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FoxMind Architecto

Mindprint Rating

Tags

Mathematics ^21st Century Skills Social-Emotional Learning All Ages Game

Skills

Flexible Thinking Abstract Reasoning Spatial Perception

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Illustrations to build 3-D models come in 6 levels of difficulty, offering progressive challenges for a wide ability range.
  • Exercises important spatial and abstract reasoning skills, in addition to sequencing, organization and attention.
  • Each challenge is relatively short, which makes the construction feel manageable.

Considerations

  • Students with weaker spatial and visual skills, as well as attention or planning skills, can be successful in this game, but they might require adult support and encouragement.
  • Students might be tempted to peek at the answers in the back of the book without persevering through the analysis on their own.
  • Some of the more difficult structures require careful placement and balance which could be frustrating, especially for students with weaker motor skills.

Mindprint Expert Review

Architecto is a challenging yet enjoyable single player or team challenge game that requires building unique structures by applying spatial perception and abstract reasoning skills. The game includes 50 construction exercises that are completed using 18 orange, multi-shaped blocks. In each challenge, players are shown illustrations in 3-D perspective of which blocks to use to construct the model. The simpler puzzles should take a few minutes to complete but then will get progressively harder. In the back of the book, the solutions show each type of block in a different color so students can see clearly how the model comes together to check their work. This game, which can be fun as either a single-player or a team challenge, offers terrific practice for students with weaker spatial and visual skills but might require adult support. Adults also should be prepared to support students with weaker organization or flexible thinking skills to think through their steps and make adjustments without getting frustrated, especially if the structure falls apart as they are building. For students who have strengths in these skills, the activity offers a motivating, progressive challenge as they move up in difficulty.

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

  • Attention
    • Problems or examples are not interesting for the target age range
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
    • Assembly is difficult or product may break or fall apart easily
  • Organization
    • Problems or examples are not interesting for the target age range
    • Requires remembering and completing a sequence of visual steps
  • Self-regulation
    • Assembly is difficult or product may break or fall apart easily
  • Visual Motor Speed
    • Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
    • Assembly is difficult or product may break or fall apart easily

Manufacturer Description

Embark on an exploratory journey of design and form with Architecto, part of the Brain Builder Series. As you construct 50 geometrical structures of increasing complexity, you’ll build your spatial logic skills and stretch your imagination in new directions. Suitable for solitary, group or free-form creative play. Architecto received the Game of the Year award from Creative Child Magazine (USA 2010), the Spiele Gut (Germany 2008) and the Triple Star Award from the Canadian Toy Testing Council - CTTC (Canada 2005). ***All 4 games in the Architecto Line (Architecto, Equilibrio, Tangramino and Perspecto-Cliko) use the same sets of GeoBlocks; you can simply add puzzle books (sold separately) to your Brain Builder collection. All puzzle books include rules in En, Fr, Es, De, Nl, Tr and more. Object of the game: The game comes with a set of GeoBlocks and a booklet of illustrated puzzles. Each illustration represents a 3-dimensional (3D) model to be constructed with the GeoBlocks. For each model, the type and number of blocks to be used are indicated in a window at the bottom of each page. There are six levels of difficulty, starting at yellow – easy, up to red – difficult.