Reference:
-This game is heavily inspired by (if not ripped off by) the game "Werewords" which is made by the same company that made "One Night Ultimate Werewolf". I highly recommend you guys check it out for yourselves because it's a great game in and outside the classroom!
Directions/Rules:
-Have the students get into groups.
-Give each team a set of tokens from the provided document file (a lot of printing and a lot of cutting involved beforehand, sorry).
-Have students play Janken and the winner picks a word at random from the list provided in the other document file.
-That student is know as the "Keeper of the Magic Word" they are no longer allowed to speak or do gestures and can only communicate using the tokens.
-The other students must work together to figure out the word by asking questions (Yes or No questions ONLY) and the Keeper gives each player a corresponding token based on the answer to that student's questions.
-The team wins if they are able to guess the word.
-The team loses if they fail to guess the word within 2-4min (you choose), OR if the Keeper runs out of any given type of token (this makes the team careful to not ask questions too liberally).
-The student who guessed the word becomes the new Keeper! If the team loses then have them play Janken again.
Token Types:
-Green Check - Yes
-Red "X" - No
-Question Mark - Maybe, Sometimes, or "I don't know"
-Red Cross - This is a one time use token that lets the team know that they are "WAY OFF"
-Exclamation Point - One time use, lets the student who asked the last question know they are "SO CLOSE"
-Star - One time use, that student guessed the word and is now the new Keeper.
Tips:
-I highly recommend you demo this game with the JTE first. The first time I explained this game to students without a demo it took an extra 15 minutes before they got it. After one short demo literally everyone understood.
-Once the students get comfortable you can stop using the list of words if you want and just have the Keeper come up with a word in their head.
-While I've gotten this game to work from 1st years in Middle School to 3rd years in High School this game can be very challenging for even some of the higher level English speakers. Gauge your classes English level before trying.
Future Plans:
-I love the origin for this game "Werewords" and want to eventually add the roles from that game into this one. By itself it is playable but I plan on uploading a third document with roles and their explanations.