Strategy and Critical Thinking Games

What do you like to do when you get bored? We don’t get bored often, but when we do, we reach for a BOARD…game! Not only are board games loads of fun, they have properties that help boost children’s brain power, too. Game playing is a powerful instructional tool, especially to help enhance critical thinking, creative thinking, and research/investigation, students’ ability to plan ahead and persistence (and, the very important skill of how to lose or win graciously.) In this fun series we’ll work hard at playing hard in all kinds of ways and you’ll be surprised how much learning kids do when they’re ‘otherwise engaged!’

It’s time to capture the flag Team One and Team Two! Who will triumph? The Orange or the Blue? Probably whichever team has you! Then say hurray for Pente, a game with a heart, a game with a pepperoni inspired start. But wait, wait’s that we see? You running through a big field of grass, trying to catch a flying disc that a whole bunch of people are trying to keep away from you? Are you trying to smuggle a UFO out of Area 51? NO! You're playing Ultimate Frisbee! The ultimate in fun for everyone! Let’s practice our sportsmanship and get out on the field, cause that’s where our character is really revealed!

Beating Board-dom Week Three Days 9-12

Awithlaknannai! Can you say that three times fast? Either way this game’s a blast. Then it’s time to catch a whiff, a whiff of Whiffle Ball! We’ll try some crazy pitches and see who can hit them all! And then see who can hack it through our elimination bracket! And then to keep in balance we’ll all sit and stare…down at a really balanced board of Madagascar Solitaire! Is it symmetry or mimicry that will help you win the game? All we know is that it’s whichever means ‘the same.’

Beating Board-dom Week Four Days 13-16

Ready, Set, GO! Hey, wait, where are you going? This isn’t a race that’s going to take place anywhere that would need mowing! We’re going to do an ancient game that’s been around a few thousand years…a game that makes emperors and peasants champions and peers! So let’s GO! But then we’ll need to hush since we are under a Sneak Attack! A game that will have you watching your front, your sides, your back! Phew! We made it out alive…let’s cool down with some Not-So-Chinese checkers played on a star with one more side than five!