Qwirkle

Nearly a year ago I was introduced to a 'new to me' game by my seven year old niece, Ellie, and she promptly swept the floor with my ego!  She also got me hooked!

Qwirkle is so easy to learn how to play- just match the colors or the shapes.  But as you continue playing one quickly sees how sophisticated the game can really be.  You see, you cannot repeat a shape in the same color in a row or column.  Points are earned for matching colors and shapes, but bonus points are earned when you create a Qwirkle (placing six of the same color tiles- with the six different shapes represented- in a row or column!).  This was where Ellie began counting coup!

A few months ago I was lucky enough to find Qwirkle at a local thrift store (I have been so lucky finding games in tact at Tennessee thrift stores!) and all the pieces were present.  It only took a me a few minutes to reread over the instructions before I started up a game with my husband and his Little Bit.

Little Bit is only a couple years older than Ellie and like Ellie took to the game quickly.  Little Bit has a brain for mathematics (although she begs to disagree!) and sees the patterns easily.  She has trounced me a time or two as well!


Our brains are designed to seek out and find patterns in the world around us and this is a great game to do just that.  In addition to the patterning, players are constantly sorting and classifying their tiles to make the best, next move.  Qwirkle is worth every bit of the $20-$25 it retails for and I highly recommend this award winning game for kids.  Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to find another for $2.99 at the thrift store!  Or maybe I'll find the new Qwirkle Trio or Qwirkle Cubes!

Feed the Kitty

My students and family will agree- I adore playing games.  Especially games that teach math concepts!  On a recent thrift store run, I found an interesting little game called Feed the Kitty!  Feed the kitty is a great little 'dice' game that reminds of spinning the dreidel.  The game is appropriate ages four and up; however, I'd like to think I know some three year olds that would be able to play this game! 

The game consists of 20 wooden mice, a dish for the mice, and two special dice.  The dice have pictures of arrows, mice, a sleeping kitty, and bowls on the faces instead of numbers.  The mice are divided among the players and players take turns rolling the dice.  Pictures on the dice provide the direction for keeping, passing on, or placing your mice in the bowl.  The winner is the last player who still has mice!  Parents and teachers, this is a nifty little game to teach number concepts to your small ones. To find out more about Feed the Kitty visit the GameWright page.

Overturn

Several years ago (Has it really been five years?) I blogged about one of my new favorite games, Othello.  New because I had never played it as a child and favorite because this game can be played on so many levels.  Since then I have shared this game with my Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Methodology students every semester when I introduce "in a row" type games.  As one would expect, there are students who enjoy the game and others who do not.  However, this past 'Maymester' (a wicked, three week long, summer intersession) I taught Math Methods and my students LOVED Othello.  Even when new games had been introduced, if Othello was available they went back to it.  Several downloaded the Reversi game on their phones to practice.  We had an amazing and intense, albeit short, semester.  We also had fun.  So much so, that my return to blogging can be attributed to my wonderful spring term and summer term math students! We all just got so excited about mathematics, teaching and learning it, and especially playing games to promote those math skills and problem solving. 

Overturn, another "new to me game", was made by the makers of Othello.  Like many of my games I discovered it on the dusty shelves of a thrift store in Tennessee and for $3 it was mine.  I have been so lucky purchasing games at Goodwill in Tennessee- they're almost always complete!  Once I opened the game I realized it was a mix of Boggle and Othello.  Overturn is like Boggle in that the goal is to make words using contiguous letters- only in this game you place rings around each letter you use.  It is like Othello in that each player has a different colored set of rings (silver or green).  The goal is to use as many letters of your opponent's words in your new word so that you may flip their rings to your color. The winner is the player with the most rings at the end of the game.  It is quite interesting that the board actually consists of nine plastic plates containing four letters.  There are 18 (I think) 2x2 plates that can be arranged in an astounding number of arrangements so the arrangement of letters is always new!

So readers, have any of you played Overturn either recently or in the distant past?  what are your experiences?   

Boggle

I am back!  And this time we're playing Boggle!  Another childhood favorite, Boggle contains a tray with 16 squares, 16 letter dice, and a lid to keep the letter dice from scattering when you give the game a good shake.  My sister and I used to play this game for hours on snow days and later, during college, my dear friend Melanie would thoroughly trounce me (it was painful!).  I also shared my love of this game with my third graders in St. Louis. 

