Top 10 Board Games for the Classroom
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia, and Mike DiLisio, three former teachers, take a look at games they think would have value in a classroom setting. This is a repost of the video which was originally aired live during the 2022 Spring Spectacular.
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This was one of the most well reasoned and argued lists you've ever done. It shows that you were all teachers and continue to be!
Great list.
I am going to be a child and congratulate all three gentlemen on not breaking character when the stealth fart happened at 28:23. Maybe it was the chair!
Zee being a drama teacher makes way too much sense lol
Fellow teacher here. Went from a classroom with a Chalk board, got moved classrooms to a white board, and now have a smart board. Totally appreciated the smart board rant there!
This was a fantastic list. Thank you. As a teacher myself, I really appreciate your sincere thanks and support towards teachers at the end of the video. I have also used a few board games in my classes over the years. In a smaller class, I used Forbidden Island in my Civics/Politics class to demonstrate decision making, cooperative skills and the difficulties those in government might face when making decisions. I have used Diplomacy/Axis and Allies (for demonstration purposes for geography during WWI and WWII).
I played Cartographers with a few classes of algebra 1, I talked a little about how we score points linearly (x points per objective) and gave them time to add up and check their scoring. Made copies of the objective cards and students used the maps on their iPads, it worked amazing! Students could use my example on the projector to follow along until they understood the strategy on their own. Good length of game, we didn’t finish all the games but got pretty close.
Amazing game and works with absolutely any player count.
My mind is absolutely blown. I’ve been watching you guys forever now and I just found out you were all teachers before. Much respect! I’m a teacher too, so of course I had to watch this. Great video! And thanks for the shout out at the end!
As a teacher, Bonanza has been my biggest success story. The teaching of economy is inherent in the gameplay, and it launches relatable discussions of supply and demand.
As a soon to be Econ PhD student and formerly a student teacher, I was also thinking of good Econ games. They mentioned QE at the end which I thought was a great shout from the chat, but I was also thinking Bohnanza! Or even a bidding game like Ra or High Society.
As a teacher, I appreciated your list! I found your jokes very relatable as well. I feel very seen by this video!
Yes! My wife teaches 8th grade social studies and she has her students make their own Timeline cards for each unit.
Am I crazy to suggest Quacks? A very solid and obvious lesson in not pushing things too far and maybe stopping before things go wrong?
This would be super helpful for home school families or groups.
Fun list. I've used Codenames to teach perception, Super fight to teach persuasive tactics, Just one for vocabulary building, and Resistance for team building/conflict management
I know it would be difficult to implement into a lesson, but I'm absolutely shocked that Twilight Struggle wasn't at least at some place on this list.
I, too, was surprised that Twilight Struggle didn’t make any of the three’s list. Although it is a two player game, and might be hard to implement because of that, the amount of context that the game could give young kids should outweigh that issue.
One idea is to split the class in half, with each half representing a side. During a turn, the students whose turn it is secretly vote on the card that should be played and they all reveal their choice at the same time to their teammates. Then the can discuss as a team which card will be played.
It’s immersive activities like this that will make an imprint on a young mind.
Although it is a great game, a session of TS discussed would last an entire workday.
Mike need to move his #10 to his #1. He seems to do a great job of opening with his number 10 on multiple top 10 lists. Keep up the great work Mike!
Amazing intro/count down. Big thumbs up!
No joke, I use Century Spice Road to teach my young son. He does color recognition, counting, addition of the separate colors, and he loves the colored cubes. The trading aspect is a little lost on him but he enjoys doing it.
Excellent list! Teachers, in most cases, are indeed underappreciated and underpaid considering the importance or their role in our society and for the amount of work that is required of them. I have a lot of friends that are teachers and I salute them and all other teachers across the world. You are truly appreciated!
I'm an ESL teacher and I used to bring board games to class nearly every week before Covid hit. Haven't had the chance to for a couple years, so this list made me a little nostalgic. Great picks though!
Thank you teachers for ALL you do!
