New York Restoration Project (NYRP) Garden Games are innovative social and educational games designed to engage youth – and their parents – in positive outdoor play in NYRP’s community gardens located throughout the five boroughs of New York City.
Research confirms that play between parent and child fosters physical, mental and social development and makes a child feel important and valued. Each NYRP Garden Game shares useful information about NYRP’s community gardens and emphasizes the importance of green spaces in every community. Garden Games are especially beneficial for young children, although youth of all ages will find them challenging and stimulating.
NYRP Garden Games are great fun, but are also aimed at reinforcing behavioral skills, such as patience, sharing and good sportsmanship, as well as underscoring the benefits of gardens, parks and all open and natural spaces to our planet.
Each game comes with instructions that can be modified to accommodate a variety of user needs. Garden Game instructional workshops are also available upon request.
Garden Match is a variation of the popular Match Game television show. Players use concentration and memory skills to match large, colorful pictures – or cards – of plants, animals and other things that live in a garden. The object of the game, which can be played with any number of players, is to turn over as many pairs of matching cards as possible.
Go Dig! has been modeled after the classic “Go Fish” card game where up to four players try to find matches to the cards they have been dealt. Each player receives cards that display insects, flowers, fruits or other items found in a garden and proceed to ask each other, in turns, for category matches to the cards that they hold. Recipients of the requests must either hand over all cards of that category or, if the request was unsuccessful, tell the requestor to "Go dig!" A full set of matching cards comprises a book and – when all cards have been matched – the player with the most books wins.
Dr. Dirt is the NYRP equivalent of a sandbox – where youth explore the amazing world of simple soil by digging through a large bin of fertile earth and sorting and counting their findings. Harmless worms, pill bugs and millipedes are the peculiar but much-prized rewards of this parent-led investigation that promotes curiosity – and bravery!
Plant Power uses one of the oldest of all kinds of games to demonstrate the contrast between the positive influence of plants and the negative effects of pollution on our natural environment. Plants, shrubs and trees are represented on three sides of a dice by positive numbers, or values of five, 10 or 15 points. The other three sides of the dice depict representations of three types of pollution, each valued with negative points. Players get three chances to roll six die in an effort to get the highest score.
This relay-styled game introduces players to plant terminology and definitions through competitive play. Participants compete to put terms in alphabetical order and then match them to their proper meaning on cards provided. Designed to enhance reading and comprehension skills, Vocabulary Relay can be played in a variety of ways, including a game show-style question and answer format.