In this lesson your students will learn a simple but astonishing spoon bending trick.

Do spend time learning the trick yourself. Being able to perform it will have a much greater impact on your class group raather than simply showing them a video demonstration. Once you are familiar with the inner workings of the trick, you will be able to troubleshoot issues or inconsistencies your learners may have while they practise and learn the routine.

Start the lesson with a demonstration. This is probably best performed while sat at a table with your learners stood around watching. Perform the trick before explaining how it’s done. There really needs to be a pause and period of enquiry prior to revealing its secret.

Introduction:

Magic is magic for a reason. Remind your learners not to reveal the secret.

• Ask your learner group to gather around a table while you demonstrate the trick.
• Make sure your learner group are in front of you and not behind or to the sides of the table otherwise the secret will be revealed.
• Hold a spoon in front of you and show the audience that it’s straight.
• Bring the spoon towards you and the edge of the table.
• Put your hands on top of each other- left hand at the bottom, right hand at the top.
• The pinkie finger on your right hand should be on top of the index finger on your left hand.
• Place the spoon upright behind your hands.
• From the front, the audience should see the bowl at the bottom of the spoon and the top of the handle.
• Hold the spoon with your bottom pinkie finger and not with your other fingers.
• Keeping your hands perfectly straight, relax the pinkie finger and apply pressure to the bowl forcing the spoon to move to a horizontal position. Don’t completely lose your pinkie grip.
• From the front, it will give the impression that the spoon has been bent.
• To restore the spoon, relax the pressure and tighten the pinkie finger until the spoon has returned to its vertical position behind your hands.
• Now show the audience the spoon has been restored.

Here’s a video demonstration of someone performing the trick. Click here: https://magictricksforkids.org/spoon-bending-illusion/

Task

• Teach the trick by turning around so your audience can see how it is done.
• Give each learner a spoon, or if these are in short supply a fork, but not a knife. If spoons are very limited, learners can practise using a pen or pencil as a substitute.
• Be mindful that tables can be damaged, consider putting something underneath to stop them getting scratched.
• To teach the trick, have your learners sit in a row behind you but with an exposed view so they can see what you are doing.
• Go over the stages and allow learners to practise on their own while you monitor what they are doing.
• Put learners into pairs/groups of 3. Let them take it in turns to perform the trick for each other and give feedback. Allow learners time to master their performance using the task language and steps worksheet.
• For the performance, learners should perform the trick for the class. The audience should be ready to give feedback using the success criteria worksheet.

Download a PDF of the Task language and steps and the Success criteria here: Lesson. The spoon bending illusion

Task language and steps

• Ask, ‘do you want to see a trick?’.
• Say, ‘here is an ordinary spoon’.
• Show your audience the spoon.
• Perform the trick.
• Say, ‘but when I bend the spoon…’.
• Say, ‘it magically restores itself’.
• Show the restored spoon.

Success criteria

• Did the magician perform the trick well?
• Did the magician tell the audience what was happening? e.g., did they say, ‘here is an ordinary spoon’?
• Give the magician some feedback and advice.

Before finishing the lesson, try and make time for a review stage. If your students have followed the task language and success criteria, there will be plenty of scope for reflection.

Also, when I have run this lesson, I ask my students to perform the trick in English for their family as a homework task. A nice compliment to the lesson and gives a real-world use to some of the language.

Do you need a game to fill a gap in your lesson and engage your students? If yes, look no further than here: Games and board games