Playing can make learning much easier, and Lucy Hammett’s Butterfly Bingo game proves that learning is fun. Butterfly Bingo is ideal for the home, classroom, or home school. If you have a butterfly fan in your life, this is the perfect addition to a library or collection. Bingo is nearly an ageless game, and this version offers something for the lovers of butterflies both young and old.
Butterfly Bingo: A Fun Way to Learn About Butterflies
The Butterfly Bingo game components are sized large enough to appreciate the full-color photos, but easy to handle. Playing boards are bigger than most bingo games offer, the size of a sheet of copy paper (8 ½” x 11”). The 5×5 grid features a butterfly in each square, labeled below on a small white field. The script type, though in keeping with the majesty of butterflies, is still clear enough for young readers to recognize the letters. Forty-two unique calling cards are regulation bridge-size (3 ½” by 2 ¼”), with a slightly larger matching photo of each butterfly than appears on the playing boards. The reverse side of the calling card displays a list of facts about that butterfly. Six different playing boards are included, allowing two to six players, as well as 42 playing chips. Teacher’s editions of Lucy Hammett’s games allow up to 18 players.
What sets Lucy Hammett’s Butterfly Bingo game apart from others is its use of stunning, vividly colored photographs. Each butterfly has been caught only on film, its background a natural setting of leaf, flower, twig, or rock. Even those who are only mildly interested in butterflies can’t help but admire these photos, and while playing bingo, pick up a few fun facts.
Bingo makes it easy to learn those facts, as well. To the beginner’s eye, butterflies can look disarmingly similar, but as one plays Butterfly Bingo, staring intently at the playing board will naturally teach the player to pick out subtle differences in shape, color, and pattern. The facts on the opposite of each card deepen each player’s knowledge as well. These facts can be incorporated into the game if desired, or used sparingly according to age level and interest.
Young players who are still learning to read won’t feel left out, either. They can match the pictures on the calling cards to their playing board – giving them the extra advantage of being able to distinguish each butterfly by sight. Older players can help younger ones by calling out the name of each butterfly as it is called. Don’t be surprised if children want to follow up on their new knowledge by planting a butterfly garden, or coaxing them to linger in flower gardens with a butterfly feeder (a shallow dish with sugar water and a clean sponge).
Butterfly Bingo is an educational game, but it doesn’t feel like it while you’re playing. Kids and adults will equally enjoy the experience. Even after learning the facts, the classic fun of playing bingo will make this game a classic that never gets old in one’s game board collection.
