When Learning Looks Like Play: A Clothing Hunt with Perky Piung
Thursday, August 06, 2026
One of my favourite moments in teaching is watching my Year 2 learners smile while they are learning. Yesterday was one of those days.
Our learning objective was simple: to read and match clothing vocabulary correctly.
Instead of giving them another worksheet, I decided to turn the lesson into a game.
Getting Ready
Before the lesson, I asked each learner to bring one clothing item from home. I arranged the clothing items on chairs around the classroom by category. (A few learners forgot to bring theirs, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise!)
The learners then formed groups of five.
Each group created number cards from 1 to 10, with each member holding two cards.
To decide whose turn it was, I used the Wheel of Names online. Whenever a number was selected, I played the Perky Piung song as the timer. The classroom instantly became more exciting as everyone hurried to complete the challenge before the music stopped.
The Challenge
The chosen learner had to:
Read the clothing word from the textbook.
Find the correct clothing item displayed in the classroom.
Place the numbered card on the correct item before the music ended.
Since two clothing items were missing (because two learners had forgotten to bring them), there were also two "mystery" cards that had nowhere to go.
At first, I thought this would be a problem.
Instead, it became an unexpected opportunity to assess my learners. They had to think carefully before deciding whether a clothing item was really there or not. Sometimes, the best teaching moments happen by accident!
What I Learned
The activity was full of laughter, teamwork, and excitement. Every group encouraged one another, and it was wonderful to see even the quieter learners becoming involved.
However, the assessment results showed that the learning objective had not been fully achieved yet.
Out of the four groups:
Two groups correctly matched about 50% of the clothing items.
The other two groups scored even lower.
Although the scores were not as high as I had hoped, I was not disappointed.
Instead, I saw something even more valuable.
I saw learners reading aloud, discussing answers, helping one another, taking risks, and enjoying English. Those smiles reminded me that learning is a journey, and meaningful learning often takes more than one lesson.
Looking Ahead
This activity definitely deserves another round—but with a different twist.
Next time, I plan to revisit the same vocabulary using new games and activities so that my learners can build stronger recognition and confidence before moving on.
Assessment isn't only about finding out what learners know.
It's also about discovering what we need to teach next.
Yesterday's lesson reminded me that every game can become a valuable assessment, and every assessment can guide better teaching.
And of course, no Perky Piung lesson is complete without the Perky Piung song filling the classroom with happy voices!
