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Days of Wonder Ticket to Ride

Mindprint Rating

Tags

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

Skills

Flexible Thinking Organization Working Memory Abstract Reasoning Spatial Perception

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Simple yet strategic game play makes it a good fit for a broad age range.
  • The board pieces are brightly colored and will engage younger children.
  • Game teaches students the geography of major US cities and a bit of US history.

Considerations

  • The beginning of the game can be slow as players need to keep picking cards to reach the minimum threshold to begin laying down a track.
  • Students with weaker visual skills might find the game board overwhelming to look at and too many cards to juggle.
  • Students with weaker fine motor skills might not like having to line up their pieces so carefully.

Mindprint Expert Review

Ticket To Ride is a deceptively simple yet strategic cross-country train route building game that is quick to learn and enjoyable for a broad age range. Players collect colored train cards matching railway routes on the game board, enabling them to place their train tokens and claim city-to-city connections. Secret 'ticket' cards guide their decisions with the goal to make the longest, completed connections before all of the train tokens are gone. Points are awarded at the end of the game for the length of each connection as well as for completed tickets. The game introduces the historical importance of the railroads for those who are interested and is a good starting game for families who want to begin playing the strategic board games. Ticket To Ride works extremely well with all ages, for families, and especially for children who love trains. For families who enjoy the game, there are alternate versions including Ticket To Ride Europe.

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
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Has small parts that may be difficult to manipulate (e.g. battleship pegs)
  • Self-regulation
    • Multi-player activity that requires cooperation or has potential for disagreements
    • Multi-player activity with a clear 'winner' and 'loser'
  • Social Awareness
    • Multi-player activity that requires cooperation or has potential for disagreements
    • Multi-player activity with a clear 'winner' and 'loser'
  • Visual Discrimination
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
    • Words used during activity can be too small or difficult to read
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
    • Directions are visually difficult to read

Manufacturer Description

October 2, 1900 - it's 28 years to the day that noted London eccentric, Phileas Fogg accepted and then won a bet that he could travel "Around the World in 80 Days." Now, at the dawn of the century, some old friends have gathered to celebrate Fogg's impetuous and lucrative gamble - and to propose a new wager of their own. The stakes: $1 million in a winner-takes-all competition. The objective: to see the most cities in North America - in just 7 days. Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure game. Players collect train cards that enable them to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway. For 2 to 5 players ages 8 and older. Playing time: 30-60 minutes. Comes with: 1 Board map of North American train routes, 240 Colored Train Cars, 110 Train Car cards, 30 Destination Tickets, 5 Wooden Scoring Markers, 1 Days of Wonder Online access number, and a Rules booklet.