Speedeebee! Review of a Cute Word Game

“Life is more fun if you play games.”
― Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald 

 Heidi Kay over at PediaStaff asked me to review a couple of games by Blue Orange Games.  Of course, I said yes---if you look at my therapy room, it looks like the game aisle in a toy store.  I love games, and my kids do too!  Even with the current iPad craze, most of my students will choose a game in a box to play when the time is right.

The game we played this week was entitled Speedeebee!  The ages suggested were 8 to adult, with 2-6 players in 20 minutes.  I played it with five EC 4th graders, adapting it a bit, as I do most of my games.

Here are the company-supplied directions:

For my students, this game is little fast paced; however, the directions were easy to change to make less competitive, and to allow for simpler tasks.  I became the card reader, and the kids wrote the words on the SmartBoard after I read a question.  I was really amazed at how they started off tentative, and then became risk-takers with answers such as 'celery', 'wrestling', 'Asia', and 'Dale Earnhardt, Jr.' (most spelled correctly and thought of without adult cues!)  I embellished the game a bit with iPad dice which were the same as the dice supplied by the game---different colors, but this was explained to the children who had no difficulty switching.  Ipad dice don't roll off the table :)

Some examples of tasks included:

game cards

---Name something associated with winter, starting with one of these letters.
---Name a word containing the blue letter but NOT containing the other 3.
---Find a word containing these 2 letters (throw the green and red dice).
---Name something you can eat starting with one of these letters.

With the adapted directions, I simply had the kids take turns coming up with words, rather than requiring a competition (some of us have difficulty losing).  This worked out fine, and they really loved this new game.  After answering a question, each child kept the card--no one lost.  I feel this game was great on many levels---

• Following complex directions
• Categorization, 
• Spelling, 
• Vocabulary.  

 It's a keeper, and will hold a prominent spot on my game shelf for the older kids! 

We embellished with both SmartBoard and iPad dice