Large scale group play ideas?

[Justin Harbin]

Fellow play-sters,

A colleague and I have been given the opportunity in a couple of months to lead an assembly for our undergraduates on play. I estimate we'll have between 700-800 people in the room. When it comes to play in the classroom we have a ton of ideas, but are trying to think of an opening bit of play (perhaps something that takes about 10 minutes) that would work at this sort of scale (obviously we would be limited in set up and materials with this many people). 

We are open minded but do care that students see that play is far more than activities that you do - we would love to hear any ideas that you all might have for this number of people who may be new to the concept of serious play. 

Thank you in advance!

[David Thomas]

Wow. That sounds like a lot of fun.

Depending on your room setup, here's one to try:

1. Upon arrival, have each student write their name on a piece of paper and doodle a quick self portrait on the paper..

2. Have them fold the paper and hang onto it, not showing it to anyone.

3. When you are ready, have everyone crumple their paper into a ball. On go, have. giant paper snowball shower. Throw the balls into the air and encourage the students to bat them around.

4. After a a minute, everyone grabs a paper ball and un-crumple it. 

5. Final step, when you are ready, have each person find and return the paper to the original owner.

6. See how many people get their paper back.

Of course, lots of other approaches to a similar idea, including handing outplaying cards at the beginning and having students find a card that matches theirs, balloons with writing on them, and so on.

Whatever you end up doing, will you come back here and and let us know what you come up with and how it goes?

David

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[Alessandra Rosa]

Hello all,

Very cool, congrats! And love David's idea as well. My idea might take longer than 10 min at that scale but thought I would share it:

As soon as I read the email, with consideration of the space and mobility of the students you have, I thought of handing out cards that you can join in pairs but letting the students decide what their card pairs with. For example, you can hand out index cards with words or images of different categories like food and write peanut butter in one, and another can have jelly/jam; the interesting and fun part comes when the students start sharing and they pair things you didn't even think of (e.g. I had students pair peanut butter and banana, and the jelly/jam with cheese).

Keep us posted and have fun!!!

Regards,

Alessandra

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[Justin Harbin]

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Justin Harbin reacted via Gmail

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Justin Harbin, Ed.D.

Director, Center for Teaching & Learning

Associate Professor of Teacher Education

Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School

[David Thomas]

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David reacted via Gmail

[Mysti Gates]

You could pose "Would You Rather...?" questions to the group as well. These could be on cards or announced over a mic/loud speaker. This lets people find others with similar outlooks. 

If you use cards, you'd need signs posted for the various answers for people to congregate around (it's quick to print on a sheet of copy paper). Over a loud speaker, you could simply divide the room in half and point to the sides of the room as you recite the question.

Questions can be simple or difficult, silly or serious. 

Sample questions could include:

Would you rather be smart or popular?

Would you rather have fortune or fame?

Would you rather have a full phone battery or a full gas tank?

Would you rather have a job that you love or a job that pays well?

Would you rather lose the ability to read or lose the ability to speak? (or see vs. hear)

Would you rather live in a world where you danced instead of walked or sang instead of talked?

There are lots of resources online for questions. 

[N Didicher]

If the space is a large lecture hall and people can't move around easily, I second the suggestion of having them form pairs or small groups.

If the wifi is good in the space, here's a suggestion for groups of 5-10 people:

- have each person contribute the title of the last song they listened to (either from memory or a playlist on their phone)

- the group then arranges the titles into an order that makes a poem

- each group shares their poem on a jamboard or some other online space editable by a large number of people

Nicky (who personally has made cheese and jam sandwiches for years & loves them)  

[Nadia Di Martino]

These ideas are amazing! I love the doodling idea!

Thank you!!

Nadia Di Martino

0451 060 736

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[Erik Haroldson]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

An option to consider: you could demonstrate a game with a selection of volunteers and let the larger group observe. It would be really cool to involve everyone. But, this way you could play a game that best leads into and exemplifies what you will be presenting overall. 

Best,

Erik Haroldson 

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[Justin Harbin]

All - 

I wanted to check in as we had our assembly this morning! I riffed on Geoff McLachlan's TEDx game and it went beautifully! I had a room full of about 600 undergraduates and faculty laughing and connecting to others who they didn't know well prior to the game. It set us up for some helpful conversations about play as something we do in and for community, and myself and my co-presenter received delightful feedback from the students afterwards. 

Thanks again for the ideas - i look forward to using these in the spaces of my own classroom or other opportunities in the future. You all are awesome!

On Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 6:06 PM Katrina <katrina....@gmail.com> wrote:

Good morning!  

This is my first time posting to this group.  I've been really enjoying the conversations.

May I build on Erik's idea and then add another?

