The Game
Boggle is a fun game where the players challenge themselves to find the most unique words they can from a 4 x 4 grid of dice with letters on them. You can only letters once per word and they must be connected sequential in any direction. Can you find B-O-G-G-L-E? What else can you find? M-E-A-L works but M-E-A-N does not.
Set-Up
Start by establishing your conference and sharing the link with your players. With my students, they start by signing up with their email using an empty slot on my Google Sheet. Emails are added to a calendar invite which includes the Google Meet conference link. Reminders are sent out that morning and again about an hour or two before we play depending on whether or not I am running back to back sessions. Although parents want to be helpful it is important that only student accounts are used during online school activities. If anyone signs in without a school account I have to assume they are not students and block them from the Meet. Nothing personal, it's just the right thing to do. Different platform, same concept. You wouldn't expect any adult to just walk into a classroom whether physical or online. |
| Stand Setup |
With the "moderator" device, I use my laptop. I log in about 10-15 minutes early to share a welcome screen and play some cheesy but appropriate music for my audience. This lets them know they are in the right spot and that I will be with them shortly. It also provides a space for the players to socialize before we begin, one of my main goals. It also lets me check my sign up sheet to see if there are any last minute entries. I can then add them from the conferencing tool. Once we are ready to go, I review the chat window as well as mute and no video options for the players before we get started.
The moderator should also have an online 1 minute timer or a physical one which comes with the game. You can ask someone else to run a timer, pick what works best for you and your players. I suggest using the physical one to get started if this is a new experience for you. Start small and build your skills as you go.
Lastly, all players need a connection to see the Boggle letters in addition to a paper and writing tool to record their list of words. We use the honor system when reviewing responses but you could have players leave their list on the keyboard so they can tilt the monitor screen camera down to others can see your responses but only do this once the timer has gone off. Use your discretion and decide what works best for you.
Game Play
Remind people to mute their microphone until it is their turn to share. When multiple people are talking at the same time and their microphones are on, the program bounces around between them as it is "trying to listen" and react. It is triggered by the players microphones and could change what each player sees on their screen. As the moderator, you can share your screen so which forces your screen onto the players windows. You can also mute any or all players but, only they can unmute themselves. It's a privacy thing.
Now that everyone is ready, review the game rules. Like any game, you can modify these rules to meet your needs. Just make sure everyone knows them at the start to avoid disagreements. Here are the rules that I play by.
- Find and list as many words as possible in 1 minute.
- Words must be made by sequentially connecting letters in any direction, up, down, sideways, or diagonally and they cannot be used more than once in a given word.
- Words must have at least 3 letters. I use 2 if I'm playing with young kids.
- No abbreviations, acronyms, or proper nouns.
- Only unique words can be counted toward your score.
- Have fun!
Shake your Boggle board put it in place and start the timer. Everyone should make a list of all the possible words they can find. Be wary of English teachers and librarians, they tend to be very good Boggle players. ;-)
When the timer goes off, you can cover the Boggle board with a paper or move it out of view so you can check the responses. New players sometimes need practice with the sequential set of letters. See the example above with MEAL and MEAN.
Have the person with the most words go first, then the person with the most words remaining, and repeat until everyone who needs to has shared their list. Each reader crosses off any duplicate words and ultimately tallies up all of their unique words. I have found that the reader should pause between each word to give people a chance to respond. Another suggestion is that ONLY those how have the same word should respond with something distinguishable, like I have "that word" instead of yes or no. I mentioned earlier that individual microphones pick up on sounds using short or irrelevant words can make communication difficult and unclear. If someone is simply saying NO and their microphone is not muted another persons response may not be heard. Everything will work its way out in the end but these steps may save you some time.
When this play is done players should add their tally to the chat window, i.e. 5. After each play, they can add + some number = new total score, i.e. + 3 = 8. This will help to keep track of the score. Another option is sharing out scores at the end and having one person keep track.
Reflections
We have had one go at Boggle with another game scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. During our first game we discovered that in addition to some much needed social time, there are other opportunities for students to practice word building and validation. While sharing word lists others can use appropriate resources to look them up.
Stay tuned to learn more about future games. Have fun, take pictures and share them here using #appygames!
What's Next
Stay tuned for more #appygames like Pictionary, Charades, Balderdash and more.
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