Adventurer Law Game

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How do you teach the Adventurer Law to your Adventurers? We recite the pledge and law to start every meeting. Our Adventurers begin memorizing the law as Little Lambs. But do they understand all the big words? One of the requirements for investiture for Helping Hands is to explain the law. This seems like a very reasonable requirement. Before they graduate from the club, they should understand the thing they’ve been reciting at every meeting for the past four to eight years. But, how to teach it?

I have run into this struggle every time I teach Helping Hands. One year, I had two kids who enjoyed writing and coloring. I gave them the workbook, we discussed each part of the law and they starting writing. It was..wonderful. And, if your adventurers are neurotypical kids who love to write, I definitely recommend the workbooks. You’ll love them!

Our job as teachers is not to teach the curriculum, but to teach the kids in front of us. We don’t change the kids to fit program, we change the program to meet the kids wherever they are at. My Helping Hands this year are not kids who love writing. However, they are kids who love games! All kids learn best when they are having fun. In my ongoing attempt to gamify the Adventurer program, I decided the Law was a perfect place to create a game. I am excited about how this game turned out. I hope the Adventurer Law Game will be as helpful in your club as it was in mine this year.

Gamify the Law!

There are three different ways to use the cards (but I bet you could think of more!): Cooperative Memory, Cooperative Go Fish, and Search and Match. In all three games, Helping Hands will match the law to it’s definition. (I used the official definitions from the Adventurer Club Director’s Guide.) I printed each card twice – this gave us a chance to discuss the definition the first time we ran into the word and review it the second time. I think the ideal group size is 4-6 players. I have played it with two players which also worked, but I think a larger group would benefit being split so each player is an active part of the group.

Cooperative Go Fish

We played Cooperative Go Fish. I think this is the fastest of the three games and the most focused on the content. We hung our Adventurer Law flag right next to the table so we could reference it during our game. Having the law right there was super helpful, and I highly recommend it. Rules for all three games are also in the card deck.

• Shuffle cards. Deal all cards. All players should attempt to have the same number of law cards as everyone else. Trade cards until everyone has approximately the same number of law cards and no one has a matching definition card (as much as possible).
• Oldest player begins.
• Player reads a definition card. Everyone tries to figure out which law matches the definition. Another player who has law card shares their card with the first player to make a set. Play continues until all cards are matched.

Cooperative Memory

• Shuffle cards. Lay cards face down.
• Play as usual, except:
• Matches must be made between law card and definition card. No player can have two sets of the same card – they must share their second set with another player.

Search and Match

Option 1: Hide all of the cards around the room before the meeting. Have the kids work together to find all of the cards and match definition cards to law cards.

Option 2: Hide half of the cards (either law cards or definition cards) cards around the room before the meeting. Lay the other half on the table. Have the kids search the room to find the missing cards and match them.

Arrival Activity

After you have introduced the law and it’s definitions, you could use these games as one of your arrival activities. Search and Match (and possibly Memory) would be great to have set up before kids begin arriving. As they arrive they can jump in searching for law cards and matching them to the definitions already laid out on the table.

Construction

I print my game cards on cardstock and laminate them so they will be ready this year and future years. Laminating is optional (obviously). If you want your cards to look more like ready-made cards, there is an optional backside to print on the back of each page. I have also included the Adventurer Law in the printable file (in case you don’t have a banner in your Helping Hands’ room) and an answer key for the teacher.

How do you teach the law to your adventurers? Please leave a comment to tell me about it. I’m always looking for new ideas!

If you use the Adventurer Law Game with your club, would you come back and leave a comment? I’d love to know how it worked for your club!