Play Battleship with a Hundreds Chart

Teachers are always coming up with fun ways to use Battleship in the classroom for teaching different concepts. My teen recently made a Battleship game in Google Sheets for her computing class, which used conditional formatting so when you guessed a square it would change color if there was a ship there. So clever!

In the past we have shared a Battleship game you can play with the periodic table (which is just so clever) and using sight words (adorable!) and while this is a new one to me it makes total sense and is super easy to set up.

123 Homeschool 4 Me shared the idea of using a hundreds chart to play Battleship. If you aren’t familiar with them, a hundreds chart is just a 10 square by 10 square chart that lists the numbers from 1 to 100. If you are familiar with a hundreds chart, you know it’s a grid, so it is the perfect choice for using in a game like Battleship.

This is a two player game, like the original, and you can decide how many ships each child has and their size depending on their age and level of patience. Having more and bigger ships probably makes sense for younger players so they won’t get frustrated when they don’t get a lot of hits. You can do variations based on using the actual numbers or coordinates based on the number’s position on the chart, how many ships and their sizes, etc.

It’s a great game for little kids first learning to count to 100, but I think older kids could enjoy this version, too. It’s great to have on hand because it doesn’t take any set up at all and it’s easy to explain to kids how it works.

You can find all the details plus a printable hundreds chart you can use for your own Battleship games and other learning at 123 Homeschool 4 Me.

[Photo: 123 Homeschool 4 Me]

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Valentine's Day Language Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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