Anyone who reads our blog will know that we LOVE Orchard Toys games! You can guarantee that they will be durable, have great images that children love and as an added bonus can be used to meet Speech and Language Targets. The boot of my car has an entire storage box full of Orchard Toys games and Pigs in Pants is still one of my most requested games from the children!
Today I am going to review one of the new games – Robot Run. Orchard Toys did provide a free copy of the game, but the thoughts and comments in this review are my own.
This game is designed for children from the age of 3 and is for 2-4 players. You have a range of brightly coloured robots of different shapes and sizes. The idea is that each player has 5 cards and the winner is the first person to get rid of their robots by matching them with a central card. You can match by colour or shape (A little like uno with robots!). It is currently priced at £7.50 and you can buy it here
Things I love about Robot Run:
– I have used this to support colour – both understanding of and use of. With one child I put a selection of about 10 robots face up and asked them to find a specific colour. We then posted that robot in a post box – just because that child really enjoyed posting. This supports the child’s understanding of colours. I have also used the cards to support correct use of colour names, by encouraging the child to tell me which colour to get. Every now and then, pick up the wrong colour and see if the child comments.
– Speech sound production. I find most of the Orchard Toys games can be used to support speech and especially blends e.g. gr on green or bl on blue.
– Adjectives and descriptive language. I have found this game fantastic for descriptive language particularly for older children. We played the game like ‘go fish’. So each player kept their cards hidden and the idea was to get as many sets of robots as you can. However to get the robots you have to ask the other players – and use specific descriptive language. For example “Have you got any robots with tracks?” or “Have you got any robots with a TV shaped head?”. With some children you may need to talk together first about how you could describe the robots to give them some ideas.
– Conjunctions. As an extension of the above ‘go fish’ idea, you can also work on including some specific conjunctions. ‘or’ and ‘and’ would work particularly well.
– Similarities and difference: Put all of the robot cards face down on the table. Pick 2 of the robot cards at random. Talk about the pictures and try and find something that is the same and something that is different about them. For example, they are the same because they both have 2 eyes, but they are different because one has legs and one has tracks.
– I think this game represents great value for money at £7.50. You know the pieces will be durable and good quality. Plus robots are always going to be popular!
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