Loved the list. It really shows you guys know a lot about games AND teaching. Also while I appreciate the bickering in other lists I like that this one had a more serious tone
Ones that weren't been mentioned:
Maths
Lucky Numbers (Probability, inequalities)
Nmbr9 (Arithmetic practice, spatial thinking)
Can't Stop (Probability, especially since the board has a very specific relationship with the probabilities of two dice)
Incan Gold/Diamante (Probability, since it changes on every card, especially as a comparison to how they are fixed in Can't Stop)
English
Quiddler (similar to the arguments about Paperback, it practices spelling, but it also has a bit of thinking about the best way to adjust your hand to make more words or longer ones)
Balderdash (vocabulary and definitions, really surprised Tom didn't mention this one!)
Spyfall
Theatre
Accentuate
News At 11
Fog Of Love (Character motivations, so this can lead strongly in to improv/role-play)
Science
Evolution: Climate (Climate change, importance of traits in giving advantages, interplay of traits in an ecosystem)
Search For Planet X (logic, deduction, a bit about the process of research etc)
Khet (laser reflection)
History
Commands & Colors/Memoir 44 (Scenarios relate to specific significant battles which can lead to talks about why armies were equipped differently, the consequences of the results etc)
GMT Games generally - the COIN games for example all have event decks based on real events and real factions have very different methods and powers, like the Arverni in Falling Sky who can wreck territories which is how they attempt to starve the Roman armies. Many GMT games have a good deal of historical research behind them
Religion (specifically Christianity)
Nicaea (the negotiations behind Christianity unifying including selecting gospels to include in the bible)
The timing of this is perfect since I and my coworker are doing a combined Math/Social Studies project right now that gets the students designing their own board games! I spent last week talking about game mechanics and this week we visited a local game café so the kids could get a sense of what to make.
I have done Codenames before as a class activity (Horse Paste works well as an online implementation because it doesn't require signup). Depending on the class, it's either a hit, or it's too slow.
I've also created a Boggle PowerPoint for my French Immersion class; I give them double points for French words and use an online Boggle solver in advance to come up with the best words in both French and English. It's a great vocabulary builder!
For the moment, a lot of them are gravitating to absurdly simple games like PUSH and Pass the Pandas because they're looking for the dopamine hit. They will learn games if it's an assignment, though; for their game project I got them to learn and critique a game I came up with over the weekend, and their feedback was excellent.
The thing I don't get is why they like games like Monopoly and Sorry!, which are so slow and boring. 🤷♂ There are other games that are just as simple but are a lot more thrilling.
I teach 4th grade. We play the following all of the time.
Incan Gold (division with remainders and different divisors)
Wits and Wagers (estimation)
Dixit (story telling, deduction)
Numbers League (addition)
Tiki Topple (tactics)
The thing I like about Incan Gold is how you can start estimating your chance of failure once hazard cards start coming out, which is maybe something for higher grades. It's a fairly simple calculation to do and can help kids start to grasp how probabilities can evolve over time
Thanks for the tips, and especially thank you for the kind words at the end. Indeed, I AM a teacher. And a gamer.
The video I have always been waiting for. Teachers rock!
I have played codenames, taboo, cartographers, floor plan, welcome to, Incan gold.
Haven’t finished watching it yet, but two games that I’ve used repeatedly in my fourth grade class are Codenames and Similo. In Codenames, we play quick with the class divided into two teams. I’m the clue-giver for both teams (saves time), and I use it for synonyms, antonyms, creative thinking, and making connections between words.
Similo is more straight forward. It’s simply finding similarities and differences. Both have been a big hit!
Other games I’ve simply played with students at my desk that they’ve enjoyed in free time (like Friday afternoons) include Sushi Go and No Thanks.
history/geography here, so lots of map games with facts on cards. I'd add: similo, trekking the world, pandemic, (all of the other variations of Twilight Struggle - I use 13 days specifically), Detective a modern crime board game (research skills and real history!), roar, etc.. Even The Flow of History, with young eyes that can read the flavor text (because my old ones can't!)
Agree whole heartedly with Word on the Street. I made my own version using Microsoft Publisher so a whole class could play. Huge success.
Ganz Schon Clever is my go-to indoor recess game. Need something that they can have fun with in 20 minutes, and I can print score sheets for free. (5th grade teacher)
Kinda felt like this was half educational games that wouldn’t work in a classroom of 20-30 people but still an interesting list
I think that's because there are not very many board games that have educational value and play 20 to 30 people.
And I think “not very many” is putting it mildly.
