Game Time: Last Word
While I was in grad school, I stocked up on every kids board game I could find on sale. I was positive I'd be working with the little ones, so I figured why not start buying early? I bought Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, Cooties, Headbandz, and many Super Duper items on sale. Long story short, none of these games came in handy and many are still in their original wrapping. Over the years, I've stocked up on new games that have been more appropriate for our MS/HS kids. I plan on sharing all of them with you, but since I haven't written a post in a while, I decided to share my recent favorite: Last Word.
Last Word was a random purchase by my co-worker when we were stocking up our game supply. It has become one of our FAVORITES, and I think it can be yours too! NOTE: I don't usually follow exact rules for board games, I make up my own based on my kids needs. You also kind of have to if you're trying to make it "speechie."
There are two decks of cards in this game: Subject & Letter. Students choose a subject card and have 1-2 minutes (it comes with a timer, but I used a sandtimer and flip it 2x) to list as many items as they can in that category. For example, some subject cards might be "sports," "things on your face," "office supplies," and "things that are fast." There is also a deck of letter cards included but I don't use them (for example, if you get a letter card "C" and subject "office supplies," all your items must start with "C"). It seems a bit too challenging for my kids (and myself, ha).
We start the game by giving our students a piece of paper. Once they know the subject, they have 2 minutes (or however long you want to give them) to write down as many items as they can for that category. Once time is up, we go around and share the lists. Students are instructed to pay attention to what other group members share. We do this because once everyone is done, each student goes around and chooses an item another student listed that they didn't have (does that make sense?). Whichever student has the most amount of correct items in a category, advances on the game board.
Last Word is basically a "categories"game, and it really assesses our students abilities in this area. You also get a great sense of the kids knowledge about the world. My kids love this game and become super competitive! They're also gauranteed to learn something they may not have known before (one student didn't know that Pizza was an Italian food!). We bought the game on e-bay, but it is currently on sale on amazon for $19.99.
What do you think? Would you get this for your therapy room?