Game of the month - Junior Scrabble

Scrabble is one of the most popular board games in the world.  The brainchild in 1931 of an unemployed architect, Alfred Butts, it was originally called Lexico and had little success.   But with some minor changes, simplified rules and a name change to Scrabble by James Bunt in 1948, it has now sold over 150 million sets and been translated into more than 22 languages. One of the variations of this ever popular game is Junior Scrabble.
Junior Scrabble is a fun way to introduce kids to the classic game, while helping them learn letters, simple words, strategic thinking to get the best score and the social skills developed when playing competitive games with others.

Contents:
double sided game board giving 2 levels of play for 2 - 4 players, 84 letter tiles, 29 blue counters, 16 red counters, 1 tile bag, instruction booklet

 How to Play:

Level 1:  ages 5 - 8years.  Uses the 'Words and Pictures" side of  the game board.   The object of the game is to cover the letters in each word on the board with matching letter tiles. 

• Players take 5 tiles each and keep them face up in front of them so all can see.
• The first player places 2 of their tiles on the board if they can.  Words must be built up in order - e.g the 2nd letter cannot be played until the first letter is on the board for that word.
• The player then takes 2 tiles from the pool to keep 5 letter tiles. 
• Play continues in turns with each player placing 2 tiles if possible and replacing their tiles with 2 from the pool.
• Players must play tiles if they can, even if only 1.  If unable to go at all, 2 tiles are put back in kitty and the player takes 2 new letter tiles
• If a player completes a word they take a blue counter, it is possible to complete more than 1 word in a go, if so they take a counter for each word completed.
• When the pool is empty, play continues until all the words are completed.  There will be some tiles left over. 
• The winner is the person with the most counters

Level 2: ages 7 years and up.   Uses the 'Colours and Counters" side of the board.  The object is to score as many points as possible by making complete words that interlock vertically and horizontally on the board.  The blue and red counters are placed facedown  in separate piles and form the "kitty"  The tiles are placed the bag and form the "pool"

• Each player takes 5 tiles and places them face-up for all to see.
• The first player makes a word on the board with 2 or more of their 5 letters. One tile of this first word must cover the centre square (has a star on it)
• For each red or blue square the word crosses, players take the same coloured token from the "kitty", then turn them over to see what they scored.
• Players then take the same number of tiles they used form the "pool' ensuring they have 5 tiles.
• Play continues in turns with each player  forming new words, the tiles must always join onto or cross a word already on the board and must be complete words. 
• Play continues until the pool is empty and 1 player has used all their letters or until no player can make more words.
• Each player adds up the scores on their counters.  The winner is the player with the highest score.

Educational Benefits:

• become familiar with letters
• become familiar with new words
• strategy and problem solving skills in working out how to get the best score
• taking turns and social interactions
• introduction to the classic Scrabble game
• Great winter fun for the whole family

 3 and Up Games for fun, educational board and card games

Here are 2 sites with reviews of Scrabble Junior:
ELTNews
Scrabble Reviews

We would love to hear what you think of this game:  Does it help with literacy learning?  Is it fun for the whole family?


Have fun
Mary

Game of the Month - Bright Buttons

Inspires kids natural curiosity

Bright Buttons is a fun and educational board game for preschoolers designed by an Australian mum. 
Simple to play this game for 1 - 4 players is enjoyed by boys and girls and is also fun for parents and grandparents.
The colourful sturdy box contains:
1 gameboard, 4 foam building blocks, 1 colour coded dice, 4 buttons playing pieces, 225 questions and challenge cards, instructions are on the bottom of the box.

 How to Play:
Players move around the board by throwing the dice and moving onto the next space of that colour.  The player than answers the question or performs a challenge from a card of that colour. There are Lucky Buttons spaces that involve a challenge and the player gets another turn.  A player finishes when they move past the last space on the board and answer their final question.

The questions are divided into 3 categories:
 Knowledge (blue):  can involve naming an object in the picture, general knowledge e.g. what does a lion eat? or answering a question about themselves e.g. spell your name
 Work It Out (yellow):  kids to need think through answers such as - who is the  tallest person in your family? how many objects in the picture? use the foam blocks to build a tower the same as in the picture 
Physical Challenge (red):  gives kids an opportunity to get up, be active and have fun while following directions on the cards e.g. quack like a duck, hop on 1 leg 3 times
 Cards also contain information for parents on how these activities support learning.

Educational Benefits:
The unique style of questions and challenges encourages an interest in and development of:

• general knowledge
• lateral thinking, 
• spatial awareness
• literacy and numeracy skills
• improves balance, gross and fine motor skills

 3 and Up Games for fun, educational board and card games

Hello and welcome to our latest update 
How quickly the time goes!! It is hard to believe that 7mths ago I was in Canada for the birth of our beautiful granddaughter. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Skype we are able to continue to watch her grow and develop, albeit from afar. As a nanna I am reminded that parents are our children’s first teachers and play a major role in encouraging kids to learn and explore the world around them. Simple things such as talking & singing to babies, playing with them, pulling faces, making different noises etc all are important, but, boy am I looking forward to picking out some great games for her as she grows.

"For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does 'just for fun' and things that are'educational'. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play." Penelope Leach

Here are a few links to some interesting articles about the importance of playing and communicating with our children, even in those first few weeks / months.
Baby communication-newborn-to-3-months
babies learn through touching
play and babies 0to3months 

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New Games Available: Children’s Chess, Brain Boosters, Flashcards – colours, alphabet, numbers, shapes. Blokus Duo, Make ‘n’ Break Challenge, Gobblet x4

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Specials bin: Charades games on special until the end of June. 

