Book Study: Games

Another great chapter in this book.  I enjoyed reading all the benefits of games in the classroom.  We all know we need to be playing games in our rooms but this chapter laid out the benefits and there are a great number of them.  I love how this chapter references the motivating aspect of games as well as the idea that it decreases stress while increasing content memory.  That's what we want... kids to feel comfortable enough to learn and remember what they are learning.

Kids who play games are also asked to cooperate with a buddy or opponent as well as focus on the task at hand so as to complete the game they're playing.  The great thing about doing Daily 5 and math workshop each day is the ability to incorporate games every day!  My kiddos love playing them and I love creating them. I'm also able to differentiate the games to ensure each group is working on skills the need to improve upon.  

How We Use This Strategy:

During our daily 5 time my kiddos play a few word work games.  One of our favorites is a game called "Back to the Hive".  Kids take turns reading sight words and collecting cards.  Within each deck there are several "Back to the Hive" cards.  If a kid draws the hive card he or she needs to put all their cards back in the hive.  The kids get a kick out of this and it keeps the game going as there is no real ending to the game.  

We also play a sight word game similar to Candy Land in which kids read sight words on colored cards.  If they read the word correctly they move their game piece to that color on the game board.  This is one of our favorite ways to end our guided reading rotations.  

This hangman game is a favorite and we play it from time to time during guided reading to practice sight words or spelling words for the week.  I found this small hangman board at a dollar store a few years ago and the kids love using it!  

In math workshop one of our rotations is math tub games so each day all my kiddos play at least one math game.  Right now we've been playing a ton of St. Patrick's Day math games.   Using gold coins from the dollar store my kiddos have been motivated by and excited to play these Pot of Gold addition and subtraction games.  I love these games as they require little prep... I think sometimes games can be overwhelming as they often require a ton of prep and laminating!  I was able to create a few different versions of each addition and subtraction game and this allows me to give different students different game boards based upon their needs.  

Addition Battle is another game we play during math workshop time and occasionally during math tub time.  The kids love it... they get so competitive and engaged in the game.  We use a deck of cards.  I have each kid draw two cards to find the sum.  The player with the larger sum wins all the cards.  I've even had some kids ask me if they can add three numbers to play the game... of course you can!!! I love that something so simple can be such a big hit!

What I'd Like to Try:  

 I love that this chapter included a ton of games that could be used with vocabulary words.  Each week we introduce "amazing words" that we discuss and "act out" That's pretty much as far as we get.  Some of these vocabulary games would be a great way to continue the learning throughout the week.  

To go along with acting out our vocabulary words the vocabulary charades game would be a great addition to our word study.  I can't wait to try it.  

I also like the idea of playing a vocabulary concentration game... I'm thinking we could have one card with our vocabulary word and one card with the definition.  The vocabulary bingo game sounds great as well.  I love the idea of giving the kids a game board with the words and then calling out the definitions so the kids need to match the definition to the words on their game board.  

So many great ideas in this chapter.... Can't wait to try some!

Don't forget to visit Katie King at Queen of the First Grade Jungle to see all the amazing ideas people are blogging about!

Happy Tuesday!