In order for students to learn everything about animals, how they reproduce, and how they live, while teaching about literacy at the same time, I have created a simple game called Datar or Dadu Pintar (“Smart Dice”). Datar is a cardboard game that has pictures of animals drawn on it. On the board, each animal picture is covered by a flap that has the first letter of the animal’s name on it. Each student is asked to guess the name of the animal based on the first letter.

The students form groups of four to five students and appoint a group leader. Each group takes turns rolling the dice and finding the letter that corresponds to the number on the dice. For example, group one rolls the dice and gets the number 6, which corresponds to the letter G. Then the group leader has to guess what animal is underneath the flap with the letter G on it. If the letter G turns out to be ‘gajah’ (elephant), the group must find out how elephants breed, how they live, what their daily food is, and other things related to elephants. The students may choose a variety of information sources, such as books or browsing on their mobile phones. Each group is asked to roll the dice three times to guess three names of the animals.

After the students get the necessary information, each group discusses the information and writes a group report that is related to the animals. The report is written on a single page, and each group presents their report one by one to the rest of the class. Through this activity, the children become more nimble in writing, stronger in collaborating with their friends, and more skilled in their ability to seek information about animals from various media.