I’ve said it many times and use it as a criterion for choosing games for my game nights … I LOVE games that have more than one level of play and/or more than one way to play.  Games aren’t cheap anymore and ones that focus on basic skills can be even more expensive.

So when I found Money Mart from Edupress, I knew this one would come with us to many game nights! There are two levels available, Grades 2-3 and Grades 4-5.  Each game box includes 200 cards covering  all four operations plus time, money, graphing, and fractions.  THAT was a surprise to me.  When I first saw the game I immediately thought it was a money game … period.  WRONG!  There’s some money involved, but students get practice in sooo much more than just money!

Each card in the box is labeled in the upper right hand corner with the targeted skill.  If you want your child/student to have practice in all areas, shuffle all the cards.  If you want to focus only on one skill (like multiplication), pull out all the cards labeled Multiplication.  You will have plenty of cards to play a game and the cards will have questions/problems on 3 different levels.  The levels of difficulty are differentiated in monetary values on the front side … $1.00 cards being the most challenging, .50 are medium difficulty, and .25 as the easiest.  Randomly lay out 9 cards of different monetary values, money side up.  Player then chooses which card they’d like to try to answer/solve to collect that amount of money.  Play continues, replacing the cards on the table from the draw pile, until a player has collected $5 worth of questions.

You could also easily play this game Jeopardy style, lining up cards in the 3 values and allowing the student to choose Multiplication for $1.00!  I’ve made a Jeopardy-type board before for a workshop I did years ago, using a tri-fold project board and library pockets to hold the questions and headers made from word strips or decorative cutouts.  Foldable, portable game for the whole class or for small groups.

And here’s the best part of this game … it’s only $11.99!  TWO HUNDRED cards, EIGHT skills targeted!  That’s a fantastic value!  And it doesn’t hurt if you can muster up your best Alex Trebek impression!  Enjoy!

Carol

As a player, you are dealt 6 pieces of pizza to start to build your pizza with a draw and discard pile nearby.  On your turn, choose a card from either the draw pile or the discard pile and swap that card out for one of your pizza pieces.  I was aMAZED at how these 8, 9, and 10 year old boys STRUGGLED with what cards to keep and which to discard to make 10.  Struggled.

Now, you might say these boys were performing a bit below grade level in their math skills, but unfortunately we’ve seen this scenario repeated many times over!  When you think about it though, there is a lot to consider when picking up that new card.  What’s my total now?  How many am I short or over?  Which card shall I discard (keeping an eye on my opponent’s pizza as well!)  Which one will get me closer to 10 without going over?

So my point is, don’t be fooled by the age range on a game … especially one with several levels of play.  It may look innocent, but there may be some higher level thinking involved making a “cute” game challenging!

Sorry I haven’t “blogged” in a while.  Life just gets in the way sometimes … I have no better excuse.  I have tried to use Facebook as my vehicle during December.  Hope you’ve been following us there!

Today I wanted to tell you about the game Spot It!, though.  We’ve had an absolute blast with it over the holidays and at all of our game nights this fall.

 The object of the game is to find the matching item between 2 cards.  There is one and ONLY one item that matches between any 2 cards.  Be the first to find it, and you capture that card.  The match won’t be in the same position, nor even the same size as the one on your card!  Be the player with the most matches at the end of the deck and you’ve won!  There are several variations of play included in the game, and a friend of mine said her kids and grandkids loved the game so much, they created their OWN version of play!  That’s fantastic!  I’ve said before that directions are only a suggestion in my book.  Many games are as much fun, if not more, when you make up your own variations.

And speaking of variations and adaptations, Spot It! is suggested for ages 7 – adult.  I’m here to tell you that you definitely can play this game with younger children!  Part of the age suggestion is because of the objects pictured on the cards.  Most children under 7 (and even some older children & adults) don’t have the vocabulary to name these items.  So before you start to play, sit with the youngest players and simply go over each of the objects and give each a name.  You don’t necessarily have to call it a Treble Clef … you could just call it “Music Symbol” or just “Music.”  There’s a list of each of the objects used in the game within the instructions, along with suggestions for an appropriate moniker.  Once they can name each object, you’re off to the races!

I love Spot It! for visual perception, and obviously vocabulary, not to mention pattern matching.  Spot It! also requires and strengthens quick mental processing.

I also love that it’s small enough to drop in your purse or slip into your pocket when traveling or eating out!  Pull it out in a waiting room (‘tis the season … you KNOW you’ll be in the doctor’s office in January or February!), or at a restaurant while you wait for your meal to come.  Keeps little ones engaged and entertained, and makes the time pass quickly for the older ones.  Having a “sleepover”?   (What a misnomer!  There’s no sleeping going on!)  Having friends over on a snow day?  All ages can play together.  Faaaan-tastic!  Love, love, LOVE this game!

For years we’ve been a huge fan of the game Zingo-o made by ThinkFun.  It’s easy to play, makes a great first game for children, and adults don’t mind playing the game over and over.

 If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing with this game, here’s a quick tutorial … Every player selects a bingo-like card.  Cards are two-sided with the green side being a bit less competitive than the red side, as pictures are duplicated less times between the cards.  All players must play on the same color side.  A player or an adult moderator pushes the tile-gizmo forward, which drops down 2 word/picture tiles.  If you see one of those words/pictures on your card, you may call it out and claim that tile for your card.  Three covered spaces in a row, wins the game.  *The hardest part of this game is for kids to remember to LOOK on their card BEFORE they grab the tile.  We have always suggested that if you have a player who’s a bit quicker or can’t control their “grab” reflex, then have all the players take turns … 1) to work the gizmo, 2) to look for those 2 tiles on their board.  If they have a match, they get to keep it.  If not, those tiles are fed into the top slot of the tile gizmo to recycle them.

