Over this last month, School-age 2 has been eager to learn a new game called ‘Jell-O’. The children engaged each other in learning different techniques and tips for more effective play. The object of the game is to collect one of each different kinds of Jell-O flavours by slapping the specific Jell-O colour first. You are given two different decks of cards- one of them being the flavours of Jell-O and the other one being the action card. In a circle, the first person will read out the action card; for example, “Left hand, strawberry”. The person who reads it does not slap the pile, while everyone else should use their left hand to try to slap the strawberry pile first. If you end up slapping a kind of Jell-O flavour that you already have by mistake, you have to put both of the cards back. If you also use your right hand instead of the left as directed, you do not get the card and it moves on until somebody does it correctly. Whoever has one of each kind first wins the game.
To start the game of Jell-O, Layla, Claire S, and Audrey sorted all of the flavours into their specific pile- leaving 6 piles in total. The 6 different flavours were strawberry, berry blue, lemon, lime, orange, and grape. Audrey decided that she wanted to start by calling out the action cards. “Left hand lemon,” she said. Both Layla and Claire tried to quickly find the lemon pile and slap it first. As the game went on, they kept moving the action cards around the table to make sure that everyone got a chance to read one. Next, it was Claire’s turn to read the card. “Right hand grape,” she said. Layla and Audrey both slapped their hands on the grape pile. Layla noticed that Audrey used her left hand instead of her right and that she already had a grape card in front of her. “You have to put both of them back because you already had grape,” Layla said. Audrey complied and put both of the cards back and the game continued. In the end, Layla had collected one of each flavour of Jell-O first and was the winner of the game.
While the game may be fun it also has many developmental benefits for the children. It enhances their gross motor skills as well as reflexes by slapping the pile as quickly as they can. It also increases their ability to use conflict resolution skills by being able to communicate their perspectives on how to apply game rules such as turn taking. It enhances their hand-eye coordination by listening to what the person is telling them and being able to connect it with the card in front of them; this also incorporates the ability to follow directions, along with literacy skills by reading what each action card says. Furthermore, with these important skills, it is crucial that they have learned to understand the importance of classroom rules, such as making sure that you clean after you are finished playing the game. Going forward these skills will help them in other areas of their life outside of just playing Jell-O.
