I’ve purchased a few different card-based activities which I’ve managed to find the time and opportunity to recently. Most of these have been purchased with the intention of moving students away from their devices and to a more traditional way of connecting with their peers or reflecting on their lives. However, I’m sure they can be integrated and used alongside technology.
I had a strange lesson recently when delivering a centrally planned pastoral session, this was clearly planned with the right intent, but didn’t quite go in the direction it was envisioned to. The session was about building community; something I’m sure we all agree is incredibly important in schools. After the usually sensible students declared that the well curated and published values of the school were “propaganda to make students come here”, I knew that we needed to bring it back from the school as a whole, and to the students themselves. This is where the card games came in really handy!
I pulled out a deck of cards called ‘Start That Convo’. These are based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and are designed to build better connections by asking questions.
Students took a card from each of the needs and proceeded to ask their questions to their peers, with the condition that the same person can’t be asked for more than one of their questions.
The students really loved asking each other these questions, and finding out more about each other and their teachers too.
Another set that I trialled during this session was the use of ‘Mindful Prompts’ by The Idea Space. These are about self-care and reflection.
We used them a little differently to how they’re advertised. They have a ‘morning’ and a ‘night’ side to the cards, we used the ‘night’ sides for some reflection. The ‘night’ works by using a koan followed by a question. I had the students reflect upon their individual card. We integrated technology by students recording their thoughts and reflections on their student reflection record. Just as with the previous activity, I had students asking for an extra card to do some more reflection.
This morning during our usual 10 minute roll call session I tried a further set on the back of how well they did with the others. This time it was the ‘52 Essential Conversations’ cards from Mind Brain Parenting.
As the students entered the room they were given a card, they were then instructed to work in groups of 3-4 and pose their questions to the group (smallest card number goes first), each person answers before moving onto the next card.
A card deck that a few students do seem to enjoy is the ‘You Are Awesome’ affirmation cards. These are really sweet and students generally use them as a pick me up. They’re left on the front desk so students wander over, open them up and choose one at random.
I’d definitely use these all again.
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