Home For Teachers How to Use in Class

Make learning fun with Baffle Gab™!

Home schoolers will find Baffle Gab™ an excellent way to have fun creating stories while developing a number of skills. Players improve their understanding of the parts of speech, build spelling abilities and vocabulary, and develop competence with sentence structure. In addition, Baffle Gab™ helps players practice reading and math skills.

Some ideas for home schoolers:

Make it a whole-school-year game.
The player with the most Bone Bucks before you break for vacation wins. Play 1-minute rounds every day or a few times each week throughout the whole school year. Baffle Gab™ is perfect for this kind of play because you can put it away in between rounds.

The one-minute rounds of Baffle Gab™ add quick fun to every Home schooling day or session.
Play a one-minute round as a way of taking a break from other curriculum. These rounds don't have to be played for points or a winner. Or, if you do play for points, you could consider the player with the most points in the round to be the winner.

Combine writing rounds of Baffle Gab™ with other curriculum.
Using history, social studies, literature, etc. as a “theme,” draw 5 Gabby Cards (or any number you determine) and then ask players to write a story (in any amount of time you want to specify, just keep turning the timer over – or eliminate the use of the timer altogether) using the words AND the theme.

Enhance math curriculum.
Give players 5 Gabby cards (or more if you wish) and ask them to write a story problem using the card words. Then ask them to solve mathematically the problem they've written. Bone Bucks may be used as props.

Do you have varied ages or abilities playing together?
Adjust the level of challenge for younger or less confident writers by asking them to use 5 or less Gabby words. In the same round of play ask older or more confident writers to add 1 or more Gabby words to the 5 the younger player is using.

For younger or less confident writers create 2-minute rounds by turning over the sand timer a second time.

Remove challenge cards (2 Bone Buck Cards) for younger players.

Read the definitions to younger players before beginning the round.

Combine any or all of these variations to create a positive experience for each player.

Focus on spelling.
Make it a little more challenging to earn Bone Bucks by requiring that all words be spelled correctly in order to win points.
Put the timer away and use as many cards as you determine will work in the timeframe you've chosen. Ask each player to write a story using the cards you've laid out. Focus the exercise on spelling, word use, and sentence structure.

Home schooling one child?
This game can be played as a solitaire game.
More ideas can be found on our Variations for Play page.