- Ying, yang, and blat (also known as Zip Zap Zop/Bop) are three different sound/gesture combinations that students are introduced to. This game was played by ancient Egyptian pharaohs, as well as Celtic warriors selecting peers for battle. Well, that’s one story, anyway. It can last anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.
- Ying is a gesture to the right or left (including a hand across the chest in the direction the student chooses). The student places an open palm facing in across her chest, and says, “Ying” as she does so. This can be either the left or right, and the direction the fingers are pointing indicates the direction the game is going.
- Yang is a pointed, two-hand gesture across the circle to another student. Like Ying, the student has to say, “Yang” as he points to another student in the class. The recipient is now responsible for yinging or yanging (or, see below, blatting) someone else. As a rule, you cannot Yang someone on either side of you, and the teacher may need to add a rule about not Yanging the same person twice and so forth.
- Blat is a defence against Yang. A student does not have to accept a yang. They can cross their arms and shout, “Blat” if they want to block a yang. If a student attempts to yang another student, and she blats him, he then has to choose someone else to yang. Of course, he could ying someone next to him (nobody can block a ying), and so it goes. Changing the rules to the game (e.g., declaring that when someone shouts, “groovylicious!” the whole class has to dance around) is perfectly ok. The game should increase in speed, and is a variation of a bunch of other different name games and so forth.
- Note: there are many variations of this game with different rules. Kids who have played it before may be reminded that their objective here is to have fun participating in a group activity. Once students are efficient with gestures then ‘eliminating’ can occur when anyone gets confused and stalls.
