Ticket to Ride

Recommended grades 6 and up.  Ticket to Ride is a German-style board game that allows players to earn points by building train-routes across the country.  Players need to strategize by building routes before their opponents can.  Ticket to Ride can be adapted to the middle school level because the rules are simple, and unlike other strategy games like Risk, a single game can be played relatively quickly.  As users' skills increase, the game becomes more challenging.  Playing this game can build geography skills as well as critical thinking.  The original game board is a map of the United States, though other versions are available, including Europe, Germany, and Asia.  The game does include lots of little pieces which can be easily lost.  Highly recommended, ****