Brain Break/Warm up: Snake Oil Competition

Do you ever wonder how to fill those last ten minutes of class? Do you need an activity to give your students a break in between lessons? Do you wish students would work on being more creative and being able to think more quickly? The Snake Oil Competition might just be your answer. I would recommend this game for 4th grade and up.

My favorite part of this game as always? You guessed it…there is no preparation on your part. Everything is set up for you on this website: https://www.snakeoilgame.com/sobsedu.

Object of game:

The object of the competition is to create crazy products by combining two of the cards listed into one product. The customer will choose which product they like the best and that seller wins the game.

How to play the game:

1. Before you begin, explain how “snake oil” played an important part of history. Here is a good video to show in order to give them some background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaDsOJATX3A
2. Put a chair in the middle of your room and 4 chairs up front. I have a stage, so my chairs go to the right of the stage.
3. One student is the customer, and they sit on the chair in the middle of the room.
4. Choose four students to be the “hagglers” or salespeople and they sit on the four chairs up front.
5. Show the first list of cards. The customer must decide which “type” of customer they will be. For the first round, the customer can choose between being a “pirate” or “the tooth fairy.”
6. The first haggler is shown the first set of six cards. I project this to the front of the room. They need to think about who the customer is and what type of problems this person might have. Then they combine two of the six cards to create a new product to solve the problem.
7. I perform the first one to show them what I want them to do. This part is very important and will improve your students presentations, if you do.
8. I tell the students that they have to talk for at least 30 seconds, and then they can give the customer up to 30 seconds to ask questions about the product. This is a good life skill and encourages the students to think quickly and creatively.
9. Once everyone has performed in that first group, the customer announces the winner and why they chose that product.

Example of the cards. This is from the cards in Round 3 on the website:

Student Examples:

Here are two student examples where they were Santa Claus.

How to use in your class:

Kids in grades 4 and up are going to love this game. If you want to relate it to your content area, you could create your own cards with vocabulary words from your content. If you teach social studies, the customers could be certain people from history. What products would a past president want? A dictator? If you teach science, this is a no-brainer. You could play this as is. If you teach English, the customer could be a character from a novel. If you teach math, they could be different math terms.

Either way, this is a fun activity to get kids thinking creatively and quickly. It would definitely make a good brain break or warm up for your students.