Mystery Garden

Mystery Garden - Guess the mystery tile before the traveler gets to the castle.

By asking questions and remembering clues, you will guess the secret mystery tile. The Mystery Garden game board is not as big as it appears, measuring 11.25" square, and is made of three pieces that interlock like a puzzle. As you can see from the picture above it is filled with images of characters, animals, toys and more. 

Around the board you see mystery (picture) tiles, each one showing one specific item from the game board. The pictures on the tiles are taken exactly from the board, no changes in coloring, orientation, etc. What you can't see from the image is that there are 15 numbered stones on a path that leads to the castle at the top of the board. There is one small wooden pawn that will travel this path on each round. 

Object:
Guess the mystery tile before the traveler gets to the castle to win the mystery tile. Be the first player to collect 3 mystery tiles.

Set up: 
Place the board in the middle of the players. Turn the 48 mystery tiles face down and mix them up. 

Play:
The first player draws one tile and looks at it without anyone else seeing it. It is up to the rest of the players to ask one yes or no question at a time, in turn, with the aim of guessing what is on the mystery tile. There are 15 numbered stones on the path to the castle. The pawn starts on number one, and with each question that is answered no, the pawn will move ahead one stone. If the pawn gets to the castle before anyone correctly guesses the mystery tile, the player who is answering the questions keeps the tile. If the mystery tile is guessed before the pawn reaches the castle, the player who guess correctly gets the tile. Here is an example of the questioning that I am taking from the instruction book:

1. Question: Is it a toy?  Answer: No
2. Question: Is it a plant? Answer: Yes
3. Question: Is it a flower? Answer: Yes
4. The next player points to a flower on the game board. Question: Is it this flower? Answer: No
5. The next player points to a different flower. Question: Is it this flower? Answer: Yes!

The player that correctly guessed will get the tile. The wooden pawn will go back to square one and the next player will choose a new mystery tile and the process will start again. 

Try this:

• Leave the pawn out of the game and let as many questions be asked as necessary to guess the mystery tiles.
• Forget the game, just use the tiles and look for the matching images on the game board.
• Forget the game. Match each tile to its image on the game board. Place the mystery tile in a different orientation such as upside down or sideways on the table. Keep the tile in that orientation while you look for it upright on the board.
• Place the tiles face-down by the board. Turn over one tile and everyone looks at the same time. The first one to find it gets the tile. Play until all tiles have been claimed.
• Start the wooden pawn on a higher number stone so that the mystery tile must be guessed in fewer clues.
• Place the tiles upside-down during set up so that individuals can turn them in-hand after picking up to correct the orientation.
• Pick the tiles up to put away by stacking them. Pick up one, put it on top of another. Now pick up both together and place them on top of another. Now pick up all three in the stack and place them on top of another. Keep going to see how many you can hold. 
• Work on visual discrimination, figure ground, visual scanning, spatial orientation, executive functioning skills, manual dexterity, in-hand manipulation skills, process skills, executive functioning skills, socialization skills, play and leisure exploration and participation.
  

In the box: 48 secret mystery tiles, 1 wooden playing figure, 1 wooden marker, 3-piece interlocking game board
 

I See You Game

Little Golden Book I See You Game - A visual closure game from Golden Books

Golden Books bring back wonderful memories for me. When I was a child we lived next door to my grandma. She had a huge collection of Golden Books and she loved to read, a great combination for us kids. I can probably, at least in part, trace my love of reading back to those adventure filled afternoons, curled up next to her as she read one story after another. This is also when I decided that I wanted to be a monkey when I grew up, but that's another story. So as soon as I saw the border going down the left side of this box, I knew I had to check out this Golden Book I See You Game.

I don't have any other game like this (and by now you must know I have a lot of games). The box calls it the classic game of Peek-A-Boo, and I would call it a classic game of visual closure, the ability to identify an object when only a part(s) of it is visible. As you can see from the back of the box, the game consists of cards, sleeves and screens.

LEFT: Back of the box showing the progression of cutouts on the screens. RIGHT: First and last screens.

The goal is to choose one card and, by putting screens with cutouts which reveal more and more of the picture, see how long it takes you to guess the picture. There are five screens labeled A-D. Screen A reveals just one circle at the top and screen E will be revealing most of the image. There are 2 sets of picture cards - My First I SEE YOU cards and I SEE YOU cards. The My First set of cards each have one simple item on them, including a teddy bear, an apple, a kite, and a computer. The I SEE YOU set has an original picture from one of the old Golden Books including Poky Little Puppy, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Tootle the Train and Shy Little Kitten. Reading the related books beforehand might make this game more exciting, but you certainly can play it without ever reading a Golden Book. The picture in the image above is The Shy Little Kitten, but you could just say cat or kitten.

You can turn the screen over, it's solid white on the back, before you put it in front of the picture card. It may be difficult for some to separate the picture card image from the colorful image and background on the front of the screens.

Check out my blog on another Golden Book game, Circle of Friends Matching Game.

Object:

Identify the object on the card with the smallest amount revealed.

Set up:

Place 12 picture cards on the table, face-up.

Play:

Let the player look over the cards. Pick up the cards, choose one without the player seeing it, place it in the sleeve and place the A screen in front of it. Give the sleeve to the player and ask him to identify the object. Give clues or ask questions if you want to help them figure it out. If they don't, take out screen A and replace it with screen B, which will show more of the object. Keep changing screens until the player can identify the object. By the time you get to screen E, most of the object will be visible. Then start a new card.  

Try this:

• Start with fewer than 12 cards on the table and work your way up.
• Talk about the things you see in the first hole on card A. I see a tail or fur or ears, do you think it is an animal? Or I see smoke, do you think that would be an animal? What things might have smoke?
• Encourage the individual to make a guess at each stage, refining their guesses as new information is revealed.
• Play with several people. Let them whisper their guess to you so that other players can keep playing if they don't know. 
• Play for points. If a player guesses on screen A, he gets 5 points. If screen B, 4 points, if screen C, three points and so on. See who gets the most points.
• Adjust the amount of time the player gets to look at the original card line up. Shorter time, more difficult game and vice versa.
• Check out a book or two with the characters (from the library) and read them before and/or after you play the game.
• Work on visual discrimination, visual closure, figure ground, manual dexterity, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 2 card sleeves, 5 I SEE YOU! screens, 18 jumbo character cards, 10 My First I SEE YOU cards

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