History Board Game Night

 For the past couple of weeks, Nolan has been learning about the Medieval World involving Islamic Civilizations, African Civilizations, and the rise of Europe.  The students were then divided up into teams and each team had to make a board game about a period of time that they chose.  Some of the members of the group were to work on the design of the game while others worked on the rules and other specifics.  

Nolans team came up with the idea of a game entitled "Camels and Rivers" and it was based on the children's game "Chutes and Ladders".  Nolan's part was to design and create 3D printed pieces for the game.

Here is a picture that the teacher recently posted of Nolan's class as they worked on their project.

On Thursday night, friends and family were all invited back to a "game night open house" so that we could see all of the other games and then sit down and play them with the students.

Nolan easily found their game on one of the tables when we walked in.  He showed me how they designed their own board game and then they had made a spinner to go with it.  They also had to put together their own "quiz cards" as part of the game to help reinforce some of the facts that they had learned about the region.

One of the other boys from his group came over and the three of us sat down to play the game together.  It took about as long as a normal Chutes and Ladders game with all of the ups and downs and going back to the start numerous times but we had fun playing it together.  (And I even got quite a few of the quiz questions correct, helping me eventually win).  

They did a really good job and it was neat to see how the boys were interacting with each other and complimenting each other on the different parts of the game that they had each designed.  For instance, "D" kept telling his parents what a great job that Nolan had done on the 3D printed pieces and then Nolan would compliment "D" on the board design and how they had worked together on other parts along with two others in their group.

What a fun night!  I'm so thankful for teachers who can bring ideas from a book to life in a way that helps busy boys (and girls) learn and retain the information.