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Clamshell Concentration

Play concentration with a twist. Create pairs of decorated "clamshells" that depict scenes from stories.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper Bowl

Steps

  • Step 1

    Kai-awase was a game popular among aristocrats in Japan in the late 12th century. Familiarize students with the term aristocracy. What does it mean? Where has it existed? Display images of the game kai-awase in which the insides of clamshells were painted and often depicted scenes from "The Tale of Genji," a classic work of Japanese literature written by noblewoman and poet Murasake Shikibu in the 11th century. The shells would be paired so that the scene on one shell complemented the scene in another.

  • Step 2

    Students can choose a story to illustrate for their own clamshell concentration game. Have them decide on two complementary features from the story. For example, an image of Red Riding Hood could be paired with an image of a wolf. Ask them to draw the images on the inside of a cardboard bowl (which can be trimmed if necessary). Decorate the backs of the bowls using a uniform pattern so they look the same when being played.

  • Step 3

    Arrange the bowls face down. Have students take turns turning over one and trying to find its match. When a match is found, the player keeps the pair. If the pairs don't match they are flipped back over.

Standards

SS: Culture: Through experience, observation, and reflection, identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place.

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Read, reconstruct, and interpret the past. Imagine the future. Place oneself in various times and spaces and reflect on change.

Adaptations

Create a variation of the game using the beginning and end of a proverb. For example, one of the shells would say "A rolling stone" and the matching shell would say "gathers no moss."

Clams are bivalve mollusks. Have students learn what defines a bivalve. For example, it has a two-part hinged shell, no head, and eats by trapping food particles tat are filtered by their gills.