Family Strengths: Game Night is a great way to teach your students about components that make up a strong family!  Not only does it get the entire class involved, but it’s a lot of fun! While many students may have grown up with a night set aside for games, many  don’t get this opportunity for “community” in their own homes so this exposes them to it as well as a variety of board games that have them communicating, collaborating, thinking, practicing patience and good sportsmanship among others.  It’s also a great lesson to do around the holidays as it is a pretty low prep lesson on your part, but engaging enough to keep students interested.

Set

• Begin with notes about Strong Family Traits first.  Set it up as a gallery walk by printing off the strength visuals and placing them all around your room. Give students a notes form to fill in the information as they move about the visuals.
• Once notes are completed, give students a Ticket to Class to fill out. This gets them thinking about board games and card games; making analogies to real life.

Materials

• iPad or Laptop
• Projector & Screen
• Variety of Board Games (school appropriate)
• Variety of Card Games
• Large Poster Paper & Markers
• Old Magazines & Scissors

Activities

• What’s so important about family game night?  Students are going to find out! Count students off by six making sure you have at least two students with the same number. Assign groups the article number that corresponds with their number.  They read it and together come up with 5-7 important facts. Students must then create a visual on poster paper following the criteria on the slide.  All of the article resources are listed below under attachments.
• Students then share their posters with the class.
• Bring in a variety of school appropriate games for students to play as a class.  You can let them create teams or you can randomly assign them. Set up games around the room and students begin at one and play it until you have them rotate to another.  Depending on the length of your classes, you may get several games in per class period or you may have to spread it out over a couple of days.
• After students have played all of the games, assign them the Family Game Night Learning Dossier and Exit Slip as follow-up assignments. Choose one to grade and one to discuss.  These can generate a variety of great conversations!
• Finally, to conclude the lesson, assign students the Promotional Flier for Family Game Night project. Students choose a game (not Jenga) that could be played by a family and create a flier in CANVA promoting family game night. Students need to be creative and play on words associated with their chosen game. The reason students can’t use Jenga is because the completed sample project is based on it.

Attachments

• Note:  If you wish to edit any of the Google resources below, please go to “file” and click “make a copy” and it’s yours to revise.
• Family Strength Visuals
• Family Strength Notes Form
• Ticket to Class
• Articles & Poster Assignment
• Family Game Night Learning Dossier
• 3-2-1 Exit Slip
• Promotional Flier for Family Game Night Project

Photo by Pixabay