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One Up One Down

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Man sitting on seat playing One Up One Down

One Up One Down

Fantastic observation & lateral thinking exercise for groups.

  • Promotes critical thinking
  • Sharpens observation skills
  • Simple What’s the Key? variation
  • No props

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Invite your group to sit in a circle, close enough so everyone can see and hear each other.
  2. Each person’s task is to identify the ‘key’ which unlocks the secret to the game.
  3. Announce that you will point variously at different people in the circle, and your group is challenged to predict which of three positions these people represent:
    – One Up One Down
    – Two Up
    – Two Down
  4. To start, point to a random person and ask your group to predict which one of these positions this person represents.
  5. Here’s the key: Observe the position of the person’s feet. Two Down means that both feet are on the floor, Two Up means that both feet are off the floor, and One Up and One Down means one foot is on the floor and the other is not, eg legs are crossed.
  6. Allow for several suggestions from the group before you reveal the correct answer.
  7. Repeat this ‘point and guess’ process multiple times soliciting responses from your group every time.
  8. As each person makes an attempt to uncover the key, congratulate those who get it, and encourage those who do not.
  9. Continue to offer more and more obvious clues until everyone has identified the key and can predict the outcome many times in a row.

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