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Who am I - Historical Figures

Low effort and little preparation needed for this fun activity


The well-known party game "Who am I" is a very easy activity to prepare and can be played at any time with a specific goal or simply to fill some time. It's very suitable in history class, where students are meant to guess relevant historical figures.

What you need to prepare: The teacher may provide the names on the post-its that students are supposed to guess, or students come up with the historical figures they want their peers to guess.

How to play: Every player gets a post-it with a historical figure written on it stuck to their forehead. They must not see who they are. All player stand or sit in a circle and ask closed questions (i.e. questions that can only be answered with Yes or No) about themselves (i.e. the figure on their forehead), the others then respond with Yes or No. Of course, you can create your own rules, but usually a person can ask questions about their figure as long as they get it right. Once they guess wrong and the class (or group) has to say No to a question, the next person can start inquiring about their figure. You play as long as it takes for everyone to correctly guess the figure written on the post-it on their forehead.

Why is it useful as an educational game? Not only the student having to guess the figure on their forehead will have to recall details and facts about this person and any related historical events, the entire class (or group) will have to recall these facts too, in order to decide whether to respond to the questions with Yes or No.

How else can it be used? The possibilities to apply this game to other subjects are great. Students could for example guess:

  • In geography: What country am I? What capital am I?
  • In biology: What animal am I? What body part am I?
  • In social sciences: What philosopher am I? What social or economic system am I?
  • In music: What classical composer am I? What rock band am I?

Resources needed: post-its, pen