This RPA was created having children and young adolescents in mind.

Flipchart paper

List of ship’s entertainment activities for the day

1 or 2 dice

Note: Check the Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions on how to use the dice, how to integrate writing into the RPA, and how to adapt the RPA to different size classes.

Today you are going to start an adventure, and I am going to be the game master. You are all on a ship. What kind of ship? Where are you going? (Elicit answers from the class and roll the die until an answer is satisfactory according to the die).

Your group is traveling together. Why are you traveling together? Who are you?² Are you members of the same family? Are you friends? Co-workers? A couple on honeymoon? Did you buy a package trip and are traveling with a guide? Together, decide on why you are traveling together, how you met each other, and your relationship to one another. Why are you going to (name of place)? Are you on vacation? On business? Coming back home? Moving there?

Note¹: The idea of having different-sized groups reflects the reality of a ship trip. Also, it forces students to adapt their story to the size of the group.

Note²: You can have students create a second ID (see Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions).

Have the groups introduce themselves and explain why they are traveling together.

Conduct this as a whole group activity and write their suggestions on flipchart paper which should be affixed to the wall somewhere in the classroom for future reference.

Say: It’s 9 o’clock in the evening now. In your groups, discuss and answer the following questions. (Pause between questions and ask the students to think of the answers in their groups. One of the students in the groups should take notes of the answers.) How was your day? What did you do? Did you have a good time? What are you doing now? Where exactly are you on the ship? At the pool? In a casino? In a movie theater? In your cabin?

Have the groups present their answers to the class. Model the situation so they know what they are supposed to do. For example:

Today we went to the casino and played the roulette. We won 200 dollars, which Susan spent on a new dress. We are now getting ready for dinner. We were invited to sit at the captain´s table. We are very excited and Susan is going to wear her new dress.

It’s 9 o’clock in the evening. You hear a loud explosion, and all the sirens go on. You hear the captain on the loudspeakers. He says that the ship is on fire and everyone will have to be evacuated. You have 2 minutes to run to your cabin and grab things you would like to take with you. (Hand out a blank sheet of paper to each student). Get ready to make a list of the things you will take with you. I´m going to give you exactly 2 minutes. If you don´t know the name of the object in English, write it down in your own language. You will have time to look it up in a dictionary afterwards. Your time starts NOW!

When the time is up, tell students to stop. Distribute dictionaries or allow them to use apps to translate any item from their language to English, if needed.

Have students read their lists and, as they present their items, decide whether they get to keep it or not. You may roll the dice (see section on “how to use the dice” on p. xx) or use other criteria such as: Is the item something that a passenger would normally carry with them? If not, ask the student to provide a “very good” reason and, depending on their creativity, you may improve the odds or accept/refuse the item altogether. For example, a student says s/he has got a gun. If the student comes up with a “very good” reason (e.g., “Everybody thinks I am a nun, but I am actually an undercover spy for the government”), you may give very good odds or roll the dice to decide whether the person is lying or telling the truth).  Another student may say s/he has got a motor boat. That would be just impossible to carry, so you may choose to discard it immediately.

Note: If you have a large group, you can divide the class into groups and have each group decide on a specific number of items that each group may take with them. Then, have the groups present their choices and decide whether they get to keep them.

Provide some time for the group discussion and then have each group present their decisions and reasons. Write the items suggested to be discarded on the board. You will probably end up with a higher number of items than previously established. With the whole group, you may either conduct a debate to decide which items to discard and/or have a poll.

You all managed to get on a life-boat. It’s pitch dark and you can’t see anything. You can hear some people shouting and screaming, but after about one hour, the only thing you can hear is the sound of the ocean around you. You all wait silently, in shock. When morning breaks, you can finally see that you are all alone. There is only water, water, water all around, as far as you can see. Here’s a list of objects that you find in the lifeboat in addition to the list of things you managed to bring with you (alternatively, you may have students research and make the list of items that a lifeboat must carry).

1. bucket
2. first-aid kit
3. a flashlight
4. oars
5. a knife
6. a flare signal
7. water (1 liter per person)
8. life-jackets (1 per person)
9. provisions (1 ration per person)
10. towline
11. whistle
12. a signal mirror
13. a compass
14. a hatchet

You need to decide what you are going to do to survive as long as possible on the lifeboat until rescue comes, if it comes… How can you make the provisions and water supply last as long as possible? Elicit ideas from the class.

