Teachers and students across the UK and US can ‘go wild with words’ this academic year. 

The makers of the word tile game Bananagrams have announced the launch of the Bananagrams School Club.

Since 2015, more than 250,000 students and teachers throughout the UK and US have played Bananagrams in their schools as a result of the Bananagrams School Challenge. Now, through the new School Club, more than 130,000 students are this year expected to join in the quest to have fun, make friends, and, most importantly, develop a love of wordplay and the English Language.

Bananagrams will offer free kits, including two complementary Bananagrams games, to qualifying schools across the UK and US. Free downloadable resources will be available online for all participating clubs.

“Here at Bananagrams we are passionate about literacy. We love being able to bring playful learning to the classroom,” said Rena Nathanson, CEO at Bananagrams. “It’s been professionally and personally gratifying to provide resources to our amazing teachers and to see so many students sharpen their language skills via our games, all while having fun. We hope the Club will create some life-long Bananagrams fans.”

The educational benefits of Bananagrams include: improved letter and word recognition; spelling skills; visual attention; memory and recall; categorisation; visual processing; sorting and classification; sequential thought; and language development.

Bananagrams will host a monthly hashtag challenge for club members, calling for mid-play action shots showing the longest word created in a game. Clubs will need to hashtag their picture with #BGSClongest word, to be in with a chance of winning a prize pack filled with games and goodies. Via the hashtag challenge, along with a strong Google classroom and social media presence, the Bananagrams Club will help to create a virtual community for teachers to connect, share resources and celebrate teaching through word play.

You can register to join the Bananagrams School Club here.