13
1 or 3 or 5 → A wooden peg is taken from the number 1, 3 or 5
Variation 5:
or
or
Tips for Educators
Tips for parents
Take time with your child to discover the basic colours, and link this with the first counting
experiences. Inside and outside the house, look together for objects in the primary colours
blue, yellow and red. How many blue, yellow and red objects can you find? You could also
take a trip to an aquarium. Which fish are blue, yellow or red, and how many of each colour
are there? Maybe when you visit the aquarium you will also meet the central figure in our
game - the octopus. Observing how an octopus moves and lives can be very exciting for
children – and for their parents.
Sorting (Age: 4+):
Let the children sort the wooden pegs by colour. In this way, the basic colours are
consolidated and children can acquire a first understanding of quantities.
Octopus lifestyle (Age: 4+):
Talk with the children about life in the sea. Examine the characteristics and adaptation
of wildlife to this habitat. In particular you can talk about the interesting life of our main
character in the game. A visit to an aquarium would be very helpful for this.
Numeracy (Age: 5+):
Use the wooden pegs as arithmetic rods. In this way you can explain the first simple
arithmetic operations to children. The number range should be limited to 5 to begin
with and can be expanded as needed,
e.g. 3 blue wooden pegs + 1 red wooden peg = 4 wooden pegs.
This enables children to visualise quantities and develop an idea of them. They can
also count the number of pegs to get the right result.
The player who first succeeds in filling the tentacles of the octopus “Calculino“ wins the
game and becomes the Counting King (or Queen).
End of the game
