Several 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 (except for 2019) on every 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, including my 2021 list, you can visit this page. I also have a Pinterest Board of Games and Toys for Gifted Students.
Way back in June of 2020, I wrote a post about Charty Party, a game similar to Apples to Apples but with graphs. At the time, the company was in the middle of a campaign to raise money for an “All Ages Edition” as the original version was for ages 17+. Eager to see if the new game would be appropriate to play in classrooms, I contacted the company to see if they would send me a set to review and they graciously agreed.
Now, even though it is labeled “Charty Party: All Ages Edition,” the recommended ages are 10+ on the box. You will want to play with participants who can read well and can interpret basic graphs. I haven’t read all of the playing cards, but we used a great number of them and I didn’t see anything involving alcohol or sex. There are some gross ones (like a chart of the loudness of farts), but most kids would find those extremely appropriate 😉
To play the game you technically need at least three players, but my daughter (18) and I have a great time playing our own modified version. As in Apples to Apples, there is a rotating judge, but we just agreed to choose the card that got the most laughs as the winner for each round. Standard play involves a judge revealing one of the white chart cards and the players (who each have 7 orange cards) each choose one from their hands that they think would be a good label for the y-axis to give to the judge. The judge (who doesn’t read the cards yet) shuffles the cards, then reads them out loud, and the person whose card get the most laughs as it pertains to the graph wins the white chart card. Everyone draws a new orange card, the judge rotates to the next person, and the rounds continue until someone wins 5 cards.
Below are some examples, and I’ll let you decide the winner of each round:
We turned over the “Instrument You Play” chart that showed that the y-axis dramatically increased for drum-players. My daughter (a Music Ed major) played the card, “Belief You’ll Have a Successful Career in Music” and I turned over “Creepiness of Mustache.” No offense to drum players out there, just trying to put down the funniest card…
The next example shows an increase during middle school, and my daughter played the left card while I played the one on the right.
Above you can see that something increases equally with the type of mood you might have at a funeral and the type of mood you might have at a surprise party.
And, lastly, a fart one…
You will note in the rubric below that I gave the game high marks for “Replayability” as my daughter and I stopped counting who was winning and just kept playing until we finished the charts. We also played some charts again with different card hands for added fun. The possibilities for probably not infinite if you do some mathematical calculations, but they are a lot.
I also gave this game high marks for “Extendability” because there are so many ways to integrate this into your classroom. In fact, there is a flyer with “Classroom Activity Ideas” included in the box as well as a page on their website.
The cards are durable, and losing one or two will not impact playing the game. Though there are some constraints, the game rates highly in the Strategic, Creative, and Spatial reasoning areas as well.
You can currently buy Charty Party: All Ages Edition directly from their website with free shipping. I can’t wait to play it with larger groups, especially family during the holidays!
