Lesson Plan #: AELP-LPS0203

TriBond

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Kathy Olson
Email: frankb@patchproducts.com

Date: August 20, 2002

Grade Level: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Subject(s):

Description: These activities utilize the popular board game, TriBond, to build on students' skills in deductive reasoning, drawing conclusions, problem solving, reasoning, and listening. It also integrates as many subject areas as the teacher desires.

Goals: Students will increase their skills in the following areas: drawing conclusions, deductive reasoning, problem solving, reasoning skills, and listening skills.

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to determine commonalities among groups of words.
  2. Students will be able to develop strategies to help solve the TriBond puzzles.
  3. Students will be able to work together in teams to solve the TriBond puzzles.
Materials: Procedure:

Activity #1:
Begin the activity by calling three students to the front of the class. (Choose these students carefully. They must all have something in common. For example, they might all be wearing shoes that tie, or hair that is very curly, or have brothers named Bob, etc.) Have the rest of the class think carefully about what these three have in common. Rather than guessing the commonality, students need to select another student they think could join the three. When a student is named, you simply say yes or no. If the answer is yes, the new student may join the original three. To help keep track of the selections, on the board write the names of the students suggested who could not join the group, or have these students form another group at the side of the classroom. After a few guesses, ask the students if they know the rule that determines who may join the original three. If someone gives a correct answer, have the standing students sit and begin again with three other students and a different commonality. Try to include as many students as possible but don't wear out the game.

Write the word elephant (or another word of your choosing) on the chalkboard or chart paper. Ask the students what characteristics or related topics does this word bring to mind. Students might suggest concepts such as large, animal, trunk, tusks, African, Indian, zoo, etc. Explain that you will be giving each student a slip of paper with a special word on it. First they are to think about the word on the card and consider what traits this word might have. They will be given about one minute to use as thinking time. When you give a specific signal, the students are to move around the room looking for other students who have words that would have something in common with the one on their card. When they have formed a group of three, the students need to sit together until the others have also joined a group. (If the number of students is not divisible by 3, you could write the extra words on the board, and the students with similar words would meet there. If you do not use all of the words, be sure to leave out sets of 3 that go together.) Encourage the students to help each other so that all can find success with this activity. When all groups are formed, go around the groups and have the students explain how their words go together. Complete this activity with a Family Fun Activity Sheet (see TriBond Activity Packet in Materials ). Students can complete this sheet with other family members and bring it back to school for the next class.

Activity #2:
Review the Family Fun Activity sheet and see how everyone did. Next, take time for students to share at least one of the new TriBonds they created with their family. You could do a few now, and then collect the others to use as class sponge activities for future classes. Organize your class into teams of 3 or 4. Provide each team with a response sheet, and have the teams select a role for each person. Teams will need a reader, a writer, and a sender. The fourth team member could be the encourager. The reader will read the three words on the TriBond card, the writer will write down the team's answer, the encourager will make sure that everyone is participating, and the sender will take the card to the next team when time has ended. Use the cards on the master sheet or from one of the TriBond games. (If you use the game cards you will need to determine a category for focus. For example with the Jr. game cards, the teams may always use the #2 set of words. With the Best of TriBond, the teams might just focus on the Academics words. The writer will also need to write the number of the TriBond card on the response sheet.) Set a time limit for each set of words, perhaps 2 to 3 minutes. Setting a timer for this will be helpful. Give each team a card. They will use the allotted time to decide what the three words or phrases have in common. The decided answer is written on the response sheet. This needs to be done very quietly so the groups will not hear each other's ideas. At the end of the time, the sender takes the card to the next group, and another sender will bring their group a new set of clues. Continue this activity until all groups have had all of the cards being used. Now is the time to share answers and talk about the strategies each team used to help them determine an answer to each set of clues. Discussing strategies and ideas will help students develop problem solving skills for future activities. It is important to take time for this process.

Assessment: Collect students' Family Fun Activity sheets. As an extension, students could work together in groups to create their own TriBonds to share with the rest of the class.

Useful Internet Resources:
* Million Minute Family Challenge
Join the nation in reaching our goal of playing games for a million minutes, collectively. Check out more lesson plans, teach students the history of board games, and log your classroom's playing time into the count! This site will be available September 1, 2002 - January 2003.
http://www.millionminute.com

* Patch Products
Explore our games, learn about our company, and order our products! Patch makes MadGab, Blurt, Malarky, PEOPLE, and much more!
http://www.patchproducts.com