Orchard Toys Review - Mammoth Maths and Loopy Llamas

(Ad- Gifted) 

Lily and I are both huge fans of Orchard Toys, We now have a massive collection and have been playing their games for quite a few years now. Their games never fail to disappoint in levels of fun and in education. 

So we was really pleased to be offered the chance to review 2 brand new games that have just been released. 

We was sent both Loopy Llamas and Mammoth Maths and so i'm going to tell you all about them now.  

Both games as usual look so appealing to play. I just love the boxes that Orchard toys supply the games in, they are always super colourful. Plus the Mammoth Maths game comes with a handle so then it can be carried around. 

The first game that we decided to try out was Loopy Llamas. This game is aged for ages 4+ and is for 2-4 players. I generally find games aged about 4+ the perfect age for Lily to play because she finds it easy to play and so has fun with it. 

Inside the box you find - 

 - One Playing Board
 - One Spinner
 - 4 Llama bodies, and matching legs
 - 4 Llama counters
 - Dice
 - 20 Cardboard hoops
 - Instructions 

First you will need to pop out all the hoops and playing pieces. Then put together the board and the spinner. This doesn't take long to do.

Then you choose a Llama Body and build it so it stands up, then choose the matching Llama as your playing piece. Then you need to place all the hoops all the way around the board. You should then be all set up and ready to play.

The idea to the game is to collect the coloured rings and race your way to the end and have your llama jump into the swimming pool. Lily loved the concept of the game and couldn't wait to be able to make her Llama jump into the pool.

Youngest player goes first, they roll the dice and then move that many spaces. If they land on a patterned circle then this means they can pick up a hoop with the same pattern. They can then place this on the Llamas neck. You may end up landing on a Llama face which is a bonus as this means that you can choose any colour of hoop you like which may just be the missing one you need! You may also land on the arrow, and if you do and don't have all the colours of the hoops then you don't take a turn and it passes onto the next player.

Once you have all 5 loops, you then need roll the exact number to land on the arrow. On your next turn this means you now get to spin the spinner to find out your next move. Land on a splashing Llama and move a step closer to the edge, land on the scared Llama and you stay where you are. When you get to the footprints this then means on your next turn you need to spin and land on the splashing Llama to jump into the pool and win the game!

Lily found this game so much fun and wanted to play it for a second time. We both found it really easy to play and also it didn't take too long to play which is always a bonus when we want a quick game to play before bed.

This game is brilliant for helping colour and pattern recognition and helping matching skills. It also helps maths, observational skills and social skills. So overall a great learning game. 

This game is £10.50 and can be bought from the Orchard Toys Website.

Next we decided to try out the Mammoth Maths Game.

This game is recommended for ages 5-8 and is for 2-4 players. Lily is now 5 so its the perfect age for her to start to learn how to play.

Inside the box you will find - 

 - 1 Game Board

 - 30 stone ring cards
 - 1 number line

 - 4 Mammoths
 - 4 cave person playing pieces 

 - 1 dice

 - 1 feather

 - 1 magic torch viewer

 - Instructions

To set up the game you will need to pop our all the rock circles, piece together your board and put together your mammoths and playing pieces.

You then need to give each player four stone ring cards. You can always up the amount of stone cards you play with to make the game longer.

The cards you will notice have a lighter and darker look to them. The darker cards are more difficult than the lighter ones. We decided to use the lighter cards for our game. 

You each get a mammoth and a matching coloured playing cave person which you place on the starting stone. you are then ready to start the game.

As usual the youngest person starts the game, they need to roll the dice and move the amount of spaces shown. When you land on a stone you may land on a - stone or a + stone or a feather stone. Your stone cards have plus and minus maths problems to work out. Choose the corresponding side and work out the maths problem. You can use the number line to help out with this.

When they think they have the answer, say it out loud then check it with the magic torch. If they are correct they can place the stone on the Mammoths Trunk, if incorrect then place it back in front and play passes on to the next person.

If you land on a feather, then you get to choose a players mammoth to tickle to make it sneeze, shout out Aaatchoo and and remove one of their stones and place it back in front of them. Lily found this part a lot of fun. 

Once you have collected all your stones and placed them onto your mammoth, you can then make your way back to the cave to become the winner! BUT if a player ends up making your mammoth sneeze again, then you must return to the game to win your stone back. 

Lily did really well with this game and found it fun, but also loved the challenge of getting to do maths. The number line really helped with how well she did her sums and she was very impressed when she got the right answer.

She loved the addition of the magic torch, she found it amazing that it was invisible until you looked through it and it revealed the number.

This game really is a great way to be able to help your child learn maths by making it lots of fun! It also helps observational skills and social skills and so is overall a really great game for learning. We found it nice and easy to play, which meant that we could focus on the maths rather than the rules of the game. 

You can buy this game for £12.95 from the Orchard Toys Website.

Which of these 2 games do you think your child will love?