Venus Fly Trap.
I wanted an activity where the loser ends each round as aposed to the winner in my Robber activity. Also, I have a fly trap at home and I love it!
-Students in teams.
-Give them a task. A question to answer, translation to write or whatever.
-Check answers. Teams that get it correct can choose a hair to tickle on the trap to get points.
-If the trap snaps shut, that team loses ALL their points (back to zero) and the round is over. This plays no part in teams that got points beforehand, they keep their points.
-Check answers, correct common mistakes and go onto the next question.
This encourages teams to get the answer quickly so they can get a better chance of some points and so the activity moves at a good pace. But, also sometimes the first student snaps the trap shut for much hilarity. For this reason, it would also be good as a warm-up, first time grammar practice activity or race and speak (students run to tell the JTE/ALT the answer).
I recommend having the sound turned up quite high as the sound effects really add to the experience, but test it out for yourself first. Alternatively you can have the trap shutting be -5 points or something different if you prefer but I like the tension/excitement the lose-all-your-points-at-any-moment provokes.
Have a great day/week/month/year guys! Soon it will be beach weather よっしゃー！
This was such a fun and out-of-the-box idea!
I made a whiteboard unit review game for my JHS 1st Years and they were on pins and needles when it came time to choose points. I kept each team's total points secret until the end of the game so the students wouldn't get demotivated too quickly, but they had such a fun time playing. Thank you for your time and effort!
I love that idea. I tend to give double or triple points towards the end, but that seems much better!