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Guess Who? Board Game

Mindprint Rating

Tags

Social-Emotional Learning ^21st Century Skills K-8 Game

Skills

Flexible Thinking Working Memory Abstract Reasoning

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Students learn how to eliminate possibilities by starting out broadly and then growing more narrow, an important reasoning skill.
  • Students grow comfortable formulating and articulating questions that require a specific yes or no answer.
  • Each game is relatively short and does not require reading except for the characters' names.

Considerations

  • The game takes time and good fine motor skills to assemble for first use and cards can easily come out and get lost.
  • There are a limited number of characters so over time the game can feel repetitious; however, there are many alternate versions and expansion packs available.
  • Students might disagree on whether or not a question was asked and/or an accurate answer provided.

Mindprint Expert Review

Guess Who? is a simple, yet fun and effective two-player game to help students develop their flexible thinking and abstract reasoning skills. Two players sit across from each other, both with the same assortment of 24 different character faces. To start the game, each player picks a card that has one of those same 24 characters. Each player's objective is to be the first to identify the other player's character by taking turns asking yes or no questions that the other player must answer honestly. Questions typically start out broad, such as "Is your character male?" and need to grow more specific as the remaining options narrow, e.g. "Does your character wear glasses?" Students can flip down the characters that do not meet the criteria, so scanning becomes easier. However, some students might still have difficulty with the amount of scanning involved. Overall, Guess Who? can be a relatively quick game that helps students develop critical skills of questioning, listening, scanning, and analyzing in an enjoyable experience with no reading.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Adults would enjoy playing with a child
  • For electronic games, gives positive or encouraging feedback
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Does not require excessive set-up time after first time use
  • Can be fun as a single player game
  • Multi-player game which fosters collaboration or cooperation
  • Well-made for the cost
  • For electronic games, can play without sound
  • For electronic games, allows user to save work
  • For electronic games, voice/sounds are appealing and pronounces words properly
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Cognitive Concerns

May not be advisable for students with the following cognitive needs

  • Auditory Processing
    • Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Has small parts that may be difficult to manipulate (e.g. battleship pegs)
    • Assembly is difficult or product may break or fall apart easily
  • Listening Comprehension
    • Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
  • Self-regulation
    • Multi-player activity that requires cooperation or has potential for disagreements
    • Multi-player activity with a clear 'winner' and 'loser'
    • Assembly is difficult or product may break or fall apart easily
  • Verbal Memory
    • Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
  • Visual Discrimination
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Working Memory
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
    • Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
    • Requires remembering and completing a sequence of visual steps

Manufacturer Description

Beloved 1980's version of the classic mystery face game is back! There's a mystery person on your opponent's card. Can you find the matching face in the crowd? Start with your game full of silly-looking characters. Then ask the right questions to eliminate the wrong faces! Does your person have blue eyes? Is your person wearing a hat? Once you're down to a face or two - solve the mystery by guessing who! If you're the first to identify your opponent's mystery person, you win. Ages 6+