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Children learn through play. As an occupational therapist who works with children and youth, I use games and toys almost every day to help develop important cognitive, visual perceptual, motor, sensory, social, play and leisure skills. While many different types of activities can be used in therapy, this blog focuses on off-the-shelf games and toys that are accessible to most. Whether you are a therapist, parent, teacher, or a game lover like me, I hope you discover something useful while you are here. Learn a different way to play a game you already own or discover a new game for your next family game night. Either way, just go play. It's good for you!

The OT Magazine named The Playful Otter one of the Top 5 Pediatric OT Blogs.


Jun 30, 2016

BBQ Blitz

BBQ Blitz
It's a race to match hamburgers (or veggie burgers) to the patterns on the plates. BBQ Blitz includes spatulas to flip and transfer the burgers and buns to your plate.

The 16 burgers are rubbery brown plastic and have a picture on one side of either ketchup, pickles, cheese, or mustard. You can see catsup on the burger in the image above. The buns are also a rubbery material. There are only 12 burger bun tops, not sure why not 16 since there are 16 burgers. There are four card plates, and each plate has images of four burgers, all with the same ingredient (ketchup, mustard, pickles, cheese). The four spatulas are hard plastic.

The inside-bottom of the box has a picture of a grill top with fire. Playing inside the box may help some as you can push the item against the edge if you have trouble picking it up with the spatula.

Object:
Be the first to find and place all your burgers on your card.

Set up:
Place the burgers, picture side down in the box, pretending you are placing them on the grill.

Play:
Players take turns. Using a spatula, slide it under a burger and flip it over to see the ingredient on the bottom. If it matches the ingredient on your plate, pick it up with the spatula and place it on your card. Use the spatula to add a bun to top it off. Your turn is over. If it does not match, flip it back over to end your turn. When you see someone else flip one of the burgers you need, remember where you saw it so you can flip it on your next turn.

The winner is the person to find and place all of his burgers on his plate first. Make the game a little more difficult by requiring a bun top be picked up with the spatula and placed on each burger before it can transferred to a plate.

To read more about why memory games are so popular, read my post Memory Games. Why are They so Popular? This post also has links to the other memory games I have blogged about. 

Try this:
  • Place burgers in the box face up and ask the individual to remove each of them and place on the matching plates to learn to use the spatula.
  • Place the burgers in a grid on the table face-down. Forget the spatula and play a simple matching game by turning two burgers at a time with your fingers, looking for a match.
  • Use the hands instead of the spatula and make one big stack of burgers. How many can be added before toppling?
  • Work on visual discrimination, visual closure, visual memory, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, tool use, manual dexterity, socialization skills, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
In the box: Game board (box bottom), 16 burger patties, 12 bun tops, 4 spatulas, 4 plates
 

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