Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use an improv counting game to reinforce numbers, build community, and practice improv skills.
Photo: Black Ice/pexels.com
Numbers are one of the first things that students are introduced to in language classes: they are concrete (no translation errors!) and useful (textbook pages, sharing ages, telling time).
I use this game with beginner students to reinforce numbers, but also with advanced learners to help build community and connection. This is also a game that I do minutes before every improv show with my troupe; we don’t go on stage until we make it to 21 (our chosen end number)!
The way it works is simple, but it is deceptively hard! A group gets in a circle (with my friends we huddle together like a football team, but that is likely too much touching for classmates) and closes their eyes. (The bigger the group, the harder this exercise is). Without consulting each other, and in no set order, the group must count consecutively. A first brave soul will say “one”. Another will say “two”. If two people say the same number at the same time, they need to start again at one. (If you’re afraid a group might default to a circle, you can make a rule that the next person who speaks can’t be to either side of the person who just said a number.)
The reason I do this before shows is that it forces a sense of togetherness and awareness of others. You start to really pay attention to the people around you and get into sync with them. You start listening hard to their breathing, to any minute movements you can sense. This is a game with winners and losers, but you all win or lose together, so you feel incredibly invested in getting this right. The feeling you get when you finally hear that final number is indescribable! If you want to build feelings of team togetherness, this would be a great way to start a class! This is also a great game for introducing improv as a concept, as you can talk about the importance of listening to others, working as a team, and building on what others contribute.
Adaptations:
You can choose any number as your end number (though go too high and it gets waaaaaaay to difficult).
You can also choose to go up by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s to practice bigger numbers
You can count down from twenty back to one
NOTE: Although this is only tangentially related, I wanted to share my absolute favorite counting video for French. The director of the video found 100 French people of ages 0 through 100 and had them say their age’s number (young kids got some help).
Have you played this game or a variation of it? Share in the comments!