Patent Application
20090275003
The present invention relates to games. More particularly, the present invention relates to a game that is used to encourage players to eat nutritious food items and thereby improve their health and eating habits by performing various tasks and by gaining knowledge related to good nutrition while playing the game.
As parents and the like are fully aware, having a child eat nutritious foods is an often a trying experience at best. Far too often children avoid eating fruits and vegetables during a given meal which leads to frustration for the adult and poor nutrition for the child. The present invention provides for a game that incorporates the eating of nutritious foods items which has the effect of getting a child to eat items it may not voluntarily eat. The game can be played at designated meal times such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any other time. As used herein, a “nutritious food item” includes any fruit, vegetable or otherwise healthful food item. And as used in the figures, the term FRUVEE is a fictional word that represents the combination of the words fruits and vegetables, and as such, is used to represent a nutritional food item as defined above.
In particular, this application discloses a game that encourages a player to eat nutritious food items comprising: a game board having a plurality of contiguous spaces defining a playing path, wherein each space designates a given activity, and wherein one activity is designated to encourage the player to eat a nutritious food item; a playing piece for each player; chance means for determining the number of spaces a player can advance a playing piece along the playing path; and, means for encouraging the player to eat a nutritious food item based on the playing piece landing on a respective space on said playing path.
This application also discloses a game that encourages a player to eat nutritious food items comprising: a game board having a plurality of contiguous spaces defining a playing path, wherein each space designates a given activity, and wherein one activity is designated to encourage the player to eat a nutritious food item; a playing piece for each player; chance means for determining the number of spaces a player can advance a playing piece along the playing path; and, an electronic device including a plurality of activity buttons, wherein an activity button is selected based on the playing piece landing on a respective space on said playing path, and wherein at least one activity button is a nutritious food item button that encourages the player to eat a nutritious food item.
Finally, this application discloses a game that encourages a player to eat nutritious food items comprising: a plurality of activities, wherein one activity is designated to encourage the player to eat a nutritious food item; means for determining which activity the player must do; and means for encouraging the player to eat a nutritious food item.
The drawings, when considered in connection with the following description, are presented for the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected.
As shown in
Referring now to
The spaces 12 each correspond to a respective plurality of activity cards 19 such that there are “Nutritious Food Item” activity cards 26, “Ten Times” activity cards 28, “Question” activity cards 30, “Star” activity cards 32, and “Everybody” activity cards 34.
At the start of the game players role a die 22 or spin a spinner 24 to determine the order said players play the game, or the players can allow the youngest player to go first. The players' turns are determined by having the player obtaining the highest number on the role or spin to take their turn first. The remaining players take there turns starting in a clockwise direction from the player having the highest roll or spin or the youngest player. A player's advances along the playing path 12 is determined by the throw of the die 22 or the spinner 24, with the number of the die 22 or spinner 24 being the number of spaces a player moves their playing piece 15 along the playing path 14. Alternatively, the die 22 and spinner 24 will substitute pictures of the spaces instead of numbers to assist younger players that are unable to count.
If a player advances his/her playing piece 15 to a nutritious food item space 16, the player must select a nutritious food item activity card 26 from the top of a deck of the nutritious food item activity cards 26. The nutritious food item activity cards 26 are used to encourage the player to eat a nutritious food item. If the player does in fact eat the nutritious food item, he or she is rewarded in a variety of potential ways.
If a player advances his/her playing piece 15 to a ten times space 18, the player must select a ten times activity card 28 from the top of a deck of the ten times activity cards 28. The ten times activity cards 28 are used to encourage the player to exercise.
If a player advances his/her playing piece 15 to a question space 20, the player must select a question activity card 30 from the top of a deck of the question activity cards 30. The question activity cards 30 are used to provide knowledge on a variety of subjects including customs and nutritional facts, which provide the player knowledge about nutrition.
If a player advances his/her playing piece 15 to a star space 22, the player must select a star activity card 32 from the top of a deck of the star activity cards 32. The star activity cards 32 are used to help provide self esteem in the player as the fellow players are asked to clap and cheer for the player in response to some activity performed by the player such as being asked to sing, flex muscles, dance, smile, or any other similar activity.
Finally, if a player advances his/her playing piece 15 to an everybody space 24, the player must select an everybody activity card 34 from the top of a deck of the everybody activity cards 34. The everybody activity cards 34 are used to provide activities for all the players in the game such as eating a nutritious food item together.
The winner of the game is the player that either circles the playing path 14 first or the player that eats the most nutritional food items. For example, a token (not shown) can be provided for each nutritional food item eaten by a player and the one with the most tokens at the end of the game or the one that reaches a predetermined goal first, wins.
In
In a further embodiment, referring now to
The electronic device also includes a plurality of activity buttons 50, wherein an activity button 50 is selected based on a playing piece 15 (or magnetized playing piece 13 and magnetized game board 11) landing on a respective space 12 on the playing path 14. As with the activity cards 19 described above, the spaces 12 each correspond to a respective activity button 50 such that there is a “Nutritious Food Item” activity button 56, a “Ten Times” activity button 58, a “Question” activity button 60, a “Star” activity button 62, and an “Everybody” activity button 64.
When utilizing the device 40 in the game described above, the player would press the roll button 48 to determine what space 12 to advance his or her playing piece 15 to on the playing path 14. The number or character would be displayed on the display 44 and/or announced through the speaker 42. The player would depress the nutritious food item activity button 56, which would have the content of the nutritious food item activity cards 26 stored in memory and thereby provide the encouragement for the player to eat a nutritious food item and be rewarded as previously described for the nutritious food item activity cards 26. The other activity buttons 58, 60, 62, 64 would provide the same function as the respective activity cards 19 described above.
In yet a further embodiment, referring now to
In an alternative embodiment, the game board 10 is not required for playing the game. In this embodiment the same activities described in the board game above are utilized and placed on the plurality of activity cards 19. Again the respective plurality of activity cards 19 include the “Nutritious Food Item” activity cards 26, “Ten Times” activity cards 28, “Question” activity cards 30, “Star” activity cards 32, and “Everybody” activity cards 34. The method of determining which activity the player must do can be determined in a number of ways, such as but not limited to, turning over an activity card in a random manner, passing cards out to the player or players, and utilizing a die 22 or spinner 24 to determine which activity card 19 should be selected. The winner of this game would be the player that eats the most nutritious food items. In addition, various rewards would be provided to the player as encouragement to eat the nutritious food items including, but not limited to, winning the game as mentioned above, the player receiving another turn as a reward if the nutritious food item is eaten by the player, and allowing the player to use the spinning container 70 to designate what nutritious food items the player is to eat.
A further embodiment of the game can be played without the game board 10. In this embodiment, referring again to
When utilizing the device 40 in the boardless game, the player would press the roll button 48 to determine what activity button 50 to select. The character would be displayed on the display 44 and/or announced through the speaker 42. The player would depress the designated activity button 50, for example the nutritious food item activity button 56, which would have the content of the nutritious food item activity card 26 stored in memory and thereby provide the encouragement for the player to eat a nutritious food item and be rewarded as previously described for boardless game described above. The rest of the activity buttons 50 would likewise be included representing the other activity cards 19. Again, the winner of this game would be the player that eats the most nutritious food items.
While the present disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
