The Country Game (All Years Activity)

For use as a group enrichment task, the Country Game is a 2-3 hours Game of Life-like activity involving Religious Studies, Geography, and History and is designed to be suitable for years 7-13.

The files for this activity are in the form of PowerPoint, Word, and Publisher documents.

This game was designed for use throughout Personal Development Week at my school at the end of the year and had to fit the brief of being suitable for all year groups, include aspects of History, Geography, and RS, and be flexible enough to run for 2 or 3 hour sessions when necessary.

Essentially, this is a creative reflection task where you can allow your students to get into groups and be as imaginative as they can whilst encouraging them to use their knowledge gained from school to justify their creations (i.e. I had one group who’s national drink was Champagne, who then argued for the geography of the soil and climate, the history of the best recipe, and its use in religious practices in their country to support their wacky idea!).

The game involves 3 stages:

1. Design and create your country on the map.
2. Give your country a background.
3. Play the game!

Students begin by colouring in their map according to their keys and adding in the pre-determined structures (don’t let them stray from this because the game is designed around these). You can set your own limits on how many structures they can build, where they can be, etc. (i.e. only allowing them to build 5 forts, or saying they can’t build farms in any snowy regions, etc.). There is an extension to this first stage which allows students to design boats, people, and banners for their country. We found these extensions work best for groups larger than 4 and for sessions intending to run longer than 90 minutes.

Next students can use the attribute sheets to build a sort of personality for their country (i.e. political structures, national sports, climate, religion or beliefs, etc.). This is your opportunity to really encourage them to reflect on what they have learned so far in History, Geography, and RS. A good extension for this stage is to have the groups present their country and list off its attributes. Encourage students to ask questions to the presenting groups and you as the teacher can probe for deeper explanations.

Finally: play the game! Follow the guidance attached and see which group emerges as the winner.

The attached documents have everything you need for this activity, including an Activity Plan for Staff sheet which breaks down what is needed, how long things should take, and how to carry out the activity.

Note: Images used in this activity have been taken from Google and are believed to be in the public domain as of time of production (2022). No images are the property of the creator and as such no credit is taken for them in accordance with copyright laws.