I would begin by drawing a 4 x 4 grid on the board, giving the game a good shake, and then writing the letters in appropriate squares.  Students then had a limited time (but usually more than the egg timer provided with the game- wait time is important!) to create as many words as possible using the letters provided.  Each letter may only be used once, and the letters must be contiguous, that is they letters must be next to one another and share a border.  For complete instructions, Hasbro has provided them via a pdf. 

One of my favorite schools to visit in St. Louis, the New City School would have these school wide, killer Othello competitions.  However, they noted that the boys seemed to make it to the playoffs more than the gals did (Please note this statement does not indicated that I think, feel, or believe that boys are more capable than girls!).  So the wonderful faculty decided to add a Boggle tournament!  Remember to share a variety of games with your students and children.  Some children are wordsmiths while others are spatially talented.  By playing a variety of games with them, you give them an opportunity to practice those skills in a nonthreatening way!

Captain's Mistress

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to post.  And much has happened since my last post.  I officially graduated with my Ph.D., accepted a friend's proposal, moved from Missouri to Tennessee, started a new "temporary" job, married this friend, learned my way around a new town and a new city, and finally... applied for, interviewed for, and accepted a "permanent" job at the same university that hired me temporarily.  It has been a very busy two years! 

Despite all of this change in my life, several things have remained constant- my love of teaching, my love of mathematics and science, and my love of games.  Luckily, my friend and husband feeds my love of games by shopping for them at thrift stores (even when I cannot be with him to help!).  This evening he totally scored big time with a "new to me" old favorite!  While shopping the Goodwill Store in Dayton, TN he discovered The Captain's Mistress Game for $1.99.  I found it on Amazon ranging from $35 to $46. 

It seems the game is hundreds of years old and that Captain Cook was so enamored of the game during long voyages, the crew began calling it The Captain's Mistress.  However, the game is not unfamiliar.  You see, it is simply the game of Connect Four played in a beautiful wooden box and instead of checkers, players use light and dark colored wooden spheres. 

Connect Four was one of my sister's and my favorite games to play as children.  It was also a perennial favorite of my third graders in St. Louis.  But the familiar Connect Four is hardly affordable (over $26 at Amazon) when you're attempting to purchase several sets so that many students may play.  What is a teacher to do? 

While teaching in St. Louis, collected a picnic basket full of travel games.  I purchased six or seven Four in a Row games from an "everything is a dollar" type store.  That meant that for $6, 12 of my students could enjoy Four in a Row during indoor recess or math class.  These games were small (about the size of an adult's hand) and the "checkers" were tiny.  To make keeping up with the small pieces easy, I place them in Ziploc sandwich bags. 

Are you not certain about the efficacy of using games like Connect Four or Tic-Tac-Toe in your classroom or with your children?  Constance Kamii and Mariko Naghiro share their thoughts about the Educational Value of Tic-Tac-Toe for Four to Six Year Olds here. 

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

Last night's discovery (Plate Rack Book Case) started me thinking about the reading, literacy, and children's literature classes I have taught over the course of the past ten years (Yep, this is my tenth year teaching undergraduates and graduates!). Every semester I share with my students the importance of displaying books for children so that the covers are visible. Children (and adults) judge books by their covers.

So just how does a teacher (new or seasoned) display their classroom collection in a manner that is pleasing to children and young adults without breaking the bank or taking up valuable floor space? Put your mind in the gutter. The rain gutter that is!

Making a rain gutter bookshelf is a fairly inexpensive (financially and timewise) endeavor. I just checked Lowe's and a 10 ft run of gutter is $6.96 and end caps are $1.36 each. Two 5 ft sections will cost you less than $15.00. Bargain! This idea has been around for several decades (This spring marks my 20th reunion from undergraduate school!) yet I have only seen them used in a scant few classrooms. However a recent Google search for images revealed several incredible links. Seems lots of moms and dads and folks who are homeschooling are using this idea!

(Photo via Trelease On Reading)

Whether your a mom, a teacher, a dad, a paraprofessional, a principal, or a favored grandpa consider using rain gutters to display books for the children you love and care for.

Home Stores A 2 Z has a delightful description of using guttering around the top of beadboard in their son's bedroom. Amazing!

Mama Notes blogs her experiences using rain guttering in her son's room. Great pictures.

Raising Olives has a great step-by-step tutorial with lots of pictures (a plus for me!) for building these handy bookcases!

