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The World’s First Printable Cooperative Board Game: Preschooler In the Kitchen

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CooperativeGames.com is thrilled to announce our very first printable cooperative board game: Preschooler in the Kitchen! Preschooler in the Kitchen just might be the world’s most inexpensive cooperative board game at just $2.99!
In the game, young children (ages 3-7) take turns drawing cards that describe a kitchen skill such as eating healthy food or using good manners at the table. When the child does the skill he collects a fruit card and advances around the game board. There are short cuts and possible set-backs along the way, but players cooperate to overcome set-backs together. Everyone wins when they reach the kitchen table with their fruit cards and make a yummy fruit salad together. A recipe for fruit salad is included so players can make a real fruit salad if the game perks up their appetite—as it surely will!
Preschooler In the Kitchen is not just a cooperative game, and not just a printable cooperative game, but it is a PRNTABLE COOPERATIVE FRIDGE GAME! What does that mean? This is a game concept we are pioneering and it works great! You simply download the game from CooperativeGames.com for a mere $2.99. You get the cooperative game board, game cards, and envelope templates for holding the game cards. Post everything on the refrigerator and use your own kitchen magnets as playing pieces. (Be carful though. Kids 3 and under should not play this game without adult supervision because they sometimes put small things like magnets in their mouths!)
With your cooperative game posted on the fridge you can play it over the course of a couple days and use it to teach good kitchen habits as well as cooperation. Note: You can also play the quick version of this game by just playing it on a table top like a regular board game. Whether you play the long version or the quick version, Preschooler In the Kitchen promotes a cooperative kitchen and a love of good healthy food!
Kids and parents agree Preschooler In the Kitchen is a delicious way to have fun. Here are a few reviewer comments:
• … a great way to develop a cooperative attitude about tasks in the kitchen and organically connect that to overall health and safety. Also, the fact that it is non-competitive is a great addition, particularly for the preschool child.
–Amanda
• …we would recommend the game [Preschooler In the Kitchen] It was fun! (and the 8-year-old enjoyed it as much as the 4-year-old)
–Annette
• I was very intrigued by the game…honestly, I was confused how there was not a “winner” when I first read through it. Then I loved it!… I loved how it made my boys work together and help each other…my sister’s boys need that practice as well!!! LOL!
-Ashley

There Are Cooperative Games to Play in Practically Any Setting…from the Classroom to the Cocktail Party

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There’s a world of cooperative games out there. There are cooperative board games for kids from 3 years to teens (e.g. Snail’s Pace Race to Choices); board games for mixed ages (e.g. Save the Whales); and board games for adults (e.g. Untrivia). Family Pastimes even makes a cooperative board game about RV travel specifically for senior citizens! I search the world for great cooperative board games, and bring them to you…all wrapped up in recycled packaging of course!

For free games that don’t require any materials at all check the Fun and Free tab on my website CooperativeGames.com.

There are some fantastic books on cooperative games too. For example, Cooperative Games and Sports by Terry Orlick is marvelous. Terry Orlick, by the way knows what he’s talking about when it comes to cooperative games. He’s aCanadian Professor of Education. He was inventing cooperative games for PE—and documenting their benefits—beginning in the 1980’s. His books are full of active games that help kids strive to do their personal best in PE rather than strain to beat their classmates. Wonderful stuff! You can look for cooperative PE games on the Web and you’ll get quite a few ideas. For example, go to http://www.cwu.edu/~jefferis/unitplans/cooperativegames/index.html

And then there’s another genre of cooperative games—cooperative games that facilitate group dynamics. Some of these games are great ice breakers. Some are useful for focusing a restless class. Others build trust. Cooperative games that enhance group dynamics and build trust are used in classrooms, at camps, in corporations and other workplaces, in activist groups, and yes, even at parties. One New Year’s Eve, I played “Therapist” among a woosey group of revelers. It was silly and fun and got everybody laughing.

There are instructions on how to play all kinds of cooperative games in my upcoming book Cooperative Play, Antidote to Excess Competition. I am working on it now, gathering and testing great games to bring to you soon! For a sneak peek, you can download Part I for free as an illustrated e-book. Enjoy!