It’s a great little pre-reading game!  The thought behind it is for children to eventually associate the printed word with the picture on each tile.

We had a Montessori teacher who was in our employ for a while.  She loved the Zingo game and told us she’d made the game into a Math game!!!  She took the word tiles, flipped them to the blank side, and wrote numbers on them with a Sharpie!  Then as the tiles came out of the gizmo, children had to add the 2 numbers that came out!  LOVE that idea!  Soon after tho, ThinkFun updated their game and made the word tiles 2-sided, so now there is no blank side.  But if you have one of the older versions, you can still steal that idea!!!  About that same time they also came out with Zingo 1-2-3, which does offer some addition practice.

Recently I got an email alerting me to check out ThinkFun on FaceBook and to join a closed group on FB for ThinkFun dealers.  I was pleased to find an article on there from a Speech Therapist who’s taken those Zingo word/picture tiles to a whole new level!  Kelly Rholes suggests verb tense practice by having children chose 2 or 3 tiles, using those words in a sentence and stating the sentence first in present tense, then in past, and then again in future tense.  And of course, when you’re given words like “foot, tree, and sock” to use, the sentence may be a silly one, but it must be grammatically correct! 

She also notes that many of the words included in the game end in /p/, /t/, /g/, or /k/ … letters that some children may delete in speaking.  She has her students sort out these troublesome words and use each in a sentence.

When you’re done playing and are cleaning up the game, practice following directions by telling the players to put the tiles back in the slots in a certain order.  Using the tiles again without the cards, have your child sort the word tiles by category or play a memory game with them!  Select 4 of the tiles, then have your child hide their eyes while you remove one of the tiles.  What’s missing?

I’m sure you can come up with a few more ideas of your own and that’s what I hope you will do here.  Share what’s worked for you and what games are YOUR favorites!


-Carol

It’s a well known fact in the world of game manufacturing … do NOT put the word “educational” anywhere on your packaging.  It is the kiss of death for that game.  You’d think that would be a good thing!  That parents and teachers would respect that adjective and would even be drawn towards it!  Not true.

I have become friends with the people who invented and developed the game Thryme.  They live in the Pittsburgh area.  Through the past 10 years or so, they have shared with me their struggles and victories in making and promoting their game.  Recently they sold the license for the game to a well-known national manufacturer.  Gooooooal!!!  It’s really out of their hands now, but as most game inventors will tell you, they’ve got another one in the works.  They were telling me about their new game and the packaging of it when Linda (one of the collaborators) said “ … and the guy there said NOT to put the word …” (at this point I chimed in) “EDUCATIONAL on the packaging!”  She was at first shocked that he said that and then again surprised that I voiced those exact words as well!  Obviously not the first time I’ve heard that.

The reasoning behind that rule is that no one will touch a game labeled educational.  The consumers’ immediate thought is of some of the really dry (read boring) games of years gone by complete with bad graphics and no excitement or fun.  It’s a shame because so many games that offer great skills practice are very far removed from that description.

At the shop we saw a lot of games come in that just did not do justice to the game inside.  Take one of my favorites for example … Set.  No flashy packaging, no gimmicky graphics, no claims of awards in the game industry.  But in my humble opinion, one of the best thinking, brain exercising, visual perception games on the market.  It’s easy enough for a first or second grader to understand, but challenging enough for adults and everyone in between.  We’ve seen youngsters eyes light up when they’ve found a “set” and we’ve seen adults scratch their heads in consternation!

But it’s never been a game that sold itself off the shelf.  Most would pass it by with hardly a glance.  You have to play it to find the appeal.  Hence the reason we had so many games open for demonstration at the shop.  And yet there were other games that we saw fly out the door with no demonstration or comments on our part, simply because of the magnetic pull of their graphics and claims. 

I’ve also observed that you have to present any game to your audience with enthusiasm.  I’ve included Set in many Game Night situations and have personally demonstrated it when our volunteers have shied away from it.  I’m the first to tell you that I’m not great at Set, but I LOVE the concept!  And if I can get you to love it as well, that makes my day.

The bottom line is that the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” goes for books, people, and games too.  Give them all a second look.  You may be very glad you did!

Carol   

At the shop we sold a lot of dice … I mean a LOT of dice.  And we stocked a lot of different kinds of dice (some of which I will have again and offer for sale at our Game Nights.)  We even created a give-away bag of double dice for a local district’s Math Night and included ideas on how to use these dice at home!  Using dice to practice math (or word) skills instantly makes practice time much more fun!  Here’s how ….  

In case you’re not familiar with the double dice, they are large clear dice with numbers on the outside, and another die inside of them … both either 6-sided or 12-sided.  So for beginners (1st or 2nd grades), we’d suggest the 6-sided dice.  Roll one of the die and add the inside die number to the outside number.  For even younger children, have them write down the numbers that come up and decide which is greater than (>) or less than (<) the other.  As they grow in their math knowledge, roll the die and use the outside number as your tens, the inside as your ones.  Write the correct number.  Instant place value practice!  After that, roll the die again, write the second 2-digit number and then add or subtract those numbers.  Now you have double digit addition & subtraction.  For older students learning multiplication, the same basic principles may apply.  Mastered those?  Go for the 12-sided dice!  Now you’ve practice for all four functions at your fingertips!!


To make things even more interesting, we also carried 3-in-one dice … literally 3 tiny dice inside a larger clear die.  Each of the tiny dice inside are different colors (red, white, & blue to be exact!)  I loved these for place value to 3 digits, announcing before you roll that the blue are your hundreds, red your tens, and white your ones.  Write the number.  Roll again, record that number and add, subtract, multiply, or divide!


Of course, any of these practice exercises can be done with plain dice like you might find in a board game.