Introduction

Busy Bee is a warm up game that engages both body and mind on an improvisational level. The main idea and name of the game is taken from the playing CLIL handbook (http://www.playingclil.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/handbook_short_EN.pdf). The teacher instructs the learners to move around the room buzzing like a bee and stopping when they hear a clap. The instructor then shouts out a word-field, a letter, a category or something similar upon which the students have five seconds to form a statue representing an according concept, word or activity. When everybody has found a posture the teacher moves around asking what the students represent. They have individual speaking time either simply naming the word or activity they perform or describing what they are representing. 

Target group and Time

Because one can scaffold this game it can be used for all age groups in various subjects and takes about 10 to 30 minutes depending on how many rounds the teacher wants to play. 

Learning objectives

The game can be adapted to almost every subject content since it introduces categories that can be scaffolded. In my version I used simple word-fields like ‘sports‘ and ‘hobbies‘. In a more advanced group of learners one might only use letters to motivate abstract and original thinking.

Letting it run

Once students have gotten the hang of the game, you can make it more challenging. When two students freeze and act out the same thing, they are both out of the game. This makes it so that the students have to come up with unique ideas.