Thursday, May 6, 2010

Parts of Speech Challenge

Subject: Language Arts
Category: Grammar
Ages: 10 to 14
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 to 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Roll and move

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 1
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 1
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 1

My comments: Like a lot of educational games on the market, this is a poor excuse for a board game designed to practice parts of speech.  You roll the die, move along the perpetual board (there's no end space) and do what it says on the board.  The four corner spaces have printed on them the definition of a part of speech in a question form and you choose the correct answer.  Why bother with the question?  Most of the spaces have you pick a card and guess the part of speech of the underlined word in one of three sentences (the board tells you which sentence.)  When you get a correct answer you place a chip on that part of speech in the center of the board and when you get 4 chips in a row you earn points.  The instructions even have a variation to play without the board!  The only thing you are getting here of any value is a deck of cards with the sentences and the answer key on the game instructions.  The board is nice enough, though the cards are small while the pawns and chips are cheap stock models.  It is certainly not worth the $20+ price tag.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25374/parts-of-speech-challenge