Monster Relay Race

Our ones are beginning to get body parts and numbers. I love teaching these things. It is like a free license for me to go crazy with my favourite stories! I love building monsters and playing with ideas like what is the "norm" and expected. Last year, as an example, I wrote stories from Orthrus and Cerberus' perspectives (these are available via our subscription on our website: steppingintoci.com ). They are a pair of brothers (and monsters) who protect various things and can be particularly violent.

So... of course I jumped at the chance to do something unique this time!

Enter.... The Monster Relay Race!

It's part running dictation, part Invisibles,  part relay race, and part dice game. I was hoping the kids would enjoy it and it turns out... they ran with it (pun intended). So... let's get down to the nitty gritty.

The Basics

1. Prep Time - ~10-15 minutes
2. Instructional/set up time - ~5 minutes
3. Activity Time - ~1/2 the class
4. Grading Time - As long as you'd like it to be. 
5. Supplies Needed:
1. vocab list that includes body parts and numbers
2. dice (I used 8 sided dice, but you can use any... the more side, the more varied the work you'll get)
3. coloured eggs (Try the dollar tree or 5 Below. Amazon has them too year round)
4. a container for your eggs
5. colouring supplies

Instructions

1. First, students will get into groups of four. They will need the paper with the instructions on it (attached below), and a die. 
2. Second, students choose jobs. The jobs I allowed were:
1. cursor - runs to get an egg
2. aleator - rolls the die
3. pictor - draws the image
4. scriptor - writes the sentences
3. Students race to collect five body parts (in order by coloured egg). 
4. Once they have a body part, they roll the die which tells them how many of that body part are needed in their sentences and picture. 
5. They construct the sentence and the scriptor writes it down.
6. The pictor draws that body part. 
7. When all five parts are collected, they work as a team to finish the image (background included) and colour it. First team to turn it in, and get it done according to instructions, wins. 

Options/Variants

When kids turned it in to me, I was very strict on what I would accept, given the rules. When I grade it, however, I will be not so strict, considering this was  a race. What I looked for was:

• 5 body parts with 5 numbers. 
• 5 separate sentences... in Latin.
• colour in the image.
• a back ground
• numbers written out in Latin and spelled correctly (they were written on the board for the students)

This drug out the game a little and allowed groups who process more slowly to catch up to the speedy groups. When I grade these, however, those specifications go out the window. What I'm looking for is:

• Does the image and body parts match the sentences in type and number?
• Can I understand what they wrote?

I've given some examples below. The captions help clarify these points. 

This is the winning group. They were not the first, second or third to try and turn it in, but they were the first to get all my points right!

This group made their sentences easy to read and super clear! Their image matches very well. 

This group originally wrote 1 sentence. While any other time this would be fine, for the rules of the game, it didn't work. They had to go back and work out what they did. What was really cool, however, is that they ended up varying some sentences and creating some great examples. 

Here is a copy of the paper I made!