Introduction

The game consists of a story about fairies and a very exciting day in their lives. Participants each have their own role to act out.

Target group and Time

The game should be played by more advance language learners, because you have to listen to every detail and transfer it into action. Not understanding and knowing what to do might intimidate the participants, but if necessary the game can be adapted by changing the story. The games takes about 8 minutes.

Learning objectives

The objective is to activate listening skills and also the ability to transfer knowledge into an action. Also, the students have the chance to be creative, since they can try many different ways to act out an action. At the same time concentration is needed, because the participants each have different roles which they have to incorporate as well. It is also a collective game, since learners can help each other.

Instructions to set up the activity

The teacher explains that he or she is going to read a story out loud and that the students have to act it out.

It should be mentioned that the students have to listen carefully.

It is also important that no one stops moving. This rule prevents participants from only acting when they hear an instruction.

It should be avoided to act out of character.

If questions arise they should be answered before beginning, but the story itself is very self-explanatory.

Letting it run

The story can be adapted according to the needs of students. For instance, if they feel energetic then more plot twist should be incorporated.

Take your time and do not rush the students. If you think they enjoy an action stay there and build on their scene. Give time, because some actions need time to develop. Do not interrupt the flow and try to give as little help. The learners will help each other, if someone does not understand what to do. Encourage staying in the role of the character.

The story is not fixed, it is flexible!

A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time in a far far away kingdom, there were six fairies.

One was always happy, one was sad. Another one was very angry and the fourth one was scared of everything. The fifth one was very lazy and slow. The last one, the last one was very normal, but liked to walk backwards.

Even though the faries were very different, they were very good friends and always hugged each other.

So one day the fairies were outside and wandered around, but because it had rained the day before, everything was muddy and they couldn’t walk very fast. So sometimes they would slip and fall.

But that didn’t stop them from playing hide and seek.

Happy tried to find the others while the other ones where hiding behind bushes. After Happy found everyone, it was Angry’s turn to find the others. They couldn’t hide behind bushes again, so every fairy hid in the ground. Two fairies dug a hole in ground and the others jumped into it.

Suddenly there was a big storm, everybody climbed out of the hole.

Fortunately the fairies had magic powers. Three fairies together built a house, and the other three hid inside the house. The storm was very strong so the house moved a lot. First to the right, then to the left, then to the front and to the back, to the right again and the front until finally the house broke.

There was so much rain outside that water was flowing everywhere..

Every fairy had to swim under water. This wasn’t a problem. It was a lot fun. They saw little fish and tried to catch them. But then there was a big shark and everybody had to swim really fast, because the shark wanted to eat them.

Lazy had the great idea to climb on a tree, but Lazy was very slow and a shark almost ate him. The fairies scared away the shark and carried Lazy into the tree. All the fairies were really happy and hugged each other.