DIY-Jeopardy Board

We're a few months into my first stab at homeschooling, and I have to admit that I'm really enjoying it. When I was little, I would sit my stuffed animals in a row, and play school. Sometimes I would dictate a spelling test to them, then quickly write the words on each animal's paper. Of course, I had my favorite animals that would always score 100%, and some less favorite stuffed animals that routinely "misspelled" their words. Having the opportunity to do school with Stinker has been both enjoyable and gratifying. She's come so far in the last few months, that the effort is definitely paying off.

One of the curricula we're using this year is Classical Conversations (CC). I like the Classical model, and Stinker loves learning through songs and games.

I've recently gotten Stinker hooked on Jeopardy, (I am, myself, a Jeopardy addict, so it's fun to watch it with her), so I decided to create a Jeopardy board to practice CC. It really couldn't have been easier to make.

I went to Lakeshore and got a tri-fold poster board, a pack of self-adhesive library pockets, and some self-adhesive name tags. I also had a pack of index cards laying around.

Hopefully you can multiply better than I can. (Apparently six categories times five questions per category requires more than 25 library pockets. I had to make a second trip.)

Lay out the name tags and library pockets as shown. The name tags will show the category, and the library pockets will hold the questions and show the value of each question.

Write the category and value as shown.

Write your questions on the index cards. I abbreviated the category and put the value of the question on top as a way of keeping score and keeping organized. 

To play with one child, have them choose a category and point value, and ask the associated question. If they get it correct, put the card in one pile. If they get it incorrect, put the card in another pile. At the end of the game (I usually ask about 10-15 questions, or at least one question from each category per game), subtract the cumulative point value of the incorrect answers from the cumulative point value of the correct answers to come up with a final point total. There can be actual prizes for winning, or just "Yay! You got 1000 points. Great job!"

To play with more than one child, play as in an actual Jeopardy game, putting questions aside in separate correct and incorrect piles to determine final point score.

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