Day 21: Elavao

“Skadoosh.”

“Seven.”

“Eight.”

“Nine?”

“Nooo, big banana!”

I pulled my AirPods out of my ears to see what was going on. N, E, L, and Christian were playing a game. We were still an hour out of Miami thanks to Friday traffic, and I was ready to shower, eat, and get to bed early after our overnight trip to the Kennedy Space Center.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Ms. Amy, you should play!!” E said, delighted.

“Yes, Ms. Amy should play!” Kim agreed. “Christian, tell her.”

“It’s called Elavao,” Christian started to explain. “The game is simple. The goal is to count to eleven, or Elavao, and whoever gets Elavao gets to change a number. You can substitute a number for another number, or a word, or a sound effect, until all the numbers are substituted.”

“So like, 6 is skadoosh, 9 is big banana,” E started listing on her fingers.

“10 is ‘eee’!” L chimed in again, making a high-pitched noise.

“And 1 is two,” N said.

“So it starts, two, two?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Play, Ms. Amy!!” E said again.

“Alright, I’m game!” I put my AirPods in their case and tried to remember all the numbers they’d already substituted.

Christian began, and we continued in a circle:

“Two.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Four.”

“Five.”

“Skadoosh.”

“Six.”

“Seven.”

“Eight.”

“Big banana.”

“Eee!”

“Elavao!”

We played until we finished the round, laughing at the silly replacements and how some of us, like D, were struggling to do them. With each wave of giggles, more students came from the back of the bus, asking, “What are you playing? Can I join?”

Later, Christian let us know that it’s actually a drinking game, and whoever messes up is supposed to chug. We joked that one day, when the fifth graders are in college, they’ll come across a party where someone is playing this game, and they’ll say, “Hey, wait a second, my PE teacher taught us that when I was 11…”

Either way, it’s a fun game we’ve added to our Closing Circle list.