Another how-two can be found at Disney's Family Fun website.

For teachers (usually early childhood) with lots of bookcases and cubbies, this teacher's husband added rain gutter bookshelves to the pegboard on the backs of these standard furniture pieces.

For teachers wanting a rationale (A way to explain to your principal just why you want to screw gutters to the wall on the INside of the classroom!) Jim Trelease hosts a great article written by a principal and kindergarten teacher, The Rain Gutter Literacy Revolution. Additionally Trelease shares excerpts from his Read-Aloud Handbook on changing the print climate in our homes, classrooms, and libraries (Trealease, 2001, Chapter 7).

What do you think? Have you tried this at home, church, or school? Send me a picture. Let me know if this has worked for you. Have fun and keep reading!

Trelease, J. (2006). The Read-Aloud Handbook, 6th ed., New York, Penguin Books

Plate Rack

While looking at a variety of ways to store and access wrapping paper (an odd pursuit on a Wednesday evening) I came across an interesting article at Martha Stewart. There she used an "ordinary plate rack" to display children's books. If you cannot find an ordinary plate rack, Martha provides directions for building a plate rack.

Xplor

Attention elementary school teachers and parents. The Missouri Department of Conservation has a new magazine appropriate for children ages 7 - 12. This magazine is published 6 times a year and highlights Missouri's outdoors. The photographs are awesome. Visit the Xplor website to subscribe. You will also find awesome activities, video, photos, and electronic copies of the magazine. A great addition to any science curriculum or reading center.

And don't forget, the Missouri Department of Conservation also publishes the Conservationist 12 times a year. You can subscribe via the MDC website.

Best of all, both of these amazing publications are free to Missouri residents. For a nominal fee, you can have the magazines delivered out of state ($5 for Xplor and $7 for the Conservationist). Check them out! I insist.

I'm Back!

It has been entirely too long since I have posted to the Galactic Apple blog. I am sorry! Shortly after my last post I caught H1N1. The flu wasn't so bad. It was the three months of pneumonia that knocked the starch out of my britches. It has taken just about three months for me to feel almost normal. I am still working on increasing my lung capacity and my stamina. There's hope for me yet. I am back in the saddle and plan to post to the blog on a regular basis. Hold me to it!

Teacher Appreciation

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about one of my favorite book stores, Half Price Books. A good friend of mine introduced me to this wonderful book store about a year ago and while it isn't as ginormous as the Dixon Street Used Book Store in Fayetteville, AR. Half Price Books is pretty darn impressive and they have a much larger young adult and children's book section than Dixon Street.

Friday, October 9 through Monday, October 12, Half Price Books are offering a 20% discount to teachers and librarians. There's a Half Price Books in Kansas City, MO and another in Overland Park, KS (my personal favorite). To find a location near you click here.

If you cannot make it to a Half Price Books this weekend, like many other book stores, they offer a 10% discount for teachers 365 days out of the year. Just bring your ID.

1 Dollar!

It has been too long since I have taken the time to post! This semester has really been keeping me on my toes. But I did take a few minutes for myself last week.

I was downtown in the 'Burg and had a few minutes to spare before heading to La Sous Terre for lunch with a colleague and friend so I decided to swing by the Salvation Army, one of my favorite places to shop! I hadn't been there since Christmas, just after they moved to a new location. I looked through the knick-knacks, sheets, and glassware before heading to the books and games. Bingo! There I found the Chess Teacher! For $1.00!

Years ago, when I was teaching in St. Louis our wonderful math & computer lab teacher, Ms. G., had some great games for kids to use. One of which was the Chess Teacher. I loved this chess set because the move for each different piece was displayed on the base of the piece. I never played chess as a child and attempted to learn as an adult a few times- the hardest thing was remembering if the horsey-shaped pieces went in an L shape or diagonally or what! Too many pieces and too many different moves.

Since Orion has been expressing an interest in learning to play chess I have kept my eyes peeled for a chess set like the one Ms. G had. Unfortunately I couldn't remember the name and most retailers just looked at me. But lo and behold, there it was! On the shelf! With a price tag of a buck! And all of the pieces and instructions. What a deal! What a find!

Parents and teachers, if you're interested in learning to play chess or teaching your children or students to play chess, you have to take a look at the Chess Teacher. You can find it new for about $12.50 at Amazon and $16.00 at Boardgames.Com. You can also check out eBay as they have a few versions starting at about $4.00 (don't forget shipping & handling).

