Hats Off

Hats Off - A matching game with a twist.

Hat's Off to this 12 minute matching game from Gamewright. Hats Off includes 56 cards and each one features a colorful, fun hat.

Colorful hat cards.

 

Object:

Collect the most hats to win the game.

 

Set up:

Shuffle the cards and deal four cards to each player. Place the rest of the deck on the table, face down.

 

Play:

Each players chooses one card from his hand and places it on top of his head, face down. Remember it. The first player turns over the top card from the deck. All players play at the same time and try to match that card from cards in their hand or the one on their head. The first player to place his matching card on top of the drawn card wins and takes the cards. The next player turns up a card from the deck and the process is repeated. If no one has a matching card, the next player turns one over from the top of the deck and places it face-up on the pile. In the course of the game, if the card falls from your head, the first player to yell HAT'S OFF wins the card. The person who lost the card draws another card from the pile, remembers it, and places it on his head. After each play, each player should make sure they have three cards in their hands, and one on their head, drawing from the pile if necessary. Play continues until all cards from the pile have been turned over. Person with the most hats wins the game.

Try this:

• Play a matching game by laying one of each of the eight hats on the table and then sorting the rest of the cards onto the piles.
• Hold the card stack in the non-dominant hand, push off the top card with the thumb, take it with the dominant hand and deal. Hold only half the deck at a time if the whole deck is difficult to manage.
• Practice shuffling/dealing/fanning cards.
• Work on visual discrimination, manual dexterity, shifting, coordinated use of both hands, following directions, separation of two sides of the hands, thumb opposition, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
  

In the box: 56 cards, seven each of eight different hats

Ages 6+, 2-5 players

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

How Do I Feel?

Work on identifying feelings, fine motor skills

In the box: 10 books

Small board books, perfect for discussing feelings with young kids.  The ten books include proud, angry, brave, happy, shy, scared, sleepy, sad, playful, and hungry.  Each book has four thick pages, and each page has one simple example on it. For instance, the I feel Brave book includes:

• I feel brave when I speak out loud.
• I feel brave when I fall and don't cry.
• I feel brave when I do something scary.
• I feel brave when I swim underwater.
• I feel brave when I say "I'm sorry".
• I feel brave when Mommy tells me I am.

The book is solid and measures 3 X 3 inches. 

 

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

Pettson's Inventions app by Filimundus

Work on thinking skills, problem solving

Do you like watching Rube Goldberg machines - complicated gadgets that perform simple tasks?  Then you will enjoy this fun and unique app!  Move different parts of a machine into place to complete a puzzle. Then move the gear at the top of the page from left to right and watch the machine in action.

Puzzles advance in difficulty and you can determine if you want only the pieces needed to show or if you want to complicate things by adding pieces that won't be used to the mix.  Problem solving doesn't get more fun than this!  Settings can turn music on and off. One feature I really like about this app is that it is not timed.  However, there is a feature you can turn on by pressing the VS at the bottom of the home page where the puzzle will appear at both ends of the screen and 2 people can compete to see who can finish first. This part is timed. This app includes 11 levels of 6 puzzles each (66 total). You must clear at least 4 puzzles per level to move to the next level. The deluxe version has most of the puzzles from versions 1 and 2 combined. I enjoyed playing this one myself!

If you enjoy watching Rube Goldberg machines, Purina Beneful dog food has a cute commercial on YouTube. Nothing like a wagon full of puppies to put a smile on your face.  And the end message is something I can really get behind! I used to have a link here but it no longer works. If you would like to see it, you can find it by searching You Tube for Beneful commercial goldberg machine.

If you are interested in purchasing this app or just want more information, click on the image below to go to Amazon.com

Temper Tamers In a Jar

 

Work on strategies for dealing with anger

 

In the jar: 101 cards

Ages 8+

 

An activity to teach kids how to calm down and deal with anger in healthy ways. The ages on the jar are 8-11, but I wouldn't put an upper age limit on it because I use it successfully with much older kids too. The jar contains 101 cards, each printed with an activity that falls into one of four categories:

• Share - Questions are posed and players are asked to relate a personal experience.
• Tips - Positive strategies you can use when you get angry.
• What would you do - Hypothetical situations to get kids thinking and promote thoughtful discussion.
• Act it out - Scenarios are given and players have the opportunity to role play or instructions are given so players can practice strategies.

Many of the examples on the cards are related to things happening at school, or between siblings, or between parents and kids. There is an actual example of each card at the publisher's website. To see them, click here or go to FreeSpiritPublishing.com.

 

Try this:

• Shuffle the cards, mixing the categories and go through the stack one at a time. Or, divide the cards into the four categories and take one category at a time.
• Go through the TIPS category first. Then as you go through the other three categories, review the strategies you learned from the tips cards and choose all that would be appropriate for each particular situation.
• Role play with each individual to ensure they are applying appropriate strategies. Or, allow two players to role play and then discuss whether the responses were appropriate and healthy ways to deal with the situation. If the approach was not appropriate, follow up by role playing an appropriate strategy so incorrect ways are not practiced and reinforced.