I enjoy eating flavoured yoghurt - lots of it - and I also enjoy teaching primary school classes. I teach in China and I devised the following game when a class of primary school kids were suffering from a terminal loss of interest in absorbing English words.

I took 20 empty white plastic yoghurt pots (all of the same brand so they were all the same shape etc). I then wrote English words from my vocabulary exercises all over the outsides of these pots - no pot having the same words on it as any other pot - in other words each pot was uniquely worded. Inside the bottom of each pot I wrote a serial number from 01 to 20 (Be sure to define the No's. 6 and 9 or you'll be asked endlessly which one is which(i.e. 60 or 09). The words were written using a black or blue marker pen of the kind that does NOT wipe off. The words were not written the same way up. Some were written bigger than others and some were at an angle. To read every word on the pot you had to tilt it to just about every angle possible.

I entered the classroom on the morning when I inaugurated this game and solemly took these pots out of a black bin liner bag that I had mysteriously and very slowly carried into the room and gently placed on my desk whilst I greeted the children. They were instantly transfixed. I deliberately (and somewhat theatrically) separated the pots and lined them up on my desk.

Then I toured the classroom and handed each child a single sheet of A4 size paper - unlined. I then told them (by demonstration because none of us could speak each other's language) to fold the sheet in half (across its width) and then in half again and in half again - so that it was divided into 8 sections. Then I had them fold it in half once along its length so that it was divided into 16 sections. With 2 sides the paper thus had a total of 32 sections.

Then I had them position the paper in front of them in landscape mode and told them to number the folded sections on side one - from 01 to 16 and then turn over and number 4 of the sections on side two fro, 17 to 20.

The children were consumed with impatient curiosity by this time and there were 30 of them sitting a two-seater desks. I only had 20 pots so I divided these out at the rate of 1 pot per pair of children - keeping the remaining 5 pots on my own desk.

The children were then instructed to check the number on the inside of the bottom of their pot and write down ALL the words written on the outside of the pot - onto the correspondingly numbered section of their papers. They instantly got the idea and within a few seconds of this realisation the classroom went dead silent as they all feverishly wrote down their words.

Then it started..... The quickest ones having done their pot first came up for one of the 5 remaining pots on my desk. So I introduced a swap system - no new pot unless I had the previous pot in return AND a sight of their papers to ensure thay had written all of the words. This rule became crucial to the success of the game, as it put a stop to "pot-hoarding" and the arguments that would arise. My desk soon became a clearing-house for these pots and certain pots became increasingly desirable "collector's items" This was because some of the children were much slower at reading and writing their words than other children were and their pots would be out of circulation longer. The children flatly refused to go out of the room for their break and every one of them remained deeply committed to playing this game to its last written syllable.

I ran this game for four consecutive days with no discernible loss of interest - children turned up on the second day armed of their own volition with more pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and rulers so they would not be inhibited by shortage of materials.

This game uses materials that quite literally cost you nothing. Yoghurt pots are very safe for children to use as it is difficult for them to be hurt by them. If any pot(s) are destroyed, you can easily replace them (and enjoy the contents in doing so!).

From an education viewpoint this game can contribute to a number of purposes:

1) It causes a child to actually READ the words. You do not HAVE to combine it with writing, you can simply pass them out and have children individually read the words out loud.

2) It brings the words right up to and into the hands of the children. No longer are they just chalked symbols on a blackboard at one end of the classroom.

3) You can use it to start a group of children writing - and with appropriate choice of words written on the pots, you can also steer the children into almost any subject matter you want them to concentrate on.

4) You can use it to teach children to improve their handwriting standard.

5) Like I found, it can transform a bored class of small kids into a highly motivated one. In my class EVERY child joined very enthusiastically in this game and it really did turn the class around.

Try it for yourself

Dave