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Play Story Board Game

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing ELA: Reading ^21st Century Skills K-8 Game

Skills

Flexible Thinking Expressive Language Organization Working Memory Verbal Reasoning

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • With 125 double-sided tiles, there is plenty of opportunity for players to improve reading, vocabulary and spelling.
  • The combination of sentence writing, picture drawing and randomness provides a great blend of fun and learning.
  • The game offers a reasonable amount of variety with three types of games and collaborative and competitive options for each.

Considerations

  • The wipe-on board could be of better quality, but that is easily addressed by using your own paper .
  • The bubble lettering style on the tiles is intended to be appealing but can sometimes be difficult to read.

Mindprint Expert Review

This simple game can be fun and effective in teaching writing and creativity. Players use 125 double-sided tiles with words or pictures and can choose to work collaboratively or competitively with three different games. One game requires players to create sentences from a random set of tiles. The second game requires creating a funny drawing based on three random word tiles. The third game asks players to take turns creating a "totem pole" of drawings from randomly selected cards. All writing is done on a double-sided erasable board. The words hit just the right blend of challenging fun to make it appropriate for a broad range of abilities. Advanced readers will not find this game too simple, and young readers will not grow frustrated as long as they are playing with a helpful older sibling or adult. Adults playing with a child can choose to emphasize specific skills including vocabulary, grammar, spelling and creative thinking without the game feeling like work. Overall a fun, simple learning game.

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

  • Reading Basics
    • Directions may be confusing for students using independently

Manufacturer Description

The Story Play Game from Briarpatch is a fun, creative, collaborative, story collage. Includes 125 double-sided word and image tiles, double-sided write and wipe game board, write and wipe pen, and instructions.