The Witch's Cauldron (Ages 3-8)

A friendly witch has come through the house and turned everything “topsey turvey”. The object of this game is to return everything to its proper place. The game consist of 6 larger cards which are sectioned off into 9 small squares and 54 small cards that fit into these squares. This game is marvelous for helping a child’s observational skills. It is also a vocabulary builder. The rooms in the house that are used are the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and living room. The backyard and street are also part of the fun.
Benefits:
* the greatest benefit to this game is the use of cognitive thinking skills
* the player must go beyond simple matching of pictures to actually imagining, creating a visual image and deciding what the correct arrangement of the room would have been if the witch had not created such confusion
* game can be played as a group or independently
* provides opportunities for children to notice details in size, colour, shapes and functions of objects
* provides humour for the players
* observational skills are fostered through matching cards to game boards and through finding the hidden witch on each board.
Extended Thinking
* after players are familiar with the game -see if they can reproduce the rooms using the cards only
* discuss with the players how they arrived at their various decisions
* did the players have any consistent strategies for arriving at their decisions? Encourage older children to write down their strategies
*Type of Game - observation and matching game
*Basic Concept - visual discrimination promotes thinking skills
*Boxed game
*Dimensions: "6 collecting boards, 54 matching cards"