On the Fly

​Some days you feel like all the stars have aligned and a sprinkling of pixie dust landed on your classroom because everything goes just as planned.  Those days are magical! Then there are those "other days". You know...days where nothing quite goes as planned.  You keep pouring cup after cup of coffee thinking you may just need a little more caffeine.

This week I had one of those days. One mishap turned into another mishap and no matter how hard I tried to recover, the mishaps kept coming.  So I should have known when I began my 4th period class that it wasn't likely things would go as planned.  Sure enough, they didn't.  I had planned an amazing Digital BreakOutEDU orchestrated perfectly with ipads ready to scan the QR code that would bring them to the Digital BreakoutEDU site.  I had tested them, all were good to go.  When students came in, I hyped up the game and they were all chomping at the bit to team up for this challenge.  I started the timer and off they went.  Well, until they scanned the QR code to find out the wifi was down. Yep. None of the ipads connected and the Digital BreakoutEDU couldn't be accessed.  To make matters worse, my sophomore son was in this class. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and I immediately knew what he was thinking, "How is she going to recover from this? I really don't want to see her fail...my reputation is on the line here."

That's when my teacher mama powers went into overdrive. I had to think "ON THE FLY" and I had to do it quick!  I glanced at my counter and saw the game "Code Names" and remembered an idea that I had tried at a workshop I facilitated but hadn't yet tried with my students. As I began to give instructions, I was literally formulating a plan in my brain as I spoke, "Class, we are going to create a game called Culinary Code Names" Did I know this was going to work? Absolutely not. But, I was going to give it my best shot. 

Not only did it work, but students loved it...including my son!  I adapted the original Code Names game to match my content and you can too!  ​You can find the original Code Names game on Amazon and a youtube video of the original rules HERE. Think about how you could you change the player titles, card names, and game scenario to match your content.

CULINARY CODE NAMES

Game Scenario:
Two restaurants have been temporarily shut down due to a failed restaurant inspection. The Executive Chefs are on a race against the clock to find the source of the failed score and save their restaurant from closing forever. 

Materials needed:

• 200 3x5 cards cut in half.
• The the map cards from the original Code Names game
• Plastic stand from original game. Buy extras on Amazon. Click HERE 
• Blue, red, & white tokens or card stock cut into blue, red & white  squares
• 1 black poker chip or card stock cut into a square

Game Rules:
1. Divide class into teams of 3 or 4 students.
2. Pair teams up so 2 teams are playing against each other; one red team & one blue team.
3. Select one player from each team to be the Executive Chef (Spymaster in original game), all other team members will be employees.
4. Pass out the following to each team:

• 25 index card halves
• 9 red, blue, and white tokens or squares (Buy on Amazon HERE)
• 1 black token or square
• 3 Code Name Map Cards (from original game)
• a pen

5. Have each team come up with 50 culinary words to write on the front and back of each index card. Words can be ingredients, utensils, equipment, or cooking terms. If you teach another subject, you could have them write vocabulary words/terms that relate to your content.  
6. Teams will set out cards randomly in a 5 X 5 grid so all line up in straight rows.
7. The Executive Chefs from each team will be given a map card that identifies the cards that are on the grid. The red and blue spaces identify the supplies that belong to each team. The tan spaces are neutral spaces and the black identifies the contaminated card. Use the small plastic stand to keep the map card upright for only the Executive Chefs to see.
8. Each map card has four small rectangles, one on each side of the map grid, that indicates which team plays first.  The team that plays first has one more supply to uncover than the other team. 
9. The Executive Chefs will take turns trying to get their team to find their supplies before the other team finds theirs.  Each will call out a one word hint to describe the supplies that they are trying to get their team to identify followed by the number of cards the hint relates to. Ex. tomato 2. 
10. Line cooks must make at least one guess, after Chef gives the hint. If they guess the card(s) correctly the Chef covers it with a token of their team color. If it is wrong, it must be covered by the the token that it belongs to according to the map card. If they pick the contaminated card, the game is immediately over and the guessing team loses. 
11. The game ends when a team wins by guessing all of their supplies on the grid, or loses by guessing the contaminated card.

I'd love to hear your ideas for adapting this game to match your content! Tag me on Twitter @tishrich !
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