Mallet's Mallet

Set up Time: 2 minutes
Activity time: 10-15 minutes

Aims of activity
A fantastic ice breaker that can be used to get students thinking about geography in an informal but fun way, drawing upon geographical vocabulary and key geographical terminology they will already have started to develop during their own learning.  

Key messages
Fundamentally it’s about giving students the chance to link either very directly or perhaps rather laterally different concepts within Geography.  It should bring some confidence to students who perhaps fail to see the interconnected nature of the discipline.

There is scope with adaptations to bring awareness to other areas within Geography including careers, topics within GCSE, A Level and University etc. 

Instructions
You will start with a key phrase of term and proceed to go back and forth between two people to suggest a word that links effectively for example: Person 1 “River”  Person 2 “Lake” Person 1 “Water” Person 2 “Resource” and so on and so forth. This keeps going until one student cannot think of a linked geographical term or theme, and they are the loser.

The aim of the task is to be the winner by quick thinking and being prepared to make some leaps through your understanding.

See it in action on YouTube

Materials Required
A series of starter words or phrases, either themed or linked to a topic you have been learning recently.

A buzzer or series of buzzers for adjudicator to call out on word that doesn’t link or if there is serious levels of hesitation.

Adaptations
You could run this as a whole class activity and have 2 students facing off at the front of the classroom and the third student acting as an adjudicator.

Adaptation 1:
You could run this particular activity at the end of the session and give students the chance to reflect on different careers they now know they can pursue with a degree in Geography.

Adaptation 2:
More a technical adaptation of the way the task is implemented, so instead of just one group in front of the class, we look to have this being run in small pockets across the classroom.