Building on Erik's idea:

After you have modelled the activity with a volunteer group, this group could take on the mantle of expert and then repeat the activity, simultaneously, with their own groups.  That way, everyone gets the chance to participate.  If you had a screen/data projector, you could create a Padlet and have each of the leaders post a picture of their group playing.  This would allow the entire group to share and feel connected.

'Find someone who.... 'Bingo:

Whenever I've had large groups, I've used 'Find someone who... Bingo' cards.  You can have whatever you want on the card, so that it meets your objectives.  Students might need to find someone who:

- Had the same favourite childhood game

- Sings in a choir

- Was born in the same state

- Knows a genuinely funny joke

Students then move about the room finding out more about each other - with students signing each other's bingo cards where appropriate.  Normal bingo rules - complete a line and yell Bingo.  

The activity inevitably breaks the ice and forms connections in the group.  It is also very VERY loud, so you may need to be conscious of students with sensory processing disorders.

All the best with it!

Katrina

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[Tabitha Dell'Angelo]

I love a giant rock paper scissors tourney 

Tabitha Dell'Angelo, Ph.D. (she/her)

Interim Dean, School of Education
Professor, Urban Education
The College of New Jersey
www.tabithadellangelo.com

  ,_~o
 _-\_<,
(*)/'(*)

"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!"
-Alice in Wonderland

On Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM David Thomas <ldt...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Laurine Hurley]

I love active learning(!). My version is adopted from I can no longer remember where, so if it anyone reading, my thanks.

 

I get students to write their name and two things about themselves  (pet, favourite food, sport/hobby, something not many people know…) on an A4 sheet then make it into a paper aeroplane. Conversation starts even then when those who CAN fold one show those who can’t how to do it.

 

They fly the planes around the room, picking up and relaunching for a minute or so, then find the person whose name is on their plane...then they read out the name, that person stands up and the first person introduces them with the two facts. That person then calls on and introduces their plane’s name, around the room.

 

It’s fun and noisy and even though they (and I) might forget most of the names, at least they feel they all know something about their classmates.

 

And it makes the class far more amenable to any sort of activity I ask them to do later as they already accept that things are a bit fun/weird!

 

Cheers

 

From: professor...@googlegroups.com <professor...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Tabitha Dell'Angelo
Sent: Wednesday, 12 March 2025 9:18 AM
To: David Thomas <ldt...@gmail.com>
Cc: Justin Harbin <justin...@gmail.com>; Professors at Play <professor...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Large scale group play ideas?

 

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[pat rumbaugh]

Hi Playful Professors,

My first experience with the large scale giant rock paper scissors tourney happened at the US Play Coalition Conference prior to 2019. I found the experience to be so much fun. It came down to myself and a playful guy named Tony. When I ended up winning, Tony picked me up and people cheered. I will confess it was fun to win this game, but what I absolutely loved was the excitement in the room.

Fall 2019 I was invited by the Health and Physical Education Professors at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where I got my undergrad degree. I was asked to speak to them about planning a Play Day for their university students and staff. After meeting with a dozen professors and a vice president from the university I got to speak and play to about 100 undergrad and grad students. I recall it was a Monday morning and some of the students looked like they were just waking up. When I said, “Let’s Play.” The mood in the room changed dramatically. I started out with the giant rock paper scissors tourney and the students and professors had a blast. We moved on to playing, Follow the Leader and the Hokey Pokey.

Playful Professors I applaud you for bringing play into your classroom by weaving in your content. I was a former physical education teacher/coach. I found when students had a choice of what to play they were happier, gave more effort and I had zero discipline problems. As time went on I became passionate about self-chosen play. I’m sixty-six years young and I grew up playing all the time. I’m striving to help communities, including universities bring play choices and events to their community.

Some of you may know I founded a play committee in 2009 that turned in to the nonprofit Let’s Play America. If you can attend the 2025 US Play Coalition Conference, April 15-17 at Indiana University I urge you to attend. I will be presenting on a panel about the benefits of attending the conference every year. In 2011 I attended the first play conference open to the public. Dr. Stuart Brown who I had become friends with suggested I attend. The conference changed my life. The next year I went on sabbatical and became a full-time play advocate. I’m also presenting a poster on the International Day of Play scheduled for June 11, 2025.

If I can help any of you bring play to your classroom reach out to me, thepl...@gmail.com or 301-928-9962. On our website http://www.letsplayamerica.org you can order our Play Day Handbooks, my two children’s books on play, watch my two TEDxTalks on play, read 35+ articles on play and watch Play Day videos.

Play Friends I believe everyone deserves to play. Thanks for reading this email. Keep playing!

Pat, The Play Lady

Pat Rumbaugh, MA

Co-Founder
Let’s Play America

301-928-9962

thepl...@gmail.com
www.letsplayamerica.org

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter@PatRumbaughPlay  
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Everyone deserves to play!

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