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Akkar Bakkar | Count and Play

Overview :  Akkar Bakkar is a low cost physical game built for kids age group 3-7. Inspired from Indian traditional "Akkar bakkar bambe bo" game is built for the kids to learn counting, numbers, color recognition, shape recognition and other geometrical properties like line vertices etc.

Duration : Dec'13

Game components : Number bits, Shape bits, board with pins (the pointedspikes on board), thread  

Basic Game with numbers - 
Learning Objective - Counting, Number Recognition and Shapes

Setup - the pins on the board are arranged in a square grid by default which could be changed in any other order. 

Arrangement - Player 1 (the facilitator) arranges the number bits on the board by assigning one no to each stick. This pattern could be a shape like square, triangles, stars etc.

1
3
2
4
Number Bits

Challenge - Child is asked to identify the shape or pattern by bits are shape's vertices. 

The Creation - Child can follow the sequence formed by the number and can form the shape by tying the thread around the pins as shown.  

Result - Shape is guessed by the player, after some times kids could guess shapes by just seeing the sequence of the numbers.

Basic game play with colors - 
Learning Objective - Direction, Color Recognition, Shapes and Volume
1

Starting point - player is asked to pick one specific color let say green from the lot and assign to one pin

2

Challenge - child is again asked to pick one more different specific color and assign to pin located in specific direction eg. North-East 

3

Repetition - Again same process is repeated agin which will create a polygon  

4

Volume - by following the pattern child can create a 3D shape understanding the color, point, line, shape and volume

Scope :  Other games are set up with diferent combination of numbers, colors. For ex a sequence could be followed to reach a color, with one number as central point and colors as outer point ray diagrams could also be created. So basically it is a grid with one pin representing one point where a point could be a number, color or any other kind of pin for ex. shape, cartoon character, names etc.

Low cost and easily built :  With basic material like toothpick, paper and thermacol it could be made easily at home also. 

Target Users and Scenario: It is generally observed in the Indian household that grandparents spend lots of time with their grandchildren. This time can be utilized to engage child  in some mental exercises. It is very easy for facilitator (like grandma) who may or may not be well educated to arrange the boards designing the tasks for kids. 

In another scenario two kids could also play this game thinking about one pattern and asking the other player to guess it by following the instruction

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