"Animal Guess Who"

Here's a game for you. It's easy to explain, simple to play, extremely fun, and quite possibly holds supernatural powers over any kid that plays it. The jury is still out on that last theory, but it is definitely a game that all kids can relate to and as of yet, I haven't met a single child who didn't become completely content playing it for however long I let them. It's called "Animal Guess Who", a name suguested by one of the children playing said game during a wildlife education program I was working. Let me explain how the game is played, then I'll sugguest some good opportunities for you, the teacher and/or child supervisor, to put it to good use.

It's played very much like the electronic game "20 Questions" or a similar game "Gues Who", where it obviously got it's name. To play, have all the participants sit on the floor (or chairs if you prefer) except one. This participant will think of a specific animal species, say an African lion for example (yes, there are lions living in India too, thank you very much). This participant will remain standing infront of the other players who will attempt to guess the animal that he or she has chosen. However, they must ask in yes-or-no question form. For example, you might guess "does it have fur?" or "is it a carnivore?" rather than a question like "what does it eat?" For the most part, the standing participant will answer with "yes" or "no". It must be a yes-or-no question and the more hint type questions that are asked, the closer all the participants will be to getting the right animal as well as making the game much more fun than if everyone simply tried to guess the animal on their first try. Keep in mind that unless you are playing with a room full of wildlife biologists, it might help to start things off kind of simple. The game may not be that fun for everyone if, for your animal, you were to choose, say, a hoatzin or oxoloti. Eventually, whoever guesses the animal correctly takes the standing participant's place and it is now their turn. Very simple.

This game can be played any place, any time. Obviously, I find it particularly effective during education programs related to or specifically about wildlife. While there are an abundance of reasons that you may wish to have this game at your disposal, I believe that ultimately it can be narrowed down to the following two.

(1) Use It When Your Group Is Waiting On Something.
Often times during educational programs, you will find yourself between activities trying to keep your group focussed and organized while waiting for any number of things outside your control. Perhaps you are sending your group to the bathroom one at a time and need to keep those waiting occupied with something fun and educational. Maybe you are doing a rotation with other teachers and you finish first or they take longer than you had anticipated. Don't panic, use this game. As long as you can explain it in a fun and exciting way, you will be truly astonished at how long the kids will play this game without losing a hint of interest in it. Remeber, killing time is only a bad thing if one, your students aren't learning anything, and two, your students are aware of it.

(2) Use It To Establish Order
 I'm not necessarily a believer in the ADD and ADHD epidemic that seems to plague just about every kid in the world these days. That's not to say ADD and ADHD aren't legitamate diagnosis for some kids. I'm sure they are. But I think they get thrown around a lot more often than they need to be. What I'm getting at is that kids are naturally more energetic than adults and their attention span is shorter. So when you are having children attempt to sit or stand in a straight line or perfect circle all "criss crossed, apple sauce, hands in their laps" for any longer than ten seconds, you are going to have difficulties. I honestly believe kids have trouble giving their attention for long periods of time not because they are bad students or suffering from one of the numerous alphabet attention difficiency syndromes, but rather because most teachers are completely incompitent. A good teacher knows that learning is fun, and why yell at kids to sit still when they will do this on their own as long as it's part of having a good time? Using this game is an excellent way to bring order to your students while having them sit down, switch gears between activities, giving them something to do between activities (there is a difference), or simply behave while sitting in an orderly line. All you have to do is modify the rules to fit your needs. After I introduce the game and give the rules, I explain to my group that they can only guess if they are sitting in the manner I want, while being super quiet (kids like the word "super" even if it is used to make them be quiet, no joke) and are called on by the standing participant after raising their hand. You will be amazed by the results. Not only does it work incredibly well as they are playing the game, but it is good practice for them on how to behave during the rest of your program (being quiet, raising hands for questions, etc.). Keep in mind, the kids will want to be still and quiet so they can eventually have their turn to try and guess the animal. If one student is constantly overlooked, they will eventually loose their incentive to behave, so you may want to encourage the standing participant to pick a new person to guess each time, or perhaps you could say something to the effect of "Hey Billy, I don't think anyone from that end of the line has guessed yet, why don't you pick one of them?"

The game works wonders. I have yet to see a single group of kids who did not absolutely love this game. It works off of their love of sharing things about themselves. Kids like to tell you stories, share facts about their hobbies, and definitely tell you what their favorite animals are. For the students, this game is the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. Kids love attention, sharing things about themselves, talking about animals, and playing games. This game is all of that rolled into one. And it keeps them behaving too. It's definitely worth adding to your teaching arsenal. Give it a try!