Express-It Guess-It

Express It Guess It - Express moods by drawing, charading and talking.

If you are working on facial expressions or body language, Express It Guess It  can be a fun addition to your lessons. Players will be assigned a random mood and will be required to draw a face expressing that mood, act out that mood, or read a phrase expressing that mood in such a way that the other players can guess the mood. Imagine saying "The hills are alive with the sound of music" in an angry mood or "This is the best thing that ever happened to me" in a frightened mood. Can you do it in such a convincing way that others can guess how you're feeling?

The board is 21" x 19" and folds into fourths in the box. There is a circle with the word start and one with the word finish at the bottom of the board. There are 28 rectangles on the board, each with a different mood printed on it. Examples of moods are amused, sulking, infatuated, snobbish, excited, angry, confused, suspicious and nervous. There are circles with the numbers one, two and three around the boarder of the board. These are the spaces you will be moving through to get to the finish circle at the bottom of the board.

There are 28 game cards that each list one mood that matches the moods listed on the board. There are 80 "say it" phrase cards (I mentioned two of the sayings above). There are three custom dice. Each die has two side with mouths (say it), two sides with hands holding a pencil (draw it) and two sides with clapperboards that say charades (act it out). There is a sheet of stickers with these pictures that you will have to stick onto the dice before playing. Each pawn shows a face with a different emotion. There is a sheet of stickers of these faces that you will have to put onto the pawns before playing. There is a drawing pad with about 35 pages. Each page is printed front and back with just the outline of a person's head so you can draw in facial expressions. They should have added a bigger pad in my opinion. 

Back of box.

 Object:
Be the first player to reach the finish circle on the game board.

Set up:
Open the board and put it in the middle of the players. Shuffle the two decks and place each deck face down near the board. Each player chooses a pawn and puts it on the start space on the board.

Play:
Players will take turns. The first player chooses a mood off the top of the stack, looks at it, and keeps it a secret from the other players. The player throws the three dice to see if he will be drawing it, charading it or saying it. If they come up all different, you get to choose. If one things comes up twice or on all three dice, that is the action you will take. Here are the options:

Charade It - Act it out using body language and facial expressions.
Draw It - use the pad and draw a face on the person. Add additional objects if it will help those guessing.
Say It - Choose a "Say It" card and read it aloud in the mood that you drew at the beginning of your turn.

Now that your action has been determined it's time to perform. Each player will look at all the mood options on the board and secretly write on a piece of paper which one they think it is. The performer will turn over the mood card he drew. Each player that is correct moves ahead one space. For each player that is correct the performer moves ahead one space.

After the turn is over, the performer puts the mood card on the board so that others know that mood is now out of the game for future guesses. Play until someone gets to the finish circle and is declared the winner.

Try this:

• Skip the board. Just use the mood cards and the action cards to work on facial expressions and body language.
• Skip the board. Just use the mood cards and one action per game. This is just between you and me, but I am good at stacking the deck. Choose one action you want to work on and then pick the moods that you want to concentrate on. If I only have a little bit of time with the person and I want to zero in on something specific, I stack the deck.

Bodydoodles

Bodydoodles - Do I really get to draw tatoos on you?

I was torn about whether to buy Bodydoodles. I thought about it, then I thought about it some more, then some more. Since I got it brand new but second hand, the price was cheap. But I wondered how appropriate it would be in a therapy setting to encourage kids to write on themselves, something they may have been reprimanded for in the past. Curiosity, the fact that the markers will wash off any skin type, and the fact that I work with a very high functioning individual that has always doodled on her hands and arms helped me make my decision. I am now the proud owner of Bodydoodles.

The goal is to draw "tattoos" on someone else's body while players guess what you are drawing. Kind of like Pictionary with a very personal twist. You have to admit it's a unique way to get a writing tool into the hands of kids.
 
The markers are what are unique about this game. Drawings on your skin are easily removed with a wash cloth, soap and water. I tried it on myself to make sure it was so before using it with another person. Yes, they did easily wash off my skin, although the box says different people might get different results and you may need to take a shower to get it all off. I didn't. There are four marker colors - pink, green, blue and black. My skin is just a little darker, since it is the end of the summer and I have been swimming a lot, and the pink marker does not show up very well on my skin. However, the other three show up fine. You can buy additional markers from the company once these are used up. 

UPDATE: A shadow of the blue tends to linger after it is washed. I made small marks on myself and left it on for about 8 hours and the blue is the only one that left a faint shadow after washing. It disappeared as I washed my hands several times during the course of the day.

There are two sets of cards - one set to tell you what part of the body to draw on and one set to tell you what to draw. Here are a few examples from each set:

• Body part cards - Right shin, left upper arm, left knee, right elbow
• Doodle cards - These cards come in three levels of difficulty and the more difficult the drawing, the more points you will earn (from 1 to 3).
• 1 point - Hair, firefighter, ballerina, campfire
• 2 points - Aliens, doing a cartwheel, squirrel, spider web
• 3 points - Windy, snowstorm, shouting, directing traffic

Object:
Earn the most points for correctly identifying the tattoos that are being drawn. Determine what that point value will be before starting a game.

Setup:
Shuffle each set of cards and place the two stacks, face-down, in the reach of all players. Set the markers nearby.

Play:
The first player chooses one card from each pile and keeps the doodle card secret. They choose a player to draw on and use the location from the body card and any color marker(s). All players guess as tattoos are drawn. The first person to guess correctly AND the person drawing each get the point value on the card. The body card is put at the bottom of the draw pile and the doodle card is discarded. Play until one player has reached that magic number of points that you set before starting the game. Declare that person the winner.

Try this:

• Go through the cards ahead of time and take out everything you don't want, or better yet, pick out just what you do want. For instance, you may not have access to or want to draw on certain body parts and you may want to play with only the easy or only the difficult cards.
• Let the person who will be drawing choose their own card of what to draw. Some people are better at drawing than others so why put people on the spot.
• Play with just two people. Draw on each others arms (and/or elsewhere) and guess what is being drawn on your body. Don't bother to keep score.
• Make your drawings in different orientations so the person is not always looking at it upright.
• Draw your own body tattoo. Make it as big and colorful as you want, then wash it off.
• Work on body awareness, use of a writing tool, creativity, manual dexterity, fine motor precision, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 4 washable tattoo markers, 30 body cards, 150 doodle cards 

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