Derby Day
Required: Box or Bag / Different Colored Balls
Icons: 4 Different colored Magnets or Tape for 4 horses
Game: After each Drill, let students play a horse racing game. The simple idea is to call on students one at a time to go to the box with the different colored balls and choose one or two of them. The color of the ball decides which color horse moves down the track, space by space. Continue to call on students to pick balls (and replace balls in the box) until a horse has won the race. The winning horse wins 10 points!
*Extra rule: When all horses finally get out of the gate (first space) we draw a backwards ball. The color chosen moves back a space. When a Horse reaches the space next to the finish line, we again choose a backwards ball... Just to add to the suspense of the race!
Young children
Green team is the Green horse- win 10 points
Blue team is the Blue horse- win 10 points
The teaching assistant is the Yellow horse: If she wins the entire class gets an extra money card at the end of class.
The Teacher is the Red horse: If the teacher wins, erase all points from both teams
*I took out a red ball when we played this way for lower odds of winning
Extra Rule: A student could bet 10 points on a horse... either doubling up and betting on their own horse, or playing it safe and betting on a different horse! The 10 points was just awarded... not taking away from their point score... So not truly gambling for the little ones!
Older Children
4 teams including the two teachers. Each team starts with $50. Before each race students can bet for whatever they like, and at any amount. If their horse wins they win $10 dollars regardless, as they are the owner of the horse. After all bets are taken, subtract the dollar amount from their "bank"... so this is truly betting.
Money doesnt matter much as with each drill of english award "money" to students to build up their bank... $3 for great answers, $1 dollar for correct answers. $3 dollars for great behavior and so on.
At the end of class the team with the most money wins! Teachers are also in, but teachers can't earn money during drills, so makes it a bit tough to win.
All ages enjoyed this game. I would play about 6 -8 horse races per 90 minute class between drills and English work. Im sure there are many other little things you could do with this simple idea. But these two ways were lots of fun for my students.
*Students could choose 1 or 2 balls at a time because my track was a bit long, so the game would have dragged on too long if I hadn't had students picking out 2 balls most of the time.
*I used 7 balls of each color. These could easily be changed to poker cards... Or other objects...
Icons: 4 Different colored Magnets or Tape for 4 horses
Game: After each Drill, let students play a horse racing game. The simple idea is to call on students one at a time to go to the box with the different colored balls and choose one or two of them. The color of the ball decides which color horse moves down the track, space by space. Continue to call on students to pick balls (and replace balls in the box) until a horse has won the race. The winning horse wins 10 points!
*Extra rule: When all horses finally get out of the gate (first space) we draw a backwards ball. The color chosen moves back a space. When a Horse reaches the space next to the finish line, we again choose a backwards ball... Just to add to the suspense of the race!
Young children
Green team is the Green horse- win 10 points
Blue team is the Blue horse- win 10 points
The teaching assistant is the Yellow horse: If she wins the entire class gets an extra money card at the end of class.
The Teacher is the Red horse: If the teacher wins, erase all points from both teams
*I took out a red ball when we played this way for lower odds of winning
Extra Rule: A student could bet 10 points on a horse... either doubling up and betting on their own horse, or playing it safe and betting on a different horse! The 10 points was just awarded... not taking away from their point score... So not truly gambling for the little ones!
Older Children
4 teams including the two teachers. Each team starts with $50. Before each race students can bet for whatever they like, and at any amount. If their horse wins they win $10 dollars regardless, as they are the owner of the horse. After all bets are taken, subtract the dollar amount from their "bank"... so this is truly betting.
Money doesnt matter much as with each drill of english award "money" to students to build up their bank... $3 for great answers, $1 dollar for correct answers. $3 dollars for great behavior and so on.
At the end of class the team with the most money wins! Teachers are also in, but teachers can't earn money during drills, so makes it a bit tough to win.
All ages enjoyed this game. I would play about 6 -8 horse races per 90 minute class between drills and English work. Im sure there are many other little things you could do with this simple idea. But these two ways were lots of fun for my students.
*Students could choose 1 or 2 balls at a time because my track was a bit long, so the game would have dragged on too long if I hadn't had students picking out 2 balls most of the time.
*I used 7 balls of each color. These could easily be changed to poker cards... Or other objects...