Dewey Decimal Charades Lively Library Game
How do you review the Dewey Decimal system? A game is a great way to add fun to a topic that can be a little dry. Many thanks to Karen Gilmore who wrote this guest blog post, sharing how whe uses charades to do an overview and review of how Melville Dewey’s system for organizing library books. She says:
I’d like to start by saying that I do not teach the Dewey Decimal System to my students, although my library is arranged that way. They do know where the animal books are, the graphic novels, the cookbooks, etc., but I do not have a formal DDS lesson that I teach. I am in a Pre-K – 4th grade school.
One activity that I love to use for my fourth grade students toward the end of the school year is to play charades with the Dewey Decimal System. It’s very interactive, as you can imagine, and I wait until we are not checking out books any longer so that there’s more time to play the game.
Dividing the Class Into Teams
To begin, I first have a set of cards (on colored paper) and have each student choose a card; this process is to make the groups for the game. There are 6 categories of topics, each with a total of 4 cards, so that there are no more than 4 students per group. I decided to use colored paper for one simple reason and that is to try to break up any cliques that may have formed within the class. Oftentimes if Boy A chooses a yellow card his best friend will also choose a yellow card thinking that will put them at the same table. Instead, it insures that they will not be working together after all, but because it’s all chosen by chance they really can’t protest that they aren’t with their friend. It also helps to be certain that a student won’t be left out of a group (this could happen if I just allowed the students to make their own table groups) and that everyone will be on equal footing.
I chose 6 random categories; it is simple enough that these categories can very easily be adapted to fit whatever works for you or where you live. Creating groups of 3-4 can happen however you choose; this, however, works for me to make random sets of students:
Cats: Cougar, Lion, Puma, Tiger
Characters from Charlotte’s Web: Charlotte, Fern, Wilbur, Mr. Zuckerman
Colleges in Texas: Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of
Houston, University of Texas
Continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia
Fast Food Restaurants: Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Sonic
Houston Professional Sports Teams: Astros, Dynamo, Rockets, Texans
In the final outcome there may be a group of 4 and a group of 2. In that case I will move a student over to even the groups out.
Playing Dewey Decimal Charades
Once the groups have been established and students are sitting at the various tables, I give each table a cheat sheet overview of the DDS and a set of 10 cards labeled 000, 100, 200,…900 and remind them that everyone at the table is part of their
team. Anyone at the table is able to raise the numbered card as opposed to just one person being in charge of it.
I quickly give an overview of what charades is – most students are at least aware of the game even if they haven’t played before, but I especially remind them of the basic rule that they can only act using motions and no talking.
Table 1 will then come to the front of the room and I show them a topic to act out; I will give them a minute or so to whisper among themselves what they are going to do. Once they begin the acting, the groups sitting at the tables are to first determine what the action is then hold up a numbered card of where they would find a book about that topic in the non-fiction section of the library.
I thought deliberately through the DDS and came up with 40 or so ideas for the students to perform. Some of the ideas work better than others. For example, one topic I sometimes use is‘Venus Fly Trap’. If the students don’t already have schema about this plant then it’s very difficult for anyone to understand how to act it out or for the audience to guess what they are doing, but usually ‘Drawing’ or ‘Frogs’ gets identified pretty quickly. However, the table that displays the correct DDS number is the one that gets credit for the win. Some other ideas I came up with are caterpillar/butterfly, mummy, orchestra, volcano, five senses, cheerleading, knock-knock jokes, transportation, the Three Little Pigs, swimming, elephants, and baseball. We don’t keep points, but rather I let that table have bragging rights momentarily until the next group comes up to the floor.
I will always remember the one student years ago who had both cooking and Mars as her group’s category. As soon as she saw her first topic she borrowed a jacket from another student, tied it backwards around her waist like an apron and got busy stirring then flipping pancakes. On the next round the same group had ‘Mars’; right away she gathered her team and instructed them put their fingers on their head like antennas, then they took exaggerated slow-motion giant steps around the rug to imitate a lack of gravity. This young lady went on to study theater in college and was she ever suited for it!
After taking time to explain everything at the beginning and get everyone settled, we usually have enough time for each table to play 3 rounds. As we conclude I have the tables stack the number cards in reverse order (leave 900 on the table, put 800 on top, so that ultimately 000 is the first card in the stack); this way when I go to pass out everything to the next class I can see the colors are in order and can quickly give out the correct set of DDS numbers to each table.
This activity is one that I enjoy as much as the students!
Thank you, Karen Gilmore, of Pearland ISD, for writing this guest blog post! This is Karen’s 17th year as an elementary librarian (PreK-4th grade); before that she taught preschool and kindergarten 13 years. She says that she has a lot of children’s books that she considers as second-place favorites, but her all-time favorite book is Charlotte’s Web, introduced to her by her 2nd grade teacher.
Looking for more Dewey Decimal resources?
- Dewey Decimal System Fall Nonfiction Mazes
- Dewey Decimal System Winter Nonfiction Mazes
- Dewey Decimal System Spring Nonfiction Mazes
- Nonfiction Library Scavenger Hunt Cards with QR Codes
- A short video biography of Melvil Dewey and why he created the Dewey Decimal System
Happy reading!
