Penguins on ice....insight and openness to change
Author: Claudia Benmesahel-Kruidbos
Trainer and mother
Although summer is coming, the game Penguins on Ice (by Smart Games) is a real holiday recommendation!
This game is based on pentomino shapes and requires insight and, above all, an openness to change.
The game consists of 5 penguins who are on thin ice. Ice floes floating on the sea change shape and slide and slide constantly and the penguins have to end up in the right place.
Each puzzle piece can take multiple shapes. But in most assignments you don't know which shapes you will need for the solution. Each puzzle piece becomes a puzzle in itself. (with 5 different puzzle pieces you make 13 possible shapes).
You need your memory and your visual imagination. You have to think logically, remember the possibilities of the shapes well and think of a strategy to find the solution.
As with most Smart games, the assignments consist of different levels of increasing difficulty.
Many children find the first levels too easy, they are already given the shapes, which makes them tend to skip these assignments.
I then show the children that when you are at the junior level, there are only Penguins on the assignments that want to get to the right place.
The game is for children aged six and up, but it is certainly a fun challenge for adults.
My colleague and I use it during our brain-teaser hour that we offer every Wednesday from the Ketelbinkie toy library.
The smile on the face of a child who has completed an assignment immediately melts any ice that may be present.
Sometimes we see two children working together on a solution or each completing an assignment.
