Steve Kinney

I’m always amazed when I tutor or watch a colleague tutor students with learning disabilities how long their attention span is for reading words off of flash cards (or math facts, etc.). I’m personally guilty of exploiting this phenomenon a few times during the course of my short career.

Still, it’s always good to spice things up with a game. Take the same activity and give it an exciting twist. You could make a board game. You make a matching game. The possibilities are endless.

One fun activity is a game called Bang!

Bang! contains one element that separates the great games from the mediocre: there is no guaranteed winner. You can be winning by a landslide and one Bang! card can take it all away.

This game can be adapted for math or any other subject where you would use flash cards.

Primary Objective

• To win by any means necessary - including but not limited to: getting all the most word strips, clawing, and scratching.

Secondary Objective

• To recognize and learn sight words.
• To practice decoding words using tapping or any other method.

Materials

• A coffee can or other large can (perhaps a can of nuts - do they still make cans of nuts?). Make sure that the can is visually appealing: this is a requisite for playing BANG!
• A plethora of strips of paper in as many colors as your resources permit.
• Place words you are practicing on each strip. Also create four or so strips that say “BANG!” and “JACKPOT” on them.

Method

1. Players take turns drawing strips from the well-decorated can (be it coffee or nuts).
2. If the player draws a strip that has a word written on it, he or she must read that word aloud correctly.
3. If the student pronounces the word correctly, he or she holds onto that strip.
4. If the student cannot pronounce the word it goes into the “Don’t Know Yet” pile.
5. If the player draws a strip that says “BANG!” on it, he or she must put all of their strips back into the can. The “BANG!” strip is discarded.
6. If the player draws a strip that says “JACKPOT!” on it, he or she takes one strip from every other player - the player does not have to read the words he or she takes from another player (that rule is obviously subject to your discretion).
7. When the can is empty, the game is over. The player with the most strips wins.

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