- Life skills board games allow teachers to discuss important concepts in a fun, meaningful way.chance image by Francesca Marcolini from Fotolia.com
Life skills games are available through special-education resource companies. These games provide a fun, interactive format for presenting life skills concepts to students with disabilities. These games also allow students to generalize ideas or skills by applying them to real-life situations. - The Real-World Social Skills Game, by Pat Crissey, allows the teacher to discuss topics such as self-esteem, dealing with bullies, friendship and responsibility in a real and meaningful way. Students are given real-world examples of situations and then discuss how they would react. Life-skills students can then role-play or demonstrate how they would react in case they are in that situation. This game is available through PCI Education.
Bingo is a popular teaching tool utilized in a life-skills classroom. Most students can grasp the concept of Bingo. Many life skills students struggle with the making friends because they are unsure how to connect with others and lack the social skills required to maintain a friendship. Friendship Bingo encourages students to discuss feelings, character traits and how to begin a friendship. This game is available through Marco and written by Arden Martenz. - Who Am I?-Community Helpers, was created by Rosie Simms, and introduces students to vocations within their community. This board game promotes an awareness of what individuals do to serve our community such as what they do, where they work and what they need to do their jobs. This game opens the door to discuss the students' vocational interests and resources available to them within their own communities. This game is available through PCI Education.
The Nasco Company provides a series of Bingo games which discuss independent living topics such as food, clothing, household maintenance and healthy living. These games allow the teacher to identify vocabulary and discuss these concepts with the students. - PCI's Where Does My Money Go board game allows to students to practice making monetary transactions in the "real world." Students use realistic money to make transactions according to cards, making purchases at stores and restaurants. This game is ideal for helping students understand the importance of being frugal while also providing an opportunity for them to practice counting money.
Budget Town and Budget City are board games available through the Attainment Company that allow students to practice basic money skills needed for independent living. Budget Town is for students who are emerging in their money skills. It focuses on cash transactions. Budget City is for students ready to learn about checks, debit cards and interest rates. - If you do not have the budget to purchase these games, it may benefit you to take the time to make a similar product yourself. Make simple bingo cards and board game boards and laminate them. It may take more time, but will save money. Also, visit teacher-resource Web sites for simple games that you game play in your classroom using any topic provided.
Choosing a simple game concept that your students are familiar with will enable you to focus your students on the content of the lesson without the distraction of also learning the rules of the game.
