Turn the Classroom Into a Board Game
Is it really possible to turn the classroom into a board game? It is! I stumbled across this blog from Spanish Sundries that gave me an idea of how to turn the ASL classroom into a board game. In order to do this, you have to be willing to move things around, let the kids have some crazy fun and create the game. But don’t worry, I am here to help you learn how to do this. So let’s get started and turn the classroom into a game board.
Getting Started
First of all, you need to have a plan. What is it you want to practice, study, or review? Maybe you want to talk about numbers, personality traits, or food. For example, for my game board, I made it very generic so it can be used for every unit regardless of the material. Therefore, you can do the same for your game board or make it specific to a unit. As an example, let’s say you are teaching a unit on “Hearing Privilege.” What skills would you want your students to know before the unit was over? Those skills will help turn the classroom into a board game.
How to…
- ask questions to others
- answer questions asked to them
- use the vocabulary in various real-world situations
- form the signs
There are a ton of other strategies you might want to use for review. However, for now, this is a good example.
Types of Board Pieces
In order to turn the classroom into a game board, I came up with 4 board pieces that you want to use. My spaces are vocabulary, sentences, questions and answer, and sign parameters. I color coded the board spaces to match the categories.
Blue = Q and A
Orange = Sentences
Yellow = Vocab
Green = Parameters
Then for fun, I threw in one super question that is optional to answer.
Setting Up the Game
First, I made the board pieces. Print the board pieces in color. I
laminated the board pieces and taped them to my floor using regular tape. However, next time I think painters tape would work best. Each side of the room became “home” for each of the 4 teams. I placed the board pieces in any order. However, I didn’t care if the same color pieces were back to back.
Next, I placed students into 4 even teams and gave them a matching color lei to wear. The lei represents the team the student is on. All team members numbered themselves in order to determine the sequence of play. The team rolls the dice and then moves that many spaces. You can use one or two dice. Students become the game pieces and move around the room on their turn. Students have to answer the questions individually and can’t rely on their team. Below is an image of how I set up the board.
The Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is to review. But for students, the goal is to obtain a color-coded token from each of the categories listed above. Depending on how long you want to play the game, is how many tokens you pick for students to get. Tokens can be beads, pieces of paper, the actual leis you used for teaming up students, crayons or anything that represents the colors on the board. Once the team has gathered the required number of tokens, they all must make it back to their own home space. The first team to return home wins the game. Each team had to get 2 of each color token. In other words, each team needed to have 8 tokens altogether. If you have less time, you will want to only collect one of each color token.
Supplies
Because I knew I was going to play this game, again and again, I gathered a few supplies to make it more interesting. I ordered two things from Amazon. First, I got a pair of giant dice since the game board is so large. Also, kids love anything oversized. Dice are also so useful in the classroom. Then I got some leis so students would know whose team they were on. I color-coded the team with matching leis. I also used the leis as the tokens. The box I ordered
has enough colors for teams and tokens. The leis allow students to be hands-free. Additionally, the leis allow students to visually see what the other teams have collected and who is closest to winning.
What do You Think About Turning the Classroom Into a Board Game?
Are you going to turn the classroom into a board game? It does take some time to create (it took me about an hour and a half to create not counting laminating, etc.), however, once it is created, you are done. If you want to save time, click here and get the game board already made (and it’s really cute).
