Level-Up Board Game Club: Some Ideas on Weekly Topics
- Solitary Quest Blog
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Earlier this month, the After School Program director told me that Level-Up Board Game Club was approved, and was to be included in the ASP brochure so families can make informed decisions about which enrichment classes to enroll their kiddos in. A handful of students and parents have already told me how excited they are for it to start, so I’m not worried about meeting the minimum sign-up threshold of seven. It appears that the tracks are clear and we’re full steam ahead!
The club will meet on Fridays throughout my school’s second trimester, which runs approximately from early December to mid-March. Due to holidays, breaks, and other school days off, we’ll meet for nine sessions total during that time. Considering the overall length of the school year, that doesn’t feel like much—so I’m hoping to pack as much as I can into those nine meetings.
Like I mentioned in my pitch, each week’s class will have a different topic, featuring a unique board game type. Setting a different, specific each week accomplishes a few important things:
Foremost, it ensures that the games students play each week are fresh and varied. The familiarity principle suggests that people tend to prefer things they already know, simply because they’re familiar. This can be especially true for children, who have, generally, had fewer opportunities for exposure to new ideas. Without some structure for variety, most students would likely gravitate toward the games they already know how to play, games they can win. There’s nothing wrong with that (I have my own comfort games, too), but it does not offer much discovery. A core tenet of progressive education is learning through exploration. By introducing students to different types of board games and new mechanics of play, we can move them beyond their comfort zones. That sometimes means moments of confusion or frustration, but this is also the active learning zone where students achieve greater cognitive stimulation. And since this is an enrichment class—not just a casual club—I think students will likewise approach it as more of a venue for finding the new and exciting.
With that in mind, I also need to be cognizant of the varied learning differences and developmental ages that will be present, which I have opened up to K-8, approximately five to 13 year-olds. Game complexity, reading dependence, and cognitive load will all factor into my selections. Within each week’s theme, students will still have choice in what they play—balancing exposure to something new with autonomy to select games with themes or topics that interest them. As for sourcing games, I’ll draw from a combination of my personal collection, a modest budget provided by the school to begin a game library, local game store lending programs, as well as games that students bring from home. Including student contributions helps build a sense of ownership and community, while expanding our library beyond my own perspective.
Setting a topic for each week also means there is a felicitous inroad for a relevant lesson or discussion prompts, even if it's just a couple minutes at the beginning and end of the meeting. A whole group meeting at the start can cover an overview of the week’s topic, introduce key concepts and terminology that students may encounter in the rules, and offer some guiding questions to keep in mind as they play. On the wrap end, coming back together to share roses (good things) and thorns (not good things) about the games and discuss game mechanics and strategies more deeply can allow students to solidify and expand on the experience they just had.
Below is a scope and sequence for the first few weeks of the club. I've chosen a few topics, and included some ideas for discussion prompts, reflections, and a tentative list of games. I’d love your feedback:
What other on-theme games should I consider bringing each week?
What are some interesting topics of discussion that I should work in?
What topics might make sense for the later weeks in the trimester?
Keep in mind that we’ll have about 90 minutes of total session time each week, so games should typically fit within that window—especially considering that most groups will be learning as they go with a mixed, young age range.
Week 1: Introductions, Expectations, and the Classics
Brief overview of the scope of the club, introduce the weekly topics.
Create a list of expectations and routines for the meetings (behavior, making groups; cleaning-up, etc).
The Classics
Chess
Checkers
Backgammon
Connect Four
Hnefetafl
Mancala
Gobblet
Go Fish
Old Maid
Dutch Blitz
Reflect: Why have these games become “classics?” In other words, why are we still playing these old games?
Week 2: Cooperative
Working together to win: how is this different from a competitive game?
Cooperative sportsmanship: building vocabulary and etiquette for working together.
Cooperative Games
Pandemic
Just One
Micro Macro
Sky Team
So Clover!
The Crew
Exit / Unlock games
Reflect: What were some roses and thorns you experienced working as a team?
Week 3: Social Deduction
Secrets : Introducing the idea of roleplaying or pretending; the function of truth and lying in social deduction games.
Hidden information: how to find out and keep track of new information learned throughout a game.
Social Deduction Games:
Just One
Love Letter
Werewolf
Codenames
Mysterium
A Fake Artist Goes to New York
Reflect: What role does trust play in social deduction games?
Week 4: Engine Building
Explaining an engine in terms of building stuff that lets you do more stuff.
Engine Builders
Machi Koro
Gizmos
Space Base
Happy City
Splendor
Catan (yes, it does have some elements of engine-building to it)
Wingspan (already some of my second graders are playing this during choice time)
Reflect: What would happen if your game hadn’t ended? What else could you have done to keep building your engine?
Reflect: If you could make your own engine-building game, what would players be trying to build or grow?
Week 5: Tile Placement
Creating Patterns: these games are about laying tiles down together, or individually to score points.
Each tile changes the “map”—every choice affects what’s possible next.
Tile Placement Games
Beacon Patrol
Cascadia
Harmonies
Patchwork
Carcassonne
Kingdomino
Qwirkle
Rivers, Roads, and Rails
Reflect: What kinds of choices did you have to make each turn?
Reflect: Did your strategy change as the board grew?
I’m still playing around with a few ideas for themes for the remainder of the weeks, including role playing games, puzzles, and dexterity games. I could also go wider and choose topics like card games and adventure games or even more abstract topics like fantasy and sci-fi. I am certainly blending the lines a bit between mechanics, themes, and genres but I’m trying to think in terms of broad coverage that has the opportunity for something very unique week-to-week.
