A few years ago, I thought I would help out the parents of my gifted and talented students by writing about some games, toys, or books that I thought might make good purchases during the holiday season. I called the series of posts, “Gifts for the Gifted,” and I have continued to do it annually on every Friday in November and December. These gifts are suggestions for any child – not just those who qualify for a GT program. Sometimes I receive a free product for review, but I am not paid for these posts, and I never recommend a product that I wouldn’t buy for my own child. For past “Gifts for the Gifted” posts, you can visit this page. I also have a Pinterest Board of Games and Toys for Gifted Students. You may notice that I missed 2019, but I’m making up for it this year with a post every Thursday in November and December up until Christmas Eve.
Also, I’m going to link to Amazon for these gifts temporarily, but would love to know if you know any independent stores who carry them. Please let me know so I can change the link to help out independent store owners!
We received Blank Slate as a family gift last December, and it has become one of our favorite games. You could easily adapt it to the classroom and change a few rules for more than the 3-8 players recommended. The premise of the game is quite simple. Each card has a word and a blank, such as “High_____________.” Turn over a card, and everyone writes a word that could go in the blank on their tiny slate. (How fun would this be with Peardeck or Whiteboard.fi?) Now the scoring part is what is interesting. If your answer matches with exactly one other person, you get 3 points, but if more than one person matches with you, only 1 point is awarded. And if no one matches you, 0 points are awarded. Of course, you can create any variations you want on this. For example, in my gifted classroom, I would have given more points to those who didn’t match anyone else. Or, as the game instructions suggest, you could give points extra points to people who match with a pre-determined person (maybe the teacher, or a student of the day?).
While I was searching for independent stores that might carry Blank Slate, I found an adorable young lady named Zozo who made a video about how to play the game with your friends through Zoom. I love her passion!
