The WBT Inner Circle is in the process of developing a new game, Ultimate Wackadoodle, designed to give students hysterical fun while mastering state standards. Do I have your attention?

Divide the class into two teams, boys against girls works well. Assign a group of captains for each team ... so that there is about 1 captain for four students.

Write 5 or so important concepts on the board ... for example, essay, verb, characterization, plot (etc. for language arts) or fractions, division, area, perimeter (etc. for math). Tell students that they should work with their captains to be sure they can complete each of the following tasks for each term: Gesture (create a new gesture or use one given in class), Explanation (explain the term), Example (give an example of the term), Compare (compare the term to any other term), Contrast (contrast the term to any other term). Give them as long as you think necessary to prepare.

Then, draw a Wackadoodle Scoreboard on the board ... just like your regular Scoreboard. Propose a small reward for the winning team, like being able to line up first for lunch, or getting the balls to take out to recess ... then start firing questions at the teams ... "Explain author!" "Compare fractions with whole numbers" "Original gesture for plot" ... make marks on the Scoreboard to keep the game close ... "not fast enough" ... "great energy" ... "good answer" ... "you didn't use a complete sentence" ... encourage teams to cheer when they get a point and groan when they lose a point.

Then, occasionally say "Wackadoodle!!!" and pick one of the concepts, say author ... Point at a captain, or whoever, and the captain must Wackadoodle all the categories: gesture, explain, example, compare, contrast ... and then crow Wackadoodle!!! ... if they did great it is a double point ... or you can point at the other side at a captain and say, "Block that Wackadoodle" and the captain must try to do a better job than the opposing captain on the same concept ...

Of course, the one main rule is Keep The Ref Happy ... you're the Ref ...and any arguing scores a point for the opposing team.

Please give the game a try, post the results and suggestions for tweaking. Go!

We played Ultimate Wackadoodle today and had a great time. I have 8th graders so I made a couple of tweaks.

I wrote the concepts we would use today on the board as the Idea Pool. With this level learner I gave them eight to ten words to draw on. I also wanted to up the points a little to get them to word harder, so I wrote the following:

Gesture (1 pt)
Explanation (2 pts)
Example (3 pts)
Compare or Contrast (4 pts)
Wackadoodle (up to 10 pts)

It wrote the Scoreboard like this:

Gest 1 | Expl 2 | Example 3 | comp/cont 4 | Wackadoodle!| Total Points
Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Team 4

Team 5

Team 6

I drew a grid around this. That way I could give a check mark when a team scored, and move on quickly.

I told the kids it would be a quickdraw game, and had them place their hands on their tables. I would say, "Example....Go!" whoever raised their hand first, that table got a chance to give an example for the word I gave next. They had 3 seconds to confer with their teammates before answering.

When I called "Wackadoodle!" only the team captains could quickdraw. I would give the winning captain the concept and then they had to give me in order the gesture, explanation, example, and either a comparison or contrast with the given term and one of my choice. they could score points equivalent with each of those choices. If the captain missed one, they could still get other points. For example, if a captain got the gesture, explanation, and comparison or contrast, but did not give me an example quickly or clearly enough they could still earn the other points- 7 points in this case instead of 10.

At the end of the game we totaled the points for each team in the grid. By halfway through the game the kids already had the hang of it and were calling out their team's points before I could add them up. They understood the scoring system and were following it on the fly.

I will continue to play and tweak the game. The kids really liked it, even on first play. I like the depth it pushed them to use in thinking.

If you haven't tried this game yet...you've got to try! The kids are so into it that they totally loose track of time and we've reviewed some great stuff.

All you need are five related topics from the same academic area and away you go. The great thing is that the kids are doing all of the thinking here, connecting, gesturing, comparing, contrasting, and explaining. These 5 areas are all the higher level thinking that kids have got to be doing.

Wack away and have some fun!