Teacher’s Corner: Teaching games to Elementary Students

By Dennis Ku
January 2, 2005

As an educator of young children – I’ve taught children between the ages of 6 and 10 over the past 5 years – it’s always imperative to keep the youngsters interested in whatever their learning.  Think back to when you were in elementary school: you probably remember most days being filled with repetitive math exercises, copying notes from the board and working your way through novels and answering stock questions, like “Retell the story in your own wordsâ€?.  Fortunately, the education system (at least here in Canada!) has made some progress, and fun is now encouraged. 

Three months ago, I took the plunge and decided to get try some of these so-called Eurogames.  I bought Samurai from a local store, and received a free copy of a gaming magazine with my purchase.  That particular issue had a feature on specific games that could be used to teach specific subjects.  It immediately piqued my interest, and got me thinking about how I could incorporate these games.  I read about teachers who have successfully used many board games to teach math, reading, history, economics, and many other subjects!  I had visions of using a half dozen sets of For Sale to teach adding to my 7 year-old students! 

But then I backed off.  I thought about everything I teach, and realized that I had successfully tricked my students into learning through fun activities every week, if not every day.  Now, don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with that.  I mean, if they’re going to learn, they might as well have fun, whether or not they realize it’s learning.  In teacher’s college, we were taught that you can disguise learning in fun activities that feel like playing. 

The more I thought about it, I started to feel uncomfortable about it.  Why was I playing the games?  Well, for one thing, I loved it.  I felt like I had missed out for all my 29 years on playing these incredible games.  I wish someone had introduced the hobby to me as a child.  But the thing I enjoy most about the games is the feeling I get from admiring and playing the games, discovering strategies and learning through losing.  I don’t get any enjoyment from adding up my victory points in Puerto Rico.  There’s no joy in correctly calculating my income minus tax in Age of Steam.  It’s the fact that I can play the games without fear of doing something wrong – that’s what I like most.

So, I scrapped the idea of using them in class, and instead pulled aside just four students in a higher grade (9 year-olds) one day during lunch.  We talked about their interests, and I found out they liked television, enjoyed video games, and sometimes read. 

“What about board games?� I asked.

“What, you mean, like, Monopoly?â€? 

I smiled.  What other answer would you expect?  I, too, believed once upon a time that Monopoly was the only game out there worth playing.  So, I invited them to come to the class the next day if they were interested in playing a new board game. 

The next day, the four eager students became wide-eyed as I pulled out Samurai and explained the rules.  We started slowly, with a variant of the rules that made it as basic as possible.  Slowly, I have let them in on all the rules, without revealing strategies.  They never needed me to teach them any strategies, really – they’ve picked them up by making mistakes.  Now, we’re playing with all the rules in place, the full board, all 39 glorious bits on the board ready to be captured.  We’ve even thrown in the odd game of For Sale, which they love, and their just about ready to move onto a new game, making room for four new players to try Samurai. 

Along the way, no one has said a word about winning or losing, not a discouraging word has been uttered, and when one of them makes a horrible move, the others are quick to offer encouragement and a hearty “You’ll do better next time – but thanks for the free piece anyway!â€? 

What a great bunch of students I have at the school.  And no, I don’t think it’s wrong to use board games as tools to teach skills, but it’s surely going to bring a smile to my face to see the kids laughing over a game of Through the Desert during lunch, with no pressure but that of where to lay the next pink camel.

Dennis Ku is a grade 2 teacher in Toronto, Canada.  He’s been teaching four years, but has only been playing board games for about 3 months.
His favourite board games are Tigris & Euphrates and Princes of Florence, and if anyone wants to send him a copy of Die Macher, Caylus or Reef Encounter, he’ll take it gladly! :)

© 2006 Tom Vasel

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

No comments yet.

< Back Home