Avalanche Fruit Stand

Avalanche Fruit Stand - Comes with jumbo tweezers and LOTS of fruit.

Avalanche Fruit Stand is a fruity tweezer game from Learning Resources. I like Learning Resources because the games are well constructed and made to last. With that being said, I had trouble with one of the sets of tweezers in this game. They would not open wide enough to pick up the fruit and they are made of such hard plastic that I could not pull them apart. It's good to always check that tweezers open wider than the pieces that they are meant to pick up so the pieces can easily fall out when you want to drop them. These tweezers have two depressions for finger placement on one side and one depression on the other side for the thumb placement. 

I emailed Amazon about the trouble with the set of tweezers and they promptly replaced it. However, I have the same trouble with the new game. One pair of tweezers isn't opened quite wide enough. You can push it down on top of the fruit and it will wedge in the tweezers, but you need to be able to release pressure on the tweezers for the item to drop out. With these tweezers, the fruit will not drop out. I move my middle finger to the inside of the tweezers and push the sides apart and the fruit falls out. Not a perfect solution.

The fruit is hard but rubbery, so it will not slip in the hard tweezers. There are five different kinds of fruit - apple, orange, grapes, banana, strawberry - and eight of each type of fruit.

The fruit stand is made of heavy cardboard material, not plastic. There are two small Velcro dots on the back of the board that allow you to adjust the angle of the board for three levels of difficulty by making the stand more or less slanted. The instructions are on the back of the fruit stand game board. You might want to read them before loading up the stand with fruit.

Object:
Be the first to remove one piece of each different kind of fruit.

Set up:
To set up the game, stand the fruit stand up as shown above. Stack all the fruit in a single layer on the fruit stand. Place the spinner and tweezers close by.

Play:
Players take turns spinning the spinner and following the directions:

• Color - Use the tweezers to pick one piece of fruit of that color off the stand and put it in your pile.
• 2 - Use the tweezers to pick any two pieces of fruit off the stand and put them in your pile.
• 3 - Use the tweezers to pick any three pieces of fruit and put them in your pile.
• Star - Take a piece of fruit from another player.

If there is an avalanche (fruit pieces fall off the fruit stand) while you are playing, you must put any and all fruit pieces you have collected back onto the fruit stand. That is according to the instructions. I often do not follow the "penalty" portion of the instructions. It depends on the person playing, the frustration level, the cognitive level, the skills being practiced, etc. Apply clinical reasoning. Depending on what the goal is, I may just grab the fruit and put it back on the stand. Or if it seems too difficult, I might grab it and place it in the box. The box says there is an activity guide included. I did not get one unless they just meant the directions.

To see a list of other games that include tweezers or tongs, click here.

Try this:

• Practice opposing thumb to index finger and creating a nice rounded web space before flicking the arrow on the spinner.
• Ask the individual to cup one hand and then place the fruit into it, one piece at a time, with the other hand. How many pieces can the individual hold before dropping any? Switch hands and try again.
• Set up the game board by picking up two pieces of fruit in the dominant hand. Bring them to the fingertips, one at a time, and place them on the fruit stand.
• Use the tweezers to set up the fruit stand and pick the fruit off with the fingers.
• Hold the spinner in the non-dominant hand and spin with the dominant.
• Play until all the pieces are removed. Winner has the most fruit.
• Stack fruit only two or three high until the player gets used to taking the fruit off without making others fall. Add more fruit gradually.
• Sort all the fruit by color.
• Put fruit away by spinning the spinner. If it lands on a number, try to pick up that many pieces, one at a time, and squirreling them into the palm without dropping. Dump them into the box.
• Stack the fruit in the stand. Try to take out all of one type of fruit without causing an avalanche.
• Lay the fruit stand flat on the table for set up. Put all the fruit in and then stand it up.
• Work on visual discrimination, spatial relations/position in space, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, manual dexterity, pincer grasp, palmar arch development, thumb opposition, coordinated use of both hands, web space development, shoulder stability, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 2 jumbo tweezers, 40 pieces of fruit, fruit stand game board, spinner, activity guide