@@chuckm1961 yes, I definitely wouldn’t know what to suggest other than what was given.
This was a great list, one of my favorites. I bet if you did it now Zee and Mike would include 'Trekking Through History," which is a great game and even sent this former teacher back to look up a few things!
I have used Code Names for vocabulary, Disturb for Creative Thinking, Storytime for Creative Writing, Equate for Math, Grocery Cart for Math, What's Up for Vocabulary games, Facts in Five for General Knowledge, Timeline for History.
The Farming Game - I was introduced to several economic concepts playing this game in my 8th grade math class.
So excited for this!! I just went back to school this semester for secondary education!
You can see it here ua-cam.com/video/o8mKjZ-gGyM/v-deo.html already :)
It's already aired on the channel
I love teaching English and couldn’t fathom teaching another subject. That said, I think Math has the most overlap with gaming.
Many of Reiner Knizia’s games seem like a natural fit because he understands numbers so well. The crunch that happens at the end of many games is certainly math forward.
If I were teaching probability, I would use push-your-luck games. If I were teaching personal finance, I might use QE, Chinatown, or Lost Cities: Rivals. This game is a little obscure but I love Solar Draft by TMG games because it uses PEMDAS and word problems and could be used in an Algebra class.
This was a solid list guys. Great work!
I taught social studies for 32 years, 23 in high school and the VERY best activities I ever used were game playing. I used the "Settlers of Catan" to teach basic economics. The students loved it not only because they learned about things like productive resources, opportunity cost, and economic planning but because of the team building and relationship building aspects associated with game play. I developed activities to go along with the game and our school had a foundation that would supply funds to purchase materials for the classroom. I would use the game strategically right before Winter Break when it is difficult to get students to concentrate on school work. In my advanced placement human geography class, I used the game "Suburbia" during our unit on urbanization. This is perhaps a less well-known but equally appropriate game for the classroom and worked well again, before a school break, this time Spring Break. Perhaps you discussed these games in earlier videos say 5-10 years ago.
"But wait there's more" would be good for public speaking/class presentation things that just made me lose sleep in school. It made me so nervous that I voluntarily decided to not go to the front of the class and just handing in my presentation paper in French and English and took a hit on my grade for a few of those in high school. In College, for one of the few class presentation I had to do, I actually went blind for 3 or 4 minutes while at the front of the class.
I really question how Wingspan would be good for a classroom. It doesn't scale well, has a play time over what a usual class runs, and isn't a topic that is taught all that often in classrooms. I get the idea that it teaches about birds, but I don't agree that it's a good pick, let alone the best.
Thanks for the spoiler!
@@AahzmandusPervect I mean, I wanted to discuss the picks.
I like the suggestions of Bring Your Own Book, Codenames as a system, and But Wait There's More. They seem simple enough for primary education and short enough for secondary education to still have fun with while also dealing well with large group sizes as just a class activity.
This is a hard list because games are easily too complicated for younger students to grasp. But with older students you may only have a 50 minute period so getting out some of these games and teaching rules and playing them is going to be very hard in that time and obviously it's only made worse if you teach the rules one day but can't actually play the game until the next day. Then play counts also become a challenge as if a game only plays to 4, you may need 8 copies of it to do as a classroom. Still a fun list though, appreciate it!
I'm surprised there was nothing on the list with an infinite player count. On tour or Cartographers or similar draw-and-write games I think would be perftct as a puzzle/logic/spatial awareness game where with one overhead, the entire class could all play.
Bring your own book eh?
"Harry Potter and the..."
Pick up top book from pile. Open to random page. First line.
"... Turret mounted weapons."
Zero thought needed.
+1 for escape rooms for classrooms. I've used escape rooms to give out syllabus in college classrooms. : )
Lovelace and babbage for prealgebra class. The teacher would need to represent the main board on a projector or main screen of the classroom. Students in teams could compete - so at the end of the round the opposing teams would check the work.
Welcome To because of the light probability for a math class and it’s easy to implement. There are also different themes that would appeal more to young adults.
Wits and Wagers (teams) for history class or anything where the answer has order.
Wingspan is educational but I don’t think that would be helpful in most classrooms because the focus would be on a specific topic - birds, which would not even be helpful for ecology or biology classes. Maybe like one day in ecology before a field trip to a bird reserve. Plus you know those eggs are going to disappear!
