Find Your Match

Name of In Class Activity: Find Your Match

Type of modality / Ice breaker, mind game
Type of play / Shared cooperative
Interaction pattern / Intragroup
# of participants required / 4 or more
Equipment/supplies / Idioms listed (printed or written on slips of paper), scissors to cut out strips
Facilities required/environment / No specific
Precautions / Be cautious of appropriateness, intellectual abilities/education background as some participants may have no relation to any of the phrases, or some may take offense

Task Analysis

1. Write down or print list of idioms split into two parts. (Ex. “it’s raining” on one side of the page, and “ cats and dogs” on the other side of the page)

It's raining / cats and dogs
Don't look a gift horse / in the mouth
Best thing / since sliced bread
Better late / than never
All's well / that ends well
No use crying / over spilt milk
Bit off more / than you can chew
Can't judge a book / buy its cover
Every cloud / has a silver lining
Let the cat / out of the bag
To make a long story / short
You hit the nail / on the head
Feeling a bit / under the weather
Don't count your chickens / before they've hatched
The ball / is in your court

2. Cut out the idioms into slips

3. Mix the idiom slips up and begin handing them out to participants

4. Explain the objective of the game “find the person who has the slip that finishes your slip’s sentence”

5. Once the individuals find their matches, stand in pairs in a line.

6. Starting from one end, announce the proposed idiom match. (Ex. “Best thing” by person 1, “since sliced bread” by person 2

7. The pair at the opposite end of the line tries to explain the meaning of the idiom (Ex. “This is really awesome”)

8. The rest of the pairs in the line agree or disagree and help figure out the actual meaning. (Ex.for “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” possibilities included a Trojan horse reference, being grateful for what you have, beggars can’t be choosers)

9. Once the idiom was all figured out and everyone in the entire group agreed, the next pair down the line will announce their proposed idiom match.

10. Steps 6-9 keep repeating until all of the idioms in the list have been talked about.

11. The main object of the game is to use group cooperation and coordination to get the best possible explanation of the idiom phrases

Activity Analysis

Category / Skills
Primary body position / Standing
Part of the body required / LE limbs, hands
Movement / Carrying in the hands, grasping (pincer), moving around obstacles (other participants when finding pairs), standing, walking short distances
Physical / Static standing balance, fine motor coordination, visual motor integration
Cognitive / Attention, cognitive formation of idiom explanation, simple decision making, initiation to suggest an explanation, insight, intellectual knowledge of English idioms, judgment, memory (long term) of idioms, problem solving (simple) to find idiom pair, reading, sequencing parts of idiom, abstract thought to understand idioms
Social / Conversation (starting- to find match), handling criticism if someone suggests your explanation is wrong, heterogeneity, maintaining social space even with close proximity of pairs, relating with equals, regulating behavior, self expression of own suggestions, social conduct, social cues, showing respect & warmth.
Perception / Auditory, visual
Communication/language / Reception to spoken language, reception of written language, expression of spoken language
Self-care / N/A
Psychological/emotional (possible) / Joy when idiom is correctly matched and explained, frustration if unable to correctly match or explain or if others do not acknowledge your suggestions, fear of giving wrong answers/embarrassment

SIMPLIFYING AND COMPLICATING THIS ACTIVITY:

Ways to SIMPLIFY demands / Ways to make more COMPLEX
Cognitively / Use the simplest idioms / Match questions and answers instead of parts of a single phrase
Physically / Sit down while playing the game / Skip to find partners. Have paper slips attached to small weights.
Socially / Have a smaller group in general/amount of pairs / Use longer phrases and break them up into more than 2 slips (each group will have 3-4 members)

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