I love doing fun, hands-on activities with my students, so I made a fun game to play as an end-of-unit game/assessment. I remember loving the game Twister when I was young, so I decided to make Around the World Twister. The kids loved it!

All you need to make it are the following:

Permanent Markers
World Map
Elmo Projector/Overhead Projector/Smart Board
Painter's Plastic (used to cover the floors when you paint)

A few years ago we had insulation put into our house, and they put down this plastic to cover the floors. I asked if I could keep it, and it turned out to be perfect for this activity. I believe you can buy it in the paint section of hardware stores.

All  you need to do is cut an oval out of the plastic and tape it to a wall where you can project the image of the world. Then you can trace the world onto the plastic and color it different colors. Don't forget Antarctica, like I did! : )

I made about 6 of these to use with my class.

To play the game, we moved all the desks to the side of the room and sat the chairs in a big circle. The world  mats were laid on the floor in the middle of the circle. I put the students in groups of 4 and gave each student a number 1-4. To play the game, the 4 students stand around their mat.

The teacher then spins the spinner and calls out "Player number 1, left foot Australia," or whatever the spinner lands on. You continue to do this for each player, and each group follows along together at the same time. When someone falls, they are out.

You can either play this purely as a game, or you can use it as an assessment by walking around to observe and see if the students know their continents.

Here is the spinner I created to use. Just click on the image below to access it.



To make the spinner, print and laminate the paper. Then place a paperclip on the center and stick a brad through it. You can then flick the paperclip around and you have a spinner!

***Helpful Hint*** Don't let the kids take off their shoes. I made this mistake and had students gagging because of the smell!

If you do this activity, let me know how it goes! I would love to hear from you!