Patent Application
20060175755
This invention involves a new variation of a children's board game that already exists on the toy market called “Connect Four”. Presently, the Connect Four game entails setting up a plastic grid, 7½ inches by 10 inches, where 2 opposing players drop either red or black checker chips into slots, one at a time, with each attempting to be the first to connect four chips in a row of his or her respective color. My variation of this game allows for a whole new level of engagement for children ages seven and up. It incorporates a completely new concept within the physical arrangement of the grid, allowing children to build on their vocabulary and spelling acquisition, as well as develop greater logical and sequential skills. I call it “Connect Words”.
I came up with the idea for this new educational game just prior to waking on the early morning of Jan. 2nd, 2005. As I was about to arise and continue my road journey back home to Tampa following my visit with relatives over the holidays, I saw this game being played during a dream state. It was essentially Connect Four, but instead of the plain color checkers, each chip contained a letter of the English alphabet. Children were gathered around a table. They were dropping the lettered chips into the slots of the grid, formulating words. I then woke up and looked at the clock. It was seven thirty in the morning. I was very excited about this new game idea. I telephoned my dad as I was at his home in Maryland, and he was in New Jersey with my Grandmother. I called from a payphone. I then drove back to Tampa to create the game.
Lettered checker chips are dropped into slots of a plastic, upright and freestanding grid, allowing two players to spell words in various directions. Each letter holds a point value depending on its respective place in the alphabet, ‘A’ holding a point value of one, ‘B’ holds two points, and so on. New words spelled contain a raw score based on adding the points of each letter in that word. The one with the most number of points by the end of the game wins. Thus, not only are vocabulary and spelling learned through this innovative twist on “Connect Four”, but logic and sequential skills are more easily acquired by requiring the child to construct and recognize words in any direction on the grid, so long as the letters of each word are in correct sequence. Children learn to see word patterns in various ways based not only on their own adding of chips to the grid during his or her turn, but in seeing new words created by combining a string of lettered chips with those already in the game.
Connect Words comes with a plastic grid and two stand legs which are to be attached, and a basic slide mechanism that keeps the chips in place and releases them when the game is over. This allows for an upright, freestanding grid to be erected. Included with the grid are two sets of sticker sheets. The first is an arrangement of black sticker circles containing white letters of the alphabet. The second set of stickers is red. The letters are to be attached to the checkers, so that the same letters are visible on either side of each chip. Both sides of each checker piece will thus contain a letter of the alphabet with its respective colored sticker.
The game also includes a letter/points per letter chart. Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a point value depending on its place within the alphabet, for example ‘A’ has one point, ‘B’ has two points, and so on. Chips are dropped into the grid slots to create words. The letters of each word are added for a total score per word. Any additional words created with chips already in the grid may count toward additional points for that player only during his or her turn in the course of the game. Other items included with the game are a pocket dictionary, a paper pad and writing utensils to keep track of scores, as well as rules and setup instructions.
