Introduction

"The sun shines on everyone who..." is a physical activity that also provides verbal exercise. It needs six players or more and enough space for those players to form a circle. At the start, one player stands in the middle of the circle and says: "The sun shines on everyone who BLANK". Examples can include utterances like "...likes red shirts" or "...is a Star Wars fan". The players who do like red shirts or are not Star Wars fans now switch places. The player in the middle also needs to find a spot in the circle. Therefore, the last player will remain in the middle and the circle continues.

Target group and Time

The target group can vary. It can be played with students in 3rd grade already, provided they know enough basic nouns or verbs and can remember the phrase "The sun shines on everyone who likes BLANK". In higher grades the students can replace the verb "like" with more advanced verbs. Since the game can be played to test new vocabulary, it could be played in any age group. Due to the side effect of getting to know the other players, it can also be played with grown ups. I have played it with grown ups during the Lehramtserstifahrt as a get-to-know-each-other game. It shouldn't take longer than ten minutes with young students because the questions become too repetitive. Older players can take longer as the questions will be more diverse. 

Learning objectives

The game teaches participants the use of basic 3rd person construction. Students could also use different tenses or other grammatical forms if the difficulty needs to be increased. The activity makes students apply and act on (new) vocabulary. The students could be asked to use nouns or verbs they have just learned. The activity also reveals information about the other players. This means that students can get to know each other better. This can have both positive or negative consequences however. Students could find similarities and thereby make new friends, or the knowledge about the students could be used against them. Questions like "The sun shines on everybody who already had a boyfriend/girlfriend" or "The sun shines on everybody who likes their parents" make students vulnerable. It should therefore be made clear that the questions should not be too personal.

Instructions to set up the activity

Enough space for the circle needs to be made. The circle needs to be even and big enough. The teacher should be the first to stand in the middle as they can use this position to explain the rules and then demonstrate them. 

Letting it run

The circle should be adjusted for size and evenness, since it will become disorderly soon. This is a game about speed, but it should be made clear that students should not run recklessly. If a question becomes inappropriate, the teacher has to intervene. The difficulty can be increased mid-game by demanding more complex grammatical structures or specific vocabulary.