Back to School Game: Fruit Basket Upset

Have you ever played the game. Fruit Basket Upset? Most people I have come across in recent years have not played this game and, oh man! They are missing out! This game is not only fun and silly, but it is also great for teaching, reinforcing and reviewing new concepts.

I learned this game when I was doing my student teaching in Madison, Wisconsin in the early 1990s. My students begged to play it everyday! And, not only it is fun, but it is also super easy to set up and play. You can use materials you already have in your classroom or you can use cards likes the ones provided here for FREE!

How to Play Fruit Basket Upset with Colors

First, choose a concept or vocabulary you would like to practice. For the sake of this post and because I have included FREE playing cards, we will use colors.

Print and cut out all cards. You will need at least 2 of each. Use as many colors as desired.
Set up enough chairs for all but one student in a circle.
Give each child one card to start.
Chose one student to begin.
The child stands in the middle while the rest of the class is sitting in their seats.
The student in the middle calls a color. All the students with a matching color card stands up and finds a new seat as quickly as they can. NOTE: Students may NOT sit in the same seat they were just in. The caller needs to find a seat as well.
The last person without a chair is now in the middle and is the calller.
The person in the middle may also call out, “FRUIT BASKET UPSET!” and then everybody has to get up and find a new seat.

NOTE: This version can also be used with foreign languages as well!

That’s it! The possibilities are endless! You can use this game with any age and most any concept. Click the image below to download your FREE copy of Fruit Basket Upset Colors Version.

Here is a vesrion I used with my first graders during our transportation unit. In this version, students could call out the name of a type of vehicle (bus, car, boat) or where it travels (track, water, air, land) depending on what concept or what vocabulary I wanted them to practice.