Minecraft endures.
I was an "early adopter" of Minecraft and used it extensively in my programming from 2011-2018. I loved playing it myself with my own children and marveled at all the fantastic curricular connections that were possible. I "backed away" from it for a while but slowly started to return it to my repertoire in 2022. (If you search my blog for the term "Minecraft", you will end up with pages and pages of results.)
Here we are in 2025 and Minecraft is still incredibly popular. At my school, I've seen renewed interest among the teachers and students. Our unofficial IT expert on staff and I spent a Friday evening removing extra account profiles on Chromebooks so that the Grade 4-5 students had enough space on their devices to run Minecraft. Their teacher, the talented Lexi Williams, integrated coding and Minecraft for a series of engaging lessons. The Grade 2-3 teacher, Kerri Commisso, organized some super provocations with only a tiny bit of help from me, as part of the final tasks related to our collaboration time together. I helped set up Minecraft on the Chromebooks and, after some initial exploration and self-directed inquiries, asked them to "make a fraction in Minecraft". Here are some of the results:
Even though Kerri doesn't have personal experience playing Minecraft, she saw how motivating it was for her students and incorporated Minecraft into her language and science program. She found a great Minecraft-themed poem to use for shared reading, and had students make connections between their study of solids/liquids (Grade 2) and forces (Grade 3) and Minecraft. What I admired about the way she used Minecraft in her classroom was how she did not leech all the fun out of the activity and allowed students agency in demonstrating their knowledge. It was playful and honoured all the learners where they were at in their learning journeys. She was able to document their discoveries to show that "serious play" was happening and that learning expectations were being addressed. Kerri, you are an amazing teacher and your students are lucky to have you!
Minecraft Mania isn't just happening in my school. The Minecraft movie was just released and McDonalds has Minecraft-themed Happy Meals for both kids and adults. My son, husband, and I made a midnight McDonalds milkshake run when Friday turned into Saturday, and we treated ourselves to the adult Minecraft Happy Meals. Check out the packaging and the toys!
I'm taking my Media Specialist AQ right now. I love how taking these courses causes me to think deeply about media in my personal and professional life. As part of the AQ, participants are required to keep a "media log", which is a reflection journal. These are some of the things I wrote about related to this Minecraft Happy Meal in my media log. (For reference, the KCs stand for the Key Concepts, which shape how media literacy education can be examined, according to the Association for Media Literacy.) They are:
- Media construct reality.
- Media construct versions of reality.
- Audiences negotiate meaning.
- Media have economic implications.
- Media communicate value messages.
- Media communicate political and social messages.
- Form and content are closely related in each medium.
- Each medium has a unique aesthetic form.
At first, my husband couldn’t believe these were adult Happy Meals. It took both a great deal of persuasion/explanation from me, as well as (Hello Doubting Thomas) for him to look up online to get confirmation that indeed, the target audience of this product are adults. If I decide to save all the paraphernalia related to it and bring it to school, I might ask my students:
What does this Happy Meal tell you about McDonalds?
What does this Happy Meal tell you about Minecraft?
How can you tell this is a Minecraft Happy Meal? (KC #7 or 8)
How much did it cost? How much does a “regular” Happy Meal cost? (KC#4)
Can a grown-up buy a kids’ Happy Meal? Can a kid buy a grown-up’s Happy Meal? (KC#3)
I got a card that lets me use a McDonald’s themed Minecraft skin in Minecraft, but only Pocket Edition (now called Bedrock Edition). Would I want to? Why? (KC#1 or 2)
I looked at the toys for the adult meals vs the toys for the kids meals. Based on the options, what does McDonalds think is important to kids vs adults in their toys? (KC#5)
What impact does media tie-ins have on movie sales? Will more people go to McDonalds because of Minecraft? Will more people go to the movies because of McDonalds? (KC#6 or 4)
There are so many more questions that I could have posed about this media text.
I don't know if I'll ever be able to capture that exhilarating feeling of when I first got into Minecraft, and the thrill of my initial forays into that blocky world. It seems easier to set up worlds, and play together. Maybe I should revisit that idea I had about re-establishing a Minecraft Club at school. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll take my Minecraft Birdy figurine to school and listen fondly to the hallway conversations of the students commenting on their Minecraft experiences.
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