We Win

It was the last 'A' Block day of the year, and my crazy 5th-period class was freaking out a little. "We have to do something special!" one student demanded.

"How about your work, for a change?" I teased them, but the truth was there was work to do. First up was the warm-up question, which today was to post some advice for the kids who will be in my class next year.

"Will they really see this?" asked a student suspiciously, "Because I don't think we got any advice."

"I think so," I answered, mentioning the bulletin board in the hallway with an"Advice from a Dolphin" theme. "I could put your advice up there."

What followed was a mixture of sound and silly, but before we got to the sharing, there was the hurry-up incentive portion of the routine. Any writer who could post an answer, close their iPad, get out their writing notebook, and wait quietly could take a guess from the Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza deck. If they were right, they would win a Jolly Rancher.

"Who's feeling something?" I asked in my best emcee voice. Hands shot up. "Lucas! What are you feeling?"

"Goat"

"Ooof!" I replied turning over a pizza card.

If you know the game, then you know in the deck of 64 cards, there are also 3 narwhals, gorillas, and groundhogs. In our guessing game, those are freebies, if you are willing to do the required gesture. Sebastian got a narwahl, and immediately clapped his hands over his head.

"Let's make this interesting," I said. "If anybody else gets a special card, then you can all have a Jolly Rancher.

With great enthusiasm, the remaining 10 made their guesses. There were no winners. 

"Wait! What about you? You haven't guessed," noted a student desperately, since I never guess.

"Okay," I agreed, "Tell you what, if I get it right, or it's a special, you win!" I looked at the deck in my hand. "I'm getting a strong feeling of cheese," I started, "but maybe it's just because there are a lot of cheese cards on the table." I closed my eyes. "I have to go with cheese," I said after a moment and flipped the card.

It was a groundhog! Everyone cheered and rapped their knuckles on the table in front of them. They leapt out of their seats and high-fived me. "This is why we love this class!" a student crowed.

"All right," I nodded. "You will get your prize as soon as you are back in your seats working quietly."

And that is what happened. It turned out to be a pretty productive day.