Starter Activity - ‘You Say,  We Pay’

This is an idea that I borrowed directly from ‘the Richard and Judy Show’ (for those of you who remember that late-afternoon classic).

On the show, people had to telephone in and explain a picture to Richard and Judy without using that word. For instance, there may have been a picture of Gordon Brown and the person ringing in needed to say something like “current UK Prime Minister”. Each time the jovial hosts got it correct the caller was given £1,000.

Unfortunately, my budget doesn’t allow prizes of such magnitude but the concept still works brilliantly.

I split the class into two teams (in one class I have girls against boys but in another class I have just divided the room down the middle) and when we play the game each side decides on a volunteer to come to the front, facing the class so they can’t see the board (one team at a time).

A word is shown on the IWB (or you could use a PowerPoint slideshow) and each time the word is answered correctly I display another. I normally have around 7-8 key words from the topic per team. The quickest team to get to the end of their set of key words wins.

This works really well but it is important to set some ground rules such as not using words that rhyme with the word on display. I’ve yet to come across a class who doesn’t like the concept, especially as AS and A2 places as much emphasis on key words as GCSE. Great for a starter or plenary.