Of Co-ops and Collectives: Ode to the Universe of We Not Me

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Outside the confines of competitive activities, the competitive mindset, and the competitively structured institutions so endemic to modern mainstream culture, there exists a parallel universe of cooperation. This is a joyful place dedicated to joint purpose. Here, conviviality and compassion set the tone. Break through the looking glass of competition—and all the negative emotions and ideas that often accompany it—and enter the Cooperative Zone. You’ll feel at home. Here is Community.
What is the nearest portal to this alternative realm? Look to food co-ops, childcare co-ops, certain online communities, community radio, churches, and volunteer groups, among other settings where resources and ideas are shared. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you feel you’re helping and being helped by other people while contributing to something larger than the immediate self-interests of those involved. You’ll notice lots of sharing and listening in cooperative spaces. Diversity and tolerance are in evidence for, in this world, people avoid judging one another as better or worse. Here, amidst relaxed smiles, eye contact, and pleasant conversation, you detect a sense of solidarity. You are not alone but are among kindred spirits who reject the stressful, oppressive, endlessly striving, and competitive milieu of social structures that pit one person against another in an infinite zero-sum game. Feeling alone and despairing of the rat race? Take a trip to your local food co-op. You just may have your faith in the innate goodness mankind restored while you gather some fair-trade, organic apples and freshly baked bread.

Cooperative Games and the Whole Child

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Educating the whole student, rather than engaging the rational intellect alone, is a goal of many educators (myself included.) And cooperative games are one of the best vehicles for engaging the whole student—hand, heart and mind—that I’ve seen.

On an intellectual level, Cooperative games pose challenges that take thinking and problem-solving power to solve. Players share ideas and strategies to win together—so mental faculties are fully activated.

Cooperative games engage the heart too. They facilitate sharing, caring and appreciation as participants laugh and play, overcoming obstacles together and achieving little victories. In playing cooperatively, there is joy in togetherness. This is experiential learning that opens the heart.

Cooperative games make for active, sensory learning, too. Many cooperative board games, certainly the ones we feature at our shop CooperativeGames.com, are visually appealing with lots of art and enchanting game pieces. And there are many free cooperative circle games and active PE games that get the body moving too! For example, we offer a free Cooperative Games PE curriculum that accompanies a nominal purchase of the Pocket Disc—a beautiful, fair-trade flying disc. Check the Educator’s Hub and Fun and Free section of CooperativeGames.com for more on active cooperative games for fun and physical play.

So it’s really through hands, hearts and minds that cooperative games work their magic!

Who Buys Cooperative Games?

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I get a lot of notes from parents and teachers who play cooperative games with their kids. Enough for me to feel like I understand these people and their motivations. These parents and teachers are a special breed. Cooperative games are not traditional and they are not popularized by advertising. As yet, no major commercial game publisher is pushing them. Cooperative games are not the default choice for children’s entertainment in our competitive culture. Instead of emphasizing winning, triumph, and being the best, these games promote peaceful play. Who cares about that?

Here’s what I see: Adults who seek cooperative games want to raise their children to know a gentle way of living. And in learning gentleness, it is hoped that the kids will understand the joys and benefits of being peaceful, respectful, and generous as opposed to aggressive and self-seeking. In growing up with an understanding of peace and collaboration, the kids should acquire the wisdom to choose healthy egalitarian relationships, and eventually, to work effectively with others in their occupations. I also get the sense that cooperative-game-loving adults want to cultivate gentleness in their children to promote more peace in the world at large. Are you one of these adults?
On the other hand, some of the parents and teachers who buy cooperative games aren’t quite so idealistic or reflective in their thinking. They have kids who don’t get along on their hands and they are desperate for solutions! Cooperative games lead to fun not frustration, and getting along together rather than fighting. So many adults are attracted to cooperative games simply because they are at wits’ end dealing with sibling rivalry and competitive classrooms. Maybe you’re here because you need to help with playtime madness, emotional meltdowns, and mean-spirited students. Is this you? If so, welcome! I believe we can help you.

Either way, whether it’s through idealism or frustration with traditional competitive activities, adults buy cooperative games for kids to teach them gentle ways so the kids might go on to create peace in their own lives and well beyond.