After about three weeks of being in school, I realized that one of my lower elementary students has to leave class early every single time. The first time, it wasn’t a big deal, the second time I thought it might be a fluke, but by third time, I realized this was going to be a weekly occurrence. I felt bad for the student recently because we were playing Egg Thief, which uses a lot of rules based off of capture the flag. For my lower elementary students, for many this was their first exposure to this type of game, so we had to spend a decent amount of time going over the rules of the game. After the intro and explanation, she only got a couple minutes of playing time before she had to leave the class. Against my better judgment, I told her that we would play the game again next week so she could get more playing time. While that felt like the right thing to do in the moment, I knew there was a good chance that repeating the game would not turn out so great. I was right. When we repeated the game, it was nowhere near as fun as last week. In fact, almost every time we repeat a game, it is not as good as the first time. It’s like the curse of movie sequels; they are rarely as good as the first one. Why are games not as fun the second time around?

The novelty has worn off

Like anything else, novelty can be a very useful feature to use when teaching a lesson. If something is new, and can be presented in a way that captures the imagination and gets the students excited, compliance is usually very high in playing the game. As long as the game is simple enough to understand, the student’s enthusiasm for playing the game is high, and a good portion of that can be attributed to the novelty factor. Once a game is repeated, the students know what to expect, for better or worse. Some students may be happy they get to play the game again, but there will be some students who were not so thrilled with the game, and now they have nothing to look forward to because they are playing a game they already didn’t like so much. When the students play a game and they don’t like it, they at least have solace that they won’t have to play it again. The students who did enjoy the game will hopefully look forward to the next game, especially if they feel I have a good track record of making games that they enjoy.

They are learning something new in class

The most important feature of the Montessori Physical Education games is that they integrate with the classroom curriculum. If the students are learning something new, and they play a game that doesn’t relate to what they are learning about, or worse, feels “old,” the motivation to play the game will not be there as much as it should be. If I repeat a game, it is because they are learning a lesson that may take more than a week to teach (like the Great Lessons). While I could repeat the game if the lesson theme is the same, I find it is much better to play a new game that integrates with the same topic. Instead of playing Egg Thief two weeks in a row, I should played a different game integrates with the Second Great Lesson, like Predator Prey Tag. Both fulfill the mission of integrating with the Second Great Lesson, and now I get the novelty effect back because the students are playing a new game. When the students learned what they need from a lesson, it is time to move on to the next lesson.

You don’t know what you like until you try it

I have been on a Malcolm Gladwell kick, and in a previous blog I mentioned this story he had about pasta sauce. The moral of the story was that there is a no “perfect pasta sauce,” but instead there are “perfect pasta sauces.” About two thirds of the students will like or even love any given game, and a third may not like it so much, or even dislike it. By moving from one game to the next, the students get more exposure to different games. This increases the chance of them liking new games, and minimizes their exposure to games that they don’t like. Adults in general can rarely articulate what they want. Just ask someone what they want for dinner, and you would think I don’t know was the greatest food on Earth. A close second would be pizza, and most people do not live on pizza alone (I am sure some do). Young adults are the same. If you ask them what they want to play, you will get “I don’t know,” or the same game, over and over again. We don’t want our children to be picky eaters, literally or figuratively, and they only know what they know. They need to be introduced to new games for the sake of knowing if they even like them or not (like food).

The focus of the game becomes less about fun and more about the competition

I cannot pinpoint why I have observed this behavior, but I have consistently seen this happen time and again whenever I repeat a game. With the novelty of the game gone, combined with a better understanding of how to play the game, I think the students focus less on the “fun of the game” and more on “how to win the game.” When students begin implementing different strategies on how to play the game, the successful strategies create an imbalance between initially balanced teams. While this is not a bad thing in itself, a lopsided result makes the losing team frustrated and the winning team braggadocious. The students will test the boundaries of the rule set and try to exploit gray areas, which again is not a bad thing in itself and shows creative thinking and problem solving, but can be especially frustrating when the exploit is actually cheating, and not just a workaround of the rules. Unfortunately, I will see much more cheating the second time around we play a game, and this goes back to the focus on competition. The young student is still learning that sacrificing long-term happiness (getting along with their classmates) for short-term results (winning the game) is not the way to go. We address this with our sportsmanship motto of “Be fun to play with; Be fun to play against,” with the whole class. However, I will pull that cheating student aside and let them know that they don’t want the reputation as the cheater, because it is a hard thing shake off.

If you were reading this last section and thought:

“Wait, critical analysis of the rules is a good thing!

Implementing new strategies is a good thing!

Competition can be a good thing (if done well)”

In next week’s blog, I will explain why the very reasons I don’t like repeating games are the very reasons I repeat sports.