By Cathy Spaulding
Nick Edwards thinks a bit when asked “what two things starting with G do you not see in a rain forest.”
He answers “gasses and germs” and moves his colored marker along on the Brain Savvy game board.
However, to Nick and other Hilldale Lower Elementary School third-graders, this is no Trivial Pursuit.
Instead, Hilldale Enrichment Program teacher Julia McEnulty said Brain Savvy is a way to make learning fun, though she and other educators would not call it a game.
“It allows you to inject more fun and excitement into what they’re learning,” McEnulty said. “Plus the kids get to roll dice.”
Oklahoma educator Kathy Goff and entrepreneur Jamie McCracken developed Brain Savvy as a “tool” to help teach different subjects and behaviors. Goff is gifted and talented coordinator at Grimes Elementary in Tulsa and is on the adjunct faculty in the Oklahoma State University Department of Educational Psychology. McCracken creates “Kid Kits” for the Educational Development Corporation.
The “tool” they created doesn’t even look like much of a game. Markers go one blank square at a time along a snaking road to a goal.The board set-up and whatever rules it has makes Candyland look like chess.
It doesn’t even have its own set of questions. The teacher must come up with the questions.
That’s what makes it an effective tool, McEnulty said.
Teachers can ask simple questions such as spelling words or math facts or they could ask more complex questions, she said. “Every teacher can create their own format. You can use it with all areas of the curriculum.”
McEnulty asked her third-grade enrichment students review questions about the rain forest.
Questions included:
“How do you move through the rain forest?” To which one student answered “leaping through the trees.”
“What two things starting with the letter B can break in the rain forest?”
Wyatt Gassaway asked classmates before answering “Bones and Branches.”
Wyatt said he likes playing because “it really boosts your higher level thinking skills.”
Classmate Kinzie Wiles put it more succinctly: “It really stretches your brain if you know the answers and stuff.”
Players roll dice not to move ahead but to decide what player goes next.
“It’s the randomness of it all that makes it so much fun,” McEnulty said.
McEnulty sometimes lets her players talk with teammates to get answers. Other times, she makes the players think for themselves.
“I would say they like this better than getting on the computer,” she said.
Hilldale Upper and Lower Elementary Principal Faye Garrison said she is considering getting Brain Savvy for other teachers.
Sheila Rolland, reading specialist at Muskogee’s Grant Foreman Elementary School said she is looking at adding the activity to her program.
“It’s also great for at-home activities,” McEnulty said. “The possibilities are endless.”
