Games Engage 4th and 5th Graders at Volta Elementary.

In November we began a 14-week program with a class of 4th and 5th Graders at Volta Elementary, a neighborhood school in Albany Park with a heavy immigrant population. We began slowly teaching the students how to play Giant Word Winder and Giant Math Winder. Both games are played in teams, so immediately the games are collaborative and require players to work together. As the program progressed, it became more and more apparent to these 4th and 5th graders that the team that worked together best was the winning team won nearly every game they played. They learned that in order to achieve success they would need to rely on each other for one another's strengths.
Our Giant Games program at Volta produced many more great outcomes. We learned from their teacher, Mrs. Lundergan, that after completing the program she has seen a significant improvement in her student's abilities to collaborate, noting that they take different roles within their cooperative learning groups because of having played the giant games. We also learned that 70 percent of Mrs. Lundergan's students feel that they feel more confident in their math skills because of playing Giant Math Winder, 83 percent feel more confident in their spelling and vocabulary skills because of Giant Word Winder, and 100 percent say they that playing the giant games has helped to improve relationships with their classmates.
We are pretty excited about these outcomes, and we look forward to starting our next program at Cameron Elementary with a 2nd Grade Youth Guidance group! Teamwork makes the dream work. 

If you are interested in programming like this for your school, contact us today!