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You can also now follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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Also, if you are involved in a Playgroup, Kindergarten, Toy Library or school we now have printed catalogues that we can send you.  Just Email Mary  or call her mobile:  0410 153 593

Remember these cooler evenings are a perfect for family games nights, hunt out your board or card games and have a fun time. Or check out our range for some great new games to try.

Have some fun. Mary

Charades is a guessing game probably invented in France during the 18th Century.  Originally a kind of riddle in verse or prose, today it is generally played as an acting game in which one player acts out  a word or phrase for the others to guess.The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to get your message across and is a great family and party game.  Most kids love "acting" and performing: for those more shy, they have a great time laughing at the actors and trying to guess the words.  It encourages imagination, creative communication, builds confidence, teamwork and quick thinking while having lots of fun.   
At 3 and Up Games we have various charades games for the family, each with added challenges to make them even more fun.   

Step on It - for the littlies, players make footprints as they act out their words.  

Children All Age Charades - 3 levels of play making it easy for kids of all ages to be in this game. 
Cro-Magnon - combine mime, charcoal sketching, clay moulding and primitive speech to"evolve" or not! 
Cranium Cadoo -kids mime, sketch, crack codes, puzzle and sculpt to get 4 tokens in a row to win. Invovles lots of giggles and grinning.
Mindsi Junior - Kids use words, numbers, pictures, music and movement to collect 2 cards from each of 6 categories to win.

Here are some hints to get you started:

•  First indicate what you are going to mime: book - unfold your hands as if they were a book, movie - pretend to crank an old-fashioned camera, song - pretend to sing, tv show - draw a rectangle to outline a tv screen, quote or phrase- make quotation makes in air with fingers.  
• Then how many words in the title or phrase - hold up the number of fingers.  
• Then which word you are acting out - hold up number of fingers again.  

Then have lots of fun being silly. 

Some other common signals:  

• number of syllables in the word - lay number of fingers on your arm
• which syllable you are acting out - lay number of fingers on your arm again
• length of word - make a "little" or "big" sign as if measuring a fish
• "on the nose" - (someone has a correct guess)  - point at your nose with one hand, while pointing to the person with your other hand
• "sounds like" - cup one hand behind your ear
• "longer version" - pretend to stretch elastic
• "shorter version" - do a karate chop with your hand
• plural - link your little fingers 
• name - tap the top of your head
• past tense - wave you hand over your shoulder toward your back
• a letter of the alphabet - move you hand in a chopping motion toward your arm (near the top of your arm for near the beginning of the alphabet and near the bottom of your arm for near the end of the alphabet).  
• close, keep guessing - frantically wave hand about to keep the guesses coming
• not even close, I'll start again - wave hand in a wide sweep as if to say Go Away 
  
  
  These are common signals but of course can be adapted and changed depending on those playing, very easy to adapt to suit small children for example.

  
  
  
  
  So go on have a go - you can only have fun!!!  

Finding Lost Rules!

One of the frustrations of board and card games, especially those that we play over and over, is losing the rules!

So where can you find them? We have copies of some rules but there are a number of resources on the web that maybe able to help you.

Firstly check out the manufacturer of the game e.g.: Gamewright, Hasbro, Mattel and University Games all have links to rules / instructions for many of their games.

Other sites worth checking out are:

Card Games (Pagat.com) – Large list of card games rules.

D’Antiques – check out the Board Games category for a lots of replacement rules

Board Game Capital – good range of rules / instructions for board and other games

Masters Games – provides rules for traditional board, table, outdoor, card games and others.

Darwin’s Games Closet – has rules for over 2,000 games – although there is a cost for these

Check out this article from About.com for some more ideas and links

Happy Hunting and do let us know if you find other good sites for replacement rules and instructions.

Cranium Cadoo

Now that autumn is here and the days are getting shorter, and the nights cooler, what a great time to plan some fun family game nights. There are lots of great board and card games for all ages: games that bring family and friends together to share lots of fun while encouraging learning, creativity and imagination.

Try Cranium Cadoo: a wonderful game for kids that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
This game delivers hilarious fun and lots of laughs as kids work together and on their own to act, sculpt, draw, and solve puzzles, using the secret decoder mask to reveal secret words and hidden answers. Whether they're sculpting a chocolate-chip cookie out of CRANIUM CLAY or racing around the house to find something they can balance on their elbow, kids will be thinking, creating, and laughing out loud with CADOO. They may even discover talents they didn't know they had.

Simple setup and easy instructions make CADOO the perfect game for any occasion -- birthday parties, after school, holidays, rainy days, any day!

Have you played Cranium Cadoo? We would love to hear what you think about this game.

Looking for ideas for more games? Check out our website at http://www.3andupgames.com.au/
We have recently added a number of new games and all our games are high quality, good value and provide fun learning opportunities.

For fun ideas to kick off a family fun night from the makers of Cranium Cadoo check out http://www.hasbro.com/games/cranium/everyday_play.cfm

Our first game profile.

Hello all.

Every now and then we will post a game profile.

These profiles will give you information about a specific game, including the educational benefits of the game, rules and any other useful information we have.

Beat the Bear:



A very popular little game that reinforces recognition of single sounds. Played similar to traditional lotto, players try to match the sounds on their board before the picture of the bear is completed. A fun way to assist beginner readers learning the sounds - b, c, d, h, l, m, p, r, s, t.
Perfect for kids 4 and up however 3 year olds will have blast aswell.

Contents: 4 colourful vinyl mats ( 25cm x 33.5 cm), Laminated sound cards (to be cut from included sheets), Laminated bear cards (to be cut from included sheet)

Unfortunately we can't find any links relating to this game.


Visit the 3andupgames beat the bar page: http://www.3andupgames.com.au/site/1436498/product/02-LBB


Cheers


Matt Coward