Board game club adds more attractions
Comic books and new games part of second year
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, December 5, 2013
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
A club where board game enthusiasts can get their fix is back for a second year with some new games and more reading materials.
Damian Isaiah, left, and Hayden Kraus assemble the pieces for one of the new board games at the Never Board Game Club on Nov. 28. It is now in its second year at Aurora College in Fort Simpson. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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Every Thursday, Aurora College in Fort Simpson opens its doors for anyone in Grade 4 and older, including adults, who want to play board games at the Never Board Game Club. The club has amassed a collection of approximately 15 classic games and just as many more obscure titles.
Dean Harvey, an adult educator at the college, developed the idea for the club. Harvey's initial goal was to support literacy in boys. In school, boys' literacy levels often don't keep pace with girls' and they need additional supports to expose them to more literacy activities, he said.
Board games are a perfect way to promote literacy because all of the literacy skills are embedded in the play, Harvey said.
"You know that children learn by playing," he added.
Playing board games also creates other benefits, including fostering social skills. Participants have to be able to read facial expressions, negotiate and co-opearate in the case of co-operative games in order to succeed, he said. Many of the games also involve numerical literacy.
The club, which ran for approximately eight weeks last school year, proved to be appealing to both boys and girls. Since September the club has been running every Thursday from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Harvey has just added eight new games to the club's collection. Hayden Kraus and Damian Isaiah were learning how to play one of them, Super Dungeon Explore, on Nov. 28. Kraus, 9, said that he enjoys coming to the club.
"It's fun, you can play any board game you want," he said.
Kraus' favourite board game is Monopoly, but in addition to Super Dungeon Explore, he was also checking out Legendary, a game based on Marvel comic book characters.
Isaiah, 10, is a newcomer to the club.
"I heard about it in my class and I just got a little bit too interested and I had to go," Isaiah said between assembling game pieces.
In addition to the new games, the club also added 430 comic books to its offerings this year. A grant of $500 from the NWT Literacy Council was used to purchase the comics, which date from the 1970s, from a village resident. The comics, which include classic titles such as Captain America, The Hulk and Fantastic Four, are another way to get youth interested in literacy, said Harvey, who plans to add graphic novels to the collection next year.
Harvey received $6,329 from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's family literacy funding to run the program this year. The funding, which covers one staff member and some new games, will allow the club to remain open until March. Aurora College is also providing $4,700 in-kind contributions.
