- Age: 3+ (preschool and up)
- Suitable for 2-4 kids
TLDR: Good for the Montessori Chinese teacher who need to liven up the zhuyin class. Use this game to familiarize the child with zhuyin symbols, beginning sounds, etc, before you move onto Zhuyin Hacker, which works more on blending and writing.
What is Zhuyin Showdown?
This is the second zhuyin game I have used in the zhuyin classes I have taught. I succumbed to the game because it follows Montessori phonics colors.
The game comes with zhuyin cards, blue for consonants, red for vowels, 4 little tiny paper people, chance cards, dice, etc. The game board is double sided. You can write in your own zhuyin on one side to make your own game. I’ve never used this side.
Between Zhuyin Showdown and Zhuyin Hacker, kids, especially the younger crowd, definitely like this game better. Why? Because this is more of a straight tabletop game where you’re moving game pieces.
The primary goal for using this boardgame is for kids to learn to map the sound of zhuyin to the symbols. (Yes, those are two separate skills!)
How to Play?
Here are some ways you can play the game.
- Learn to recognize the symbols (and beginning sound) by walking around the block once.
- Similar to #1, but now add matching.
- Practice blending as reading
- Practice blending as writing
And a link to someone else’s video.
How Did We Use It / My Impression
I mainly use this game to review symbols and indirectly practice blending. More often than not, I make up my own games as they’re simpler for preschoolers.
Since kids love the “who finishes walking around the block first!” concept, they don’t usually care if you modify the game to make it easier for them.
Asking a child to find a symbol out of 37 cards is painful and not a good way to actually teach the symbols. Similarly, asking a child to start blending out of 37 characters is asking for frustration and bouts of crying.
Per the Montessori concept of 3 period lessons, you really only want to introduce 3 symbols at a time to practice. But, this is a game, and we can play it a little loose. If a kid loves playing games, and wants to repetitively do it, they will eventually just learn. You don’t have to get hung up on making it simple either.
Just remember not to get upset at them for not knowing how to read or blend!
So typically, for just symbol recognition and matching, when they walk to a square, I throw out 3-5 cards for them to choose from.
For blending, I throw out 1 consonant and 1 vowel. The kids walk around the block, and then blend that 1 consonant or 1 vowel with whatever square they land on.
Do I Recommend?
If you’re looking for a game, and you’re a Montessori teacher/parent, I definitely recommend this one as it is so hard to find games that follow Montessori colors.
At the end of the day, don’t play the game with the expectation of teaching. Play it with the kid(s) to break up learning routine, to have them indirectly learn, as preparation for more formal instruction.
Where to Buy?
Fastest way is to just get it off of 博客來 books.com.tw. As of Sept 2021, it’s actually cheaper for me to buy and ship from here than to ship land-air myself through post office due to the pandemic.
