| Caring Community Hanna Kingsbury, Teacher, Rift Valley Academy, Kenya
The house smelled of evergreen candles and raspberry crisp as the door burst open to admit six energetic and excited tenth graders. In moments, they were settled around our living room, lounging on the couch and chairs, rambling enthusiastically from one topic to the next ~ school, vacation, siblings, classes, dorm life, and so much more. Soon, we were devouring bowls of steaming raspberry crisp topped with vanilla ice cream, sharing about our lives since we saw each other last.
And then we broke out the evening’s activity ~ Telephone Pictionary, also known as Telestrations. In this hilarious game, each player starts out with as many note cards as there are players. On their first note card, they write a phrase, word, or sentence. Each player then simultaneously passes their stack to the next player, who reads the sentence, word, or phrase, places that note card at the back of the pile, and draws a picture of the sentence, word, or phrase. This continues, with players alternating between drawing and writing, never knowing what the cards before looked like or what they said.
There was a great deal of sighing and pondering, trying to get the creative juices flowing with every card. As the note cards continued around the circle, we struggled to keep straight faces as the pictures and sentences went from average to absurdly ridiculous in a matter of seconds. By the time our cards got back to us, we were all giggling ~ giggles which turned to outright laughter when we shared the transformation our sentences had taken as they proceeded around the circle. We were in stitches, we laughed so hard, as everyday, ordinary sentences turned into monsters, unidentifiable objects, and fantastic journeys. |
