A consensus game that energizes the whole school! Fun discussion prompts for everyone

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked for 10 years as a kindergarten teacher and for 7 years as an after-school childcare instructor, then took a post as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I also engaged in activities that shared Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational play, working with many children. Afterwards, through freelance writing, planning, and editing work at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and conveying ideas. Leveraging the perspective cultivated in educational settings and my experience as an editor, I aim to deliver practical information—focusing on fields related to music and children—that values both input and output. Hobbies include instruments, singing, handcrafts, toys, drawing, traditional play, the outdoors, books, DIY, and crafts. Special skill: spinning-top tricks.

Many people have likely struggled when trying to build relationships in their class or club.

That’s where “consensus games” come in handy! These games are learning tools in which group members share opinions and work toward the best answer, helping them understand each other’s values and improve their communication skills in the process.

They go beyond a simple icebreaker, offering a valuable experience that deepens the bonds within a class.

In this article, we introduce concrete examples of consensus games that can be implemented immediately in schools, along with effective ways to facilitate them.

A consensus game that fires up the whole school! Fun discussion prompts for everyone (11–20)

An apartment building where only teachers live

Set in an apartment building inhabited only by teachers, this theme has you deducing who lives in which room.

Using 14 hint cards as clues, players share information to piece together the overall solution, making cooperation essential.

It’s crucial to decide how to share the cards in your hand and how to organize information from others’ statements.

Through conversation, both logical thinking and teamwork are tested, and the whole class gets excited.

As the deduction progresses, there are moments of discovery, and the sense of achievement when you reach the conclusion is exceptional.

It’s a theme that lets you enjoy the fun of cooperation and deduction.

Raise the rankinglower

mutō

Report a problem

In conclusion

Consensus games hold great potential for building human relationships in schools. As students acknowledge differences of opinion and reach agreement while respecting each other’s ideas, the bonds within the class will surely grow stronger. The compassion cultivated through discussion will undoubtedly become an invaluable learning experience.