Win Educational Games Worth $65 - Give Away!

I have a real fondness for games in the classroom.  O.K., that's not exactly true... I LOVE using games in the classroom.

Games meet so many learning goals.  They give children the opportunity to:

• Develop cooperation and collaboration skills
• Practice being graceful losers
• Practice being humble winners
• Exercise impulse control
• Practice memory and concentration
• Read and follow directions
• Fully engage in an activity for an extended length of time
• Learn and practice critical thinking and strategy development
• Practice math and literacy skills
• Enhance and practice their oral language skills
• Engage in a fun and stress-free activity

Really good, high quality games do almost all of these things each time a group of children play with them. Really, really good games also become a regular rotation in our centers on "Fun Friday" afternoons because they also meet Common Core Standards.

I received a box in the mail yesterday and yes, you guessed it- it was full of fabulous, high quality games from Blue Orange Games.

These games meet all the high-quality games criteria.  Apart from the games themselves, I must mention that they all come in tin containers.  That's right, no more broken game boxes on your classroom shelves.

For those of you with little ones still struggling to learn their numbers and letters, you can't go wrong with Spot It Numbers and Shapes and Spot It Alphabet.  Spot It Numbers and Shapes also teaches color recognition.  Spot It Alphabet has three ways to play.  When I play the game with little ones I have them find the match, say the letter name, and the letter sound.  You can keep these games rotating in your centers all year and the kiddos will never get bored!

The tin "rounds" keep the cards and directions in great shape and don't use much of your precious storage space.

If you have the "curriculum cops" roaming your halls be sure to label each game tin with the appropriate Common Core Standard.  I like putting the standards on a mailing labels and sticking them on the bottom of the tins. 

Spot It! Numbers & Shapes

K.G.2; K.CC.3

Spot It! Alphabet

R.F.K.1d; R.F.K.3.a; S.L.K.6c

Two excellent math games by Blue Orange Games are Bendomino and Pixy Cubes.  Bendomino plays like regular dominos BUT with a fun little twist, the tiles are curved so they must both match and fit in order to connect them.  The game introduces strategy, critical thinking, and beginning geometry to your students.  The tiles are beautiful, sturdy, and fit perfectly in the tin container making clean up a breeze.

Bendomino

K.CC.1; K.CC.5; K.CC.6; 1.OA.3; 1.OA.6; 1.NBT.4; 2.OA.2; 2.NBT.5

Pixy Cubes is a great way to introduce spatial reasoning to students.  The game easy to learn and has multiple versions of play, some are competitive, some cooperative.  All of the versions are great fun. Pixy Cubes is a great way to support beginning geometry skill, creativity, concentration and memory, and logic and reasoning.  It's perfect for your students ages 6 and older.

Pixy Cubes

Common Core Standard: K.G.6; 1.G.1; 1.G.3; 2.G.1;

I don't want to forget about language arts and neither did Blue Orange Games.  Their game Tell Tale has 120 delightful image cards that your students will use to create stories.  The cards include images of characters, settings, objects, and emotions.  Talk about endless "story starters" for students ages 5 to 12!  For those of you that have fairy tale units Blue Orange games has a Tell Tale Fairy Tales version (perfect for children ages 5 to 9).

Tell Tale

Common Core Standard:  W.K.3; W.1.3; W.2.3; W.3.3

Now for the really exciting part of this blog.  Blue Orange Games and I have teamed up to give one lucky winner all five of the games that I have reviewed.   I will be sending the winner Spot It Alphabet and Spot It Numbers and Shapes.  Blue Orange Games will send the winner a copy of Tell Tale, Bendomino, and Pixy Cubes.  Entering is  easy, so enter soon and be sure to tell your team mates about the give away.  These games would be great to share among grade level teams.

And the winner is :

Congratulations Rachael!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Have a great week!
Granny (Cindy)