Start off playing Simon Says.
One child is nominated as ‘Simon’ (teacher should be Simon for the first few rounds)
Tell the children that IF Simon says they should do something, THEN they do it ELSE do nothing.
For example, Simon gives the following instructions
“Simon says put your hands on your head” (children do action)
“Simon says stand on one leg” (children do action)
“Now stand on the other leg” (children do NOT do the action)
Get faster as the game progresses. Teachers decision as to whether children are knocked out if they move when they shouldn’t.
For older children move on before they get bored to a much harder version that is similar to Simon Says but using a combination of conditionals in the instructions as in…
“IF I scratch my nose THEN wave your left hand in the air, ELSE do nothing”
You can make it increasingly difficult according to age of children and their experience with coding
“IF I stand on one leg THEN put your hands on your head ELSE jump up and down”
“IF I wave my left arm around THEN hop on one leg ELSE sit on the floor”
“IF I turn around AND put my hands on my head THEN shout ‘Hello’ ELSE shout ‘Noooooo’
“IF I wave my left leg OR scratch my nose THEN wave your arms ELSE and turn around and hum”
It can get quite hilarious but the important thing is that you either use it as an introduction to talking about conditionals (IF…AND…OR…THEN…ELSE)
If you are new to the game it helps if you have some commands already written on card so that you can keep the temp op.
