This week, we’re entering the fantasy realm! I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while. As an avid Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) player, I’m so impressed with what David and his colleagues have done with the D&D Club at this school.

What started as an idea to engage a small group of students during lunch time with something other than a sport or music club has turned into a movement at the school that has inspired projects in other classes, student creativity, and a safe space for kids to explore and foster their wonderful and wacky personalities.

What is D&D Club?

David and Patty started D&D club about two years ago as a fun way to engage students in the library. Every Wednesday at lunch, students from Grades 4 to 7 gather into 2 or 3 adventuring parties to embark on quests that last about two months. Usually the club is so popular that they need to alternate parties every other week.

Each group gets 3-4 sessions to complete their quest and each adventuring party is led by David, a Teacher, or in some cases a Grade 6/7 student who is familiar with being a Dungeon Master (DM). There’s a lot of responsibility on the DM to move the story forward so this is usually left to those who have played the game outside of school.

Students create characters and are provided with features, stats and skills that they’ll be proficient at during their quest. Some are magic users, others are strong or agile, and some are just there for a good time!

Inspired Art Projects 🎨

Angelle signed up to be an adult in the room for D&D club, but as the Art Teacher at her school, she saw the potential for something creative. D&D can be played on a physical map with miniature figures representing characters. Usually, during lunch, the students play on quickly drawn maps or generic grids to show where their characters are acting from. This year, Angelle got the Grade 6 classes to create 3D maps and the Grade 4 classes to create characters for everyone to play with.

The Grade 6 classes were challenged to create a map that included a WIZARD TOWER for the final battle, and a surrounding landscape that included interesting story features like towns, monsters, or difficult terrain that could be incorporated into a story.

The Grade 4 classes were given a couple options for characters: they could create a drawing of another student's character from the club, an NPC (non-playable character) from the quests, or make a character up from scratch. Some students even went as far as creating backstories for their characters. Amazing!

Angelle inspired her class by giving them a quick and easy way to create a character drawing with a video from popular D&D Map Artist; JP Coovert.

School-wide Impacts of D&D Club 🩵

• Growth in Community 🌱 — Kids who wouldn’t normally sit down to play together join a group to work together for a common goal. At the start of a quest, expectations around fair play, taking turns, and collaboration are established to create a positive experience for everyone. In order for the quest to move forward, students are encouraged to work together and begin to realize that collaborating is easier than 5 players doing their own thing. Learning about their party members is a necessity!
• Fostering a Sense of Learning Through Play 🛝 – D&D is a game, but the decision making and collaboration needed to build consensus as a group is a valuable skill and Core Competency! Allowing kids to roleplay difficult scenarios with fantasy characters gives them practice in a low stakes environment.
• Understanding Perspectives Through Roleplay 🧙 – Great characters have unique and established points of view. Getting to roleplay these perspectives has given some students an opportunity to come out of their shell or express ideas that they wouldn’t feel comfortable holding as their own. As an example, a quieter student created a barbarian character that was highly charismatic and confident. As they roleplayed as their character, they proclaimed their strength and conviction and worked to convince others in the story that they were ready to lead. Awesome!
• Math 🎲 – Players roll dice in D&D. Quickly adding or subtracting modifiers from their character sheet is an asset for them and the success of their party!
• Self Expression 🗣️ – High energy students and kids with active imaginations have an environment in D&D club that embraces their ideas through storytelling. Nothing is too out there for the fantasy realm! Plus, the dice will dictate if your idea works or not! Some of the best moments in a quest are when the craziest solutions end up working in your favour or failing spectacularly.

What a joy it’s been watching this club grow to encompass more and more students, teachers, subject areas, competencies, projects, and personalities. If you see potential for something like this at your school, reach out to us, and we’d be happy to connect you with David and his team of adventuring educators!

We know you’re curious…

Hey you should play D&D, it’s not just for kids!