My students absolutely LOVE this game. Even my older students still ask for it. I'm going to bring it over to the middle school this week. Because it's so motivating, I use it for practice/drill based activities. If the students are working on producing /s/-blends at the word level, then they practice that before they get to take their turn. If they are practicing word final consonants at the sentence level, they practice that before they get to spin the spinner. You can target verb phrases/tenses, pronoun use, vocabulary...honestly anything. You just build it into each students' turn in the game. For the younger students it's also great for targeting colors and understanding "1" vs. "2". For young students, or any students with fine motor challenges, this game is great for working on that as well. In order to use the squirrel to pick up the acorns and place them in the tree stumps, they need to squeeze, hold, and release. Even spinning the spinner and isolating that index finger is a great skill to practice and develop.
Across the board, everyone's favorite part is when the spinner lands on the "sneaky squirrel" and they get to steal from another player. I often play the game with the students so that they can steal from me. I can model being a good sport about it and help ward off some of the meltdowns for students that can't quite handle having their acorn stolen.
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