Welcome, 2010!

The new year is here, and we're close to half way through the 2009-2010 school year. Students are back at school and are starting to adjust to using their brains again after a two week hiatus. I'm getting used to being on my feet all day and teaching a class of 31 kids.

Even though we've only been back in school for three days, students are already asking me when our next Memoir '44 History Club session is going to start. I'm going to have to sit down and figure out a schedule because I have several groups of students who want to participate, and they're all at different levels of familiarity with Memoir '44 and World War II.

I have three groups of students to accommodate. The first group is comprised of the students who were part of the Memoir '44 History Club last year. These students are in 5th grade now and many of them already had 10 sessions where we focused on the Pacific Theater.

The second group is made up of my students from last year who are in 4th grade now. Three of these students joined the 5th graders (and held their own) but there are many students in this group who couldn't join the Memoir club before Christmas because they played Fall sports.

The last group of students who have expressed an interest in the club are my current 5th graders. I don't know how many students from my current class would actually sign up for the club, but several of them have asked when they can join.

If I wanted to, I could try combining students from all three groups into one club for a few sessions, but I'm afraid their knowledge base it just too different. Students who where in the club last year are extremely familiar with the rules of Memoir '44 and have a solid understanding of D-Day and World War II in general. The current 4th graders know the rules of Memoir '44 but don't know very much about World War II, and my current class has been introduced to Memoir '44 but would need to practice the rules for several battles because they've had so little exposure to the game so far.

I'll have to think about this dilemma and see what I can come up with. Anyone have a suggestion?

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas! It's been a good year for Memoir '44 and a great year for the Memoir '44 History Club.

It's hard to imagine that a year ago I hadn't had any History Club classes yet and the club was just theory. Since then we've learned about D-Day and the Island hopping of the Pacific Theater. We've practiced strategies, worked on the rules, learned how to play Overlord, and enjoyed this great game. It's been good for all of us.

Looking at the rest of the school year, I anticipate running two or three other sessions of the club for different groups of students. Members of my current 5th grade class have expressed interest in joining the Memoir '44 Club so I may look into providing a short session for them. Students from last year are eager to sign up, so I'll determine if there's enough interest to run a full session for the 4th grade students I taught last year (as 3rd graders). Last but not least, I want to provide another session for my original crew of students who are now in 5th grade. This will be their last time to be part of the Memoir '44 History Club and I want to make sure we get some great battles in before they graduate from Jewell Elementary.

It looks to be a busy spring with a lot of Memoir '44. I wouldn't have it any other way. Merry Christmas!

Let the Wild Rumpus Start - Again!

I'm sorry for the long silence over the summer and the first few months of school! I had high hopes of writing some blog entries about books I was reading or battles I was playing during my summer but it just never happened.

We're back and the Memoir '44 History Club has started up again. I only have 10 members for this session. In part this is because some of the students who were in the club last year have moved, a few students play Fall sports and have practice during the club, and one student said that she "wants to take a little break". Most of them want to join up again in the Spring so I may end up with a large group later on.

Even with fewer students, I'm having a great time and I'm happy to offer the club again. We welcomed three new students to the group this year; students I had last year who were eager to join the club even though they playing with 5th graders. They have some catching up to do, but they're smart kids and seem to be doing just fine

Our focus this session is on the Pacific Theater. We started the club last week by watching a few short videos on Pacific battles. I'm trying to make sure the students realize how different the war in the Pacific was from what we've studied in Europe. All of our battles will focus on the Japanese against the US Marines.

Because there are less kids, I have enough Memoir '44 sets for the students to play 1 v. 1 instead of in teams. They love being on their own! It will take a few more battles before they feel comfortable with the new rules in the Pacific expansion, but they have a good base of knowledge and are catching on.

Thanks for your interest in our little game club in Oregon! Welcome back to another great year of the Memoir '44 History Club!