Sanford Harmony Game Room

Sanford Harmony Game Room is a collection of quick connection cards that can be used with social-emotional learning programs that focus on relationship building. Each deck includes an early-learning section and an upper-grade section. The Conversations deck includes discussion questions such as, "If you could go back in time, where would you go and what would you do?" and "What special belonging do you hope to keep your whole life?" These help students get to know each other -- finding commonalities and appreciating differences. The Collaborations deck is filled with activities that have partners working on problem-solving, collaboration, and cooperation; it includes cards like, "Create a creature with your buddy using one piece of aluminum foil and six pipe cleaners." or "Look at the clouds with your buddy and describe what you see to each other." The Community Builder deck has discussions and activities for larger groups or the whole class, including many games teachers may be familiar with (duck, duck, goose and telephone) and many that may be new.

To see how this tool works, watch our video overview of Sanford Harmony Game Room.

At the time of review, Sanford Harmony Game Room is still new and in development. As it stands, the cards fit well with any SEL philosophy adopting restorative practices and relationship building. They could certainly be useful and a great way to weave SEL into every day. As is, the cards are good for teachers who are comfortable facilitating SEL discussions and activities on the fly. However, there's limited guidance for how to use the cards or handle student responses for teachers who may want more direction. Some cards are likely to be duds with some kids, so teachers should be prepared to shift gears if necessary. Sanford Harmony has a full SEL curriculum on their website that could offer more guidance and information, but there's no link within the app to any of the free resources.