Play Journal #3 or "Bananagrams!"
Camp taught me to like Bananagrams, and so did my mom. My mom loves games, (something she learned in her childhood, when games were one of the few “toys” she and her siblings wouldn’t grow out of) and it’s been a pleasure coming home to Pueblo and playing with her this past week.
Bananagrams is a Scrabble-Style game where the players make their “own” scrabble board, and throughout the game, members are required to grab tiles and make more of their own words. It is wild and loose, without many of the constraints of traditional Scrabble. As a former English major, I enjoy it because it allows me to be a bit of a know-it-all and use words that no one knows and/or uses, but it also allows less loquacious players to play at their own pace.
The basics of the game are…use of all your tiles on your Scrabble space. The catch, of course, is that after you complete your board, you have to pick up one additional tile. If it happens to be an “S”, you’re doing great. If it’s an H or a C or heavy forbid, a Z…you’re SOL. You are permitted to “dump” any tile you can’t get rid of, but the rules stipulate you must then pick up three more tiles from the boneyard. It’s a balance of keeping tiles you can use, and dropping ones you can’t. My edition of Bananagrams also has “Wild Tiles”, which work as “free letters.” This adds an additional element of intrigue, as sometimes all you need is an “E”, though you’d rather save it for something else. In game, if someone finishes their board, they shout “Peel”, and everyone picks up a new tile. There’s also a “Split” command to start the game, and who doesn’t like a good banana pun?
Though this game is great for groups of 5 or 6, I played with one person in this go round, and it wasn’t nearly as fun. It required me to pick up nearly double the tiles I was used to, and though it was great for word formation, the game itself seemed to go on and on. I would definitely recommend playing with three or more players.
The constraints of this game are the same you might see in Scrabble. People who aren’t wordsmiths may not enjoy this game, and anyone who enjoys the quiet, slow play of Scrabble will not appreciate the speed and stress.
This game, though not digital, pairs nicely with online word games. Not only were we looking up words online, but we had the opportunity to then extend our knowledge and learn what the strange words were. It’s also great for stretching your brain. This is definitely a game that would help with English learning. I think this is also a great game to use in a Kindergarten or Preschool classroom, as kids could use them to build words. As long, of course, as you made sure they didn’t put the tiles in their mouth!
I enjoy this game, (originally a camp boredom buster) and I now enjoy playing with my mom. She beats me soundly just about every time.