The Benefit of Games in the Classroom



I try to have a "game day" in my classes at least once a month. Kids, just like the rest of us, sometimes just need to slow down. Playing educational games is such a great way to have them relax, but also keep their minds moving. An added benefit is that many of today's games help students understand how to work together. I try to do one game day near the beginning of the year when students are still trying to get to know one another. Today we had a game day (two weeks into school) and I absolutely loved seeing new students interacting with veteran students. There's just something about the humor of a game that helps walls come down and insecurities fade away.

In today's culture, relaxation is almost always tied to a screen of some kind. Video games, television, cell phones, tablets, smartwatches...the list can go on. Our kids are forgetting what it truly means to relax. 

The Greek word "Schole" means leisure. One of the goals of classical education is to help our kids experience quality leisure. One of the methods I use for this is to have a game day each month in my classes. I thought I'd focus today's blog post on some educational games that I have found that work for me. This is by no means an exhaustive list! I'd love to know what additional games you've found that your kids love (and so do you)! 


Cash Flow!

This is actually the ONLY game I play in my personal finance course. The reason is that it generally takes an entire semester to complete the game! This game is fun and teaches in-depth concepts about passive income and expenses vs. income. I HIGHLY recommend Cash Flow! It is best for high school students, although there is a children's version as well. 




Below are some great games for geography students. World helps students recognize flags, capitals, and facts about all the countries in the world. Pandemic is a great team game that requires students to work together to save the world.



Finally, below are some great games for English class. Of course, I don't need to tell you what the game of Scrabble is, but Code Names is a more recent game that allows students to think about connections between words. An added bonus is it is a very QUIET game (which I love!)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"The Pearl" - A lesson on parables

Image
We recently began reading The Pearl , by John Steinbeck in 8th grade English. For those who haven't read it (I hadn't before last week), The Pearl is a a short story (novella) that is also a parable. As the gospels are full of parables, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for deeper biblical integration. While biblical integration is something I try to do to some extent in every class, the kind of biblical integration that encompasses an entire class period can only be done ever so often. Today was one of those days. I began by breaking the students into groups of three and then had each group select one of the following three parables from Matthew: Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:1-9 Parable of the Weeds - Matthew 13: 24-30 Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25: 14-30 Yesterday in class, we discussed the definition of a parable as well as some of the key characteristics that all parables have. Today, with that information fresh in their minds, eac...
Read more

How do you do it all virtually?

Image
I work at a classical Christian school. We tend to stray from a any significant use of technology in the classroom.  Our students are not allowed to have their phones in school.  Last month, our parent teacher association hosted an event for parents to better understand the negative effects of screen time on adolescents.  We're big on discussion, Socratic circles, and relationship building. Today we started teaching online because the governor closed all the schools in Virginia through the end of the school year. We took last week off to prepare and plan. We had 8 days to go from a school that intentionally does not embrace technology to a school that is teaching 100% through distance learning.  What. An. Adjustment.  So how do you maintain a classical model while teaching virtually? Here are some suggestions...but I'd love to do hear your thoughts as this is incredibly new for me.  Diversify the assignments: We know that stud...
Read more

Interviewing, Esther, Moses, and Argument

Image
One of our goals this year for our dialectic grades (7th-9th) is to incorporate the "art of argument" into the classroom. While the students take a logic class during this time, we want them to articulate, defend, and persuade outside of that course as well. So what does this look like outside of a formal logic course?   In personal finance this week, the class is learning about interviewing and resume writing. The essential question for the day is: " What is the purpose of an interview?" As I initially thought about how to biblically integrate this lesson, I did a google search of "interviews and the Bible". As you can imagine, I didn't' come up with much. Mostly, there were links to Bible verses that might encourage you before heading into an interview...not exactly what I was going for.   But then I thought about how often God "hired" a particular individual for an important job. What is that, if not an interview? That got me thin...
Read more