Wednesday, 20 February 2019

Orchard Toys Magic Spelling Game Review

Time for another amazing Orchard Toys review!

I just love educational games and Orchard Toys have been my favourite brand for games for this very reason. 


We were offered a brand new educational game called Magic Spelling.

The game is recommended for children aged 5-7, so Lily is a little young for this game yet. But I was so impressed with the learning experience that comes with it that I just had to review it and let everyone know about it. 



The concept of the game is to race to spell out your word before the timer runs out. But there is a magic element to it where the words are hidden until you use the magic wand to reveal them. 

In the box there is - 

- 4 spell book boards
- 20 spell ingredients cards
- 36 word cards
- 36 letter tiles
- 1 magic wand
- 1 sand timer
- 1 cauldron spinner
- 1 instruction leaflet

As usual the play pieces are all so colourful and child friendly. So inviting for a child to want to come and play with them.


You start to play by giving each player a spell book board. You then need to spread out the letter tiles with the letter side facing down. Shuffle all the word cards and place them bubble side up. Then you need to spread out all the ingredient cards with the pictures facing up and get your wand and timer and spinner ready to play. 


The youngest player then starts by turning over a word card. You will be able to see a picture of something, for example a fish. then under that there would be a black block where the word would be later revealed. If the child is already at a good spelling ability then they can think about how the word fish is spelt. Or this may have to be something that a parent would help with. For Lily as she is younger, we decided to focus on the first letter. 

The timer is then turned over and the race is on to find the letter on the letter cards. But it isn't as simple as that, you must look through the magic wand to make all the letter appear on the cards. As you find each letter you turn it over in front of you. 



If they manage to find all the letters (or in Lily's case, the letter) before the timer runs out then you can shout abracadabra and rub the black strip which will reveal the word to see if you are right. I found that Lily struggled to rub hard enough to reveal the word so I did this part for her. But an older child should manage to do it. If you were right then you get to find an ingredient to put on your spell book board. The letters all go back into the game face down to be used again. 

If you were wrong, or you didn't manage to find all the letters in time, then send your letters straight back to the table face down. 




After playing for some time one player may have managed to fill their spell book with all the ingredients. This is where the spinner now comes into play. Spin the spinner, if it lands on Abracadabra then you are the winner and you can cast the magic spell that is on the bottom of the ingredient card. But if you get the cross bones, then that means you have to return an ingredient and carry on in the game.

As I mentioned above, I decided to simplify the game for Lily's learning level and make it so she was only finding the first letter of each word. This is going to be a great game for her to be able to learn those letters seen as she isn't at the spelling stage yet. Lily doesn't know all her letters but she is starting to learn some and she loved using the magic wand to find them. She got the concept of the game really easily, so an older child would easily be able to understand and enjoy playing this game.

The game is perfect for letter and word recognition, developing word building skills, promoting language and literacy and also encouraging observation.

Overall it is such a fun game that is going to be a great aid when it comes to learning to spell.

This game is £12.75 to buy and can be bought from the Orchard Toys Website


Would your child enjoy this game? 


20 comments:

  1. Looks a great game

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  2. Spelling being a building block towards word recognition, and reading. Reading / literacy opens up a great opportunity for learning. Seems letting Lily try out the game (adjusted by yourself to be appropriate for her age, and developmental stage) was a good idea, nice to make learning fun.

    Rachel Craig

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  3. This is a fantastic game and so useful too. It will certainly help with spelling and reading.

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  4. I think games help so much developmentally and orchard toys always make it so fun

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  5. this game looks like a great learning tool---and not expensive

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  6. Looks like a great way to learn through play

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  7. I am a huge fan of orchard toys, firstly because they are local to me in Norfolk. But also because of how great they are at helping little ones learn whilst having fun, and they are great first family board games.

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  8. A fun way to learn to spell.

    Rachel Craig

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  9. i think my grandchildren would enjoy this one

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  10. It looks a fun game to play without them realising that they are learning at the same time!

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  11. This looks like a fantastic educational game to play with the kids!

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  12. Good quality games / toys.

    Rachel Craig

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  13. This sounds perfect for my Megan, she is 6 and when we had parents evening her teacher said she is ahead for her age on spelling and reading so I want to keep her doing well and not getting bored xx

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  14. Sounds like a good idea to make learning fun but oh my, that's a lot of pieces to try not to lose!

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  15. This sounds like a fun game to learn the alphabet and spelling. My granddaughter is slightly younger than Lily, but already recognises some letters so would be able to play the modified game you played with Lily.

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  16. This looks like a good educational game which kids would enjoy.

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  17. a great fun game - takes the children away from the screen and encourages learning and interatction - brilliant! xx

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  18. I do like to buy educational toys and games and this one i have not seen, but looks great fun for the little ones

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