Going on a Picnic
A fantastically easy-to-use game for any educator’s toolkit!
‘Going on a Picnic’ can be adapted for virtual instruction, as seen here, using Google Jamboard.
This is one of our all-time favorite games, which can be easily adapted to help reinforce any word-related skill you’ve introduced to your students. In Going on a Picnic, you select a secret rule that all words must follow in order to be included in the picnic. Students must then figure out what the rule is by analyzing the example words you give them, hunting for patterns, asking questions, and attempting to uncover the rule.
For example, if your secret rule is “Only words with a suffix can come to the picnic,” you might give examples like:
Dogs are allowed but you can’t bring your fish.
We can do some hiking, but we aren’t allowed to swim.
We might eat some apples, but we can’t have any pie.
We can act goofy, but there’s no fun allowed!
The silly nature of the game play, plus the challenge of deciphering the rule make this a favorite among our students - they ask us to play this game again and again!
Our teachers love how versatile this game is. If students just learned about the “replaceable <e>”, you can make a rule such as “Only words with a single, final, non-syllabic <e> can come!” If your students just learned about the <ea> digraph, use that! There’s no limit to the number or types of “picnics” you can create! As your students learn new rules about the way words work, they will be able to play using more complex rules.
We’ve found that, after repeated trials, our students enjoy turning the tables to create picnics with rules of their own. Depending on the age of your students, this may take you on quite a wild ride! Most importantly, this game gives students and teachers an opportunity to smile, giggle, and get excited about words!