Silent Birthday Game

Need a quick time-filler? I asked my 5th graders to line up in birthday order BUT they could not talk and had to stay social-distanced.

They asked if they could use paper and pencil to communicate and I said no. SO, they turned to nature.

They tried hand signals and that seemed to frustrate them. The masks prevented them from mouthing the words.

One smarty thought of writing with water on the cement. She used a rock as her instrument and sacrificed her drinking water.

After 25 minutes of blissful silence, (this is a chatty bunch) I let them talk for 2 minutes so they could come up with a plan. Once they split into years, about half in each group, things went more quickly and they were finally able to do it at the half hour mark.

No one emerged as the leader today, which surprised me. They were shocked to realize how much they relied on verbal communication. It was definitely the best part of my day.