Games for Everybody

"The perfect family board game is one that can be played each time with fewer pieces."

-Robert Brault

Today we had our first Game Day.  (Hey, look!  I'm telling you about the first one!)  It was, in short, awesome.  Basically, I borrowed a bunch of games, added a few of my own, told one of my library practice scholars--who decided to bring some of his own--and made a couple of announcements.

Now, you have to understand that we had Spirit Week going on this week, so there was a lot to do during lunch.  Today the leadership class had a mummy wrap contest, where grade level teams wrapped up a teacher in toilet paper.  The winning team got their teacher wrapped first.  (That sounds way grosser than it actually is--it's pretty fun, as far as activities go.)  In any case, I thought that having a game day might give the few students who are in here every day a change of pace.

Holy.  Cow.

I was in no way expecting to have fifty students in here arguing about who got to be Professor Plum or the Dog or whoever in the game they were playing.  The room was full and boisterous, and I heard more giggling than I have in a long time.  I saw poker faces that could have been professional.  My library practice scholar brought a game I'd never heard of--Scene It--and a group was playing that on the TV I'd borrowed from Title 1 earlier today.

There were still the few who wanted to get their homework done or read quietly.  These, I banished to the farthest table in the back of the room so that they could all be at a quiet table together.  The rest of the tables were full.

I was torn between checking out books to students who wanted to take them home and walking around making sure no one was doing anything inappropriate.  Of course no one was, although I caught a gum chewer.  (Side note: I so, so love hearing wow, she's good under breaths as they get up to spit out their gum.  Catching gum chewers might seriously be my superpower.)

When the bell rang, I hurriedly began to announce the upcoming lunchtime library events.  "Monday, we're reading scary stories," I began, and then they interrupted me by cheering.  No kidding.  Fifty students all said, "YAY!!!!!" at the same time.  Can you imagine that?  It made my ears happy.  Their yay stopped me in my tracks and totally made my day.  I had to look at the calendar to remember what else was coming up.

Gosh I love my job.

Happy Reading!