Apples to Apples

by Dan Balzer

It was raucous, loud, turbulent and it was all about critical thinking.  Let me explain.  I took my two girls to have dinner with my four nephews.  They are all between the ages of 3 and 12.  After dinner we pulled out the game, Apples to Apples and divided into pairs.  Each team was given 5 cards with one word on each card.  The designated “judge”, the 12 year old, then laid one more card on the table that had a key concept on it – like “new”, “dangerous”, “hot”.  Each team submitted a word from their cards that they felt most closely related to the meaning of the keyword that was on display.

The “judge” then had to select the closest match from the words that had been submitted.  But, and here’s where the real action came in, each team had the opportunity to make a case for why their word had the closest meaning to the keyword on display.  The interaction became boisterous and hilariously engaging as teams used every semantic and creative link they could find to convince the judge of their word choice. 

Here’s an example of what the judge was facing.  Which word do you think most closely matches the key concept?

Dangerous – fireworks, playgrounds, watching TV, waterfall, lemons, snowstorm, jumping rope
New - airplane, Prince Charming, getting mail, ladybugs, Winnie the Pooh, my hair, bumblebee
Ugly – bats, ants, babies, lifeguards, sharks, Snoopy, rats
Hot – boys, watermelon, dragon, pizza, pile of leaves, glue, cherry pie

As I sat there I realized that this game was giving us practice in several essential skills necessary to create an effective Internet search query – knowing the professional vocabulary of the topic and understanding the multiple meanings of words as well as the relationship between a key concept and a search term.  In each round of this game, the teams were unpacking the professional vocabulary for a key concept.   They picked up new vocabulary as they played and were exploring the logical connections between the meanings of words and how they connect to each other (or don’t connect!).  By playing with older siblings and adults, the younger learners also benefited from the insight of the players with broader vocabularies and life experience.  Everyone around the table used critical thinking skills as they evaluated the meanings of words and made connections between words that they hadn’t thought of before. 

To put it in plain language, matching “apples to apples” is really what searching on the Internet is all about because the more apples (or words) that you can find that closely match the meaning of your key concept, the better the results you will get.

Here’s a practical classroom application of this game: 

Play this game at an activity station prior to a lesson on searching the Internet. After having kids play Apples to Apples, break the class into teams. Have each team generate a list of alternate words that match the key concept for a class research project. Be sure to encourage the critical thinking that makes this activity so valuable. Then have one student be the judge who decides which word (or combination of words) will be the best for the search. Once again encourage your students to justify their word choices. Finally have individuals or teams try out the class generated keywords in a real search. After the search, debrief the experience and discuss which words were the best search terms. If you aren't able to purchase the game, create your own version with note cards and build it around the kids' search topics.

Our 12 year old judge’s selections (you may disagree!):
Dangerous – fireworks, New – airplane, Ugly – ants, Hot - dragon

More about the game: Apples to Apples $29.99

Editor’s comment:  What I love about this game is that pre-readers can start to develop the thinking skills for building their vocabulary and making connections between words.