Extending Vocabulary, Conceptual Languge and Creative Expression

Games that encourage vocabulary skills and self-expression.
The following games can motivate visual memory and kinaesthetic sensory discernment, as well as encourage vocabulary skills and expressive language.

In the picture above each of the balls shown was chosen for its outstanding sensory qualities. Collectively they provide a wide range of tactile and multisensory experience including those less notable senses that give differentiation through smell, weight or density. The balls shown are those used by the author for the following game:-

• For younger children the balls are used for playing the Kym’s game where all but one of the balls are left on the tray in front of the players who then have to identify the one ball that has been removed from the tray. The Kym’s game can also be a good introductory game that helps players to remember the different balls before going on to play the ‘Yes No’ Answer Game described below.

• To play the game ‘What Is My Chosen Ball’; firstly all the balls are placed on a tray in front of the players. Then the balls are passed around to all the players one at a time and each player holds each ball for a chosen length of time before passing it on to the next player. When everyone has become familiar with the balls in the game, the balls are put away out of sight. Then one player secretly puts one ball in a box and takes a place sitting in front of the other players.
This person can look in the box whenever s/he wishes while answering ‘Yes, No’ questions from the other participants who are trying to identify the chosen ball hidden in the box.
The number and variations of different balls presented at the beginning of the game can be altered to meet different levels of ability, and increase when the participants have become familiar with a particular collection of balls.
 
How to play the ‘What is My Card’ game:-In the following example the author used identical pictures of vegetables from identical seed catalogues to make two sets of matching cards for the game ‘Guess My Vegetable Card’. [The author usually rounds off the left hand corner on each card to help the players to be mindful of correct orientationand aid the initial picture matching activity.]

Firstly one player secretly chooses one of the first set of vegetable cards and placed out of sight in a box or container. The other player/s place the 2nd set of cards out in front of them and then try to discover which card from the identical card set has been chosen and secretly placed out of their sight.

The person who had secretly chosen a card can look at the hidden card and thereby helps the other players discover which card has been chosen by answering the players’ questions of enquiry with ‘yes or no’ answers. If a question does not have a clear yes or no answer then the card holder says ‘pass….’(or Don’t Know) This means the player/s can try another question to gain a clear yes or no answer.

The elements of self-discovery in the ‘Guess What‘s on My Card’ game is very strong because the game is valid even when the questions and answers are not as accurate or as helpful as they might be! The players may need to repeat questions and reinvent a presentation of one or more questions if wrong or unclear answers have led to confusion.
The author has created sets of cards to facilitate different Guess My Card themes so as to accommodate different levels of ability and challenge. The authors card sets include the following: ‘On the Sea Shore’; ‘Pets’; ‘Wild Animals’; ‘People’s Faces’; ‘Vegetables’; ‘Flags’; ‘Water Birds’; ‘Flowers’ and an extensive and popular set of ‘Drawn Cartoon Dogs’.

The players asking the questions turn over any cards that their questions appear to have eliminated as the ‘chosen card’.The elements of self-discovery in the ‘Guess What‘s on My Card’ game is very strong because the game is valid even when the questions and answers are not as accurate or as helpful as they might be!
The game can be made very much more difficult when the questions cannot include words that define numbers or colours. When matching flags the colours do matter and more importantly the colours must be presented in the correct sequence. When playing the ‘Guess My Flag’ game colours are usually allowed because many flags have the same colours on them even though the design is different.

The game can be made much simpler when using a collection of common objects. In this collection each object may have very different notable qualities related to shape, colour, material and purpose. The players asking the questions need to have either a set of photos one for each object presented at the beginning of the game.
If using a specified collection of object one object may be placed on each square on a marked outboard. Then the person who chooses a specific object can record their choice by drawing a cross on a squared chart or write down the number that relates to the square that has the chosen item. This can be gives all the players constant visual access to the original collection objects in full. Also, if assistance is requested from a non-playing person, the chosen item can be easily identified without risking the other players being shown the answer.

When the answer/s to questions appears to have eliminated the chosen object or picture-card, revision questions can be presented by the players to improve clarity and highlight areas of confusion. This also gives the person answering the questions an opportunity to reassess and instate correct answers (often that of “pass”) where confusion has occurred.

More challenging 3D versions
The initial Kym’s game (using the balls shown in the picture above) and the ‘Guess my chosen picture/object’ games (described in the example above using a set of objects or picture cards) can also be facilitated with sets of outstandingly beautiful objects which present a similar concept or definition: e.g. the author has used a collection of miniature hand sized logs; similar sized ‘pebbles’; a set of ‘crystal geometric shapes’; and ‘different types of fir cones’and a natural collection of ‘different grasses’.