Seriously, I love the title of the product I had a chance to review today - KABAM! from Educational Insights.  :)  Way fun!  If you like war card games or letter/word games (or both if you just like games), you will love KABAM!  It really is fun and I can see the students loving it as well.

Basically it is just a large tin with oversized cards.  The students work in pairs and each take half of the stack.  The cards each have a letter or two on them. Some examples include A, TH, UN, VE, and H.  To play, the students place the cards face down in front of them, and each flip over one card.   The first person to make a word using both cards (without breaking apart the 2-letter combos), gets to keep both cards.  And then the play continues.  The cards can be used in any order in the new word.  For example, if someone flipped a TH and an A, they could say THANKS or MATH, but could not use Attached (because the TH needs to stay intact). 

For a fun twist, there are also random KABAM! cards.  If one player flips one of those cards, both players flip over one additional card (so now they should have 1 KABAM, and 3 letter cards).  The first person to make a word using all three letter combos, gets all 4 cards.  (Similar to war.)  If two KABAM cards are thrown at once, each player keeps their card and they just keep playing normally.  Play continues until one person has all the

cards.  Super easy when it’s clean up time too!

How do I see this being utilized in the classroom?  Obviously, it will be for second graders and up (though some gifted K and 1 students might be able to handle some simple combinations).  The age stated on the tin is actually 7+, which I would agree.  Even some 2nd graders might struggle with letters like VE or TI.  The great part is you can go through and choose the easier combos to use.

Another issue could be time.  Have you played war with someone lately?  It can last for hours!  Once again, pick and choose how many cards each player should get and limit the game in that way.  Even if they finish early, they can play again.  If the cards are shuffled adequately, different combinations of letter should come up, so it would not be a repeat of what has already been said.

Since you may only have 1 or 2 sets of the game, you might want to use it in a center where there is 4-6 students max playing.  You can also have students partner up to create teams instead of playing one-on-one.  I would suggest not too many on a team though, as it could get crazy with all the answers shouted out or mumbled.  It might be frustrating to play that way.

Could you make your own?  You could make a simple set of notecards with letters on them and laminate, but these really are nice and sturdy, which I believe will hold up a ton longer.  The retail is $12.99, so it wouldn’t break the bank to have 1 or 2 sets.  Perhaps write a local grant to get a class set (divide your student number in 2 to get the number you would need.)  I think the students would love this game and am interested if anyone else has played KABAM! with their kids (at home or at school)?

Feel free to leave me a comment below!  Oh - and PS, enter to win one from Educational Insights right now!  Whoo hoo!  (If you could stop by their fan page to say thanks for sponsoring this, that would be fabulous )  :)