Kirklees Inter-school Tournament at Dewsbury Library
So, one week on from our event at Rawthorpe Library, it was Dewsbury Library's turn to play host, in the latest of our Inter-School Tournaments in Kirklees Libraries. This time we had a whopping 7 new schools come to try their hand at Imagination Gaming!
An open plan library, we set up in the children's area for the day, and rather than interrupt regular proceedings, library visitors and staff remarked on what a wonderful atmosphere it created, plenty of energy, laughter and plain old good fun!
A really enjoyable day. All of the children loved it... ...lots of opportunities for reasoning and problem solving.
From the local area we welcomed Paradise, Westmoor, Boothroyd, Carlton, Thornhill, Eastborough and St. Paulinus Primary Schools, each bringing 4 eager and intrigued children and staff, all of whom had never experienced Imagination Gaming.
Lets Play!
After a few games for the early arrivals, introductions were done and we quickly set to concentrating on the games for today's tournament, with a few new ones to last week. This week we concentrated on Savvy, Storyline, Wildlife Rescue and Shaperise.
One main feature of a lot of the games we use, is the ability to teach the games quickly and simply, this does not however mean they are easy. Often games with just a few choices to make can leave much more room for invention and creativity!
Savvy is an incredibly simple looking game but very effective. Players simply eveluate the likelyhood on whether or not the next card will be higher or lower, whilst carefully managing the result of getting it right, wrong, or whether not to play at all.
Shaperise is a real challenge for the memory. We use it in lots of different ways but today it was up to the players to try and memorise a prescribed pattern of up to 10 different blocks and then reproduce that image as quickly and as accurately as they can. This was a really tricky one!
Wildlife Safari (shown here as Botswana) is a strategy challenge, and a classic we continue to use because of how good it is! The aim is to lay your cards to try and control the value of the animals, so that when the game ends, the animals you have collected are worth the most points. Something for the strategists... and the slightly devious!
Finally we used Storyline, both the fairy tales and the scary tales versions. This one is a little bit more random as you try and influence the story's narrator to choose your plot twists... but that's the fun. A brilliant story-telling game.
The Competition
So, once everyone had a chance to study the games, hone their skills and share any tactics with their team-mates, we took a well-earned break to recharge, and then headed into the tournament.
Now all the children were split from their teams and each of them joined a table of 3 other pupils, all from different schools. (NB It would be easy to assume that this may be a daunting prospect for some children, perhaps it is testimony to the way the tournaments are structured that this has never been an issue)
They then competed at each of the 4 games they had learnt, all vying to accumulate points for their teams and for themselves... which they all did admirably!
So Who Won?!
Well this weeks individual highest points scorer was... Matthew Lofthouse, from Thornhill Junior School. Here he is with his certificate and trophy!
As for the winning team... congratulations go to... Paradise Primary! Here they are looking suitably chuffed with themselves!!!!
Big well dones also go to all our other teams
Carlton Junior
Boothroyd Primary
Westmoor Primary
Eastborough Primary
St. Paulinus
Thornhill Junior
We had lots of interesting feedback from the children and staff, but in particular I love this quote from one of the children...
My day was fun but I really wanted to win... I lost 3, but I won 1! YAY! Today was cool because it was competitive, just as it was fun.
I think it says it all!
Did this sound good to you? Well get in touch to see how we can sprinkle a little Imagination Gaming in your direction soon!
