Home Schooling Elementary School Resources

Why Co-operative games for Home Schooling?

Co-operative games produce less aggressive behaviors during and after play and, that as a result, they require less direct supervision by the teachers, it’s a win/win. Read more below…

Elementary School Games:

 

Animal Trackers (c) 2014, Jim Deacove A CO-OPERATIVE PUZZLE GAME OBJECT: Look carefully and match the tracks in the Forest leading to the animal dens. When we arrive, flip the Forest card to see what animal we' tracked to its den. Then read the fascinating facts about the animal we found. Everyone has a part in helping to discover the animals in the forest. CONTENTS: 6 Forest/Den Cards, 6 Sets of Animal Tracks, Rules A GREAT GAME for a CLASS, for CAMPS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, for FUN RECREATION, and EDUCATION - where ever groups gather to play together. AGES: 4 to 7 PLAYERS: 2 to 12 +Animal Trackers: Look carefully and match the tracks in the Forest leading to the animal dens. When we arrive, flip the Forest card to see what animal we tracked to its den. Then read the fascinating facts about the animal we found. Everyone has a part in helping to discover the animals in the forest.

Berries Bugs & Bullfrogs
Berries, Bugs & Bullfrogs - 1 to 12 Players, Ages 4 to 7 Click for a larger image Four different cooperative tile games. Players form as many good Berry Patches as they can, with the help of the friendly Bullfrogs. The basic mathematical skills of adding, subtracting, multipying and dividing all get a workout. Six tiles have only Berries on them. Six have only Bugs. Eight have both Berries and Bugs. The Bug shown is a Slug, one of the few insects that damage Strawberries. Each of the 12 Bullfrogs can eat one bug. In THE GOOD BERRY PATCH GAME, players form as many Good Berry Patches as they can that have more Berries than Bugs. In THE BUG-FREE BERRY PATCH GAME, each Bug will eat a Berry and only saved Berries count... with a Bonus for each totally Bug-Free Patch formed. There are also two MIND-READER BERRY PATCH GAMES, in which each tile is played silently with players trying to guess what tile the others are going to play. Lots of fun. Includes: 20 tiles, 12 bullfrogs, rules for 4 games. © 2005Four different cooperative tile games. Players form as many good Berry Patches as they can, with the help of the friendly Bullfrogs. The basic mathematical skills of adding, subtracting, multipying and dividing all get a workout.

Funny Face: A hilarious, active pantomime game that kids just love, and that sets their imaginations free! Players move around the board, helping each other bring all the things needed for a party. Command Cards get turned, describing an action to be done. Co-operative play allows everyone to get into the Funny Face 3 to 18 Players, Ages 4 to 7 Click for a larger image A hilarious, active pantomime game that kids just love, and that sets their imaginations free! Players move around the board, helping each other bring all the things needed for a party. Command Cards get turned, describing an action to be done. Co-operative play allows everyone to get into the actions without worrying about losing and being eliminated — and because you keep up your mime until the next turn, many funny interpretations happen at once. We advise parents and teachers to join in the fun! Plays quickly. Rules for a mime show included. Includes: 12 x 12" board, die, party favor movers, command cards. © 1987 Our customers say: "A good party game! This is a noisy game — but fun noisy." — Santa Monica, CAactions without worrying about losing and being eliminated — and because you keep up your mime until the next turn, many funny interpretations happen at once.

Hugs & Tickles: Help everyone from Mom and Dad to Granny and Grandpa have a Great Day and not get caught by The Blues. Pass on a hug. Make others laugh with goofy faces. Tell someone what you like about them, dance, sing together, share a joke…

Hugs & Tickles 2 to 12 Players, Ages 5-9 Hugs & Tickles Click for a larger image Help everyone from Mom and Dad to Granny and Grandpa have a Great Day and not get caught by The Blues. Pass on a hug. Make others laugh with goofy faces. Tell someone what you like about them, dance, sing together, share a joke... Feel-Good Cards have lots of things to do to chase away The Blues. But watch out for those old Blues; they can sneak up on you very quickly. You can personalize this game's supplies by adding various books and music of your own. Some suggestions are included. Includes: 12 x 12" board, feel-good cards, neighbourhood card, people movers, the blues, dice. © 1986, 1994 Our customers say: "A great party or learning game, whether for a few or many youngsters!" — Maine, USAFeel-Good Cards have lots of things to do to chase away The Blues. But watch out for those old Blues; they can sneak up on you very quickly. You can personalize this game’s supplies by adding various books and music of your own. Some suggestions are included.

