I start off by writing a few items on the blackboard, and putting a magnet next to the first one. For example:
- (magnet here) You get 1 point.
- (ALT's name) gets 2 points.
- you get 2 points.
I demonstrate how the game works by writing the first condition on the board. Something like "If you like chocolate..." Then I ask all of the students who like chocolate to stand up. Once everyone stands up, I roll a die. If it's a 4, for example, I move the magnet down the list four times. Once I get to the last item on the list, I move back up to the start of the list. So if the magnet was on the first item in my example, it will end up on the second item. The ALT gets 2 points! I write "POINTS:" on the blackboard and mark two points for myself.
Next I write another example: "If you are sleepy..." and then ask all of the students who feel sleepy to stand up. If I roll a 1, the magnet will be on "You get 2 points." All of the students who are standing up get 2 points.
I might do it one more time to make sure the students understand the game. Then I pass out the papers and ask the students to write their own "If" statement. It can be helpful to write up some examples on the blackboard. Something like "If you have/like/don't have/are/aren't/ate/play." The students should aim to have at least someone from the class stand up, but it can be funny even if someone comes up with a condition that nobody fulfills.
When the students are writing, I add a lot more items to the list. For example:
- you lose 2 points.
- you get (picture of die) points.
- (ALT's name) loses 3 points.
- you get 1 point.
- you lose (picture of die) points.
Once everyone is finished writing, I pass the die to one student. The student reads their condition, and then everyone who the condition applies to. For "If you are a boy..." then all boys would stand up. The student then rolls the die, and I move the magnet the same number of places on the list. Students keep track of points on their papers. They can get negative points, but I try to set things up so the students have a higher chance of gaining points than losing them, while I have a higher chance of losing points than gaining.
The (picture of die) item in the list means that the points they gain or lose are random - roll the die again to see how many.
I find the game a little challenging to explain in text, but hopefully that description gets the point across. The idea of the game is that the students have to write an "if" statement and listen to their classmates' statements carefully to see if it applies to them. The very random nature of the game means that there are lots of ups and downs, and students should feel excited to stand up because they could earn lots of points.
Once the class has gone through everyone, you can see who has the most (or least) points and crown a champion. There's no real skill involved besides just standing up when necessary, but it's fun to find the top points anyway. If you have a class that will participate on its own then you might not need to offer a reward, but enticing the champion with a prize may help with more difficult classes. There are a lot of variations you could do with this activity, but I've found this the best way to do it out of the different ways I've tried.