Roland Smith

Orion and I are still reading out loud each night for about 20 or 30 minutes. Sometimes the books we read are books I've been waiting to share with him (like last year's consumption of Gary Paulsen's work) other times they're books that he's discovered (during fourth grade we discovered Andrew Clements!). We've even been known to reread books that his teacher is reading or that he is reading for the Accelerated Reading Program.

This time, we discovered Roland Smith at the same time. I purchased a book called Peak and a friend won a signed copy of Elephant Run. I later found Sasquatch, thinking it might be the one to start with. But Orion came home with Zach's Lie. We were riveted. Zach is really Jack, a boy placed in the Witness Protection Program due to his father's unsavory business associates. The book follows Jack as he becomes Zach and moves from a McMansion to a simple shotgun house in Elko, Nevada (Can we say middle of nowhere?). There the bad guys catch up with him and his family. He and an unusual hero (the school custodian) save the day.

We just started Jack's Run. Jack is now Mack and living in North Carolina. We've not yet finished the book, but we will soon. It is very faced paced. Mack's sister let's the cat of the back so to speak and the bad guys are on their tail. What happens? We have no idea! But his parents aren't there to help; they're at the trial. Very suspenseful.

Orion and I will be reading Sasquatch, Peak, and probably the Criptid Hunters next. I don't feel up to reading Elephant Run as it's a war novel and I am not sure I can face that right now. Perhaps in the spring.

Have you read any Roland Smith? What did you think? What do you recommend? I'd love to hear from you!

National Science Teachers Association

Join NSTA before September 26th and get a FREE book! Student and first year teacher memberships are only $32 a year! Regular membership is $74 a year. Membership includes a subscription to your choice of science education journal, professional development opportunities, access to NSTA online content, and so much more. To find out more about NSTA benefits, click here. This year they're offering a FREE book and $10 off the regular membership price. There are three different books to choose from! Head over to NSTA and see what they have to offer new and seasoned teachers!

Gobblet

Shhh! I found a new game! On my quick trip to Fayetteville, AR over the weekend I stopped by one of my favorite thrift stores (Arkansas Council for the Blind) and found a nifty little game for Orion and me!

Gobblet is appropriate for ages seven and up. The object of the game is simple enough (to get four in a row), the game only takes seconds to learn, but it is obvious that it is one of those games (like Othello) that will take many attempts to master. Each player receives nesting pieces. They are played on the four by four grid, one at a time. The trick is that players may "gobble" up pieces (their own or their opponent's) by placing larger pieces on the smaller pieces, thus making the game quite tricky.

I paid $3.00 for our wooden version. All the pieces were present and accounted for. I found the rules here. Gobblet is made by Blue Orange Games and retails for approximately $27 to $35. It's available at Amazon and Brain Builders; eBay has several of the Gobblet Junior games for sale ($8).

While I am not sure I'd fork over $30 or more for this game, I would definitely keep my eyes peeled at garage sales and thrift stores. This great game would be at home in any classroom! Until then, you can practice with the online version at Gobblet.org.

Othello

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the name "Othello?" If you asked my sister, she would most likely peg Othello as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. She would also be able to tell you several of his greatest histories and comedies. Not me. If you asked me what pops into my head when I hear the name "Othello," I'll tell you a math game!

Othello is also known by the name Reversi. It's an interesting strategy game where players try to outflank their opponents and then capture those pieces by flipping them to the opposite color. Visit the Pressman Toy site for directions and strategies. I was not interested in this game as a youth so I did not play it in school or at home. However, my research on math games, constructivism, and classrooms has made me rethink several games.

I found a my copy of Othello (the game board looks just the the one in the picture to your top right and was made by the company Gabriel) at an antique store for $2.00 on Friday. What a steal. And none of the pieces were missing. Amazon has the game (now by Mattel) for about $12.00, with newer, sleeker styling (Not!). Okay, I admit, the little square groves might help out when the cat decides to try and help. There are currently about 22 Othello games (board, travel, and electronic) available at eBay starting at $2.50. Don't forget to throw in shipping!

This weekend Orion and I gave Othello a trial run. He actually asked to play it again! I think we like it! I have found several online or electronic versions of Othello. Check them out below.

