Back to School and Board Games

For those of us with school-age kids this is a big time of year. Back to School is upon us and we can finally get back into a somewhat dependable routine with under-paid professionals watching our kids and teaching them things! Yay!

As I was thinking back to my time in school, (K – 12) at least, I don’t remember playing much in the way of board games during class. Do you?

Teachers should be encouraged to have their classes play board games! Games teach people about fair competition, following rules, teamwork, and how to be a good winner or loser. They are also great tools for keeping children entertained, focused, and learning.

Why on earth are more schools not doing this???

Check out this article explaining some of the benefits:

Teaching Strategies: What Students Might Learn From Playing Board Games

A couple excerpts:

Monopoly:

·       “This board game is relatively simple to learn at a young age, but offers opportunity for increasing levels of sophistication related to finances, investing, strategy, diplomacy, probability, and social interaction.”

Chess:

·       “In 2008, researchers in Germany divided students into two groups – one that received five hours of math instruction a week and one that received four hours of math instruction a week plus an hour of chess. The study found that students who had less direct math instruction yet an hour of chess play ended up developing higher math-associated academic abilities, suggesting that chess can genuinely pump up students’ brains in ways that strict academic instruction cannot.”

What games do you think would be a fit for the classroom?