Activity 7 - Lying Games
See a video description of the activity here.
This description is more of a reminder of games that you will have played either as a child or already as a teacher but lying (like music - Activity 1) falls into the category of things that have an especially deep psychological connection with us and so will always be especially fun or memorable.
There are many ways to set up a lying game and I am sure that you can think of your own. Here are three suggestions to get started.
Simple - Two true, one false. Students say three things about themselves, one of the three is false and the others have to recognize/ guess which is the false one. For example I could say …..
I listen to a lot of music from the 70s and 80s.
I support Manchester United football club.
My mother is called Angela.
The middle one is false. (I support Liverpool.)
Medium - A String of Lies Ask students to fill in the following passage about a relative ......
I am going to tell you about my (insert relative). S/he is (insert number) years old and lives in (insert type of accommodation) in (insert place). S/he lives with (insert other people or - lives alone.) S/he has (insert pets or - no pets).
They should do two versions of this, a true one, where everything is true and a false one, where everything is false. Either on a signal from the teacher, or by their own choice, they read out just one of them and the others have to guess if it was the true one or the false one.
Tip: this can be done as a team game with points awarded each time a team guesses correctly. Also it can be fun if the team has to consult together if the next team member is going to lie or tell the truth.
Advanced - An unusual story This is the format of the popular British TV show Would I Lie to You? Somebody tells a longer story of an unusual event that happened to them and the others get to ask questions about the story to get more details before deciding if the story is true or false. This is harder if the person telling the story is really lying as they have to keep improvising new lies every time they answer a question.
Again this can be a few minute activity or it can be played in teams as a longer game as it is in the TV show.
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