Speaking Activities › Two Truths, One Lie
Two Truths and a Lie — a class speaking game
Three statements. Two are true, one is not. The class listens and votes for the lie — and the tell is almost never the content. It is the delivery: the lie gets extra detail nobody asked for, and the truth gets told too carefully. It is the fastest icebreaker there is, and a surprisingly good lesson in listening.
What is Two Truths and a Lie?
Two Truths and a Lie is a speaking game in which a person makes three statements about themselves, two true and one false, and the audience works out which is which. In a classroom it does two useful things at once: it gets a quiet child speaking with a clear structure, and it makes everyone else listen for evidence.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the prompt on the board and give the speaker thirty seconds to plan their three. They say all three, then stop. The class votes by hand on each one in turn, then the speaker reveals. Ask the deciding question before the reveal: what made you think that?
What actually gives the lie away?
Detail and defence. A child telling the truth says I lost a tooth on Tuesday and stops. A child lying adds where, and who was there, and that it definitely happened — because they are compensating. Tell the class to listen for the statement that is working hardest, and their voting gets dramatically better.
From the classroom
The failure mode is a child who cannot think of anything, freezes, and now has thirty people waiting. Fix it before it happens by giving the prompt and thirty seconds of silent planning, with everyone writing their three down — the sheet exists for exactly that. It costs half a minute and it removes the entire risk. Be careful with the prompts, though. Anything that reaches into home life will land badly on somebody in your class, so three things about your weekend is better than three things about your family, and the topic-based prompts are safer still with a class you do not know well. The best version I have run was on our class novel — three statements about a character, two true and one not — because the evidence is in the book and the argument afterwards is a comprehension lesson that nobody realised they were having.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 2 to Year 9 (US grades 2–8). Younger children need a concrete prompt about the recent past. Older children can take abstract prompts and enjoy the strategy of it — deliberately telling a true thing badly, so it sounds like the lie, is a genuinely clever move.
Is it just an icebreaker?
It works as one, but the reason to keep using it is the listening. Very few classroom activities ask children to weigh three pieces of evidence against each other and commit to a judgement in thirty seconds, and this one does it without anybody noticing they are working.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The prompt cards are numbered cut-outs so groups can play in fours. The planning sheet is what removes the fear: space to write your three statements and mark which is the lie, plus a column for what gave other people away.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| An icebreaker | Six speakers, class votes on each | 10 minutes |
| Listening for evidence | Print the planner, reason required with every vote | 25 minutes |
| Book or topic work | Three statements about a character or a topic | 25 minutes |
| Group work at tables | Print the cards, fours, everyone gets a turn | 20 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see exactly what you would be running, and model it to a class, before anyone asks you for anything. Starting the activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit.
Free to try, and no sign-up to look around.
More speaking activities
Try Just a Minute for talking at length, Taboo Talk for describing under pressure, or Rebuttal Pong for a class debate. All seventeen are in Speaking Activities.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.