Hi!
Today we would like to share with you a very funny game! Students really love it, and it is a very good way to encourage students’ motivation towards the English language.
It is a game of roles through the characters that appear in the famous TV series The Simpsons. Each student will receive a different card with a different character, and each character has a different function in the game.
Students will sit in a circle, so that all of them can see each other’s faces. We will give them the cards. They will look at them and, depending on the card they receive, they will have to do the following:
-Those students who have the card of Flanders as a werewolf, will be the ones who kill the villagers. There are 2 werewolves bearing in mind a group of 25 students more or less, so if your group is smaller, you can decide to include less werewolves.
-Those who have Bart Simpson as cupid, will force two players (could be werewolves, the witch, villagers…) to “fall in love” with each other. Therefore, they will become one player, so that if one dies, the other dies as well. They must also vote for the same person every time. The rest of the players won’t know who the lovers are until they are killed. The only person who knows who they are is Cupid.
-The Crazy Cat Lady as a witch has two magic potions: she can save or kill. The student receiving this card has to decide which potion he/she wants to use in each round.
–Barney Gumble, the drunk man who is always at Moe’s tavern, is not allowed to defend himself if he is accused of being a werewolf (because he is soooo drunk!)
-The Mayor Quimby has an advantage: his vote counts double!
-The rest of the characters are the villagers of Springfield. They do not have any special role. They just have to try to discover who are the werewolves in order to kill them! Otherwise… they might all die!
Having said this, we’re going to start the game with a short narration, which is as follows:
“We’re living in a beautiful town, Springfield. Everyone is happy and friendly, and they are spending a really good time at the park. Unfortunately, a plague of werewolves has arrived. They are hungry and thirsty. And when the night falls and everyone sleeps, they must eat!”
Once you finish reading this narration (you could even let one student read the passage) everyone sleeps (closes his eyes). When everyone is sleeping, the narrator says: “Werewolves, wake up!” So the werewolves open their eyes, look at each other and decide who they want to kill. Once they have decided it, they close their eyes again.
Then, the narrator says: “Cupid, wake up!”. Then, Cupid decides who are the lovers. Once he has forced two lovers, he closes his eyes again and the narrator goes and touch the lovers’ shoulders, so that they open their eyes and see each other’s faces. Lovers close their eyes again.
Afterwards, the narrator says: “Witch, open your eyes!”, and the witch points to the person who she wants to kill (thumbs down) or save (thumbs up). The witch closes her eyes again.
Finally, the narrator says: “Villagers, everyone!! Open your eyes!“. Once everyone is awake, the narrator will communicate who the werewolves killed and who the witch killed/saved! And everyone will start to debate who they think the werewolves are. Once they have made the decision, we will count votes, the majority wins, and the person who they decide is killed!
They will repeat this same pattern until all the werewolves are killed, or until the werewolves have killed everyone (then they would have lost the game!
We hope you enjoy it! If you use this game with your students, please let us know how it was!
C R E A T E R I A L S 