Now I’ve got your attention, let me reassure you this is not a salacious attempt to hook you into reading something quite mundane. ‘Grandma’s undies’ is a brilliant game that the littlest Dancing Wombat was bursting to share with me as he bounced in from school recently.
“Grandma’s Undies” is a fiendishly simple and devilishly delightful variation of a question and answer game. One child is chosen to answer questions posed by the other children. These questions can be about absolutely anything and everything.
The catch is that only one answer is allowed: “GRANDMA’S UNDIES!”
As soon as the child answering (inevitably) starts giggling, someone else takes their place.
I love this game so much that I’ve already played it two weeks running in one of my classes, with hilarious results. Two of my students are surely destined to be poker players, they can keep such straight faces. In contrast, another little chap collapses into giggles every time he asks a question, let alone tries to answer it. (I should note that I took a somewhat tamer version into my class – ‘Grandma’s socks’. The littlest Wombat was not impressed by my cowardice.)
And so to the educational value. Does it really need any? It’s just a fun game. But, guess what? That’s not all! Hidden underneath a deceptive veneer of merriment is the opportunity to practise a variety of skills:
- Your students can practise word games. The “wh” family, for example. Mix it up a bit and focus on categories of question words – just use “what”, or “when” for example.
- Your students can also practise other ways of asking questions, such as “Do you eat cornflakes for breakfast?” Or “Have you been on a roller coaster?” I guarantee that an answer of “Grandma’s undies” will raise a giggle!
- I also plan to use it to help my students learn some of their song lines, by making one of the song phrases the answer, instead of “Grandma’s socks”. Cunning, eh?
- Let’s not forget the social skills of listening, turn-taking and concentrating. The child in the hot seat really needs to focus to give their answer with a straight face, and not slip up by giving a genuine answer to the question. My students sat in a semi-circle to ask the questions one after the other, so they had to listen in order to be ready for their turn.
I did reflect, after my last lesson, that perhaps this game was unfair on some students. If a student doesn’t understand that the point of the game is not to give a “proper” answer, but rather, not to laugh when consistently giving the same, ridiculous answer, it would be very confusing. For more literally-minded students, this game could be intensely frustrating because it’s completely illogical.
But give it a go. If nothing else, try it around the dinner table. There’s nothing helps like family bonding.
