Educational Insights Word on the Street Junior

my 3rd thru 5th grade students love to play this in our small literacy groups as a reward. i love it too! pricey but worth it.

So many ways to use this game in our homeschool. We use it to practice our list

I have a lot to say about this game- all awesome things, with one suggestion...I thought this game looked interesting and wondered if it would work with the Phonics based program that I use (which includes 70 phonograms, many of which are multi-letter). Upon opening the box, I found it to be a very nicely made, sturdy, tri-fold board, with a good storage container for the cards, although the box seems a little too big for the product. You don't even have to punch out any of the letter tiles and risk ripping them! I loved that the category cards are color coded with one side being more challenging than the other. Both people could play at the same level, or you could level the playing field a bit by having the older person play from the orange side while the younger read from the blue side. Or you can simply let the game grow with their needs and provide many opportunities for play over the course of the child's education. The instructions are written in a way that there are teams, which works because each team has the opportunity to brainstorm together and come to a conclusion (which other skills come into play if they are strategic in knowing what letters they really need/or are close to getting in a round). However, we played one on one and it worked just as well. For the first round, I played it with a 10 year old and noticed that it was going to take a while to get to a winner (capturing 8 letter tiles). I mentioned that maybe we should just play until one of us captured 4 letter tiles and he said, "No, I want to go to 8! This is fun!" KUDOS to Educational Insights when a child is begging to continue! SUGGESTION- in between step #2 & 3, I would recommend that you have the children write down their chosen word (paper/marker board, etc) before they move the letter tiles on the board, instead of guessing while moving the tiles to prevent as many mistakes. It helps reinforce spelling. I also watched a 9 & 10 year old play and they loved it!

This game is virtually a letters tug-of-war. It suggests playing with teams and comes with an egg-timer to give the teams a limit to agree upon the word they'll use in response to the question written on the card they selected. It's just as much fun playing with two and the timer is unnecessary in that case. You spell out the answer and move each letter one lane over to your side of the street. On your opponent's turn, he can use that same letter moving it one lane toward his side of the street. Once the letter is off the board "street," the point belongs to the person who took it off. The letter can still be used to complete words for other answers but it doesn't get put back on the board. First player to get 8 letters off the "street" is the winner. My 8 years young grandchild and I enjoy playing this game.

We got this for our 4, 6, and 8 year old grandchildren. Although all could play, and even though the 4 year old knows his alphabet, and the 6 year old can read, it was our 8 year old who really got into the game and began to use some strategies. The younger ones participated, but not entirely. When asked to name things found in the kitchen, or foods that are red, they couldn't come up with any answers (even though they do know). I think they are too young to understand that speed is important in this game. The good thing about this game is that you play on teams. So there is no one loser (or winner). Instead, it's the team that loses or wins. (makes losing a bit easier for the young kids). The team members don't have to be even, just balanced to be fair. (8 year old and Grandpa on one team, 4 and 6 year old on Grandma's team....)