It’s Back to School time and teachers and therapists are looking for that new fun game that is filled with learning potential. Gamewright’s new PAL winner, “That’s It!” really is just that! And portable too for those of us who travel from home to home. It is designed for players age 10 and up and 3 or more people. I have adapted the idea for younger kids as well. I just played a hilarious game with a second grader who is working on word retrieval. This game is perfect as you select a topic such as “an activity that makes you sleepy” and players shout out answers within that category until theirs matches the one on the card. In subsequent rounds, players earn tokens with number values and eventually category cards to win the game. Building vocabulary within a category supports many language goals.
Here is my full review:
If you want just the right party game that can also double as a perfect learning tool for teachers, play “That’s It!” by Gamewright. The tiny box is loaded with 200 topic cards . Draw a card and race to shout out answers until one matches the answer written. Name “something that gets backed up” elicited “sewer” and “plumbing” before “the correct “traffic” answer was given. It is hilarious to hear everyone madly try to guess what s written while they go through their file of words associated with that category. “An activity that makes you sleepy” conjured up “yawning” and “watching TV” before “reading” was named. Several of the categories have qualifiers so players have to dig deeper to think of words on that list–“land animal that can’t walk” or “a place that has uniformed guards” require players to to search their memory for subcategories such as place->that would need security->that would have uniformed guards. A terrific language learning game, “That’s It!” requires searching for vocabulary within categories and requires rapid naming. It is surprisingly funny to see what seems like a simple category can take a long time to arrive at the right answer. “Something you push around” caused a series of “vacuum, lawn mower, broom and wagon” before being stumped over “stroller!” Win a category and collect tokens of random value to add up to determine the winner of that round. This element of luck evens the playing field for different ages to play together.
Available at Gamewright