Freedom while a good choice, I think you might have some trouble getting that one out with the way things are at the moment.
I would also suggest
Planet
Science Ninja's
For small kids - whats rubbish&pop to the shops
And roulapik
How about Champion of the Wild? Each child could be assigned a different animal to research and then each day one event is held with ensuing debates based on who is entered into that event
Frog Juice, especially for younger kids (elementary) I think is a perfect educational game!
I wonder if Hegemony would be on this list now.
I love that Mike included CO2.
Things you should really take more in consideration: very easy to teach, and fast to teach. But also with some depth. I want to show the kids games and concepts in games they probably haven't heard of before... also, the player count should be 5+ at best, because you can split a class in about 5 to 6 groups. If there isn't much time to teach and play, that's good to handle.
Where was Diplomacy?! I can’t tell you how many students I’ve taught this game over the years. You can run it in groups and it’s become immensely popular in all my classrooms. I think I’d even rank it higher than Freedom (though I do have that game too and it’s great). Diplomacy is a game that’s simple enough to teach and play, and you really only need one copy. I know I’ve heard Tom said he’s used it a ton in the classroom so I’m surprised he didn’t include it.
Yeah I'm with you. Diplomacy in school was one of my favorite learning experiences!
Dixit works so well in the classroom. Compounded is good. Habba games are awesome for little kids
Evolution or Oceans would be good for biology class, to better get a grasp on mutualism and other ecosystem relationships.
In my English classes, I have used Catchphrase, Concept, and Just One to bring context clues and vocabulary closer to students’ everyday language use.
In order to teach my students about word choice, I have them play Deception: Murder in Hong Kong (I have two sets to accommodate 24 students). I think this game is great because you can teach diction, author’s purpose, tone, and mood through it.
The challenges I run into are finding games that can accommodate large class sizes and finding games with simple rulesets. For most people, rules overhead is one of the biggest barriers for entry. That is doubly true for emerging adults whose brains are not fully developed. For instance, I think Spyfall presents many of the strengths that Deception does but is too opaque for students to wrap their heads around.
Recently, I have been tailoring my own board games and using my students to play test games. One day I’ll try to sell them on TeachersPayTeachers!
My kid is nine. We started on board games when she was three.
Uncle Wiggly was the first popular one. Basic flip and move that helped teach taking turns and drive home the idea that you will win some and lose some.
Sum Swamp was next as another basic roll and move that began teaching addition and subtraction of dice to figure out how many spaces one moves.
Dexterity games like Ice Cool and Rhino Hero are great for young ones too.
Memory games were always good brain exercises.
Uno introduced cards and a basic card mechanic.
Connect Four introduced the idea of strategy and to this day I think it's underrated.
Monopoly, as much as I hate it, introduced economics.
Currently, we are playing Wingspan as she studies birds in school.
Stuffed Fables has recently provided some basic life lessons taught through stories. At the very least it has open discussion between my child and I and introduced some elements of a Dungeon Crawl or RPG-like mechanics, which will come in handy later on.
I also have games like Freedom: The Underground Railroad, This War if Mine, and All Bridges Burning on the shelf waiting their opportunity to provide an educational experience when the time is right.
Codenames and Parks are up there too for various reasons.
The most important thing for a child is to be able to play. Board games have helped provide a structured form of play with something to learn at every turn.
I'm always looking for suggestions. That's why I'm here. Looking for more math.
Cheers!
People don’t understand how useful it is to be given an opportunity to think differently. Playing games with your kids is one of the greatest gifts you can give. Good stuff!
Cartographers is a great efficiency puzzle with some math aspects, there’s not a lot of math specific games but I would argue that reading the rule set for any game is a lot like reading the rule set for a new math procedure.
@@jaron9978 I heard Quacks of Quedlingburg sneaks a little basic math in there.
I’m sure that’s a good one, and anything involving dice is a lesson in probability
I used Just One for language classes.
Hegemony is unfortunately not out yet. Would definately make my list.
I'd like to add Consumption: Food & Choices and Pictures
Do you know if the new lab notes game would go well with periodic by genius games?
You should check out "Outnumbered: Improbable Heroes" also from Genius Games.
Pathogenesis needs to be on that list. Make and Mutate pathogens to get past the body's immune systems. Great deck-builder an he originally designed by a science teacher.
