Tic Tac Toe - Charlie Brown

Teaching Tic Tac Toe with Charlie Brown.

Each Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie Brown Valentine tin includes both checkers and tic tac toe games. This one is on my blog for two reasons: 1) It's Charlie Brown, and 2) it includes tic tac toe. I have hated checkers since I was a kid. Frustrated to the point of walking away, I still have no interest in learning the game. I keep this in mind when I use a game with an individual and they just don't like it or just don't get it. We just move on. So I am going to write about the game pieces and tic, tac, toe. If you're interested in how to play checkers, I'm not the one to ask :) 

The checker pieces are lightweight plastic and the board is laminated and nice and heavy. The game board is folded into quarters so it will fit into the tin and measures 14" x 14" when opened up for play. It has a checker board on one side and a tic tac toe board on the other side. 

There are 12 different characters on the checkers, and each set (red and green) has the same images, so you will tell them apart by the checker color. The pictures on the checkers are stickers. There are mini snow globes that you place atop a checker when playing the Christmas checkers game (when you king someone). You can shake them and it will snow. These are cute, but unfortunately I am not able to use them when playing tic-tac-toe. Or, you could use the snow globes to keep score. Play several games of tic-tac-toe and give the winner of each game a snow globe. First player with three snow globes is the grand winner.

Tic Tac Toe

Object:
Be the first to place three checkers in a row to win. A row can either be diagonal, horizontal, or vertical.

Set up:
Place the board between the players. Each player takes one set of checkers.

Play:
Players take turns putting a checker in a box. If you cannot win, try and block the other player from winning. Game ends when someone gets three in a row or when all boxes are filled and no one has won. When we were kids, if no one won we always said that the cat got it.

If you have two good players that know how to block the moves when playing tic, tac, toe, you can play forever without anyone winning a game and it can get boring fast. But I like to use it with beginner players who are working on visual perceptual skills, especially spatial relations and figure ground. It can be used as a precursor to BINGO. Tic Tac Toe has fewer columns and rows to watch. BTW - You don't have to buy a game to play Tic Tac Toe. For ages it has been a paper and pencil activity.

I also have this in a pink Valentine version, but couldn't find a very good picture of it. It has heart shaped checkers in pink and red.

Check out other Christmas games I have blogged about on my Christmas Edition post.

Try this:

• Go for a win in one direction at a time, for instance a horizontal win, if the individual cannot watch three directions at once. Introduce and play each direction separately until it is learned before playing where any direction can win.
• Place a piece of paper near the board that shows the different ways to win. I make a box with nine squares, like the board, and then use a yellow highlighter to fill in a vertical win. Then make another box and use a highlighter to fill in a horizontal win. Do the same for diagonal. The individual can look at these examples as they play to help them remember what they are looking for.
• Practice recognizing wins before you play. I place a number of markers on a card and embed a win in one direction, then ask the individual to find the win. Do this over and over until they can see the wins before actually playing a game.
• Hold the checkers in the non-dominant hand and take them from there as you play to use both hands.
• Stack the checkers in one tall stack before putting them away at the end.
• Tell the individual to ask themselves three questions, in this order before they play: 1) Can I place one checker and win? If so, do it. If not, ask 2) Can I place one checker and block the other player from winning on their next move? If so, do it. If not, ask 3) Where can I place a checker that will help me win on my next turn?
• Tell the player to look again if he does not take the opportunity to block your win. I tell them I will win on the next turn if they don't block me and let them look over the board and find the win and block it. At least while they're learning ;)
• Place a checker in the player's hand (upside down and in the palm) and ask him to bring it to his fingertips to orient and place. Do this on each turn to practice in-hand manipulation. Or, place the checkers face side down on the table and let the player pick them up one at a time and orient in his fingers and place on the board right-side-up. 
• Play a game of memory by turning all the checkers face-down on the table and turning up two at a time. If the pictures match, stack them on your side. Players take turns until all matches have been made and then see who has the tallest stack.
• Work on visual discrimination, visual closure, spatial relations, figure ground, manual dexterity, in-hand manipulation, executive functioning skills, process skills, socialization skills, play and leisure exploration and participation  
  
  
  In the tin: 2-sided game board, 24 checkers, 6 mini snow globes
  
  

Perler Bead Pattern Pad

Perler Bead Pattern Pad - Covers many skills.

