Game Review: Engineering Ants

Peaceable Kingdom's cooperative game Engineering Ants is a great game for small groups (2-3 students) and a really good fit for twice exceptional students who are good with their hands but struggle with games that require cooperation or extended attention. The sweet spot for age is second through 4th grade. This is a game that students will play multiple times, but not typically in a row.

This game is centered around the concept that the ants need to invent gadgets to avoid a series of obstacles while they outrace the anteater. There are three ants that need rescuing around the board and the players roll a dice with numbers or an anteater head on it. If you get the anteater, he moves closer to the ant hill (if he makes it there you lose as a group). If you get a number, you move that many spaces- but watch out for obstacles like snakes, spiders, or poison ivy! If you hit an obstacle you must create an invention to get over, under, around, or through.

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You can make your speech therapy friends happy and have each player explain their invention and convince the other players that it is the appropriate solution for the obstacle. Or, if you are working on self regulation with peers you can have each player add something to the invention, then pass it on. The therapist gets to be the final say on if the invention would work in that scenario.

I have thought about replacing the cardboard and plastic pieces with real items like Lego wheels, springs from pens, batteries, string, etc for my older students. What would you include in an invention kit? Tell us in the comments.

This game says only available at Target, but as with most things, you can purchase it on Amazon if you click here (affiliate link- meaning if you buy through this link we get a small profit at no extra cost to you).