HiHo! Cherry-O

Hi-Ho! Cherry-O - Pick the small fruit pieces from the trees

A child's first game, HiHo! Cherry-O focuses on picking colorful fruit off of trees. Another game that has stood the test of time, Hi Ho! Cherry O came on the market in 1960. Among other things, when you play this game you will get to practice color recognition, counting, fine motor precision, taking turns, following directions, and using a spinner.

The goal of Hi Ho! Cherry-O is to be the first one to pick all of the plastic cherries off your tree and place them in your basket. The difference between the two versions (see image above) is that the original version has red cherries only for all four trees, and the newer version has four types of fruit in four different colors: red cherries, blue plums or blueberries, orange oranges, and green apples. The fruit pieces are small but have a stem. 

There are four trees on each game board, and each tree has holes for 10 pieces of fruit (so they don't roll around) and a plastic bucket. The game board stays in the bottom of the box, and you can see that each tree has a deep basket nearby to collect the cherries in. I have several versions of this game and none of them have a jigsaw puzzle (see image below). The spinner(s) has held up well and it features six different options. Whatever you spin will dictate what you do on your turn.

Object:

Be the first to pick all the fruit off your tree and put it in your basket.

Set up:

Place all the fruit in the holes on the trees. Each tree will have only one color of fruit. Stand each piece upright so that the stem sticks up in the air and is in position for easy pick-up. Place the spinner nearby.

Play:

Flick the arrow on the spinner. The arrow will land on one of six options:

• One cherry - Pick one cherry from your tree and put it in your bucket.
• Two cherries - Pick two cherries from your tree and put them in your bucket.
• Three cherries - Pick three cherries from your tree and put them in your bucket.
• Four cherries - Pick four cherries from your tree and put them in your bucket.
• Bird or dog - Take two cherries from your bucket and put them back on the tree.
• Spilled bucket - Remove all fruit from your bucket, put it back on the tree and start over.

Follow the directions each time you spin and play until someone has picked all the fruit from his tree. I like to pull this one and Granny Apples out in the fall when apple picking time rolls around.

To see a list of fall-themed games, click here.

Try this:

• Set up the game by putting two or three pieces of fruit in the individual's palm. Ask them to bring the pieces to the fingertips one at a time, and place them on a tree. 
• Clean up the game by asking the individual to cup one or both hands. Drop the fruit into their hands one piece at a time while they hold this position.
• Use a die instead of the spinner. Throw the die, observe the number, then pick that many pieces off any tree(s). Squirrel the pieces into the hand one at a time without dropping. Drop them all together into the bucket.
• Hold the spinner in one hand and spin with the other. 
• Ask the individual to flick different fingers while using the spinner, such as index finger, middle finger, ring finger. Look for a nice round web space before spinning.
• Ask the individual to cup the non-dominant hand and hold several pieces of fruit. If they have difficulty with this, place a small ball in the hand and cup the fingers around it to help them shape the hand, then remove the ball. Place several pieces of fruit in that hand for setting up the game. Ask the individual to hold them in that hand and pick them up with the dominant hand, one piece at a time, to place on the trees.
• Take all fruit pieces from the mixed version and mix them up. Set the four buckets in front of the individual. Place several pieces at a time in the individual's hand and ask him to sort them by color into the buckets, bringing them one at a time to the fingertips to drop.
• Place all fruit pieces, stems up, from the mixed color version on the trees. Set the four buckets in front of the individual. Using a pincer grasp and an O shaped web space, pick each piece off each tree and sort by color into the buckets.
• Skip the spinner. Set the fruit on the trees and then call the order of the fruit to be "picked" by color.
• Set the fruit on the trees. Pick the fruit, one piece at a time, and squirrel it into the palm without dropping. Try to pick a whole tree worth of fruit this way without dropping any.
• Sort by color. Mix all the fruit in a bowl. Ask the individual to place each piece on the tree by color, filling up one tree before moving to another.
• Place the fruit for one color tree in its basket. Ask the individual to hold it in their non-dominant hand, then pick the fruit out of the basket one at a time to place on the tree.
• Work on visual discrimination, figure ground, visual closure, eye hand coordination, pincer grasp, fine motor precision, manual dexterity, thumb and finger opposition, flicking a spinner, coordinated use of both hands, in-hand manipulation, open web space, socialization skills, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: Game board, 4 plastic buckets, 40 pieces of fruit, spinner

Ages 3-6, 2-4 players

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.