Everyday Ways To Teach Black History: Board Games

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Last week I shared how you can use LEGO sets to introduce your children to Black History. This week I’m going to focus on the ways you can use three different board games to talk about Black History in science, math, and literature.

Medicine – Operation

You want to talk to your children about the contributions of Black people in medicine. Operation is definitely the game to get you started.

From Daniel Hale Williams to Patricia Bath, you can teach your children about the first successful open heart surgery and the woman who created an amazing technique to aid in the treatment of blindness. Read stories about these physicians contributions and then challenge your children to a game of Operation so they can see just how hard these tasks are.

Talk to your children about Black History during family game night.

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Mathematicians – SMATH

I don’t know about you but math isn’t my strong suit. In high school, I wanted to be an engineer but then I took Honors Geometry and AP Trigonometry and that dream became a nightmare. I’m sure that was a bummer for my mom who has a natural ability for math and my mother-in-law was a high school math teacher. I always ask her for toys that focus on math for Sesame because I don’t want my math fears to hold him back.

This Christmas she bought him SMATH, an equation game that reminds me of Scrabble. I listened in when she was playing it with him on Christmas Eve and of course I started wondering how I could use it to teach him Black History. If your child enjoys math or you’re trying to encourage them during a difficult period, covering Benjamin Banneker and Katherine Johnson while playing this game can give them something to aspire too.

Language Arts – Scrabble

Last but not least, let’s talk about language arts. As you can imagine, this is one of my favorite subjects.

I know you’re probably wondering where to even start when it comes to playing Scrabble and teaching children about Black History. It’s a great way to practice vocabulary. You can either choose a topic or create a vocabulary list and challenge one another to create those words while playing the game. Make it fun by offering bonus points for those words.

Love these ideas? Check out the Black History is American History curriculum for a full year’s worth of ideas.