Svoora game, Spinning Planets

Spinning Planets. Dexterity Balance Game. 9 Spinning Tops, 8 Info Cards, 24 Mission Cards. Instructions manual included.

Contents:

• 9 Spinning Tops
• 8 Info Cards
• 24 Mission Cards
• 1 Instructions Manual

Welcome on board! A spaceship is waiting to take you away from the Earth to an unknown destination beyond the twinkling stars, far away from the sky! Get in it and fly across the galaxy in an amazing place full of new elements!

How to play

9 wooden spinning tops - 8 planets & 1 spaceship - that have multiple layers of educational & play value are ready to be discovered! The game consists of 3 different educational levels, in accordance with the age of each player:

Free play (for 5+ ages)

In free play the child can get familiar with the basic materials of the game. Study the front view of the Info Cards together and discuss about the basic elements that the kid can see on the images. Show the child the planets & their position in relation to the Sun & the Earth. Comment on their names, their appearance (colors & magnitude) and try to memorize their row. 

Which Planet do you see on this card? Look at its color! How far is it from the Sun? Is it near to us? You can also place in the middle of the table all the Info Cards, in order to discover how many of them the kid can remember. Moreover, you can ask him/her to place the cards in a row, according to the distance of each one from the Sun. 

In these ways you can train your child’s memory, shape cognitive ability and concentration on the basic elements of an image. With the vibrant colors you can stimulate his/hers critical thinking by showing how to memorize the basic information of every image it may see. 

Spinning play (for 6+ ages)

In this stage you can show the Planet Tops and the Spaceship to your children. As the difference between their shapes is approximately adjusted to the real metrics, it is easier for the child to understand and compare the information that he/she may have gained during the free play. Ask them to touch and hold each one of the tops. In this way, everyone familiarizes themselves with handling the game materials. The children are getting used to the sense of the wood & smooth surfaces, while slowly introduce themselves to the basic function of the top.

Now comes the time for spinning! Try to spin one of the tops, so that the child can understand the procedure. Then challenge him/her to imitate you! You can show to the child the exact way that he/she should hold the long wooden handle of each one of the planet tops, so to swirl them and to see the tops spinning around! The child, after some tries, will understand that more power in the swirl, gives a more accurate and longer-lasting spinning! This is an amazing balance experience that gives to children a perfect chance to develop their hand-eye coordination skills! Moreover, the kid learns how to follow specific steps through observation and imitation! As the spin gets faster & more accurate, the fun is getting bigger!  

The Intergalactic Missions game (for 8+ ages)

In this stage you can deepen into the ability of your child to memorize & learn specific details. Show the back view of the Info Cards and help him/her learn some basic figures. Discuss about the high & low numbers in each measurement so for the child to understand the different meanings. Also, you can present to the child a more detailed conceptualization of each one of the indicators, so that the child can conceive better what they measure. For instance, the temperature of 167°C on Mercury means that there it is extreme hot while the opposite happens to Saturn where the temperature of -140°C  means extreme cold. Apart from that, you can mention in a simple way that Gravity means “the force that attracts a body towards the center of the Earth or towards any other physical body having mass”. In order to reassure that the child has understood the numbers, place the cards in front of him/her so that the detailed back view cannot be seen and start asking several questions of your preference! For example, you can ask: Which planet is the warmest? Which planet has the biggest number of moons? How many planets have no rings? On which planet one day lasts more: On Mercury or on Uranus? In the end of the booklet you can find a summarize table with all the aggregated information from the below view of the cards. Keep it on your hand, so to check the correct answers. For more than one player, you can convert the process into a speed game. Place all the Info Cards next to each other with their front view, face up. You can ask them a basic information about the Planets (e.g. who is the coldest etc.) The player who will manage to place his/her hand faster than the others on the right card, is the winner. 

Note: The aim of the game is to help children obtain an overview of the basic concrete characteristics of the planets in our solar system and not the simple memorization of the exact numbers. Children can learn the basic characteristics of each planet & understand the reasons behind them in a logical way. 

And when the fun lesson is over, it is time for more fun! You can place the planet tops back to their specific positions in the tray, which acts as a board for the Spaceship. Now you can motivate your child to perfect the spinning of the Spaceship top, by setting goals through the accomplishment of concrete missions. Inside the box, except of the Info Cards, you will find 24 Mission Cards. Each one of them depicts a path that the Spaceship top should follow by spinning from one place to another. There are 3 different levels of difficulty for all tastes, in each one of these cards. Green, for the easy route, Blue, for the mid-difficult route and Red, for the difficult route. Your child improves the fine motor skills, while simultaneously trains the brain in goal setting and problem-solving procedures by trying to reach the spaceship to the destination in the fastest & most accurate way!  

Note: In the Mission Cards you will see that in some cases one planet may be missing. That is the black hole which must be avoided from the spaceship top, while spinning from one place to the other. 

This is a challenging game that the child can play with his/her friends. The Mission Cards should be shuffled & placed in the center of the table in the middle of the players, so that their content cannot be visible. From the beginning the players should reach to a common agreement regarding which paths will be followed (green, blue or red). Each player, on his/her turn, picks a card from the top of the pile and tries to accomplish the mission in accordance with the path that depicts the card. If he/she manages to reach the spaceship top from one place to the other by following the specific path without a mistake, then he/she keeps the card. Otherwise he/she places it in the bottom of the pile and then the turn of the next player begins. When the pile runs out, then the players count the number of the cards that they gained during the game and the one with the biggest number of cards wins the game and can call himself/herself the “Best Astronaut in the whole Galaxy”. In a case of a tie the two players choose 5 cards and compete for them. The one who will manage to gain most of them is the winner of the game!

Note: Except of the existing Mission Cards, the child can think of his/her own paths to follow, so to extend the fun and to form an endless Intergalactic game! In this way, the child learns how to form his/her own missions and to challenge his/her friends! The child enhances the imagination and creativity, while becoming more familiar with the spatial perception and builds his/her confidence!