My son has informed me he would like to do some board games as a part of our daily school work. I was wondering if anyone has any good ideas for this. I am looking for prepackaged games or games that I can make up that would teach math, spelling, reading(sight words, frequently used words), etc. Also, to add a little fun, we would like to incorporate scavenger hunts and treasure hunts into school. not sure how to do that and teach something to them at the same time. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
Dominoes is a good game for addition facts! Especially with a double 12 or double 15 set -- you can play with just the standard double six for awhile, then add in more dominoes as he gets more proficient with the game and the facts. You can also use them for generating random math facts to work, such as adding or subtracting the two numbers represented on a randomly chosen domino. (They're also good for fine motor skills, as in building!) Some standard card games rely on math skills for scorekeeping too - rummy (in various forms), canasta, hearts, spades.... war or battle (same game) depends on comparision of numbers more/less. Checkers and chess rely on strategy, which is logic and thinking ahead skills. Monopoly also requires planning, bargaining, and money skills (Monopoly Jr is good too, with money skills for younger kids and takes less time). Boggle - you might play without the timer at first - is great for spelling/recognizing words, as are Scrabble and Upwords. Hangman is good for reading vocabulary words and spelling words. You can make your own "bingo"-style cards that instead of "under the B, 15" you call out words from a list (make your own deck of flash cards) of sight words and Dolch words or other target words. You could make it 4x4 squares at first, with a different word in each square on the paper, before getting to 5x5 - make at least two different cards, so you can play too, and put a bean or other counter on the word that's drawn from a shuffled deck of word-cards. First one to fill the card completely, or make a row horizontally/diagonally/vertically, is the winner. When you're making up scavenger hunt lists, instead of just making a list of specific things, you might make a list with items like "find something in the yard that is ..." and then you describe it without naming it. "find something in the kitchen that is ..." (round and deep and made of metal, for example) Then instead of bringing you the item, he could write its name on the list. Have him make lists for you, too. A "treasure hunt" could be good for reading AND mapping skills!
What we did when ours were beginning to read: I'd do scavenger hunt of sorts by leaving notes all over the house, with a prize (usually a piece of chocolate or a balloon) at the end. They LOVED it! I'd get a note pad and to make it easy on yourself: START AT THE END. Place your prize there and go backwards: "Look under your bed for the prize." then the "Look in the shower." then "Look next to TV." etc. until you get to your starting point. Fun times, and it had them reading! Another version would be that I'd hide myself at the end and they were following the notes to find me. If some of the words will be too difficult for them, draw a picture.
for treasure hunt learning you can give them a clue for each part of the lesson.. I had a math problem before that revealed an answer clue.. you make a code to follow , the final clue of course has a prize attached but they have to make the problem correct in order to enter it into the code and see if it worked! if you are older and your digits are longer you will need tohave them figure which number (s) to use.
for Board games- My kids enjoyed creating thier own games. but there is a dog one that has little dogs an back packs that is educational... someone will remember thename
How old of kiddo's are we talking about here? We play madlibs and Apples to Apples. The boys made thier own board game with mostly history questions it is called Castle Wars and quite frankly was awesome! (although it is tough for us to play, because we know all the answers.) I have heard of Rummy Roots...for latin and greek roots of words, which we might do next year.
I'm not sure I can help specifically with board games, but you can add games to your schooling. In "English" class I had simple puppets- pictures of farm animals glued to big craft sticks- one was a cow (comma), one a pig (period), and one a duck (quack, question mark). For the six year old, read a sentence or question, and he has to hold up the proper puppet for end punctuation. For the older, he would hold up the end punctuation, and as many cows as he thought a particular sentence needed. (You can have "races" with this as well if the two oldest have a pig and a duck- they have to raise the correct one first.) Put large index cards on the floor in a big area. Each index card has a single letter written BIG. Call out a spelling word and the child has to jump/hop on the correct cards to spell out the word. Make a spelling "bee". Cut the bee apart in sections and then use it to encourage spelling. If the child spells a word correctly, he places a bee part on the bulletin board (or table). If he misses a word, he has to remove a part and try another word. When he completes his bee he wins! (I think my bee had 12 parts, which was a good portion of their weekly spelling.) You can also use a caterpillar with multiple "bumps", or a train with lots of cars. Concentration games are good! (Some call them memory games.) Match two like cards when you turn them over. I had a picture card to match with a word card (duck picture and the word duck), or mama/baby cards, or health cards- toothbrush matched with toothpaste, etc, or picture/Spanish word cards, or states/abbreviations or capitals... the list is endless. Give your child several index cards with subject words on some cards and verb words on other cards and a list of sentences with blanks. Let them fill in the blanks with the cards- silly sentences are okay too! Fill in bingo cards with prepositions, or states, Presidents, science vocab, math equations, etc. For instance, the math board could have squares filled with numbers. Say (as the caller) 8x4, and the child can cover the space that says 32. Hope those are helpful. MT3
All of the above ideas are great. We incorporated a lot of the ideas into our school when the kids were younger. Scavenger hunt was always a favorite. I also made games which was nothing more than copying the pages from a book called 20 Decoding Games by Marla Love. It is designed for grades 1 - 3.
