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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: While baseball is technically the sport of the Dominican, many also refer to Dominoes as the national sport of the country, due to its popularity as a pastime. The sound of “smacking” down the dominoes on the board is commonplace to hear while strolling about the tropical paradise; and games often span the entirety of the afternoon.

In class, I teach the rules and let students play in small groups. But I also like to extend it to add an option for the ‘building’ center, as some tire of the game at a certain point and just want to build. Here, I show classes Guinness World Record videos involving hundreds of thousands of dominoes, which are pretty incredible feats to watch. While this activity can end in tears, setting up dominoes is a great opportunity to teach patience, teamwork, and slowing down, especially for younger students.

If students are really into this, you can also keep extending this project by tapping into Paraguay- Landfill Harmonic and this Rube Goldberg video.