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Polygon

Mindprint Rating

Tags

Mathematics ^21st Century Skills All Ages Game

Skills

Flexible Thinking Organization Working Memory Abstract Reasoning Visual Discrimination Spatial Perception

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • The unique use of hexagon chips provides good visual and tactile practice in spatial reasoning skills.
  • Players have as much time as they need to decide where to place their chips.
  • Each color has a corresponding shape for students who have difficulty distinguishing colors.

Considerations

  • The game is very visually busy and requires a lot of scanning on every turn.
  • It is very easy to misplace the chips and disrupt the board which could be very frustrating, particularly for those with weaker motor skills.
  • The slow pace and entire reliance on visual-spatial skills will make this game unappealing for some.

Mindprint Expert Review

This slower-paced visual strategy game provides a good challenge for those with strong spatial perception and visual discrimination skills. The game board consists of adjacent hexagons for players to take turn placing their plastic hexagon chips. One side of each chip has three rhombuses--one blue, one red and one yellow and a number in each. On your turn you must pick two face down chips and decide where to place them with sides adjacent to other sides of the same color to try to create the most valuable combinations of 1s, 2s, or 3s, or runs up to 5. Chips can be placed on an empty space or on top of an existing chip. Students must plan the best way to use both chips to make the highest score while not leaving a high potential play for an opponent. Students also will have opportunity for multi-digit addition practice as they add up their scores. The game ends when all chips are played. The player with the highest score wins. The game requires a lot of visual scanning on the very busy game board and is relatively slow-paced, so it is not for everyone. However, some will enjoy a new type of visual-spatial challenge and it will give all players practice figuring out how the hexagons fit together properly.

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

  • Abstract Reasoning
    • Directions may be confusing for students using independently
  • Attention
    • Directions may be confusing for students using independently
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
    • Has small parts that may be difficult to manipulate (e.g. battleship pegs)
  • Spatial Perception
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
  • Visual Discrimination
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects

Manufacturer Description

Position your POLYGON quot;tilesquot; to create a scoring combination. The player with the highest total score at the end of the game WINS! IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Contents: * Folding Game Board * One Die * 49 Polygon Tiles * Game Instructions * 50 Score Cards