In the book: 110 patterns

Did you know that the Perler bead people have a whole line of pattern books? This pattern pad contains 28 pages and 110 designs. Pages are printed on both sides and the book is spiral bound and lays flat nicely. Some of the categories from this book are circus, sports, animals, food, vehicles and musical instruments. Some pages have more than one design. There are also several pages at the back of the book with blank patterns. You can color in your own. Make copies of the blank patterns before you fill them in and you can use them over and over. The blank patterns are small star, circle and heart, and large hexagon and square.

If you are not familiar with Perler beads, sometimes called fuse beads, they are small plastic beads that come in many, many different colors. 

Perler beads.

You stand them on a pattern board/grid to make a design, then cover them with parchment paper and run a hot iron over the design to melt/fuse the beads together. Many OTs love these beads and use them frequently in therapy. You can buy pattern boards that are already shaped like an image, such as dog, person, turtle, star, circle, square, etc. Those shapes are smaller and brightly colored plastic. 

Or, you can choose one of the large boards (square or hexagon) where you can make bigger designs and get more creative. The large square boards are also interlocking, so the sky's the limit.

If you are working on visual perceptual skills and you would like a pattern to work from, then you could use one of their pattern books, patterns on the internet, or their web site. Patterns are all over out there, but not always true to size. If you are going to use in therapy and want a true to size pattern, I would suggest printing it out ahead of time and measuring it so you don't get into the session and find that the pattern does not match the size of the grid that you have. Been there. One of the advantages of this pattern pad is that the patterns are true to size, meaning that you can lay one of the large, transparent boards right on top of a pattern and work from there. You cannot lay one of the smaller boards on top of a pattern because they are opaque, brightly colored, and you cannot see through them.

A plastic grid on top of the pattern book.

The school supplies pattern (above) includes scissors, glue, pen and ruler.  Some of the patterns even have patterns for small stands, like this tree (below), so that you can stand it upright. 

Perler also sells a pair of plastic tweezers that you can use to place the beads. They are handy and I have used them many times in therapy. The bigger the design, the more tedious it can get. Come back to it later if it gets to be too much for one session.

I earlier blogged about the Perler BIGGIE beads and tray cards. You can read about it here. You can use this as a patterning activity without fusing them together at the end. 

SAFETY FIRST - Monitor for safety. These beads are small and may look like candy to some and/or be a choking hazard.

Try this:

• Hold a few beads in the cupped, non-dominant hand and pick them up from there as you place them on the grid.
• Keep the colors separated so you don't have two tedious jobs at the same time.
• Buy a big bucket of beads of different colors and sort them into a divided tray for an activity.
• Use the tweezers to fix beads that you accidentally knock down as you work. It can be hard to get your fingers in-between beads to straighten them. 
• Place the pattern next to the grid instead of under the grid for a greater challenge.
• Practice picking the beads up with an open webspace. Picking them up with fingers flat is going to be difficult since they are so small.
• Put a piece of paper under the line you are working on since it can be difficult to look away to work and then look back to the pattern and find your place, over and over again.
• Tear the pages out of the book. Several people can use the book at once this way, or you can choose the patterns you would like the person to pick from and lay them side by side for comparison.
• Use removable tape on the edges of the pegboard if you are laying it right over the pattern page. It can easily be moved if you bump it while working and you will have to re-align it each time this happens.
• Work on fine motor precision, manual dexterity, pincer grasp, web space development, palmar arch strength and stability, tool use, finger thumb opposition, sequencing, visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination, spatial relations, figure ground, visual closure, executive functioning skills, process skills, creativity, play and leisure exploration and participation
  

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