More S'mores

More S'mores is a fun game for a summer's eve.

More S'mores is a fast-paced card game based on constructing s'mores while hoping to avoid burnt marshmallows and chocolate-eating ant cards. The game comes in a small box and could easily be played around the campfire, at a camp site, or on the picnic table in your own backyard.

Object:
Score the most points.

Set up:
Set 10 graham cracker cards on a pile off to the side. This is the "cracker pile". Shuffle and deal evenly the rest of the cards, face-down, between players. Players stack their cards, face-down, in front of them. Take one card from the cracker pile and place it in the middle of the table. This is the bottom of a s'mores.

Play:
The first player will turn over his top card and place it on the graham cracker card in the middle of the table. You are now building a s'mores. Players take turns placing one card at a time on the stack. When another graham cracker card is turned up and is placed on the stack, one s'mores is complete and the player takes the s'mores. He then takes a graham cracker from the cracker pile, places it in the middle of the players, and this starts the second s'mores. Players continue in this manner, placing one card at a time, until all 10 s'morses have been made and claimed. At this time players will add up all the points they have made from the s'mores they have collected and the player with the most points is the winner.
 
Point values are as follows:
Graham cracker cards - 1 point each
Toasted marshmallow cards - 3 points each
Chocolate bar cards - 3 points each
Burnt marshmallow cards - subtract 5 points (-5)
Chocolate-eating any cards - subtract 5 points (-5)

Try this:

• Hold the cards in the non-dominant hand to deal. Push each card off the top with the thumb and take with the dominant hand to deal.
• Separate and lift each card off the top of the stack without disturbing the rest of the stack. 
• Sort the cards into piles of like cards. Either hold them in the non-dominant hand, pushing them off one at a time with the thumb, or place the deck on the tabletop and lift each card off the top of the deck, disturbing the others as little as possible.
• Skip the game and make 10 complete s'mores by placing the cards in piles according to how traditional s'mores are assembled: graham cracker, chocolate bar, toasted marshmallow, graham cracker.
• Work on visual discrimination, manual dexterity, bilateral integration, eye-hand coordination, in-hand manipulation, shuffling/dealing cards, executive functioning skills, process skills, socialization skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
   
• In the box: 20 graham cracker cards, 10 toasted marshmallow cards, 10 chocolate bar cards, 5 burnt marshmallow cards, 5 chocolate-eating ant cards

K'Nex Elmo Building Sets

K'Nex Elmo Building Sets - Construction sets with picture cards.

In the box: Varies per set. Approximately 35-50 pieces.

K'Nex and Lego are two of my favorite construction sets. Each of these sets have a different theme and each set includes pictures of multiple things that you can construct, including animals, a sandcastle, and always an Elmo. They are fun sets and kids that I have worked with have liked them.

These K'Nex Elmo Building Sets are more comparable to the Lego brand Duplo sets, bigger pieces for younger kids. The pieces are well-made and brightly colored. Some of the bigger pieces are hard plastic, but many of the pieces are made of a sturdy, but flexible plastic. There are not enough pieces for all of the items pictured on the cards to be made at once. You will have to disassemble some to make others.  

There are pictures on the box and several picture cards inside each box to show items you can make. As with most K'Nex products, you will have to work from these pictures of the finished models as there are no step-by-step instructions like you get with Lego.

Two pattern cards from the Sunny Days Building Kit.

Try this:

• Give time for free play at the beginning so that the person can examine the different shaped pieces and how they snap together. Some pieces you will have to push down from the top, not in from the side, and go together nicely with a pinch.
• Ask the child to pick up the model when possible and hold it in one hand while adding pieces with the other hand so that both hands work together while adding pieces.
• Hold the model in the non-dominant hand and pick up the correct piece in the dominant hand, setting up a natural opportunity to manipulate the piece in-hand for placement. 
• Turn pieces on the table so they are not in the correct orientation. Ask the individual to pick up a piece and turn it in-hand to the correct orientation.
• Set a piece, or only a few pieces, at a time in front of the individual to cue him which piece(s) he will be placing next. It can be difficult to look at a completed model and determine where to start and/or how to proceed. 
• Give the beginner one piece at a time as he needs it and point to the piece on the picture to direct where he should place it.
• Cover the part of the model that you are not working on to reduce confusion or to direct the building sequence. 
• Keep the unused pieces in a pile so the child will have to search for each needed piece. Turn some of the pieces upside down or half bury them under other pieces so they will look different from the picture.
• Advise the child to hold or stand the model in the same orientation as the one in the picture to aid in orienting pieces.
• Point to each piece on a model and ask the child to find it in the pile of pieces. Assemble all the needed pieces before building.
• Work on visual discrimination, visual closure, visual form constancy, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, manual dexterity, coordinated use of both hands, in-hand manipulation, finger/hand strength, executive functioning, sequencing, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation