Granny’s Candies
From Super Duper Publications
About the Game
Let Granny treat your students to some old-fashioned fun! Combine the excitement of picking colorful "candy" tokens from Granny's candy jars with hundreds of opportunities to expand vocabulary skills. First, you fill up the "candy jars" with "candy" (soft, foamy, and colorful tokens). Then, players choose question cards from one of eight semantic areas (or mix and match cards). Students answer the questions, roll the die, and pick "candy" from the jars. The player with the most "candy" at the end of the game wins. Sounds yummy! You receive 672 word-meaning cards (3" x 1") (84 for each area below):
- What belongs in this group?
- Which one doesn't belong?
- Give a describing word.
- How are they alike?
- What do these have in common?
- What is this used for?
- How are they different?
- Give an action word.
Your extra ingredients include a colorful game board (18" x 18"), 144 "candy" tokens, a lesson/activity book, card holder, and die. Let's cook up some fun!
Our Thoughts
One spring morning, the three youngest kids were wondering what they could do after completing their schoolwork. I suggested that they open the book of Granny’s Candies and play a game of it. They were all excited to discover a new game and promptly set themselves on the living room floor. It didn’t take long for them to have some fun time and learning at the same time.
What is Granny’s Candies? Well essentially it is a game that will allow you kids to expand on their vocabulary while having fun doing so. The goal of the game is to be able to answer the questions in order to be able to select a candy from the jars on the game board. At the end of the game, the player with the most candies is the winner.
As I mentioned before the fame focuses on semantics (word meanings). There are eight semantic areas included in the game:
- What belongs in this group? (What Belongs?) Example: holidays
- What do these have in common? (Name the Category) Example: table, centipede, people
- Give an action word. (Action Words) Example: A dentist _________.
- What is this used for? (Object Use/Function) Example: A snorkel is used for…
- Give a describing word. (Adjectives) Example: _____ town
- How are they different? (Differences) Example: kazoo – whistle
- How are they alike? (Similarities) Example: car – bull
- Which one doesn’t belong? Why? (Which One Doesn’t Belong?) Example: oyster, octopus, shrimp, clam
How do you play?
Playing is quite simple. You need to decide who will go first. In our family, we usually start with the youngest of the family. You can decide to roll the dice and pick the one who has the biggest roll to start. The player then takes a card and reads/listens to the question. The player has to answer the question aloud. The book included in the box will also provide suggested answers. All you have to do is check in the book and determine if the answer given is okay. Once the player has a right answer, he/she has to roll the die and takes the number of candies from any candy jar. The next player can play now. The game will end when all the candies have been removed from the board of when the time expires.
The beauty of this game is that you can play variations of the game as well. For example, you can give each player the same amount of tokens. Players roll the die and puts that many candies in the jars after answering each questions. When a player had put all of his/her candies in the jars he/she is the winner. Two other suggestions of playing are also mentioned in the rules.
The workbook also contains pages that are reproducible for other activities and games which you can use during your regular lessons of language arts.
Bottom line, this game is a great tool to have when you want them to learn while having fun. It will deepen their understanding of word meaning and will encourage them to expand on their vocabulary. The fact that candies are included in the game makes it even more interesting for the kids. Learning while having fun is a great way to expand your vocabulary!
Granny’s Candies is available for purchase for the price of 54.94$ at Super Duper Publications. Two add-ons are also available: Set 2 and Set 3.
The game and the add-ons are also available on amazon.ca and amazon.com.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the game for review purposes from KidStuff PR and Super Duper Publications, Inc. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.
