Here’s some love for elementary and social studies teachers

 in Educational Games by

My last several blog posts and newsletters have been all about either middle school or math or middle school math, and I know some elementary teachers have been asking, “Hey! What about me? What about what I need?” Don’t get me started on social studies teachers. Since their subjects are not part of most districts’ standardized testing, they feel like they don’t get any respect. Speaking of which, we have a poster session and table at the National Council for the Social Studies meeting, Friday, November 22 from 9:10 – 10:30 am. Check us out!

What we have for elementary and social studies, coming up and ready right now

Coming up – new games that you can help design and get graduate credit (free)

We’ve been making games with educators and the Warrior Vets game is available now. Yes, it is for middle school. However, from the many, many suggestions we received from students and teachers, we are planning two more games from our next two cohorts. We may change the focus depending on participant interests, but right now the two games will probably be:

  • Grades 3-5 : Design your own museum. Players will choose stories, songs and artwork to include in their own museum exhibit using primary sources
  • Middle School: Survival School – Players are lost in a variety of settings (desert, forest) and use their knowledge and skills to survive, everything from traditional knowledge of plants to calf-roping. [This one needs your help to focus. We have received 14 pages of suggestions!]

You can attend three workshops (all online or, if you’d like, attend one at the Minot State Pow-wow in April, 2025) and receive graduate credit for designing a game with us.

If you’d like to join in our next cohort, 

Fill out this short registration form

  • December 13, 2024 from 4-6pm Central Time
  • February 21st, 2024 from 4-6pm Central Time
  • April 25th, 2024 from 10am- 4pm Central Time , Minot, ND (in conjunction with Minot State University powwow)

What we have for grades 3-6 , ready right now

If you haven’t checked out Making Camp Dakota Past and Present– I recommend it. Players go from camp to camp at a pow-wow looking for their missing brother and sister. At each stop, they learn some Dakota history or are challenged to use their knowledge of division to solve problems. – Played on the web, optimized for Chromebook. If you just want the link to go straight to the game, here it is.

The math problems vary in difficulty but are predominantly division of three-digit numbers by one- or two-digit numbers. There are a few multiplication and simpler division problems as well.

You can watch some game play below, if you’d like an idea of how the game looks but you’re too busy to actually play. (I won’t judge you.)

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