Seven Up

Whether it's called Heads Up, Seven Up, Thumbs Up, or any combination of the three, Seven Up has long been an easy game to start and complete in classrooms, camps, and other child's play areas around the world. It requires little or no equipment or time, only a few players and a bit of guessing ability. The game has been played in American schools since the 1960s.

Seven children are picked to come to the front of the class, and all other children hide their faces (some teachers choose to turn the lights out during this part of the contest). The ones up front go around the class, and each picks a student, usually by gently touching their head or hand. A chosen student raises their hand or thumb (other variations of the game have them raising their thumb at the start and putting it down when chosen), but continues to hide his or her face until all students up front have picked someone.

With the originals back up front, those in the “audience” stand up, and attempt to guess who chose them. If a student from the class guesses right, he or she takes the place of the person up front. If the person up front is not selected, he or she stays up for the next round. Usually, the student that makes it through the most rounds without getting snared by the chosen students is declared the winner.

One of the biggest advantages of the contest—aside from the ones listed above—is that almost any number of children can play, from about seven kids to hundreds. Though the official title of the contest is Seven Up (probably because an identical soda moniker makes it easy to remember), three, four, five, or any number of students can come up front, as long as there are an equal amount of students in the audience.

A certain psychological and social aspect of the game comes into play when the students decide who they will select. Some will pick their friends. Perhaps they do not know the other students very well, and are wary about making contact—physical or otherwise—with an unfamiliar person. Maybe they want to give their friends a good shot at winning the game so they will have someone to congratulate afterward.

On the other hand, some students take the opposite route, picking people they do not know. This may be done because they expect their classmates to think their friends will choose them, and not expect strangers to do so. Perhaps the students up front are extroverts, looking to meet new people, and choosing people they do not know will give them an excuse to socialize with them later on.

Children also tend to show their personality traits up front while the choosing is going on—some cannot keep from smiling, laughing, or staring at the people they picked, while others glance around, cross their arms, or make other gestures in (typically unsuccessful) attempts to draw attention from themselves.

Teachers also many integrate an extra dose of education into the contest. The students who stand in front may be given a card with a vocabulary word on it. When the audience members are attempting to guess who picked them, they may not call out the names, but perhaps utilize something from the card the particular student is holding. A geography teacher may give cards with countries on them, and students may have to guess the capitals. An English teacher may have book titles, and students could guess the authors. Teachers of a foreign language may use cards with words in either English or the studied language, and students may have to translate the words back and forth. These are just a few examples, as similar ones could be utilized in virtually any class.

...