Games for Gifted
love to play games with my gifted students! They are quick to learn and often master strategies before I do! It’s also a great way to teach students how to lose and good sportsmanship.
So what games are good for gifted students? I get this question from parents every holiday season. Se here’s a list of games I recommend for high-achieving students. Note: As Amazon associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Divergent Thinking Games
To develop divergent thinking, students need practice generating many possible ideas or solutions. These games are fun and never play out the same way twice! Three games I use are: Apples to Apples, Scrabble, and Scattergories.
Apples to Apples is a game of crazy combinations. The “judge” plays a card from the green (adjective) deck, the other players lay down a red (noun) card. The judge then picks their favorite combination and the player that played the red card wins that round.
Scrabble is an age-old game of creating words using letter tiles. The game requires students to think outside of the box and generate words using only the letters in their hands. Then they must decide how to strategically place the word on the gameboard in an effort to score big points.
Scattergories is a creative thinking game in which players score points by uniquely naming objects within a set of categories.
Convergent Thinking Games
Convergent thinking skills, in which students think through a problem and converge a single correct answer, require both logic and deduction. This type of thinking is great for developing mathematical practices and helping students develop forward-thinking strategies. Three games I love are Qwirkle, Mastermind, and SET.
Qwirkle is a fast-paced game of placing squares of matching colors and shapes, but also requires tactical maneuvers and well-planned strategy.
Mastermind is a code-breaking game for two players. Player one becomes the code maker and player two is the code breaker. The code breaker tried to guess the pattern while the maker provides feedback for each guess.
SET is a real-time card game where players try to make “SETS” of three cards. A SET consists of 3 cards in which each of the card’s features (symbols, colors, number, and shading) are the same on each card, or are different on each card.
Visual/Spatial Thinking Games
The visual spatial games I recommend are Blokus and Camelot Jr. Visual spatial reasoning is the ability to look at object and understand its properties and relationship to other objects. These games require students mentally “see” the objects and manipulate the directionality in one’s head.
Blokus is a strategy game where players place their square pieces on a 20 x 20 game board. Each new piece must touch at least one other piece of the same color, but only at the corners. Quickly the gameboard becomes covered in opponent’s pieces and you may become blocked. Using spatial reasoning, players are challenged to find new paths to play their pieces.
Camelot Jr. requires students to build a structure to connect the prince and princess. Players follow one of 48 progressively more complex challenges to construct a structure using 3-D wooden puzzle pieces. This game helps students develop both logic and spatial reasoning skills.
What do you use?
We love a great new game around here. These are several that we have found that our students love, but we know there are always new great games! Mensa even has an annual game competition! What strategic games do you recommend to challenge students to think critically and creatively about developing solutions?
