Stomp the Plank Review

Stomp the Plank

Play Time: 10-15 min

Players: 2-4

Ages: 5+

Instagram Overview:

Review:

First of all, I'm a HUGE sucker for elephants! The elephant figurines in this game are irresistible! They're chunky and sturdy and add a lot of appeal! The magnetic "planks" on the boat are cleverly done and make the game feel unique.

The gameplay is fast and simple. It is a great introduction to "push your luck" games. While we have had someone actually win by getting all different cards, it is incredibly unlikely. Kids have to balance the chances of getting a duplicate and having to move their own elephant forward with going further and getting to put more weights on their opponent's planks (probabilities anyone???). My younger son often struggles with games where something "bad" happens, but the design of this game is so cute that he usually just laughs if his elephant falls in.

Note: The official rules say that once a pirate goes overboard, everyone else wins. Because the game goes so quickly, we play that the last pirate standing is the winner. I think it is also easier for kids to lose if multiple people lose and there is one winner versus only one person losing and everyone else winning!

Check out my board game section of the blog:

Tot School Birthday Activities

Juniper's birthday was in June. In the weeks leading up to it, we did some birthday activities (I'm just really late on posting!).

Birthday Themed Books!

Birthday Zoo

Can You Catch a Birthday Birkle?

If You Give a Pig a Party

Bee Makes Tea

Red Panda's Party

Elephant Never Forgets

Birthday Cake

The Gifts

Birthday Bear

Cupcake sensory bin with cloud dough, sprinkles, candles and cupcake holders.

We matched some birthday word vocabulary cards (Free here). I just forgot a pic!

Ice cream shape matching from Tot Schooling

Gift shadow matching from Tot Schooling

Cupcake matching from Tot Schooling

Size sorting balloons from Homeschool Creations.

Cake number matching from Tot Schooling. I used number tiles instead of having her write.

Birthday word matching from Tot Schooling

Tot School Shape Trapezoid

 We have been working on a shape a week, as well as doing other themed activities. 

These are the shape related activities. Juniper was about 23 months.

This was her little area on our play room wall. The poster is from The Learning Effect. The rest is her completed work for the week.

This week she put stickers on her dot page.

Coloring some pentagons (Printable found here).

Tracing some pentagons in her dry erase center. She still needs a lot of help tracing, but she enjoys it.

Tot School: 4th of July

 I know this post is at least a couple of weeks late, but I wanted to get it up anyway, mostly to have something to look back on next year when I am looking for more ideas! Juniper was 24 months

Play dough is always a favorite, so I made some blue play dough, had some star cookie cutters, some US landmarks Toob figurines, some star buttons and some other little red, white a blue beads.

I gave her a bunch of cookie cutters to practice size sorting and nesting.

I got out a bunch of red, white and blue math cubes that we used to try copying patterns. She did ok for a while but then just wanted to play with them.

Tot Schooling had this American Flag shape matching activity we tried.

I printed a bunch of sight words in stars onto construction paper. We practiced reading them and throwing them. We also used the to Feed the Woozle (an adorable game she enjoys playing the more normal way also).

I gave her some star pony beads with our beginner 10s frame cards. She only has the patience to do a couple of cards at a time, but she's starting to learn that we fill them left to right.

We also practiced 4th of July vocabulary with her 3 part cards. She doesn't like these as much as the boys do, but matched about half before she lost interest.

While I made this Botley coding game for her big brother, Juniper had a lot of fun watching him play and attempting to do it herself.