Online Othello: The Othello playing engine used here was originally written by Roemer B. Lievaart for the 1987 International Obfuscated C Code Contest. It's a pretty good engine for only 1024 bytes of C code! (I had to add that blurb because typing "Obfuscated C Code Contest" made me sigh!)

Fly or Die: At Fly or Die you can play Internet Reversi with other folks.

Freeware Home: Lists several Othello-like games to download.

Not sure you want to invest $12.00 for a new game and cannot seem to find a used game at the local Salvation Army? Visit the Galactic Apple and find a version of Kamii's Sandwich Game using a grid and pennies (heads or tails).

I recently figured out how to play Minesweeper (perhaps it was a patience issue, or lack there of). With Othello under my belt, so to speak, I am wondering if I can learn Go. How is it like Othello? How is it different? Can you teach an old Kat new games?

24 Game

My friend Sal introduced 24 Game Double Digits to me the other night and I just finished sharing it with Orion. It is an incredibly simple yet completely sophisticated game. The best part is that it can played on many different levels. In fact, there are two different games that can be played from the small box of cards. To play Double Digits you must be the first player to make 24 with all four numbers on the card. You can add, subtract, multiply, or divide. The cards are leveled into medium, hard, and harder as indicated by dots in the corner. 24 Game Double Digits is appropriate for ages ten and up. There are other versions of this game that use single digits for younger folks. To find out more about Suntex and the many games they offer visit their website. 24 Game retails for about $22. You may also purchase a membership to play on line (schools and individuals!). Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Homeworkopoly

While visiting a fourth grade classroom in Knob Noster earlier this semester I discovered the most amazing bulletin board! I did not want to interrupt the teacher to ask where she found this amazing idea, but I really wanted to know how she made it! So I asked the intern placed with her, one of my seniors at the University, to get the story.

Homeworkopoly is brought to us by the fine folks at Teachnet.com There you can download a game board, a blank game board so that you can place the street names of your hometown on the board, as well as chance cards! It's as easy as that! A delightful way to take the drudgery out of homework. Thanks to Ms. S. for having this in her classroom and thanks to my mysterious intern for ferreting out the information for us!

As for my thoughts on the horrors of homework, I'll make that another post!

Teacher Personality Quiz...

Readers,

One of my PDS students this semester sent me a link to a Teacher Personality Quiz! You know my curiosity got the best of me and I had to take it.

According to the Teacher Personality Quiz I have the Fair and Balanced personality. To read about my teaching personality and to take the quiz for your self, visit the site by clicking on any of the hypertext links in this post.

I would love to hear from you, what is YOUR Teacher Personality! Leave a comment and let me know!

del.icio.us

Updated: June 12, 2019:  Del.icio.us is no more.  See this article for more information or this one for alternatives to Del.icio.us!  Happy Bookmarking!

Educational technology has been more of an avocation for me over the past few years, than a vocation. But I have recently been asked to teach a technology class at the university. We are several weeks into the semester and I have been both enjoying my students and enjoying playing with the technology that is available to us.

This brings me to the Social Bookmarking site, del.icio.us. Here you can bookmark and tag websites, blogs, and more. You can mark them to share them with friends or keep them private. It's great for its social benefits, but even more wonderful for its research benefits. While bookmarking and tagging a website about misconceptions in earth science, I noted that six other people had bookmarked the same page. I hopped on over to their bookmarks, sorted by misconceptions and viola! I found several more useful sites on misconceptions that I might not have found on my own using Google (just due to the sheer number of hits Google generates).

Of course, I think about how this tool would have been useful to me as a third grade teacher. Had I shared my bookmarks with my team members and vice versa, we'd have had an amazing amount of resources at our fingertips. Of course, when I was teaching third grade the Internet was still in diapers and we didn't even have Internet access in our classrooms, let alone computers!

If you're curious about del.icio.us, visit their site. You can access my bookmarks here or by simply typing http://del.icio.us/katleslie into your browser. If you begin using or have used social bookmarking sites in the past, feel free to comment here about your experiences.

Yahtzee!

A card game with dice? What’s up with that? I loved this game as a kid. Orion has not quite got the hang of playing independently, so we fill out our score cards together. While this game is less than $10 at your local Wal-Mart, (Did I just make a plug for Wal-Mart?) you can easily create an entire classroom set with orphan dice(or buy them for cheap the Dollar Tree), a couple of Dixie cups, and score cards available for print here.