Introducing: Level-Up Board Game Club

I’m an elementary school teacher; second grade, at the lower (K-8) campus of an independent school in the Bay Area. It’s my first year at this school, and already I’ve been encouraged by the warm reactions I’ve had from the community when I share my enthusiasm for board games. For example, another one of the teachers at the school facilitates a semester-long board game design elective for middle schoolers that I’ve been invited to collaborate on; my students have (so far) been receptive to my efforts to gamify some parts of the curriculum in the classroom; and at back to school night—where I listed games as one of my “likes”—I was quickly swarmed by a group of parents who were eager to see another big nerd teaching their kids. 

Although I told myself that I wasn’t going to put too much on my plate my first year in a new gig, I am going to start up an after-school board game club. I had organized the board game club at my last school, which saw about two or three dozen 1st-5th graders gather monthly to hang-out over games like Werewolf, Dutch Blitz, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, and a few small box games I would bring to fill in the gaps. It was always fairly casual. And as an educator, I appreciated the opportunity to build rapport with students in an extracurricular setting. I would like to make an effort to create similar ties to the community at my new school.

Students at my school can enroll in a variety of “enrichment classes” through the After School Program. Each class is usually run by a faculty or staff member and meets at least once a week for an hour or so when class lets out. Enrichment class topics range from sports like tennis and gymnastics, to skills like sewing or robotics, and academics like math club or poetry club. So when the proposal form for Winter term enrichment classes was released last week, I set my plan in motion.

I’m pretty keyed into the culture at my school. So I knew this wasn’t going to be a casual board game club; rather it would need to be a fairly organized programme, intentional with its learning objectives and outcomes for students—the “enrichment” part of the class. I also knew my pitch needed to be solid. Students pick and rank their choice of enrichment classes and hope they get placed into one they want. There’s definitely some long-running beloved classes that fill fast every term (looking at you LEGO Engineers). Likewise, my pitch also needs to appeal to parents who have a hand in registering the younger, elementary students. Not only do I need to highlight how fun board games are, but I need to assure some level of academic stimulation.*

And I needed a cool name that was still straightforward enough that everyone would know what it’s about. After some brainstorming, I settled on Level-Up Board Game Club. I think this nicely conceals an undertone of enrichment and growth (level-up your mind as a tagline?) within a familiar gaming phraseology. Here was the pitch I submitted:

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Board games are stimulating analog devices for learning. They are also A LOT of fun! The Winter Enrichment Level-Up Board Game Club is a perfect place to enjoy screen-free game time, have fun with friends, and build important development skills.

Foremost, students participating in Level-Up Board Game Club will play a lot of games, from classics like Mancala and Clue to more modern titles like Machi Koro, 7 Wonders, and more. Each week, the class will have a unique theme—cooperative games, engine builders, puzzle games, social deduction, etc—and over the course of the term, students will have the opportunity to try selections from a diverse gaming library. They may also bring their own favorite game to share with the group when it fits the theme of the week.

Game time will be bookended by enriching full-group discussions on topics related to game design, good sportspersonship, and gaming etiquette. Participating in this class will help students develop skills in peer collaboration; independent critical thinking; strategic and multi-step planning; conflict resolution and communication; numeracy, logic, and number sense; leadership and initiative; and attention, focus, and time-management.

Don’t be board—join Level-Up Board Game Club!

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Registration for Winter term enrichment classes opens in November, so I have a few months to start spreading the good word and hyping up the club. I also opted to have the club open to all grades—Kindergarteners, nearly high-schoolers, and everything in between. I like the cross-grade camaraderie it creates, something that is heavily emphasized at this school. It also creates opportunities to pair students vertically by grade, opening the door for older students to help-out younger ones with things like reading rules, or explaining gaming concepts. But I’ll also need to make sure there are developmentally-appropriate options for the range of ages.**

In the coming weeks and months (Winter term starts in January) I’ll be working on sourcing a game library that is large enough to accommodate the needs of the club, developing a scope and sequence plan, and writing lesson plans. I will use this blog to continue to share the progress of Level-Up Board Game Club, and some thoughts and practices on teaching games to younger gamers. Hopefully this will be a useful resource if you are trying to get something like this started at your school.

*In a later blog post, I’ll share a review of some sources I’ve read that illustrate the cognitive as well as social-emotional benefits of gaming for students in a school setting.

**In a(nother) later blog post, I’ll share my ideas for themes each week as well as some of the games I’d like to try to bring. I’d love to hear suggestions and ideas!

And for funnies, I used some AI slop software to give me some ideas for a logo. My plan is to have the students mock up and design the final club logo. Which do you like better?

Option 1

Option 2