Assessment Journal #4

(TS) During my most recent visit to the Boys and Girls Club, I spent a lot of time playing and learning new games. (SD) The first game I participated in is a fairly well known basketball game called knockout. (CM) I already knew all the rules of knockout, so when I joined in the kids and I were playing right away. (CM) Usually I am very competitive and some of the kids were excellent opponents, but I had more than enough fun simply keeping them entertained by having an older kid play with them. (SD) After I finished playing knockout, I sat down for only a moment before John, one of the younger kids who I first met, came over and asked me to play pokemon with him. (CM) I remember being his age and loving the Japanese cartoon shows, but I hadn’t the faintest memory of how to play the card games that were made from them. (CM) I asked him to teach me and I saw how excited he was to accept my request me and play with me an imaginative and amusing game of cards. (SD) The final game I played with the children was a game called jackpot where there was one ball but a whole lot of fun. (CM) The kids explained how there is one person who has the ball, and he calls out different terms that signify if you get points or if he hits you with the ball, you lose a limb. (CM) I had a fairly significant advantage because I was taller than all the kids and could reach for the catch the ball higher than they could reach, but after a while, I thought that the kids should be the ones having the most fun, so instead of catching it, I would bounce it in mid air to different places to give each kid an opportunity to catch it. (CS) Experiencing all these games, some of which I remember playing when I was there age, brought out the six year old kid in me who wanted to have fun and see others have fun playing simple but entertaining games.