It's barnyard fun for the whole family!

FlipOver - The Animal Matching Game You'll Flip Over

Ages: 4 and up
Players: 2 to 6

Learning Skills:

Matching & Image Completion

Visual

Memory

Verbal

Word Recognition

Concentration

Race to be the first to get the animals into the barnyard in this fast-paced matching game! Players search their cards to complete a picture of a barnyard animal, then use the Barnyard Flipper to turn over the card and reveal the next animal image to be matched. Colorful images help young children complete the matches, and the written animal name on each card helps early readers make associations between the words and the images. It's barnyard fun for the whole family!

Features:

• Barnyard Flipper adds tactile fun to game play
• Animal Cards feature pictures and words to support word learning in early readers
• Parents' Guide with tips to help support early learners through play
• Instructions feature two types of game play: competitive and cooperative

Awards:

* National Parenting Center Seal of Approval - 2010
* Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award - 2010
* Creative Child Magazine Seal Of Excellence Award – 2010
* Parent's Choice Approved Award - 2010

Learning Skills:

* Language
* Memory and Matching
* Visual

Reviews:

"We bought this game for our 4-year-old son recently. It says that this game is for 4+. It seems like my son can play easily, so would say it's for 3+. It's a very colorful game & easy to follow. He can play by himself or 2 more players can play this game."

Parent's Guide:

FlipOver! is a fun and lively game of image matching that is perfect for introducing young kids to the basics of game play. With both competitive and cooperative versions, players can practice social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and following simple rules. The game is designed so that all players stay involved throughout, turns are not rushed, and players experience a constant sense of success and reward. Game play is quick, and the kid-powered Barnyard Flipper and silly animal images are so much fun that kids will want to play again and again!

Here are some tips on how you can help your child to improve his/her thinking skills while playing FlipOver!

1. Start with Fun:

Encourage free play with the cards and the Barnyard Flipper. Have your child practice pressing the hay bales on the Flipper to watch how it flips a card from one side to the other. Point out that every match is made up of one blue bordered card and one orange bordered card. Encourage your child to look at the printed words at the bottom of the cards and name the various animals as they are placed in the Barnyard Flipper. Set up the game for your child to play on his or her own - this can be just as much fun for young kids as playing with others. Giving children a chance to become familiar with the game cards and elements will ready them for the game play to come!

2. Build Social Skills:

Learning how to share, take turns, exercise self control, and be a graceful winner and loser are tricky concepts for young children. One of the best ways to help kids master these important life skills is through game play. We recommend beginning with a cooperative version of play. In the cooperative FlipOver! game, players must still follow simple rules and etiquette - keeping the cards spread out with the correct side facing up, working together to locte matches and celebrating the success of a match made by another player. The cooperative version will encourage your child to be supportive of other players, to work together, and to feel a sense of partnership and shared success. In order to further build a sense of cooperation, you may want to encourage players to give each other a high five after each match is made or take turns placing animals and flipping the cards. Remind players that they are working together and that each new flip brings another chance to make a match!

3. Learn Your Animals:

Add a rule that every time an animal half is matched, the player making the match must make the sound or act out the movements of that particular animal. This will not only help your child learn about different animals, but it will also enrich game play.

4. Build Pattern Recognition Skills:

The FlipOver! animal cards match up in a particular order that forms a circular chain (the cow always matches after the turtle, the rabbit always follows the cow, etc.). Our match sequence chart shows the order of this chain. While the chain may not be immediately apparent during game play, discovering this unique feature of FlipOver! leads to a fantastic exercise in pattern matching and concentration. Understanding the flow and using it when playing is incredibly empowering, giving children a sense of control and mastery that adds to the fun of game play! As a parent, you can use this sequence to influence the outcome of a game (in other words, choose the last match and you automatically lose).

5. Exercise Matching Muscles:

As your child becomes comfortable with the idea of matching two halves to complete an image, encourage him/her to use this skill in new ways. Ask your child what clues he/she uses when trying to locate a match. Does she/he focus on matching the colors, body shapes, or background? Is she/he relying on the printed text to locate the matching animal name? Try covering half a story book illustration or photograph and encouraging your child to describe what the hidden half might contain. Encouraging children to articulate the specific characteristics that serve as matching clues will strengthen their attention to detail and help them to become more intentional (and speedy!) as they search for matches.

6. Support Early Readers:

The FlipOver! cards show word names along with animal images to help early readers begin to make associations between the two. Pre- and early readers alike feel immensely successful when they are able to "read" the name of an image. Encouraging your child to name the animal once a match has been made reinforces a text/image connection.

7. Praise From the Heart:

Here is the best advice we can offer - praise young players not for how smart they are, but rather for the hard thinking they use and the great results they achieve for their efforts.