Murder in Ancient Greece...A Case for Nancy Drew?

...Or simply a drama game in Room 503?

I am sure you suspect the latter, and if that's the case: mystery solved!

This morning we played a drama game that the students really enjoy called "Telegraph Murder" - a cross between the circle game "Telephone" and Charades. However, we played it with a twist: we used all things (ancient) Greek.

The main focus of the game is communication - sans voices - where participants must concentrate on getting information across to another by way of body language, actions and facial expressions only.

Five students form a team and while four of the members leave the room, the fifth onbe is left to choose (from three different cups) a location, an occupation and a weapon. They then have to act out each of these for one of their fellow teammates, who then must interpret what he/she has seen and act it out for the next teammate and so on. The final team player must guess what the original location, occupation and weapon was.

Today, someone could have chosen Sparta, for the location, playwright, as an occupation and brooches as the murder weapons (courtesy of Oedipus).

The game is a great deal of fun, but in no way is it easy. It's very difficult to communicate clearly when you may not use your voice (and, of course, in our class, that can be difficult as well).

Hopefully, the students will all communicate well by way of written word when they embark on their first Vocabulary/Spelling Exam of the semester.

Cheers,
Ms. Pitman