One fine day in school, the children decided to play a game. It was called “कौन हूँ, मैं कौन हूँ?” (Who am I?) In this game, one person becomes the moderator and the rest sit in a circle. One participant comes from the circle to the moderator. The moderator writes something (like name of an animal) on a piece of paper and pins it on the back of the participant. The participant then walks inside the circle (so that other children can see, what is pinned) and yells, कौन हूँ, मैं कौन हूँ? The children yell, “हम नहीं बताएंगे।” (We will not tell.) Then, the participant asks questions. The children sitting in circle can answer in a yes or no. The participant keeps on asking questions and based on the answers, s/he has to guess what is written on the back.
I usually play with children during recess time (cricket, kho-kho) so that day also, they asked me to play with them. I became the moderator. We decided to pin “name of animals” that day. I gave “चील (eagle)”, “बाघ (leopard)”, “गाय (cow)” to the first few participants and observed them, especially the questions. Though the children were asking questions freely, there was some disconnect and repetition in the questions. At times, the questions were totally random (ignored the previous answers). For “eagle”, it was already answered that it flies, but another question was asked if it lives in the water. For “leopard”, it was already answered that it was carnivorous, but it was asked if it eats grass.
In next turn, I became the participant. Luckily, I answered after just 3 questions. क्या मैं जंगल में रहता हूँ? क्या मैं बहुत तेज़ दौड़ता हूँ? क्या मेरे सींग है? (Do I live in forest? Do I run very fast? Do I have horns?) The answer was हिरन (deer). They all smiled that I got it correct, so fast. Then, I discussed with them all the questions that they had asked for previous turns. We discussed which question was relevant and which was not. Then, we continued with the game, with me as moderator. From now on, I guided the children towards questions by recollecting the information till that point and asking them to think forward from there. For example: A child got stuck on “snake”, I collected the previous information “जंगल में मिलता है। जमीन पर चलता है। चार पैर नहीं होते।” (It lives in jungle. It walks on earth. It does have 4 legs.) and asked, “अब आगे सोचो, क्या पूछ सकते हैं।” (What question can we ask next?)
We have played this game many times after that, on themes like animals, vegetables & fruits, things of daily use, things they see outside their house, things seen in market etc. All children from 1 to 5 play. Children from 3, 4 and 5 come as participants and try to guess. Grade 1 and 2 generally sit with others in the circle, listen to the discussion and answer the questions. I usually become the moderator and guide them if they get stuck. It is good fun for the children and most of them have started collating information (from previous answers).
In this activity, children learn to use previous information and ask questions based on it. Using previous information and asking questions to get more information are among the broader aims of education. We can add variations to this activity later on. For ex: Guess the name with minimum number of questions. Such activities are immensely useful, especially with primary children.