Grapevine is a game in which each successive participant secretly whispers to the next a phrase whispered to them by the preceding participant. Cumulative errors from mishearing often result in the phrase heard by the last player differing greatly and amusingly from the one uttered by the first.
The game has many other names, including The Telephone Game, Broken Telephone, Crazy Telephone, Operator, Grapevine, Whisper Down the Lane and Pass It Down. In the United States, Telephone is the most common name for the game. The name Chinese Whispers is the common British name for the game.
Split the class into two lines. One of the phrases below is then whispered to the first person in each line who then passes it on to the next person in their line. The winning team is the team whose last person can give the most accurate version of the phrase.
"A polyhedron is often defined as a geometric object with flat faces and straight edges."
Suggested by Transum,
"The reciprocal of a fraction is obtained by switching its numerator and denominator. To find the reciprocal of a mixed number, first convert the mixed number to an improper fraction."
Suggested by Transum,
"A composite number is a positive integer which has a positive divisor other than one or itself."
Suggested by Transum,
"For a right angle triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to sum of the squares of the other two sides."
Suggested by Mr Pierce, Maghull High
"Product is multiplying two numbers together."
Suggested by Maria, London
"A cube has 6 flat faces, 8 vertices and 12 edges."
Suggested by Sera, Singapore
"Two plus two is four and two times two is four. But this result is quite unique. You won’t find any more."
Suggested by Transum,
"A pyramid is a 5 sided shape which looks like a square cone."
Suggested by Isla, Britain
"The volume of a sphere is four thirds pi r cubed, where r is the radius."
Suggested by Transum,
"An asymptote is a line that a curve approaches as it heads towards infinity."
Suggested by Transum,
Do you have any suggestions for mathematical phrases that would work well with this game. Click here to enter your ideas.
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