Momentum: Level-Up Board Game Club Week 7 Wrap-Up

Following last week's meetup where we collectively forewent abiding a theme and instead just played the most fun games that have been introduced so far this semester, I took the liberty to carry that momentum forward, bringing only the hits, plus a few more. But the highlight of this week’s meeting, for me, happened right before it started. I'm usually in the main office making copies, or pouring myself another coffee (half-caf, if it's past noon) when I look up at the clock and see that it's just about 2:30 PM—time for me to hustle back to the room for board game club to start. This week though, I was early. I set the games out on the table in the classroom, queued up lo-fi on the speaker, and was just shuffling papers to tidy up from the week when the club's sole middle-schooler knocked on the door and peeked her head in. “Hey, is it ok,” she asked sheepishly, still halfway in the door frame, “if a few of my friends play too?”

I’ve been wondering what kind of interest there would be in the club next trimester. Would new kiddos be intrigued or would it be largely the same group? How might a shift from Friday to Monday afternoons change interest or availability? And could I convince any of the current attendees to ensnare their friends in order to grow membership? In particular, I’ve been thinking about how to get the word out beyond my immediate circle of 2nd and 3rd graders to appeal to the upper elementary kids and middle schoolers on campus. I’m realizing that so much of the process of registering for ASP clubs is about the cult of personality of the teacher. Still in my first year, my auctoritas is rather limited. I returned a beaming smile and replied, “the more, the merrier!” She gave me the Gen Alpha blue light stare for a few seconds. Maybe she hadn’t heard me, or maybe she wasn’t used to the apparently obsolete lingo I dished back, but I clarified with a simple affirmative. “Cool,” and she disappeared from the doorway.

She brought two other 7th graders along to join. Although they only ended up staying for about 45 minutes for one game before withdrawing to go do whatever 7th graders do after school on a Friday afternoon, I can’t help but feel chuffed at this. Even if she just needed someone familiar and her own age to game with for a change, she felt like Level-Up Board Game Club was worthy to share with her friends. When I set out to host this club for the school, that’s exactly what I was trying to create: a space where anyone at the school could come, hang-out, stop-by, and play some games. This was a small, albeit gratifying, mark toward that goal.

Now about the games. My eager kiddo once again left Jumanji Stampede in the room to play this week, although she didn't want to teach this time. But half the club knew it by then and could set it up and teach those who hadn't had a chance yet, another notch on the "repertoire" of collectively-known games. Planet was pulled off the shelf in its final week in the rotation (I am keen to return it to the library at Games of Berkeley so I can borrow a few more titles), and Cockroach Poker and LCR both saw some play as well. I joined in for some games of the latter and was reminded how much exhilaration an 8 year old can find in dice-based randomness and took it as sincerely as I could when I was told "Wow, Mr. P, you're really good at this game."

My students are getting better at lying to me in Cockroach Poker.

Kingdomino also had some cursory interest this week. I had played dominoes with some of the students in my class during choice time earlier in the year, so at least a few of them had a predominant idea of the logic of how domino-style tiles and how they work in these kinds of games. It made following the placement rules, which I thought would be the only sticking-point for the younger kiddos, a nonissue for the most part. The endgame fell apart when none of the players was close to holding a 5 x 5 grid and we adjusted scoring rules so everyone felt like they scored a little better. But it feels like one to bring back and try again. I'll have to peruse the universe of Kingdomino games—Queendomino, Dragomino, Origins—more closely since there may be a variant that is more spatially manageable for the younger in the bunch.

Finally, this week’s new hit was 5 Minute Dungeon, a game that had been sitting unplayed on my shelf for a while. This is a real-time dungeon-delving game where each player is in control of a character with a unique ability, throwing cards into the middle of the table in order to defeat the current monster or trap that’s revealed from the top of the deck. Rounds last—you guessed it—just five minutes, and it is rapidly easy to reset and either try a failed level again or move on to the next one. The short play time and ease of set-up and reset makes this an absolute winner for this age group. I went through the rules, modeled a short demo round, and let three of my most hyperactive boys have at it for the entire hour and a half of the club. And it was no trouble that they monopolized 5 Minute Dungeon the entire time. All the other kiddos were contented with the games they were playing, and rather pleased that these usual rowdy distractors were otherwise occupied with their own affairs for a change. Here is, again, another title I expect to keep in the rotation.

Club is taking a few weeks off while the school hibernates for mid-Winter break, a.k.a. ski week. We’re back at the end of the month for the final two weeks of the trimester. Also by the end of the month, I should have a better idea of next trimester’s turnout.