Mermaid Island Cooperative Learning Game
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What exactly is a cooperative learning game?
The object of the game is to get all 3 of the mermaids to Mermaid Island before the Sea Witch gets there! And as all the other cooperative games, no single player ‘owns’ a mermaid. Since everyone is working together as a team anyone may move any mermaid. As you can see on the dial above there is a picture of the sea witch, a 1 and a 2. If the player lands on a 1 or a 2 he/she may move a mermaid that many spaces ahead. But if they land on the sea witch they must move the sea witch forward once place.
If a mermaid lands on a wand token the child can use it to move the sea witch back one place. If the sea witch lands on a mermaid, however, that mermaid must go back to the beginning and start all over again. The group must work as a team together to bring all 3 mermaids home.
As with all of the cooperative learning games that I received from Peaceable Kingdom Press, this game was placed in an elementary classroom (3rd grade) at my husband’s school. Below are a few thoughts from the teacher who received this game.
“At first the students were fighting over who was going to go first and who would get to move which pieces. They didn’t understand the point at all. Then I heard my higher level students explain to my lower level students ‘Wait guys! You don’t get it at all! We have to work together as a TEAM to get all of the mermaids home. It doesn’t matter who goes first!’ Ever since that the students started cooperating and working together to win the game.”
I think it’s incredible how something so simple as the right type of game can make such a difference in students working together and cooperating. You can read my other cooperative learning game reviews here: Count Your Chickens, Hoot Owl Hoot, Stone Soup.
.Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are mine & the teachers involved. I received a game in order to form my own opinions for this review.
