The Brief
Vocabulary Ninja was created to offer exciting, time saving and evidence-based learning resources that have impact, particularly focusing on developing, deepening and widening a pupil’s vocabulary. Working with Vocabulary Ninja we were awarded a grant to develop a series of mini games for KS1 pupils to improve their vocabulary using the much celebrated methods of Vocabulary Ninja.
Insight
From the brief we started with initial strategy meetings with the team at Vocabulary Ninja to scope exactly what they wanted from the mini games and define a strategy going forward that was feasible for both parties. After the strategy and approaches were outlined, we set out on discovery for the project, researching exactly what the needs of the children playing the game were going to be, how it can be directly linked to the work in schools, and what the benefits would be from playing the games, albeit being an enjoyable and fun experience. A set of tactics were collated in which we were going to approach the project with the budget we had.
The Challenge
The challenge was multiple part.
Covid put a microscope over the inadequacy of remote learning tools for KS1 pupils. Teachers and parents have realised all too well that at the time many were thinking on their feet and using clunky, not fit for purpose tools and resources that struggled to hold the children attention.
Vocabulary Ninja has a battle tested set of learning principles that many teachers use on a daily basis across schools in England and although the products and memberships to the service are sold and downloaded digitally – there was no truly digital product that could be placed in the hands of children.
The core challenge was to turn the teaching principles of Vocabulary Ninja into several different fun to play, easily accessible games that had an educational impact.
Educational impact was crucial, as many educational apps and games for children in that age range are essentially button bash until you get the result so learning can be minimal and so this was top of mind when defining our challenge.
Vocabulary Ninja’s Mini Games are totally free to use, are ad free and are 100% safe for your child to use on a range of different mobile and computer-based devices.
Build it, test it, fix it, play it, launch it
Colehouse Communications is not a game building specialist, however, our little black book is bursting with incredible people to collaborate with. We quickly put together a crack team led by our long term friend and associate Dom Baker and the team included Bafta award winning designers and developers as well as the Colehouse crew.
Due to coronavirus, as with many 2020 projects, the whole thing needed to be completed via Zoom – from the morning stand ups to play testing.
Once the games had been connected designed and built we enlisted the help of 10 schools, teachers and pupils to conduct some rapid fire play testing for on the ground feedback to improve the games before we finished them up. This was incredibly valuable as it showed us what the children responded to and at the same time we were constantly reminded of actual real world learning outcomes.
Instant impact, with heartwarming results
Vocabulary Ninja’s Mini Games were developed to be totally free to use, ad free and are 100% safe.
Deliberately simple web based games for your child to use on a range of different mobile and computer-based devices.
Each game has been designed to be extremely playable, whilst covering a range of vocabulary, grammar and sentence level priorities that align with the National Curriculum. ‘What’s the catch?’ I heard you ask. There’s not catch, no-one is excluded, and everyone has the opportunity to grow and develop their working vocabularies! All we ask is that you spread the word and share the Vocabulary Ninja Mini Games with everyone you know! Especially in the modern home learning climate, Vocabulary Ninja’s Mini Games are a fantastic resource to be able to share with parents and pupils to support the development of their learning at home.
