PME Game Invention Project

The Pine Meadow Elementary Game Invention project is a cross-curricular project in the areas of phy ed, music, art and media. The brainchild of Gene Severson and Matt Hager, the game invention project provides students an opportunity to not only create a new game for children, but also the change to teach it to their classmates, create a song or jingle to showcase it, create posters and other artwork, such as logos, to share it, and produce an Educreations slideshow putting it all together.

The students began in phy ed, by being assigned to groups of 5 students. Each group was given a random set of phy ed equipment items, such as a bowling pin, hula hoops and a basketball. Their job was to invent a game using those tools. They needed to come up with rules for their game, which would also include safety tips.

In their art class the students talked about logos and artwork. In their groups they created digital images of their game's title or "company logo".

 In music the students used a fantastic website http://www.quavermusic.com to build a song that would "advertise" their game. Some of the groups created a rap, others came up with a song, while others used voice narration. These were recorded in Wavepad on the iPads and saved. Back in art, the groups began to put together a slideshow for their game. These were created on the iPads in Educreations.

Once completed, their soundtracks were recorded as the music for the advertisement.

This project really allowed the students to work together creatively! The process was incredible, and the amount of collaboration, creativity and communication used to complete the projects was commendable - especially for third graders!! I will post some of their projects here.

Enjoy!