I have used this with varying abilities in Years 7 to 13 - all have responded positively. I take a good solid cube of upholstery foam (about 20cm will do) and I write action words on each face, something along the lines of: “Key Words”, “Define”, “Draw”, “Nominate”, “Explain” and “Skip”. A pupil rolls the dice and I then set a question based on the outcome. “Nominate” could be to nominate another pupil for a difficult question which they could set, “skip” is skip a go, but you can create other action words.
There are several ways to get the most out of this. My suggestion would be to use this off the back of a couple of board-based questions for pupils to think about while they settle and then they can throw the dice.
Some classes are quite excitable and others are a little too cool to get excited about much, but all can benefit from getting up and drawing a diagram, map or graph. The questions are yours to create but don’t stop there - give the dice over to a pupil and let them set the tasks. This is good for a five-minute plenary or review of a previous lesson and can be tailored to several subjects. Industrial foam cut-offs are cheap (about pound;1-pound;2 or less for a cube).
MArtin Ridley
Geography teacher, St Peter’s School, Bournemouth
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