Catan Classroom Guide : Home

Settlers of Catan was created in 1995 in Germany and was an instant success winning three national board game awards that year. It was released in english the following year and continued to rack in many awards. In 2005  the first ever "Catan Big Game" took place in Chemnitz, Germany, an event where players from across the globe came together to play this wonderful game. The event grew and grew and in 2017 saw its largest crowd ever at 1096 participants. 

In 2002 players from across the globe began competing in a Catan international championship. At that time 27 nations were competing for the title. In 2018 the number of nations had grown to 46! 

Today, over 40 million copies of Settlers of Catan have been sold and the game is enjoyed around the globe. 

Settlers of Catan was created by Klaus Teuber who was the Director of the company until he passed away on April 1st, 2023

To end each session I recommend starting clean up a little early so that the students have time to make sure that all pieces are still their and that everything is put away nicely. Students should be taken through clean up step by step the first time just like when you were setting up. For the following sessions students can take control of set up and take down but are still responsible for making sure that everything is their. 

When explaining the rules and flow of the game it is easier for students to understanding if they can see the game board and pieces we are talking about. To start off session 1 I would set up the game with them step by step before explaining the rules of the game. 

Start off by getting students to examine the pieces that are in the box. Make note that the students need to have their box looking just like it was when they first opened it when they clean up for the day. If your boxes are not labeled I would recommend that you place a contents list in each box and/or label each section of the box with what should be inside. 

Slowly set up the game board step by step allowing students to catch up to each step before moving on. Once the game board is set up then you can start explaining the rules. 

*I also started using a sign out sheet for each Catan game so that each student is assigned a game and a color that they will use throughout each session. This way at the end of the session when you check to make sure you haven't lost any pieces you know exactly who was playing each game and each color. The sign out sheet I used is bellow. 

Catan, like many games, appears complicated at first but is easy to play once you get the hang of it. The following power point will help you in explaining the rules to your students. I also recommend sitting down and playing the game prior to teaching it to have a better understanding of the game. 

If you have any students who have played before, I would suggest splitting them up into different groups because having someone playing that already knows how to play really helps the other students in their understanding. 

Playing games like Catan can be a rich learning experience for students. Catan can be used to learn about trading and early settlements, probability, and much more. I have designed some self assessment sheets that can be changed to shift whatever your focus may be. When I taught I was focused on the mathematics side of the game and my assessment is aimed that way as well. Through these self-assessments that the students fill out I am able to see their learning and their thinking. 

Attached is a self-assessment sheet split into 3 parts for 3 different sessions. 

After playing the first time you can have a discussion with the class around strategy of the game. What strategies did they try? How will they change their strategy next time? 

On day 2 have a talk about how probability comes into play. Why are the 6 and 8 tiles red? What do the dots under each number mean? What is the most likely outcome of rolling 2 d6's? 

After day 2 you can have a talk about how the mechanics of the game translate to what life may have been like in early settlement days. Was trading important then? Is trading important now in our world? 

After day 2 encourage them to try a different strategy again to see if they like that strategy better or if they find a favorite strategy. 

For the last day I have the students fill out a self assessment form to describe the connections between math and Catan, as well as socials and Catan. They also are asked to describe three different strategies they used and how those strategies