Note: Some of the vocabulary items listed above are probably new to most students. Write the list on a flipchart paper and affix it to the wall for reference and activation of peripheral memory.

My personal experience: I always carry small blank cards which I use to write down new vocabulary (one word/expression per card). I place the cards in a small box each class has and periodically I review the new vocabulary through games or sentence building exercises. When I am sure all students can use one words/expression with ease, I discard the card.

You have been drifting for a long time. You have run out of water and food. Your lips are parched. You’re hungry, tired, thirsty, desperate…. You need to build up the morale of the group and find a way to get water and food before you all die. 

Divide the class into groups and give each group one of the following tasks (if you have more than three groups, you can give the same task to different groups of students; alternatively, you can conduct one task before going on to the next)

• Make a plan to get water. If it doesn’t rain, do you have a plan B?

• Design a plan to get food. Are you going to try catching any fish? How?

• Design a plan to keep people on the lifeboat from panicking. Try to keep them busy. You can assign different roles to different people. You can also think of games to play while on the boat. Can you think of three different games? (note: your games must be in English!)

Have the groups present their ideas, and roll the die until they are successful getting water and catching fish. In the case of water, roll the die to see if there is any possibility of rain. As they try to catch fish, roll the die to see if their plan worked If it didn’t, elicit another idea until they are successful catching the fish. Then, roll the die again to define how many fish they caught and how big they are. Also, ask the class if they will eat the fish raw or if they are going to do something else.

The group that is designing activities to raise morale, should only present their ideas after the other groups have presented theirs. If possible, play the games suggested.

Everybody on alert now! There are sharks circling the boat! They look hungry. They will try to capsize the boat and use you as fodder! Quick! What are you going to do?

Have the class discuss their options and present their plans. Roll the dice until they scare away or kill the sharks.

My personal experience: In one of my classes, a student challenged me saying that sharks do not eat human flesh, that they don´t like it. I told him (laughing as I said it) “Well, I’m the game master, these are my sharks, and they love human flesh!!!”

Another day has gone by. No rescue team. Oh, look, a ship. There’s a ship to the east! What are you going to do?

Ask the class to come up with ideas to draw the ship’s attention.

Students may use the flare signal, the signal mirror (or they may have other ideas), but whatever they do, tell them that they get no response from the ship. Nothing, nothing.

Note: If students suggest using the signal mirror, you may want to ask the class if anyone knows the Morse code for S.O.S. If anybody does, have that student teach the code. If nobody does, assign a student (or ask for a volunteer) to research and teach it the next class.

Eventually, the students will need to row the boat towards the ship. Don’t tell them just yet, but it is an abandoned pirate ship. When they get near the ship, they can shout as much as they want, but they will get no response.

If nobody suggests rowing the boat towards the ship, tell them that’s the only option remaining.

Apparently, there is nobody on the ship or maybe, everyone is sleeping. Or, they just can’t hear you. You will need to board the ship. However, it is very high. How are you going to get up there?

Ask the class to come up with ideas and roll the die until they are successful.

Apparently there is no one on the ship. It’s an old, old ship. Do you think it is haunted? Listen, you can hear some sounds coming from below, from the ship’s hold. It sounds like someone singing opera. Singing opera? (sound surprised) Are you going down there? Who is brave enough to go check it out? (Challenge students until one of them volunteers).

Divide the class into two (or four groups). Give each of the cards below to a group and ask them to get ready to play their role (see Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions on how to conduct role-playing scenarios).

Let them present their ideas and ask the group to reach a consensus. Remember, this is an old ship with no technology. There is no engine, no radio, no radar.

Look, I think the pirate was right. Look! There is a ghost octopus attacking the ship. It is huge! Almost as big as the ship! What are you going to do? The ship is rocking dangerously! You need to think fast!

Have them sit in groups and come up with a battle plan. As they present their plans, roll the dice until they finally defeat the giant octopus.

Ask them to set a course for the ship. They will need to raise the sails and get it going.

You were very brave and very competent. After two days sailing, you finally see land. Mission accomplished!