When playing a game in the classroom, a fun way to determine which team goes first is with the classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. To play this game, two players simultaneously form one of three shapes with their hand.  Rock is a fist, paper is a flat hand, and scissors is a peace sign.  The winner is based on which sign the two participants give.  Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock.

The game is fun as it is but I say take it up a notch. Using the same idea, have students stand up and physically make a shape of either a rock, paper or scissor with their entire body.  You can see in the photo above the pose/shape that can be made for each one.  Another option would be to allow your students to determine what pose they will make to represent the rock, paper, and scissors.

I love Human Rock, Paper, Scissors, because it gets the students up and moving and it adds one more layer of competition to any game or contest.

There are a number of ways to use this game:

• Determine which student team goes first. Have one student from each team play and sees who wins.
• Determine which team/group goes first. Have the entire team discuss which shape they want to make and the entire team makes the sign on the count of three.
• Use it to divide your student body into groups. Have every student in the room make a sign and then split them into groups based on what they choose.  All rocks are group 1, all scissors are group 2, and all papers are group 3.
• When you need to add some energy back into a presentation, have everyone stand up and find a partner and then play a round of Human Rock, Paper, Scissors.

How else could you incorporate this game?