Quick Overview:
It’s the classic game of Guess Who?, but with real people. Students play head to head trying to guess their mystery person on their board or 16 other students. The first contestant to correctly identify their mystery person wins!
Supplies You’ll Need:
1. People. This game requires at least 34 students to play (16 for each board, and 2 head to head guessers).
2. Dry Erase Boards. You’ll need 32 of these. I bought them at the dollar store and they worked great. Each person on the board will need one.
Prep:
You’ll need to set up 2 separate boards of 16 chairs (4×4). Click on the image to the right to see how we did it in our room. I also put colored Duct Tape on the floor around each board to separate them and make it easy for students to distinguish where the playing area is since it was in the middle of our normal set up for Sunday Mornings.
Game Play:
This is kind of complicated to explain so hopefully it makes sense. First, fill each of the 4×4 boards with random students and give them each a dry erase board. It’s better if it’s pretty evenly split between boys and girls, but it’s not a huge deal if it’s not. All students in the boards must write their name on their dry erase board and stand up. Next choose 2 students to be the guessers – one to play each board.
After you’ve picked your 2 contestants, they each have to secretly choose a mystery person from the other contestant’s board and then tell you (the host) who it is without revealing it to their opponent. In the classic game of Guess Who? this step is done randomly, but for the sake of time and simplicity we decided to let the opposing contestant choose which student will be their opponent’s mystery person.
After the host knows both board’s mystery persons, the game begins. Each contestant takes turns asking yes or no questions to try and get closer to identifying who their mystery person is. An example question could be “Does my person have blonde hair?” or “Is my person a girl?”. Any yes or no question about the appearance of their person is allowed. Any student in the board that does not fit the description must sit down and put down their dry erase board.
Once one of the contestants is ready to guess who their mystery person is, they may do so on their turn. If they get it right they win, and if they get it wrong the person that they guessed must sit down and play continues as normal with their opponent taking their next turn. The first person to correctly guess their mystery person wins!
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