Never Bored with Board Games

I introduced several new clubs this school year, partly due to the unfortunate demise of my regular Minecraft clubs. (Long story. I'll explain later.) There's Keva Plank Club for Grades 1-8, Comics Club for Grades 1-8, YouTube Club for Grades 7-8, and Board Game Club for Grades 4-8. 

Board Game Club meets on Fridays at lunch. Each grade gets a month of meetings. I try to introduce some new games that students might enjoy. I brought Food Fighters, Anomia, and Lords of Waterdeep, which led a small subgroup to try Dungeons and Dragons at a pre-arranged separate time after school with my university-attending eldest child as the DM (dungeon master). We also played some "old familiar" games that the students already knew, like Blokus. All of these are games that I myself own and enjoy playing with friends socially. I wondered how I could introduce my students to new games that I didn't already know.

Playing Food Fighters, a game I got a Breakout Con

Who came to the rescue? Board Game Bliss. Board Game Bliss is a board game vendor and store, located in Scarborough, Ontario (with an expansive online sales presence as well at https://www.boardgamebliss.com/). I emailed Board Game Bliss with a proposal - would they be interested in coming to my school and introducing a few new games to us? We offered to create a purchase wish list and buy games that students and teachers were interested in acquiring.

I spoke to Bosco, who owns the establishment. He said that he had been approached by other schools in the past but he had declined their offers. This time, however, there was something about our request that changed his mind. He agreed to come! We arranged for a lunch visit on Friday, December 14, 2018.

I cannot begin to explain how much FUN this visit was for everyone involved! Bosco, AJ and Chris arrived around 11:00 am and set up in the library. We arranged that the teachers could come from 11:30 - 12:00 and that the intermediate students from Board Game Club could come from 12:00 - 12:30. No one wanted to leave! There were a variety of games that appealed to all sorts of players, and Bosco, AJ, and Chris did a wonderful job of "luring" people in, helping them overcome their shyness and explaining the rules in a clear fashion. Adults came in, intending only to pop by briefly, but many stayed to ask lots of questions and try a few games out. I even invited a parent in and she made the time to play. I wanted to make sure that the adults had a "safe" place to explore these new games, without a large group of students present.

The students were practically breaking down the door to enter! Once it was their time, they came in droves and were eager to try many different games out.

Adults still there while a group plays Numbers

Playing either For Sale or No Thanks with Bosco

Playing Tsuro with Chris

Playing Looping Louie

Trying out Ice Cold

This was one of the most popular games

When the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch and the beginning of the afternoon's learning, once again, no one wanted to leave. I liked how one Grade 8 suggested that "it was just the second bell and we can stay until the third bell (at 2:05)". I'm not sure who was having more fun, the Board Game Bliss staff, or my students! I was able to persuade Bosco and his team to stay for a few extra minutes so that the Grade 6 class that I was scheduled to see first thing that afternoon could also experience some of the games. We ended up throwing out the originally planned lesson to play the board games and then gather in a big community circle to summarize some of the games and try and persuade each other which game was the best and worth purchasing for the school. 

There were so many good games, that it was hard to choose! Here are some photos of just a few of the games that the Board Game Bliss team brought.

Ice Cool

Tsuro

Dixit

Looping Louie

Codenames

Numbr9

 

AJ explains this game (name I forgot - will update later)

Board Game Bliss has this posted on their website as part of their mission and mandate:

We believe that games act as an excellent medium to bring joy to family, children and friends - especially the new modern games.  The modern board games that we carry are very different from the traditional board games that we used to play.  We carry different types of games that fit different people and age groups.  We encourage you to give them a try and experience how good they are!

Board Game Bliss truly brought joy to us with their enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge about playing board games. I want to thank the team at Board Game Bliss for taking a risk with us and closing the store for two hours to spend time with our staff and students at school. (I hope they didn't lose a lot of revenue by changing their operating hours for that day! To be honest, this [going to a school to showcase a few games] is a service that Board Game Bliss could actually charge a fee, especially considering that there's a regular price for using the play space [a reasonable amount that you can use towards any purchases you make]). Thank you also for the unexpected donation of some games - you should have heard the gasps from the students when they realized what was happening! If you can, please support this wonderful local business - check out their online store or visit them - they are found at McCowan Road and the 401.