Contributor:
Erin Cheung
This is a variation on “Wink Wink Murder” and I play it with my grade 3/4 (ages 8-10) students – they LOVE it!
You can change the numbers, but the basic game is: 1 detective and 1 frog (select the frog by getting all kids to close their eyes and tap someone on the head. The detective can be selected later).
The game starts and the detective looks for the frog (the person who ‘eats’ the flies by sticking their tongue out at them). The flies can die dramatically with lots of buzzing and spinning if they wish! The detective may be given a limited number of guesses.
Alternatives: you can play with 2 detectives and 2 frogs (or more!).
Another fun addition is a ‘fly saver’. This person can bring ‘dead’ flies back to life by looking at the dead fly and giving a special signal (my students use a quick hand gesture indicating ‘get up!’). If a detective sees a fly saver doing the gesture, they can point it out to the teacher, and the fly saver is out of the game (becomes a dead fly and can no longer save flies).
The game ends when a detective correctly identifies a frog, or when the frogs eat all of the flies!