Baseball Grammar goes to the bottom of the Ninth

So, first period today was my first time leading a class all the way through, and we played baseball grammar. I explained the game to the kids for about 5-10 minutes, and then we started. They were a little lost at first (which I expected) but within 10 minutes or so they had gotten the hang of it. The girls started, played it safe by only choosing 'singles' (which are the easiest questions) and ended up making it through their entire team and racheting up nearly 10 points. I was worried that everyone would take this approach and I'd run out of 'single's, but the boys came out and picked 'home run's for the most part, and did well which encouraged others to take shots at the harder ones.

It was of course a learning experience, and I figured out that the little pictures I used weren't too accesible to the rest of the class since they couldn't see it (but I'll amend that by using the large picture cards that come with the 'New Horizon' books we are using next time). I also have to remember to talk slowly and clearly so everyone can hear and understand me, but again this was my first time doing it :-p. I also got to work with dicipline in a class, since a game this engaging obviously riles kids up. I had to also be a bit hard and call outs if students shouted answers out or tried to whisper it to their partners who were 'up to bat'.

The best part of the game though, was that with only 10 minutes left, the boys were down by 8 and started to storm back, making the game interesting. This included a 'grand slam' (aka the bases were loaded from 'singles' and a student went for a home run, aka very hard question) and answered it correctly as the time limit expired.

The finale included the boys being down by 1, with a person on third, and the student coming up holding this big 'An-pan man' statue thing (an-pan man is a super-hero who looks like 'an-pan', the sweet red bean paste inside of a pastry food that is hugely popular here.), and taking a shot at a home run to win the game on the last question of the day. The kid nailed it with less than a second left, and pretty much sent the room wild.

I particularly loved playing this game because classrooms are, for the most part, never anywhere near this engaged or relaxed during an actual class (this says nothing for between classes though).

I'm pretty stoked because I get to play the game again on friday with the first years. :-)