TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece: Superheroes on a Mission: Let’s Join Forces to Save the World by Efi Tzouri, Marianthi Tsepeli

Monday, April 27, 2015

Superheroes on a Mission: Let’s Join Forces to Save the World by Efi Tzouri, Marianthi Tsepeli – Report

All too often we hear parents and teachers complain that children spend most of their free time in front of TV or computer screen playing video games and are interested in nothing else but comics and cartoon characters.

Efi and Marianthi decided to take advantage of it, turning this ‘hobby’ into an exciting but educational game-based activity. Students become superheroes on a mission and the teachers become their sidekicks. The students are invited to work in teams and co-operate in order to save the world from a criminal with an evil plan. Before each step the teams get an envelope with a mission. The missions inform them about what they have to do. The participants get in groups according to super heroes. During the first mission students search in a box trying to find the words related to their hero. In the second step students get a wordsearch worksheet where they must find the hidden words. In the following missions students have to solve riddles, search for clues in the school library and create digital comics using internet resources. Students are warned that time is limited so they must act quickly.

Everyone present at the workshop seemed to be so much engaged in this game that I can only imagine what fun it must be for younger learners. After having tried these fantastic activities and given a full pack of internet resources that can be used for preparation, we were shown the pictures of the children playing this game. They were fully concentrated and focused looking for solutions and at the same time overwhelmed with joy and excitement. Mission accomplished!

By Lana Lemeshko

Here are some useful links, provided by Efi and Marianthi

Useful links to create a wordsearch:

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp?campaign=flyout_teachers_puzzle_wordcross

http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php

http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/word-search/

http://www.abcya.com/make_a_word_search.htm

http://spiderman.marvelkids.com/activities/

Useful links with riddles:

http://www.riddlers.org/riddles/riddles/categoryView/1/page:1

http://www.creatievepuzzels.com/spel/speel1/kidriddle-2.htm

http://riddlesbrainteasers.com/category/riddles/page/2/