I can’t tell you how many times I used “The Rainbow Fish” book in speech therapy to work on language goals and social language such as sharing, making friends, or making choices. So I was excited to see Mindware’s new game for preschoolers and they were just as excited to play! We assembled the game board puzzle and spread out our 29 scales with our stand-up wave placed at the “Start.” Kids roll the die filled with different colors, a sparkle side and “Share” option. Players take turns rolling the die and selecting a matching colored scale to place in the puzzle spot on their fish. When a player rolls the “Share” side, she can pick any scale from the sea to share with any other player. In this collaborative, game, players benefitted by talking over which scale would be the best to share. Every fish had one color needed twice so that became a good pick for sharing. A little strategy is learned as players are trying to fill all their fish before the wave travels to the end of the board’s shore. Once players start filling up their fish with scales they might roll a color and not need it, so the wave moves forward 1 space. When they collect a sparkly scale the wave moves back 2 and if they share it moves back 3 spaces. We all caught on that it is rewarding to share. We had a nice little discussion on sharing and my little friend just loved sharing with her Mommy when given the opportunity. When I asked her what she liked about the game, she said, “I like the sharing side!” Kids learn important language skills as they think of different options and their results, work and talk collaboratively to solve problems, and discuss and learn social skills through play. What a feel-good game whose sparkle is the reward of sharing.
Available at Mindware. Click here
