Back-to-School Essentials Include 3 New Must-Haves from Osmo Osmo Starter Kits Make Coding Fun and Accessible, While Emphasizing Collaborative Gameplay and Inspiring Early Learning in Math & Reading
Palo Alto, CA
|
July 30, 2020 07:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time
As fall approaches and many schools still debate about reopening their doors, Osmo celebrates children’s love of coding with the release of 3 new must-have, STEAM kits. Osmo is an award-winning, educational STEAM brand used in over 30,000 schools and 2.5 million homes.
“According to Osmo's research, two-thirds of parents want their children to learn about coding, but don’t know where to start,” says Osmo CEO Pramod Sharma. “Our hands-on games make coding accessible, fun, and engaging for kids, and teach them basic concepts of coding ‘block by block’ at an age-appropriate pace.”
First, Osmo introduces Coding Starter Kit (retail $99; VIDEO), which combines bestsellers Coding Awbie, Coding Jam and Coding Duo (no longer sold separately), and makes coding accessible and fun through hands-on learning games specifically designed for kids 5 to 10. Children learn basic coding concepts including problem solving, computational thinking, and coding fundamentals, in addition to more complex concepts, such as sequencing, looping, logic thinking, and pair programming.
Coding Starter Kit features: novel packaging; hardware updates, such as durable, new coding blocks/game pieces which can be used across all 3 games; and the introduction of sequenced learning via 3 game levels--Coding Awbie/beginning, Coding Jam/intermediate, Coding Duo/advanced.
Genius Starter Kit + Family Game Night
Next, Osmo introduces a revamp to the award-winning Genius Starter Kit, now with Family Game Night, allowing kids 6 to 10 to play on their own, or with family (retail $139.99; VIDEO). A deeper dive into STEAM learning, the kit includes 5 bestsellers (Words, Numbers, Masterpiece, Tangram, Newton) which together foster a love of engineering, art, math and reading, and 2 brand new games (Lettertopia and Math Buzz).
Lettertopia allows families to team up on a Words adventure, where they meet interesting characters and figure out their characteristics to defeat them. They pick a character and use a selection of words to move around on the map. Enemies on the map have a series of characteristics that they must match to get past them. Educational benefits include: collaborative learning; social-emotional skills; number sense and math confidence; spatial sense and visual acuity; reading and vocabulary; creativity and problem solving; hand-eye coordination and self expression. Lettertopia features 40+ levels, 6 playable characters, and 36+ enemies; Osmo recommends 2 players.
Math Buzz can be played solo or with a team, where players buzz around a garden to pick up honey, and must outsmart bugs protecting the honey, using problem solving, creativity, and teamwork. Educational benefits include: math concepts (addition, subtraction, multiplication); counting; collaborative learning; creative problem-solving. The game features 20 levels, with many strategies for each level, and Osmo recommends 1 to 4 players.
Little Genius Starter Kit + Early Math Adventure
Osmo also introduces Little Genius Starter Kit + Early Math Adventure. Designed for kids 3 to 5 to build core learning skills in math and reading, plus foster creativity, this kit features 4 beloved games (ABCs, Stories, Costume Party, Squiggle Magic) and 2 brand new early math games (Counting Town and Shape Builder), which help kids develop their whole brain, stimulate their appetite for learning, and connect learning with fun through hands-on play. This kit (retail $119.99; VIDEO) comes with 38 Silicon Sticks & Rings and 19 Costume pieces.
In Counting Town, players build a town. They must use “sticks and rings” to count the materials used to draw things. The player will encounter several mini-games, some focused on counting, others on drawing and creativity. Osmo recommends 1-2 players.
Shape Builder is a building game where the player helps characters to fill a magic house with furniture, items and incredible things. To create these items, the player must reproduce geometric shapes using Osmo’s Sticks & Rings. By building more and more, the player can unlock new game areas and discover new shapes and challenges. Osmo recommends 1-2 players.
“It’s an ideal all-in-one prep kit that gets kids kinder-ready, via hands-on learning games that kids will love to play,” says Sharma. Educational benefits include: fine motor skills; pre-reading; storytelling; early math topics like shapes, counting, number recognition; visual thinking, problem-solving, fine motor skills.
All 3 kits are available for iPad and Fire at playosmo.com and Amazon.com; and all 3 come with durable game pieces, and transform kids’ tablets into a hands-on learning tool, where they arrange the game pieces in the physical world to engage with characters on the screen.
About Osmo
Osmo is building a universe of hands-on play experiences that nourish the minds of children by unleashing the power of imagination. Learn more at playosmo.com.
#
