How to Play

• For this game, the teacher is “going on vacation.” Students can come with them, but only if they want to do certain things. The students’ task is to guess what those things are.
• However, the secret is, in each round there’s a mystery rule that only the teacher knows that links all the “approved” things they want to do together. This can be the number of letters in a word, the number of syllables, anything you choose (feel free to use the ones I’ve already provided in the game, details in the notes sections). I usually wait to explain this part of the game until after the first round to make the game more fun.
• In each round, you will present the students with a question. Example: “Where do you want to go on vacation?”
• Then, you will give the students a hint about the mystery rule by providing them with two example answers. Example: “Jack wants to go to Hawaii.” “Amanda wants to go to France.” (Mystery Rule = Places with 6 letters)
• Each student then guesses with their own answers using the sentence. Example: “I want to go to _____.”
• If their answer follows the mystery rule of that round, you can say, “You can come with me on vacation.” If it doesn’t, you can say, “Sorry, you can’t come with me on vacation.”
• Students must listen carefully to each other’s answers to figure out the mystery rule for themselves.
• The round ends when all or enough students have figured out the rule and can come on vacation, or time is up and you need to move on to the next round.

Variations

• Feel free to add to/change the mystery rules and prompts already provided.
• If I’m teaching a lower-level class, I usually make a chart on the board of accepted answers and not accepted answers as students make guesses. This helps them think about what the mystery rule can be, especially if I keep the fact there is a mystery rule a secret until after the first round.
• If you want to extend this game even further, you can have students come up with their own mystery rules and lead rounds of the game.

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