LEGO Friends Hand-Foot-Fun

Work on visual discrimination, spatial relations/position in space, balance, coordination, motor planning, proprioceptive perception, vestibular perception, body awareness, strengthening, weight bearing, bilateral coordination, sensory input, manual dexterity, fine motor precision, finger isolation, in-hand manipulation, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 12 touch pads, LEGOs for spinner (77 pieces total)

I've seen LEGO games before but never one that incorporated gross motor movement like this. It's basically like a Twister game with 20 touch pads instead of a mat. The spinner is unique in that you get to make it from LEGO pieces before you play the game. So to start, use the building guide, the 52 LEGO pieces and the 16 stickers to assemble the spinner. The 16 stickers go on top of 16 flat LEGO discs and indicate what you will be placing on a touch pad - hand, foot, both feet, both hands, elbow, and question mark. The spinner is divided into four different color quarters (see images), each color matching the borders on the five different shapes of touch pads. There are five of each shape touch pad. To set up, scatter the touch pads within reaching distance of each other. To play, the first person spins the spinner. The spinner arrow will point to a certain body part in a certain colored quarter. Put that body part on that color touch pad. Balance there while the next person plays. Each time you spin the spinner, move only the indicated body part(s) while keeping any others that you have on pads in place. The game description says "Have fun getting in a tangle". As with Twister, first one down is out.

Try this:

Skip the color and allow the player to place the body part on any touch pad.

Turn LEGO pieces on the table so that they can't be picked up by the child in the correct orientation. Ask him to turn each piece in-hand after picking it up.

Place a LEGO piece in the individual's palm, or at the base of the fingers, in the incorrect orientation and ask him to bring it to the fingertips and turn it in-hand for placement.

Give the beginner one piece at a time while building the spinner and point to the piece on the guide to show where it should go.

Ask the child to pick up the spinner and hold it in one hand while adding pieces with the other hand so that both hands work together while adding pieces (instead of adding pieces while the spinner is on the table).

Show the child how to hold the spinner with the non-dominant hand while "pinching" the new part on with the dominant hand.

Place the pieces for each step of assembling the spinner on the non-dominant side so that the individual will have to cross midline to pick them up. Instruct him not to lean to the side as he reaches across.

Keep the unused pieces in a pile so that the child will have to search for each needed piece. Turn some of the pieces upside down or half cover them so they will look different from the picture.

Advise the child to hold the spinner in the same orientation as the one in the picture to aid in orienting pieces as they build.

Catch mistakes as they happen while assembling the spinner, as an incorrectly placed piece may throw off the rest of the project. Tell the individual that his spinner does not look exactly like the picture and see if he can identify the mistake and correct it on his own before jumping in to help.

Start a session with this game if this type of sensory input helps the individual organize and prepare for work. 

Animal Soup

Animal Soup - A figure ground game featuring flip books.

The whimsical, animal-themed flip books in Animal Soup make this figure ground game different from any other I've seen. Animal Soup features four animals (monkey, fish, cow, pig), one animal per book.

Each book page is cut across the middle, allowing you to change just the top or bottom of each character. Each flip book has four top halves and four bottom halves. Each flip book half also has a colored tab projecting off the edge of each page. The colors of these tabs match the colors on the die. Each half changes something different about the animal, such as adding hats, scarves, necklaces, hair, sunglasses, etc.

The soup spoons and bowl are hard plastic. The die is large and lightweight. There are four sides with a single color, one side with all four colors, and one side with a zany eye.

One thing I like about this game is that there is no downtime, everyone plays on every turn.

Object:

Collect the most tokens by being the first to spot the animal on the game board that matches the animal in your flip book. Each time you do so you will win one token. When the tokens have all been collected, the person with the most tokens wins the game.

Set up:

Place the board in the middle of the players, place the soup bowl in the middle of the board and put the 15 round animal tokens in the bowl. Give each player one flip book and a matching color spoon.

Play: 

Players take turns. Start each turn by throwing the die and following these instructions:

• A side with a solid color comes up: Each player chooses a tab of that color in his book, flips his book open, and immediately starts looking for the animal on the game board that matches the one he is looking at in his book.The first player to spot his animal places his spoon into the soup bowl, points to the matching animal on the board, and yells "Animal Soup"! Other players stop looking, verify that he has found a match, and if so, that player (winner of the round) collects a token from the soup bowl. Each time a single color comes up, each player can turn a page from the left to the right, or from the right to the left, his choice.
• The side with all four colors come up: The person who threw the die gets to choose the color everyone will flip.
• The zany eyeball comes up: All the flip books are exchanged between players.

Play until all the spoons have been claimed from the bowl and announce the winner.

A portion of the board.

Try this:

• Skip the die and the tokens, just open a book and look for the animal. Then flip the top or bottom and find the next one, etc.
• Teach the player to look for one attribute at a time. For instance, suppose you are looking for a monkey with a crown, sunglasses and necklace. As you scan the board, stop only at the monkeys. Then check the hat. If it's not the same, then move one. If it is then look for sunglasses. If it's not the same, move on. If it is, then look for a necklace.
• Scan the board by the rings if the player cannot scan by sections.
• Play I SPY just using the board. One person describes an animal he is looking at and the other player(s) search to find it.
• Count the animals by attribute. For instance, go around the outer circle and count all the animals with a green hat. Go around the next inner circle and count all the animals wearing a necklace, etc.
• Work on visual discrimination, figure ground, visual closure, visual memory, working memory, visual scanning, manual dexterity, finger isolation, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: Game board, 4 flip books, 4 soup spoons, 1 soup bowl, 15 animal tokens, 1 die