EDUCATIONAL DESCRIPTION
Venture into the land of the Minuses, extraordinary little workers who travel the underground galleries in search of precious diamonds. Diamond Express is an entertaining and appealing way to introduce children to the existence of inferences, but also their prevalence
on a daily basis. This game will allow teachers to highlight the metacognitive processes involved in drawing inferences by having students verbalize their rationale out loud.
This innovative game offers challenges to date barely explored in the world of board games – opportunities to work on some types of inferences with open-ended answers (Emerald-Eureka challenge) and deductions made while reading that are related to the meaning of words or the context of the sentence (Amethyst-Minus Talk challenge).
POSSIBLE APPROACHES:
It is possible to play in small groups of 2 to 4 students. Each challenge has three levels of play. Teachers can choose a level based on their student’s level of development (differentiated instruction) or their age. In a large group, teachers may choose a single challenge or all the challenges and choose the student who answers by handing him or her a game board when it’s his or her to play. The material can be used in part, or as a whole, depending on a teacher’s educational outcomes. For example, the illustrated game boards and characters can serve to initiate a writing session.
