Product Review: Raccoon Rumpus

This game is also part of my recent Amazon classroom materials haul. I don't know why but educational materials and games excite me so much these days--so many creative ideas out there!

First of all, how cute is this? I taught a unit on clothing to my students and I don't think any of them remember what I taught them so I thought this would be good reinforcement. However, the dice only really allows you to teach "shirt", "pants," and "underwear," but I think those three words are about right for their level. Clothing vocabulary is so hard for Japanese kids to pronounce because of all the "sh" words, singular and plural words, and because Japanese words for clothing are similar but have different meaning (for example, "pants" means underpants in Japanese and "zubon" means pants).

The packaging is super cute and colorful--everything is stored easily in the box, which has instructions written on the inside of the lid. The cards are thin, so again, I was nervous to let my students touch them (I don't know if it is just my students or if all kids are like this because they always surprise me). The raccoons are hollow plastic heads mounted to cardboard--again, something I with was all thicker plastic because even though I warn them every time, I know those heads are bound to be pushed in and dented and one of the cards is already bent because a boy wanted to test its strength...sigh....sometimes I am sad that I can't let more students use the game because I know they can't handle things gently. WHY? The set of die are really nice though--heavy and sturdy and they don't look like the images will peel or chip off easily.

So you roll both die and then I have the player say the color and type of clothing (for example, "yellow shirt"). It is interesting to see if they can find the correct picture. All of the cards are like costumes instead of regular outfits, so I would love if they made another version with regular clothes. More advanced students say the costume name, like "cowboy" or "doctor," which is nice, but I sometimes wonder if it is confusing for them that the dice shows pants but they can choose a skirt. I guess the correct words to teach would be "top" and "bottom" instead of "shirt" and "pants," but I wanted them to practice those vocabulary words.

Overall, I love the concept and design of this game but would love for it to be sturdier. Or maybe I would just love for my students to not try to break everything! Ahh!

all images are from Amazon.com