Timeline is also the ultimate gateway, since the rules are almost autoexplanatory!
💯 Mike's #7
Codenames has worked great with 4th graders, replacing the word cards with their vocabulary words.
I have used Arkham Horror 2nd edition to teach Software Engineering. I have also used Pandemic to teach introductory Python programming
No TI4?
Theatre is a totally valid subject, but dont take it from the one with a theatre B.A. Timeline and chrononauts are two of my favorite ed games.
I like to do a modified form of Hive Mind in the classroom.
As an art teacher, I hate smart boards. I love my white board and projector. When I got rid of the old smart board in my classroom, there was no other teacher in the school that wanted to adopt it. Maybe the new ones have vastly improved, but the ones I’ve tried were not great.
Thank you to all of the teachers. My wife is a teacher and I see what teachers go through. Some of the stories she tells me about parents are outrageous and I feel sorry for the kids. If you are a parent with a kid in school, please don't take your frustration out on the teacher. 9 times out of 10 it is not their fault, it's yours.
As a biology teacher, i'd loved to use more games in classes, notably cytosis/cellulose/genotype , but the rules are not that simple for students who aren't used to play modern boardgames, and you need 8 to 9 box per class !! I'm used to teach, I'm used to teach boardgames rules, but teaching theses kind of rules to 35 students in less than 30 minutes isn't realistic. :/
Where is Ticket to ride - geography?
33:26 CO2 is not a game it is a puzzle. You have to figure out the best path at the start of the game, not diverge from it, and hope the random CO2 tiles are in your favor.
I'm surprised that Kingdom Death: Monster isn't on this list
I would guess that hats are older. As a species, we walked barefooted and in the sun etc. Just like chimpanzees etc do now. Now chimpanzees do pull leaves over their heads to keep the rain off. Until we move out of the warmer climes to the colder ones would shoes be wanted?
What language did Tom say he taught for 3 years in the beginning? Or was it just a joke?
Hey, where is Consumption!
Timeline would be great, if they actually cared to make sure their dates were correct. That, and they need to be more specific as to what they're referring to. It's a great simple game system, no doubt. But as to it being a good educational game? Yeah, no.... But I think pretty much any well-designed game is a good educational game. Like Tom said about Onitama, there's nothing really educational about it, except that it trains you to think in ways you may not have before, to not rely on previous knowledge, and when you come to a real world problem you'll then be able to apply those skills to that problem.
I'm going to assume that a dictionary would be technically allowable, but a bit cheaty, for Bring Your Own Book.
It would work perfectly for single-word responses, but wouldn't have the more fun sentences and phrases that some prompts ask for. I don't think it would be a cheat, or guaranteed advantage at all.
prêt-à-porter
Business management.
So with all that jokes and laugh I couldn't get what they were teaching? Tom was English teacher, right? No clue for Zee. Any help? Thanks (I'm not a native English hence the trouble understanding)
Tom taught Math, Mike Social Studies, Zee Theater
@@thedicetower thank you for quick reply! Cheers!
deja vu
Has Zee been losing some weight? Good on him! Looking good
Codenames: Jesus 4
Most of these games are for secondary school pupils, older than 10. I was expecting more classroom stuff across primary school to secondary. Not the most helpful list!
"Can't Stop" easy choice missed by all that answers the question: why do we have to learn this stupid stuff?
Haven't watched yet, but I think we all know *History will not be on Zee's list* 😉
This feels like cheating lol
Rad waiting timer bumper thingy
Jesus. How manu teacher are on here?
You guys haven't been to a classroom for a long time.
Some of these choices are insane.
We brought board games to a class, and 90% of them couldnt understand Kindomino and The Mind.
Kids have no concentration post Covid.
I guess we were just lucky with out students, then.
@@thedicetower Nah I disagree with Matej, it just depends on the audience and it definitely isn't a 'post Covid concentration problem'. I have succesfully taught and used games like Codenames, Concept, Escape Rooms, Chronicles of Crime, One Night Werewolf, Dixit, Deception, Sheriff of Nottingham, Qwixx, Ubongo ... in my classes. You just need patience and a very well explanation of the rules. And also the mindset that rule mistakes can happen and as long as they aren't game breaking, it's fine.
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