Typical on a school trip: 15 predictions and tips for teachers
A school trip has its own rules. Twenty minutes into the coach ride, someone asks how much longer it'll take, at the youth hostel someone is hunting for the room key, and breakfast shows who is really awake in the morning. Typical turns all this into a game for the whole class: before you leave, everyone writes predictions about how the others will behave on the trip, and along the way you tick off what happens. What's written about you on the cards stays hidden until it has happened. How the game works in detail is explained in the how-to-play guide. This page shows how to use Typical on a class trip, a course excursion, a leavers' trip or a youth camp so that everyone has fun – teachers included.
How to set up the round
- Individually or in teams. A round holds up to thirty people, so a whole class plus teachers fits in. With that many people, team mode is worth it: each team shares one card, and everyone writes only a few sentences instead of filling a whole card. Teams can be drawn at random or picked by hand, for example by room. If several classes travel together, each sets up its own round.
- Card size by trip length. For a day trip, 3 × 3 is enough. For three to five days, 4 × 4 fits; 5 × 5 is available in team mode for a long trip or a week-long camp.
- Set an end date. Put the end date on the last day of the trip. The round then ends by itself, even if no line has been filled, and nobody keeps playing back at school.
- A prize without money. Small privileges work well: the winning team picks their seats first on the coach home or chooses the music for the farewell evening. There's no need for a penalty for the others on a school trip.
- Free writing or Blitz mode. Your own sentences are the most fun, because only you know your class. Allow ten minutes for this, ideally in the last lesson before the trip or right at the start of the coach ride. Short on time? Choose Blitz mode with the category “On the road”: Typical fills the cards with ready-made travel predictions.
15 predictions for a school trip
These sentences describe small moments that come up on almost every trip. On the card, each sentence is preceded by the name of someone from your round – a teacher too, if they're playing:
- falls asleep on the coach before it reaches the motorway
- asks on the first evening when lights-out is
- looks for a power socket first thing in the room
- leaves the room key inside the room
- asks for the Wi-Fi password at the accommodation
- says “just five more minutes” when woken up
- goes back for seconds at breakfast
- turns up to breakfast with wet hair
- photographs a sign in the museum instead of the exhibit
- suggests a shortcut on the city walk
- starts chatting with another group at the hostel
- gets a game of cards going in the evening
- counts heads at every change of train
- buys a keyring at the souvenir shop
- mixes up the day of the week on day three
More ideas from Blitz mode
These sentences come from the “On the road” category and work just as well on a school trip:
- asks when we'll finally get there
- gets lost despite the map
- realizes they forgot to pack something important
- asks strangers for directions
- tries a local specialty
- walks more than 20,000 steps in one day
- strikes the classic tourist pose in front of a landmark
What doesn't belong on the card
At the end of the round, everything is revealed: each person reads what was written about them – including what never happened. That's why one simple test helps: only write what you'd also say to the person's face. These things explicitly don't belong on the card:
- Looks, clothes and bodies.
- Grades, family, money and background.
- Crushes and who's with whom.
- Anything that breaks the rules of the trip or encourages others to.
It's best to go through this list together before anyone writes. Then the whole class knows where the line is, and the teacher doesn't have to check anything afterwards.
Tips for trip leaders
Who runs the round
The host is whoever creates the round; only that person sets it up and releases it. That can be the teacher or someone from the class whom everyone trusts with it. If teachers play along, there are sentences about them on the cards too – for many, that's exactly the appeal, as long as the predictions stay friendly, such as “counts heads twice on the platform”. Anyone who doesn't want to or isn't allowed to install an app can play in the browser at typical.cloud; a name is enough, no account needed.
When to tick things off
Typical has no voting: whoever sees that a prediction has come true ticks it off straight away – except for sentences about themselves. So agree on one house rule: you tick off what you've seen yourself, not what you've only heard about. During guided tours and the official programme, phones stay in pockets.
How to include the quieter ones
Typical hands out the writing tasks so that the same number of sentences is written about every person. Nobody is the sole centre of attention, and nobody is forgotten. Those who say little in class are often the sharpest observers – and end up writing the predictions that hit. In team mode, mixed teams help: let them be drawn at random instead of keeping fixed cliques together.
Common mistakes
- Cards that are too big. A 5 × 5 card rarely fills up on a three-day trip.
- Sentences everyone fulfils. “goes to the castle” comes true for the whole class if the castle is on the programme.
- Sentences that can never happen. “catches a fish” stays an empty square without a fishing trip.
- Wasting the reveal. If nobody has a line by the journey home, the host can end the round on the coach. Then everyone reads together what was written about them.
You'll find more ideas for trips outside school, from road trips to family holidays, on the “Travel” page.