There are a few essential elements to finding a game my kids will love.
- They have to be able to learn the rules quickly.
- They have to be able to move around during the game.
- They have to understand when they’ve achieved the goal (won or ended the game).
Anybody else get awesome pictures like this when they try to capture home school life?!? LOL
Visual Discrimination
All three of these goals are easily combined in this simple to play game that also gives the kids some practice with visual discrimination.
Visual discrimination is the ability to see differences in similar looking symbols including letters and numbers.
Symbols that can be difficult for early learners to differentiate include:
- B and D and P
- p and d and b
- 1 and 7
- 3 and 8
- 6 and 9
Being able to correctly identify letters and numbers has a huge impact on how easily children are able to learn to read and record mathematical problems and solutions.
Getting Kids Excited About the Game
Eggs are pretty magical.
Learning more about how birds and other egg laying creatures has fascinated kids and let’s face it adults for generations.
My kids are no different.
Discuss
“Egg” also happens to be a great word to sound out and a fabulous first word to learn to read phonetically.
- How many letters do you see in the word “egg”?
- What letter sounds do you hear?
Read
A favorite non-fiction book for preschoolers, “The Egg (First Discovery Series),” René Mettler does an amazing job of showing kids how chicks develop inside the egg.
The book also shows where the egg forms inside the chicken.
Other animals that lay eggs are also discussed, including lice.
The visuals are very realistic and engaging for children.
I loved using this book during our open house tours at the veterinary college, but could never get it for parents, because it was always out of print.
I was delighted to find a spiral version of it for sale on Amazon!
Start Playing
Introduce the kids to all the letters and numbers you plan to cover. For us this included E, e, 8, and 3.
Movement Cards
We also included two “movement cards;”
- elephant and
- egg.
Have the kids practice the following movements.
- For the egg movement card, roll up like an egg.
- Since, my kids really like motion, we also rolled like we were stuck in the egg.
- For the elephant movement card, march like an elephant.
These kids LOVED rolling like an egg. They actually cheered when that was the result of the roll; however, they did decide that rolling like an egg on the couch was far better for the neck and head than rolling on the hardwood floor.
Play the Game
Supplies we used
- pocket cube
- E is for Egg Cube Cards (Print this sheet, preferably on cardstock and cut out the squares.)*
- The Egg Coloring Sheet, game board (Print this sheet on regular paper or cardstock if you prefer.)*
- There are two sheets in the printable; one sheet has the E, e, 8, and 3 as we used them, the next sheet has blank eggs in case you would rather practice different letters or numbers.
***Our supplies were provided by Mother Goose Time.
*I have provided links to my home made version so you too can try out the game with your kids.
How we played
- Print and cut out the “E is for Egg Cube Cards” and place them in the pocket cube.
- Roll the pocket cube.
- If the player rolls a E, e, 8, or 3 color in the corresponding egg on The Egg Coloring Sheet.
- If the player rolls a movement card, an elephant or an egg act out the movement.
- Either “roll like an egg” or “march” like an elephant.
To keep the game moving and keep the kid’s interests from play to play we had all players do the action rolled on the cube, regardless of which player rolled. For example, when player 1 rolled an elephant, players 2 and 3 also marched!
This worked like a charm to keep the game short and action packed 🙂
This was especially helpful towards the end when most of the eggs were colored.
Did you and your kids enjoy this activity?
The ideas and materials we used for this game were provided by Mother Goose Time, an awesome preschool curriculum we enjoy using in our home.
Happy Playing!
