Rock, paper, scissors is such a classic game with kids. Today, I thought I would share some ways I use rock, papaer, scissors in my classroom and how I changed it up a bit.

First, let’s start with the classic way of using your hands, counting to three and displaying the classic rock, paper, or scissors with your hands (no cheating and waiting for your partner to go first!). With the classic way, you can decide who is first in line, who reads first during buddy reading, who writes first in partners stories, or who shares first in mingle to music. The possibilities are endless there.

Another fun way is to change the rock, paper, scissors to something related to what you are teaching. For example, if you are learning about penguins, call the game waddle, toboggan and porpoise. Have your students help you decide the moves. My class waddled for the waddle, dropped to their bellies for the tobogganing, and pretended to dive for the porpoising. We all agreed which move would out rule the other. It’s a great way to reinforce vocabulary, my students loved it, and better yet as a teacher it was entertaining to watch.

I have also made up many rock, paper, scissor card games that my students love. I have both math and word versions. Each pair of students split the deck of cards in half. They each turn over a card and read their word (the picture here is CVC words). Once they have each read the word, they “play” their rock, paper or scissor. In the picture below, they student who played the word fix (with the scissors) would win and collect the two cards. My kids love this game!