Lesson 6: Building Blocks & Boilerplates: Tools for Creating Unit Studies Part II
6-2 Games & Simulations
This could be a whole course in itself. We've touched on some games our family created in Lesson 3. I also published articles over the years detailing some of our game plans (listed in the Resources section). For this section, I'll give you a few ideas and maybe a boilerplate or two to help you put together theme-targeted family games of your own.
Scratch-Built Games
The joy of cooking up multi-purpose, barrel-o-fun games from scratch adds an exciting dimension to your unit studies. A well-designed game can be the focal point for a study or a crowning glory to cap off one. It may even be the wing that shelters the many projects over the years of an umbrella study. Here are a few examples we have created and enjoyed over the years:
- The Book Master Game - entices early readers to enjoy as many books as they can to win the diploma, graduation cap, and party at the end of a fun-filled game which can last for many weeks or longer. To pull this off, I designed a board game on a bright yellow poster board, coloring in a snaking line of game squares. Activities on the squares include fun doings for the players: having a party, a game outdoors, a special treat from the kitchen to name a few. A player takes a move after reading a short, illustrated book.
The playing pieces are little pony -- or any other appealing character -- pictures mounted on cardboard and stuck on the board with reusable gummy adhesive so they remain in place even when displaying the board vertically. When we first played the game, I spread an attractive display of about a half dozen books for Jen to choose from in a box labeled "Treasure Chest". Each time she finished reading one, we had a friendly chat about the story, its characters, our likes and dislikes (I read it, too.) Sometimes we each read aloud favorite parts. Sometimes we drew our own pictures to go with the story. We still have a great tomato tornado joint effort from reading Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Having completed the book, she would roll a die to determine the number of squares to move. As she completed each book, I'd place it in a special "Victory Corner" display area and add another new book to the unread treasure chest from my hidden stockpile to tempt her into more readings. She progressed at whatever pace she wanted. I often found her sitting beneath the game area reading book after book in one session.
When she "won" the game we held a graduation party -- complete with a construction paper cap and diploma. It was a grand family event soon followed by, "Let's play again!" Jen became a passionate reader, in no small part because on the Book Masters Game.
- Vacationland - A pure fun game which eventually became a springboard for mental math was Vacationland, detailed in my Home Education Magazine article mentioned above and in the Reference section. This game made use of many free or cheap household items for game parts which often changed over the years. Jenny had a major role in designing this game. I had no pre-determined goals except to let her have a lot of fun, labeling it "arts and crafts time". On a suitcase-style box, spread open upside down to form a two-level playing board, we penciled-in a snaking line of squares which we erased and moved until we had it just the way we wanted it. Then we inked and colored it in. Over the next few weeks we built up 3-D effects: an office building in which to work to earn money (hand drawn and colored by Jen) for vacation, a restaurant (soup box with doll furniture, table, and chairs), a motel (candy box) with a favorite plastic whale swimming in the pool (margarine tub), a playland at the end with some doll house playthings for our plastic animal playing pieces to enjoy. The real challenge came when Jen decided we needed a gas station. Gas was grains of rice stored in toothpaste-box "gas tanks". It took perhaps 5 grains of rice to travel a mile (one square), so you needed to be sure you had enough rice-gas to reach playland after the last gas exit. We had to do some fancy and fast math calculations to make sure our cars (cut sponge pieces) made it to the finish. It stretched her brain, but it was her idea so she never complained.
- Map Board Games - For social studies and many other subject areas, maps can make excellent game boards. You can use a regular map, preferably uncluttered with too many features or draw your own on paper or posterboard (mapmaking was always a favorite activity of mine, I confess). Many educational suppliers like Rainbow Resource Center have laminated maps available as well. You can use actual map features like city points for the game "squares". Use your imagination to determine how to move and for what purpose. For example, each time a player rolls dice or answers an educational question correctly they get to claim the nearest city. The goal could be to win the most states or countries by claiming a city in it.
As she reached pre-teen years, Jen developed a new favorite family game: Alliance.
Described in Lesson 3, this was based on a posterboard map of the world we drew. What really brought life to the game in the way of history, geography, and current events was the set of Events Cards we created. For anyone interested in some sample cards you can use in a similar game, other playing parts, and a copy of the "house rules" , let me know in the discussion section. More details on other games listed in this section are yours for the asking, so please join us in the discussion area! For country markers to claim countries, we used "flags of the world" stickers -- a resource commonly available through suppliers like Rainbow Resource Center -- mounted on toothpicks stuck in gummy adhesive. To supply a lot of the facts of the game we used a World Almanac, a useful tool which we became intimately acquainted with through this game. For an Internet resource try FactMonster.com.
- The Garden Game was a monumental undertaking - for size of game board anyway. As described in Lesson 3, this is where we used cut squares from large cardboard food boxes to mount large paper square instructions for us people/players to move on. Here are a few "squares" to get you started. Take a reading break! Roll even - your choice of stories Roll odd - teacher's choice
We have already discussed Wonder Numbers which we adapted to host many math-based unit studies. This brings up one of our favorite maxims:
Any ready-made game can be made better with a little imaginative freedom.
Some other games that we found enjoyable and educational include: Facts-A-Nation, Brain Quest, Made For Trade, Art Rummy, Pilgrim's Progress, Money Matters Game, the Pyramid Game (to which we added handmade treasures and artifacts to win by answering Egyptian history questions). There are many more out there. If you can send in a list of your favorites, I'll set up a game corner in the Resources for the course for the benefit all students.
Making that closet full of ordinary, store-bought games jump through ed hoops is a not-to-be-missed opportunity, as well. An obvious choice for spelling practice is Scrabble. This is a good place to list a few cardinal rules for adapting ordinary games:
In Scrabble, Jen was allowed to look up words in a manageable dictionary, giving her practice manipulating letters while discovering new words. I had to come up with words that would be in her grade-sensitive dictionary (or on spelling word lists). No fancy grown-up words allowed! She was allowed to play with up to 10 letters, I only seven; she could exchange a letter during her turn, I would forfeit my turn if I did; there was no bonus for my using all letters, 50 points if she did! We altered the rules as her skills improved -- often a subject of lively debate -- until we finally were playing on an equal footing.
Here are a few popular "non-educational" games which can help develop various subject areas. For math skills: Monopoly or the Stock Market Game; logical thinking: Chess or Clue; kinesthetics and arts: mazes or puzzles (especially with images related to the subject being studied); social studies: Risk or Made for Trade; language arts: Scrabble or Charades; general knowledge: Trivial Pursuit (there are now subject-specific versions like Math Trivial Pursuit). TV game shows like Jeopardy, Concentration, or Wheel of Fortune can be fun and sharpen learning skills, too.
If you're wondering about the many great computer games . . . read on.