 

Yard Sale: We all go to a Yard Sale, looking for bargains. We help each other fill the family Minivan with as much stuff as we can find, and not let the Truck take away any unclaimed items to the Dump.

Yard Sale 1 to 8 Players, Ages 4 to 7 Click for a larger image We all go to a Yard Sale, looking for bargains. We help each other fill the family Minivan with as much stuff as we can find, and not let the Truck take away any unclaimed items to the Dump. Each player turns up two cards from around the Yard, looking for two that match to make up a complete item. Maybe a table top in one place and its legs somewhere else. A wagon here and some wheels over there. Maybe we invent how two parts could work together! Some funny matches could happen. Unmatched items can fill the Truck quickly if we don't help each other find as much stuff as we can! What will we manage to save from getting thrown away? Includes: 12 x 12" board, assortment of 26 yard sale items, 10 trash cans, minivan, dump truck, rules for basic and hard games. © 2000 Our customers say: "Memory and imagination are required in this fun game that keeps you in suspense down to the last trash can. Fun for the whole family!"Each player turns up two cards from around the Yard, looking for two that match to make up a complete item. Maybe a table top in one place and its legs somewhere else. A wagon here and some wheels over there. Maybe we invent how two parts could work together! Some funny matches could happen. Unmatched items can fill the Truck quickly if we don’t help each other find as much stuff as we can! What will we manage to save from getting thrown away?

Books: Games Manual, Marble Games, Games Kit, Games Plans

Early Childhood: Bambino Dino, Early Years, Granny’s House, Harvest Time, Sand Castles

Elementary School: Animal Trackers, Berries Bugs & Bullfrogs, Funny Face, Hugs & Tickles, Yard Sale

Geography: Let’s Go Digging, Mountaineering, Somewhere In the Rockies, Explorers, Somewhere in the Honduras, Somewhere in China

Gifted Resources: Investigators, Sky Travelers, Hotel Ritz, Space Future, Power Blackout, Mayan Calendar, Jsch

Social Studies: Community, Our Town, Ploughshares, Then There Were None, Earth Game, New America

Summer Enrichment: Walk In the Woods, Birds of Summer, Let’s Go Hiking, Farmers Market

Thinking Skills: Gridlock, Maze, Zen Blocks, Brainy Games, Blues Away, Diplomatic Mission, Warp n Woof

Why Co-operative games for Home Schooling?

Games make learning fun. But competitive games pit learners against each other, so someone always ends up feeling bad, or left out.

Play as friends, not as enemies! Our games foster the spirit of co-operation. Players help each other climb a mountain, make a community, bring in the harvest, complete a space exploration… They are never against each other.

After all, the initial impulse to play a game is social; that is, we bring out a game because we want to do something together. How ironic then that in most games, we spend all our efforts trying to bankrupt someone, destroy their armies — in other words, to get rid of one another! We soon learn how to pick on the other person’s weaknesses in order to win the game.

In sharing and working together teacher and students foster a sense of community. When there are no winners and losers, aggressive behavior decreases and less time is wasted sorting out disputes.

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis actually investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative games on aggressive and cooperative behaviors of 70 children (4 to 5 years old) from four classes in three preschools using some of our games including Max®, Harvest Time®, Granny’s House®, and Sleeping Grump® and some of our Cooperative Physical Activities).

The key conclusions of the study are that co-operative games produce less aggressive behaviors during and after play and, that as a result, they require less direct supervision by the teachers, it’s a win/win. It could be argued that they would pay for themselves in saved teacher work-hours.