Plinko!

A little while ago I was asked to review a product for Lakeshore. I chose the Plinko Phoenemic Awareness Game which focuses on beginning and ending sounds as well as rhyming. If you're like me, you remember Plinko from afternoons of watching "The Price is Right". I remember coming home after school and my mom would have tea ready - we got a cup of tea and one of those chocolate digestive biscuits as our afternoon snack and watched a bit of TV with her before getting to homework.


So right away, this Plinko game is bringing back fond memories! When I chose to review it, I looked at it from the point of view of a mother and then a teacher - it's perfect for my youngest right now - to help combat the summer slide and reinforce ending sounds in particular. It also looked like a fun game to play in class. I figured, if I can interest my 4 children in it, it would probably work in the classroom too!

It was surprisingly simple to set up - which would be a plus in a classroom setting - you don't want to have a lot of set up time involved when there are 20 children getting into mischief while the teacher is occupied patiently waiting. From opening the box to being game-ready it took less than 5 minutes!

One of the things I really liked is that the "chips" are not plastic or paper but actually wood - seems like these will stand up to many years of use! I don't know about you, but I'm constantly telling students not to bend things like papers, books, and playing cards, so it'll be nice not to have to worry about these! That's one of the things I appreciate about Lakeshore products, they tend to be high quality and lasting!

Here are a few pictures of the game play:

 Even from the beginning, my youngest was fascinated with the game.

 His sister took a few turns too - although the skills were too low for her obviously, she did like the game play! And yes, she is wearing one glove in the picture - it's apparently a steam punk thing, not a Michael Jackson thing.

 He had a little trouble laying the chips flat against the board but once I demonstrated he was fine!

 This time it landed in the ending sounds box which pleased him! 

My little Red liked it too - long after the older two were done my youngest two kept playing. They didn't stop until they had finished the whole bag!

I think this is a great review tool for my youngest! It's so much fun that he doesn't feel like he's doing "work"! I'm also eager to try it out in class - I know my students will be just as thrilled with it! It will easily hold a student's attention, even when it's not their turn, simply because of the Plinko board - there's just something about not knowing where the chip will go that is fascinating lol. I think it would be perfect in a pre-k or K setting, or even at the beginning of 1st grade for review. I know it will help my ELL students to review their rhyming throughout the year, since that is a really tough skill for them. With both beginning and ending sounds, I can see myself using this game from 1st quarter all the way through 4th quarter, so I'll get a lot of use out of it!

Alright, I'm off to an Army Marriage Retreat for the weekend! 2 nights in a fabulous hotel, with a water park! I am bringing my laptop, but I can't promise to turn it on ; P I will try to respond to any messages or questions on Sunday when we get back! Oh, by the way, for those of you who asked for different placemat styles, I now have Bumblebee, Monkey and Monster up in my TPT store! And if you happened to miss that post, just click here to see how I use these placemats in my classroom!

Disclaimer: I was given a free Plinko game in return for my honest review - I love it!