Author Topic: 2 Truths and 1 Lie - A Game for One of Those Odd Days (Read 13683 times)

mhong1581 · « **on:** March 03, 2011, 01:44:02 PM »

....like this week. I was planning to use an icebreaker game because I thought that all the students have already been mixed for the new semester. Of course, at the last minute I find out from my co-teacher that the students won't be mixed until next week. So, until they get mixed (I know it sounds strange to me too) I've improvised an old game called "2 Truths and 1 Lie." I just did it twice today and all the students loved it. The game took about maybe 30-35 minutes to complete.

Basically, I have the students write two truths and one lie on their piece of paper. I would also have them write their names and their answers on their paper. I would then collect their paper from them. Next, I'll pull out one paper and I would have the student who wrote the paper stand next to me. I would then read one sentence that the student wrote and then the students will either move to left of the room if then think its is true or to the right of the room if they think its a lie. If the sentence was true then I would have the students who were standing on right side of the room sit down. I would continue to do this until there are about 5 students left standing. Once the game is over, I would just do it again and again. It's a fun game.

Again if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please leave a comment. Have a great day (^_^)

tanya12 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2011, 08:05:57 AM »

thanks for this!

i have a few odd lessons like yourself so will play one or two games. :)

karenology · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2011, 08:16:59 AM »

Thanks - think I'll use this for my 3rd graders as they all know each other fairly well by now!

Gunpo_Erin · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2011, 08:24:23 AM »

i also used this for my 6th graders in elementary school- seemed to work well with 2 of the 3 6th grade classes

thanks for posting!

ajminh · « **Reply #4 on:** March 10, 2011, 07:46:20 AM »

I was going to use this game for one of my classes, but with a slight twist. After the students write down their statements, I will have the students fold their papers up (like it was a note). Then I would ask my students to hand their papers to the front. Instead of me reading them, I was going to randomly hand out their "notes" and have them reading other students statements to the class. I'm not sure how well this will work, but I thought this would be a good way to get the students to speak. Feel free to give me your thoughts about this.

shhowse · « **Reply #5 on:** March 10, 2011, 07:55:29 AM »

I have been using this game with my high school girls, grade 1. It's going over pretty well; they like the game. What I had to start doing though was to encourage them to write more difficult things to guess, instead of the usual "I like pizza" and "I hate math" type things. It was going too quickly and not many students guessed incorrectly to be eliminated. And since they are older and understand the critical thinking behind this game (if the first sentence is a lie, then the next two are both true...), they often didn't even really have to think about which side to walk to.

I'm going to continue to use it and try to think of more ways to make it a bit more difficult for them. Maybe I'll just have them do four sentences, 2 truths, 2 lies.

Janitor · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2011, 08:07:46 AM »

I have used this for my middle school students. We had the same problem as the above poster. Once the students figured out that they could trick their friends it made it a lot more fun.

We also only read once sentence from each student to avoid the inevitable realization that if there was only one lie and they already said it, the others had to be true. One sentence kept them guessing.

Canonite · « **Reply #7 on:** March 10, 2011, 08:11:25 AM »

Wicked idea! Thanks for sharing...

mhong1581 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 10, 2011, 08:16:52 AM »

@ Janitor and Shhowse - I'm also using the game right and like Janitor I only read 1 sentence per student. It helps to prevent cheating and it also allows more students to get their sentences read. I also noticed that as you explain to the students how to play the game it is important to tell them to not make their lie very obvious.

Adict · « **Reply #9 on:** March 11, 2011, 02:28:39 PM »

i really like the twist you put on this, with having the kids move around the classroom

epinephrine9 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2011, 02:41:03 PM »

I did 2 lies, 1 truth with my students a while back. The way I played it was that the students were in teams, and they had to discuss to figure out what the 1 truth was, and then all teams at the same time hold up a sign (simply A, B, or C) with which one they thought the true sentence was. It was chaotic and loud, but fun. I think it's more of a challenge going 2 lies, 1 truth, because the 1 truth does not seem as obvious as the 1 lie can be.

mike hawk · « **Reply #11 on:** April 18, 2011, 02:10:14 PM »

I tried this one with my after school class and I found prompting them with adjectives such as 'interesting' and 'tricky' translated to korean worked really well

elleutah · « **Reply #12 on:** April 25, 2011, 10:07:49 AM »

Great idea! Even my elementary students loved this game :)

em87 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 25, 2011, 10:17:32 AM »

awesome game. It worked with all my grades in middle school that I teach. You can also add a moral message to it if you want!

mhong1581 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 25, 2011, 01:53:57 PM »

@elsemarie87 and elleutah - I'm happy to hear that it worked out for you two (^_^)

christokki · « **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2011, 09:07:12 AM »

Thanks so much! Will be trying this with my elementary school students next week!

yeoldeteacher · « **Reply #16 on:** September 14, 2011, 08:01:39 PM »

This is great! sometimes you just need to fill time, you know?

mhong1581 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 15, 2011, 12:58:01 PM »

Quote from: yeoldeteacher on September 14, 2011, 08:01:39 PM

This is great! sometimes you just need to fill time, you know?

I know (^_-)

C_OBOYLE_V · « **Reply #18 on:** September 15, 2011, 02:56:46 PM »

This sounds great for my middles school 1st graders next week. One thing though....Has anyone tried this with the students not moving around the class??? i.e just having them stand and sit instead of moving from the left side of the class to the right side. I'm saying this because I find that once I have the students moving around the class, bedlam breaks out. They usually start brawling!!! Cheers

gosarahgo · « **Reply #19 on:** September 24, 2011, 06:47:41 PM »

This worked great in my class! I had a student read their sentences. And the class had to guess which was the lie, if they got it right they were still in the game. If they got it wrong they had to sit down...making it a contest made it more fun