The Very Hungry Caterpillar Twirl & Toss

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Twirl & Toss Game

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Twirl & Toss is a spinning caterpillar target game. Build the plastic caterpillar, turn it on, and throw plush fruit pieces toward it as it slowly spins. The twirling caterpillar is made up of five pieces, which you will easily snap together before playing. To turn the caterpillar on and off, press the small button on the base. On the green caterpillar body and the two green leaves are circles made of velcro. There are 10 circles on the caterpillar and five circles on each of the leaves. As you toss the plush fruit pieces they will catch on the velcro and stay put. There are 3 red apples, 3 purple plums, 3 green pears and 3 orange oranges. Requires 2 AA batteries. It makes a soft whirring sound as it spins. To play, give each player one particular color (3 pieces). Turn the machine on. All players throw at once to see who can be the first to get all of their pieces to stick. Play several rounds and see who wins the most rounds. Fully assembled the caterpillar is approximately 17.5" tall.

The fruit size (plush pear).

Try this:

• Place the twirling caterpillar at a distance where the individual can be successful, then move it back incrementally as the player improves.
• Play alone and count how many efforts it takes to get all the fruit on the caterpillar. If you miss, pick up the fruit and try again. Then play another game and try to beat your score.
• Mix the fruit and place on the playing surface. Call out either a color or a fruit name for the individual to throw.
• Pick up the fruit one piece at a time when putting the game away. Squirrel each piece into the palm, see how many the player can hold before dropping the fruit by handfuls into the box.
•  Work on visual discrimination, visual-motor integration, spatial relations/position in space, visual tracking, manual dexterity, motor planning, executive functioning skills, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 1 twirling caterpillar, 12 small plush fruit pieces

HotSpot

Hot Spot - Logic game with 40 challenges. Jump other BOTS to land in the hot seat.

Hot Spot is a portable, one-person logic game from ThinkFun. The goal of Hot Spot is to set up the game pieces according to a challenge card and then hop your red piece over the others pieces until you land in the hot seat, the red circle in the top left-hand corner of the board.

The plastic game board has a lid that snaps on and all the pieces and cards are stored inside. The game board is approximately 7.5" X 7.5". The pieces you will be playing with have faces painted on them and are called Bots. The blue and red Bots have rings around the bottoms making them wider. The Bots with the rings cannot sit side-by-side because they are too wide. This just adds an additional challenge to the game.

There are 40 challenges, one per card, that increase in difficulty as you go. You will be placing anywhere between 2 and 7 pieces on the board when you set it up, depending on the difficulty of the challenge. The solution to each challenge is on the back of the card. You can stand the card in a slot on the game board as you see in the images.   

There are several rules for hopping. They are:

• Bots may jump up, down, across, but not diagonally.
• Bots may not jump over open spaces.
• Bots may jump over one or two other pieces.
• Bots must end their jump on an open board space.
• Large Bots (the ones with the rings around the bottom) may not land next to another large Bot (no overlapping allowed).

Here are the first, middle and last challenge cards and solutions:

First, middle and last challenges.

Solutions to first, middle and last challenges (above).

If you would like to read more about one-person logic puzzles, check out my post What's in Your Therapy Box? Logic Puzzles Edition. 

Try this:

• Play the games from the solutions on the backs if the puzzles are too challenging from the front. This will give directional practice (up, down, left, right).
• Start by solving a puzzle from the back, then disassemble and turn the card over so you can't see the solution. Now set it up again and solve it.
• Play a game by following the solution on the back and leave the last move for the individual to figure out. Then play and leave the last two moves, then the last three, etc.
• Set up and solve a challenge as the individual looks on. Do your reasoning verbally as you work to teach the individual how to think through the process. When the challenge is completed, disassemble it and let the individual build try it. 
• Know when to stop. Some individuals will be able to complete challenges for awhile, but the cognitive demands will become too great to go all the way to the last puzzle for some.
• Work on visual discrimination, visualization, spatial relations, eye-hand coordination, manual dexterity, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
  
  In the box: Game board, 10 BOT pieces, 40 challenge cards
   

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