Lesson Share: Energizers: More complex 'Simon Says'

As this game involves physical movement, it can be useful for waking the students up and energising them. 

Procedure

• This is a simple game. The basic rule is that when you preface an instruction with 'Simon Says' -  as in 'Simon says stand up' - the students do it. When you don’t use 'Simon Says' - as in 'Stand up' - they don’t do it.  
• You can use this activity to teach parts of the body (e.g. toes, knee, elbow) but also to introduce more complex verbs such as ‘creep’, ‘tiptoe’, ‘stride’ or ‘scratch’, ‘tap’ or ‘rub’, as in ‘rub your right knee’. 
• At first you might find it helpful to do the actions yourself. This will inevitably lead to students copying you, which will mean they will make mistakes and confuse left and right. 
• Gradually, you can withdraw your participation so that they have to listen. Another variation is for you to do the actions when you don’t preface your instructions with 'Simon Says'. This adds to the fun!

Tip: to force your students to listen (and to make the activity more complex and much more fun) you can perform different actions yourself to the ones given in your instructions. So, for example, you would say 'Simon says scratch your right elbow' while rubbing your left knee. You’ll be surprised how many copy you rather than listening!

This activity is both useful and fun. I hope you enjoy it!!