Magic Pencil

  • Students sit on the floor in a circle, and pass around a pencil (or pen, or whatever)
  • When each student receives it, they transform it through gesture and physical action into anything in the world other than a pencil (e.g., a hairbrush, a fishing rod, a telescope, a basketball).  It is important to point out that the object transformed does not have to be of the size and shape of a pencil – in fact, it ideally should not be.
  • For this version there are no words.  Students have a lot of fun trying to guess what each other’s object is, and this can become part of the activity. This takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Magic Pencil with Line of Dialogue

  • As above, but when students create their new item, they must say a line that hints at what it is (without revealing in an obvious way what it is).
  • Sometimes I play this game with students guessing what the new item is, but usually I ask students to raise their hands only if they do not know what it is that has been created.
  • This version also can take 10 to 15 minutes.

Magic Pencil with No Transformation or Dialogue

  • Students pass the pencil, and only react with their body language and facial expression, so that we don’t know necessarily what the transformation is, but we do know how the person who holds it feels about it.  This takes a little more practice, but is well worth it if overall focus is an expectation.