Go the direction of your own spinner

Each year I assign a board game project to my 9th grade English class. The students are put into groups. Each group is to design a playable board game based on the short stories and vocabulary from our fiction unit.

For this assignment I provide a cardboard flat box, note cards (cut in half), one long-pronged brad (to make a spinner), and dice. Most groups simply rely on the dice to establish player movement but some groups are daring enough to create their own spinner with the brad. Almost every group that has ever attempted the brad spinner has made their own hands and poked a hole through so that they spin around the prongs under the head of the brad. This year I had one young man who used excessive creativity. His name is Noah.

Noah turned his brad upside down and colored one of the prongs so that the player would spin the prongs already attached to the brad head. His spinner worked very well and was revolutionary to the spinner development of all our groups.

After attaining success with their spinner, Noah’s group sought to find other methods for making an exceptional version of Shoots and Ladders. Their excitement was contagious to the other groups and lead to some terrific submissions for the project.

This new method for creating a board game spinner inspired me to encourage others to use everyday things in remarkable new ways. Make the most of the things around you. Find new ways to use what has been provided for you.

Put your energy into discovering “new spinners” and you will find purpose way beyond your expectations.

By: Melanie A. Peters