1.   Students sit in circles of 4-6 people. Teach them to slap, clap, snap, snap in rhythm.

• “Slap” is slapping both thighs,
• “Clap” is a single clapping of hands,
• “Snap” is snapping the right and left fingers alternately. Do this with an even beat, about one second for each item.

2.  Tell the student this is a vocabulary game. They must listen to the person next to them and any word connected to what that person says. They say the word on the second snap.

Example:

Snap, clap, snap (Teacher: red)

Snap, clap, snap (A: hot)

Snap, clap, snap (B: dog)

Here is an example of a chain of words: red à hot à dog à cat à mouse à Mickey à Disneyland à Space Mountain à coaster à love it! à chocolate

*   Note that a word only need to connect with the word right before it, not with the whole list (dog connects to hot but not to red)

3.    Once they understand the game, have them play in small groups. Sometimes groups will stumble when someone can’t think of a good word. They can either restart on the same word they stumbled on, or they can go on to a new starting word.

*   Colors and emotions are good words to start with.

*   You might want to write a series (5-8) of starting words on the board so as groups finish with one, they can go on to another.

·         Groups sometimes stumble when a student says a word for which the other students don’t see the connection. If that happens, they should ask that person to explain (in one class, a chain went like this: sky à blue à water à marathon. The others said, ”Huh? Marathon?” The student explained, “When you run in a marathon, people give you water to stay cool.” Then everyone understood and they continued with the game. (BM)

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