Play it Up! The Best Games for Grade School (continued)

Pictureka! (Ages 6 and up; 2 or more players)

In this visually stimulating find-it-first game, players face a constantly moving and shifting game board bursting with hip and wacky illustrations. Draw a green “mission” card, and you have thirty seconds to find as many items, such as beards, musical instruments, or things found in the jungle, as you've rolled with your dice. Draw a blue card, and all players compete to get a glimpse of the right picture first. This game fosters visual memory, reflexes, and creative thinking, and, with every “mission” card in both English and Spanish, kids can get a taste of foreign-language vocab into the bargain. **** (Parker Brothers, $19.99)

Zeus on the Loose (Ages 8 to Adult; 2 or more players)

Before you play this game, plan to take a few minutes to review the Greek gods. That way, you reinforce the Social Studies connections, and give yourself a chance to deepen your child’s intellectual experience. From there, the game is mainly a math challenge for your third to fifth grader: cards count toward an overall score goal of 100, and players round numbers up and down on specific turns as they calculate their totals. Like the Gods themselves, each card has a “power,” whether that means raising or lowering points. In the case of the Zeus card, it means that a player can grab a Zeus figurine that comes with the card game. With these complex rules, our testers were put off by dense and somewhat confusing directions. The math challenges in themselves were interesting; but the Greek god connections often didn’t seem like a clear or helpful match. ** (Gamewright, 20 minutes and up, $7.99)

FOURTH GRADE

Cadoo (Ages 7 and up; 2 or more players)

It’s hard to think of anything this well-established, award-winning game does not offer. Think tic tac toe, bingo, charades, Play-doh AND Trivial Pursuits (for kids), and you’ll be part way there. Kids take turns pulling cards which give them quick, goofy tasks to complete, sometimes alone and sometimes with another player. When they have succeeded, they get to put a token on the board (that’s the tic tac toe part). This game is zany, hands-on, fast paced and gripping. Seven year olds can do it, but may require extra adult support; nine, ten, and eleven year olds will be able to do it more independently—and hilariously, too. As for academic content: unlike an activity such as “Smart Mouth,” this game is too broad ranging to qualify as systematic academic practice. But the tasks involve logic, sequencing, word puzzling, art, and “fun facts,” and as such are related to school in a fun, fast-paced way. It's thirty minutes or more well spent. Our kid testers gave it a happy thumbs-up. ***** (Cranium, $19.95)

Rush Hour Deluxe (single player; ages 8 and up)

Kids will absolutely love this tough three-dimensional puzzle, if they can manage to wrestle it away from Mom and Dad. A unique and addictive take-off on those little sliding square puzzles from the days of yore, Rush Hour challenges kids and adults alike to give those deductive reasoning, logic, and creative thinking skills a thorough workout. If your little ones are finding the challenges to be too, well, challenging, simply gather the whole family around and find the solution as a team! ***** (Thinkfun; $20.00)

Three of a Crime ( 2-6 players; ages 8 and up)

Three of a Crime is a fun, brisk game that turns a basic logic conundrum into a mystery involving shady characters like “Loose-Eye Lenny” and “Pencil Top” (represented by colorfully illustrated cards that players take turns flipping over to eliminate potential “suspects”) While most children in the recommended age range will likely enjoy the game, parents may become frustrated by the fact that it is often more fun for the kids to make random guesses and flip the character cards than to actually attempt to solve the crime using deductive reasoning. In short: the game is fun for kids, a little tedious for parents, and misses the mark a bit on enforcing deduction and logic skills. I think even “No Neck Nick” would agree … *** (Gamewright; 15 minutes; $9.99)

The Scrambled States of America Game (2-4 players; ages 8 and up)

Based on Laurie Keller’s book of the same title, The Scrambled States of America Game is a creative and very witty method of teaching children geography. Quick moving and wacky enough to keep parents and older kids entertained, this game reinforces U.S. geography and visual discrimination skills in a fresh, unique way. Younger children may become frustrated with some of the challenges and riddles, but simply slowing the pace of the game or playing in parent/kid teams should keep everyone happy and able to participate in the fun. *** (Gamewright; 20 minutes; $13.99)