What's It to Ya? randomizer for classroom presentation games

Much of this site is dedicated to classroom games based on my party game What's It to Ya? (a.k.a. Oh, Really!). You can find all the rules and ways to use the game on the Critical Thinking Games page.

This new installment to my resources is simply a randomizer that draws item cards for any of those activities.  If using this as a classroom presentation game, you'd need a response system (set of clickers) that allows students to do a sort in order question.

Update 8/8/2013:  If you like this activity and want to use the physical party game in class, my friends at Fair Play Games are selling four copies in a classroom bundle for only for $7.99!  That's enough for 32 students to play in multiple groups.  Check this post out for more information.

Just click the start button in the randomizer below.  Five cards will be randomly drawn from a set of 118 items that could spark interesting discussion or thought in the classroom.  See this page for a list of free critical thinking classroom activities that would use the cards.

(If the randomizer is not displaying correctly in your browser right click here to download the file.  You might have to open it with Flash Player or another browser.)

Again, you'll want to see the game's page to get all details, but basically you can use the randomizer to select the cards and then use them in any of the many ways outlined on that page.  Usually someone (depending on how you play) will rank the items from most important to least important.  Predictions and discussion can follow.  Briefly, some possible uses are:

• Have one student or the teacher rank the items and the class tries to predict his or her rankings.
• Just display five items, have the class rank them and discuss the results.
• Display random items at the end of class and assign a short writing piece for homework.  Students can express their own opinions and also make predictions on how the class would rank them.
• If students are playing in groups they could use a laptop to select the five items for their group instead of using cards.

If you're having fun with What's It to Ya? be sure to check it out at Fair Play Games.  My friends there are selling off the last remaining copies for less than $2.50 each! I'm not getting royalties for this game, so this is just my effort to help you and them out.

Updated Creativity Exercises and Games Presentation

I updated my popular post about creativity games and exercises (which some are calling class presentation games).  You can almost sit back and let me teach your class for one hour with this important lesson that I am passionate about!

Well, actually you'll need to be there to handle discussion and run the games.  But please take some time to consider this lesson.  We definitely need to teach more creativity in school, especially at the secondary levels!

The original post is here and I suggest you look it over to see all the details.  The information below is included in that post.

Just so it is available on the front page for a while, I also am including the new stuff here:

There are two videos below that you can play to present the information to your students, or you can watch my version and present it in your own way.

• The first video could result in some notes and discussion with the class.  
• The second part introduces a creativity exercise that you can run with them (stopping the video a few minutes to do the activity).  
• Both parts have suggested presentation games that you can play with the class.

Links to the related games are also below.  If you don't use ActivInspire you can download a free "personal edition" from their website and play the games or you can make your own versions.

Here is part 1 of the presentation.  It covers the purpose of the activity and provides a definition of creativity.  

The presentation leads into two free classroom games I created.  You can find information about those here:

• Oh, Really! classroom game
• This or That? classroom game (based on the game Take Your Pick)

And here is part 2.  In this one I lead a couple of brainstorming activities and show what it means to make connections.  After those practice exercises the teacher could lead the class in one to three games, which are listed below.

Games for this part of the presentation are here, along with the rules:

• Why Did the Chicken...? and the popular Why Did the Chicken...? Mythology Edition
• Say Anything and the Back to School Edition of Say Anything 

Please let me know if you have questions or any good experiences with this lesson.  I hope to improve it over time.