Vocabulary Game -- 2por1 -- Basic school vocabulary

     I'm very excited about a new vocabulary game that I've been working on for a while.  I love the game SpotIt!, published by Asmodee and by Blue Orange Games.  They have a couple of basic Spanish versions, but I have wanted to create something similar that used vocabulary specific to my lessons.

     The first finished game is finally ready!  It includes basic classroom items, school subjects and places. The new series of games is called 2por1, and I've been working on the first game for several weeks, checking and double checking that this simple game's complex construction works every time.
   
     Every card has one and only one element in common with every other card.  You can find a free sample of the cards here.  See if you can find the item each one has in common with the others!  There are lots of game variations, so you can play over and over. The basic instructions are illustrated in the graphic below, in a sample game of 4 players.  Each player takes one card, face down, and the rest of the cards are face up in the center.  At a given signal, all players turn over their cards and try to find the one element their card has in common with the center card.  The red lines in the graphic illustrate the shared element for each card pair.  Whoever finds and calls out a match first gets to take the top center card and add it to the bottom of their stack.  When the center pile is gone, whoever has the most cards is the winner.  Fun!

If you like the sample, you can purchase the game here: 2por1 Game - Basic School Vocabulary  Enjoy!

Recognizing Birthdays -- A Pinterest fail, PLUS a cultural faux pas! Yay, me!

   I am terrible at remembering to acknowledge kids' birthdays.  I can be looking at my birthday list two minutes before class starts, and then completely forget about it as soon as the bell rings and the beginning-of-class chaos ensues.  Solution?  Let the kids remember their own birthdays!  I created a birthday poster, using, of course, my favorite decor -- butterflies, inspired by this photo online: Butterfly Guestbook

     So on Back to School night, I had carefully labeled butterflies for all of my students with August and September birthdays.  At the end of the evening, a wonderful mother, originally from Central America, approached me and told me that the black butterfly symbolizes bad luck, or even death.  She very kindly pointed out that perhaps I did not want to pass along such wishes for my precious birthday kiddos. 

     Of course, I could have ignored her advice.  The color was a stylistic choice, and not a death wish, but I decided to make it a teaching moment for myself as well as for my kids.  We talked in class about how symbols can vary from culture to culture, and how being culturally intelligent, which is one of our goals in the world language class, involves being open to more interpretations than just your own.

     The black butterflies came down, and here is the replacement.  Much more colorful, and I have to say that I like it better.