Games in Counseling

I do a lot of things during Lunch Bunch. It is the period of time in my day that is really all mine to work with students and teach them skills I feel are important. Because it’s during lunch, however, I have my fair share of competitions for student time. It’s hard to compete with recess or with a teacher who needs to go over course material, or friends that might be left behind in the lunch room. With even all those challenges, I still get a roomful each week. Even though I do teach a variety of lessons, sometimes I have a stress free zone and we do something “special.” Today was a special day, and was for no “special” reason. I fired up the popcorn maker, filling the hallways with the oh so wonderful buttery smell, and allowed all the passerby’s to drool.

Then I broke the kids up into 3 groups. Each group became a team and we played the iPad game, Heads Up.

To play, you simply have one person hold the iPad above his or her head and a word (or a picture) will pop up. This person’s team then has to try to give clues to the person holding the iPad. If the word is guessed, the iPad is tipped down and you go on to the next word before time runs out. Each turn lasts 60 seconds, so even with my large group of 22 students, everyone had a turn.

With the 5th graders, I let teams talk to describe the words shown on the screen, but for the younger students, I only let them act it out. It was hilarious.

The app cost me 99 cents and I spent another $.99 to get the kids version. It was well worth the money spent, as I can foresee using this again and again.