Playing is an occupation that cannot be taken seriously enough.
– Jacques Yves Cousteau
Waiting your turn, thinking up a good move, changing your plan, checking whether your score is calculated correctly… a game appeals to all kinds of skills.
But also concrete knowledge is addressed, e.g. well-known (historical) persons, fruit and vegetables, countries, chemical elements…
Use games in a targeted way so that pupils activate knowledge, repeat and deepen the subject matter. Link a game to learning objectives. Give feedback and discuss the game afterwards.
Then you work on: social skills, thinking and behavioural skills (executive functions), 21st century skills, motor skills, spatial insight and subject content.
It is not only chess games that provide challenges. Board games, too, offer:
- challenge for gifted and plus pupils
- speaking time for introverted and high sensitive pupils
- practice in concentration and self-regulation
- a new context for extended instruction
- opportunity to show a different side
- opportunity to make new contacts
And all with a good dose of fun!
Do you only see a board game? I see:
