A tutorial to help keep distance learning fun!
My students are obsessed with the flyswatter game! We call it matamosca, and sometimes we play the tabletop version, piggy bank (banco de cerditos) or plaza de toros. Whatever you know it as, it’s a staple game in most world language classrooms!
Or at least it was. Thanks, Covid.
We still want our kids to have fun and play games, but how do we do that during social distancing?
Fear not! With a little extra effort, it can still be done!
How to create the flyswatter game for distance learning
The easiest way is to create the boards in a Google Presentation.
After you create the board, go to File > download > download as PNG.
Click on a blank slide.
Choose Background > Upload image.
Upload the image you downloaded. Now it is the background and students cannot move the pieces.
If you have an extension like Kami or another writing tool, students can use this to mark their game boards.
Otherwise, you can make tokens within your slide for students to move to keep track of their points. Fast forward this video to 1:10. It’s really easier for me to show you than to write it out. =)
The last step is to make enough copies of the slide for students to play in pairs. Assign each pair a slide number. Then play the game as usual over Zoom or Google Meet!
If you’ve never played this game before, here are the rules:
Two students face off against each other.
The teacher calls out a word, phrase, or definition.
The first student to touch the correct answer, wins.
In a pre-covid world, you would have students line up and use flyswatters to hit the projected word or image on your board.
In this version, students will cross off a word with their token. I hope this helps!
What other games or activities did you love to do but are struggling to figure out how to make them distance-learning-friendly? Leave a comment below and it may just be the subject of a future video!
