So you’re getting the hang of Animal Vegetable Mineral – but why not just stick to the animals? And wear silly hats on your head at the same time?
This is the premise of Zoo Am I? – the bonus being that you get to see the picture of the animal throughout, which makes it easier to keep answering the yes/no questions.
The kit
Zoo Am I? seems to be available in supermarkets – we got ours as a present.
The main part is a nicely illustrated set of animal cards. Most are easy to identify – some are more unusual species.
The extra bit is a set of coloured bands. Â You snap them together (two bands makes a size to fit round your head) – they’re size adjustable, so they’ll fit kids and adults. The box comes with 4 sets of bands, to allow for up to 4 players.
The front of the band has a little slot where you can fit in one of the animal cards.
Getting ready to guess
Once you’ve got your headbands on, shuffle the animal cards and fan them out, face down. Each player picks a card for themselves, but doesn’t look at it.
It’s probably easiest for you to ask another player to take your card, and put it in the slot at the front of the headband. Â This means that they can see your card, and you can’t. Â Do the same so that all the players have their cards ready in their headbands.
Starting to play
Take it in turns to make guesses, as described in the Animal Vegetable Mineral post. Â It helps to go from broad questions (‘Does it fly?’) down to more specific questions (‘Is it an owl?’).
The plus point is that the person answering the questions can see your card at all times. This helps with thinking about categories e.g. questions about colour, size, wings, legs, beak, claws.
You can also see your opponent’s card at all times, which gives you the same benefit.
Solving the puzzle
When you think you’ve asked enough questions to guess the animal, go for an identifying question (‘Is it a zebra?’) If you get it right, the other person has to confirm it.
If, after lots of guessing (and hopefully some clues, Big or otherwise), you give up, you can remove your card and see what the animal is.
Improving play
We’ve mostly played as twos, and this can help – you take it in turns to ask the questions, but you don’t have to wait too long until your go.
You learn possible questions from your opponents, too, so it can be good for grownups to model possible questions to junior players.
I’ve found that some of the more unusual animals are harder to guess, which can bring frustration for junior players. Â One way round this is to put an elastic band round these cards, so they stay separate.
When you come to shuffle the cards, you therefore just use the ones which are straightforward to guess.
Conclusions
I’d say this one was a slow burner – Junior Player liked the headbands, liked the cards, found the question progression harder work. (I don’t really like the headbands, but I can see why they help.)
However, over time, this one has been requested quite a bit, and the quality of the cards, and variety of animals, means that it’s generally a good game to play.
I imagine that you could use an animal card as a template and make up your own cards, on a different topic, to extend the game in a different way.
It would probably help to choose a topic where there’s a lot of variety, as there is for animals, so that it’s easier to work out what the card is through your questioning.
And if all else fails, I’m sure you could make streamers and customise your own headband, for a craft take on it all…The choice is yours.