Kavita Pande – Presenting spell bee card game for kids to improve vocabulary

 

KavitaPande, Founder & Director, Matverse Vision Pvt. Ltd.

She is an innovator and a techno-entrepreneur in the field of material sciences, with more than 15 years of experience in the field of research. Provided consulting services to many companies and set up innovative scientific solutions for their business growth. Now she is associated with GHR Labs and Research Centre, Raisoni Group of Institutions as a Chief- Co-ordinator.

She is Founder-Director of Matverse Vision Private Limited, Nagpur; a venture incubated by InFED, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur (IIMN). She is engaged in offering a Novel Patented Processing Technology on Polymeric, Metallic and Ceramic component/parts to make them last longer, perform better, and endure extreme conditions. Apart from these, she is also providing consulting services for Polymer Characterization and Analysis, Failure analysis of Materials and related issues.

She has over 65 research publications as a result of her research. In addition, she has 8 patents to her credit and has authored 6 books as well. To date; she has a total of 15+ awards and scholarships to her credit. Also, four research projects were completed under start-up activity, and 5 R & D projects are on-going in an investigator capacity.

She is the recipient of a National Level Award for an Innovative Idea for Green Highways by the Government of India and is also featured in Cold Facts Magazine as Young Professionals: Next Gen in Cryogenics, The Magazine of the Cryogenic Society of America, Inc., as "International Top 10 Young Researchers in the Field of Cryogenics". She is awarded the Women Techno-entrepreneur of the Year award by MSME, the chamber of commerce and industry of India, in Chennai on March, 2023, by the Raj Square foundation, Bangalore. Apart from that, she is the first runner up award recipient of Fempreneur 2023; the award in the innovation category at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Ahmedabad.

She has delivered many talks to make the audience aware of the trending technologies in Material Sciences especially in the fields of Polymers and Composites, Cryogenic and Microwave treatments, and Characterization of Materials. Have over 12+ years of hands on experience with more than 25 sophisticated instruments used for the characterization of materials and have guided more than 20 research projects.

She loves to design Education & Technology based Games, Kits & Toys and contributes to science in a different way. The game designed and developed by me, called Spell Bee Cards, is an educational game that entered the grand finale of Toycathon 2021, a grand event by 9 different ministries, and now the game is a brand of Reliance Hamleys, on a royalty basis. Apart from that, she also has a heart for social causes and is associated with many NGOs.

Basically, she is a researcher and a Techno-Entrepreneur who looks forward to connecting with various industries so she can consult them on how to modify the material properties and increase their life and performance. So far as the unique selling proposition is concerned, the solution developed is a patented technology that we offer that improves the life of the components by 30–60% without compromising their inherent performance. Every different material requires a specific processing cycle, and we have expertise in uniquely designing these cycles for improvements in the properties of components with a longer service life. Thus, using a strategic combination of Analytical Testing Approaches we can support the decision-making process regarding Polymer or Product Development, Process Development and product failure issues.

Spell Bee card game at Reliance Hamleys

The idea sparked when I came across the kids in the age group of 8 to 14, which is the building stage for them and their language as well. In India; English is not the primary language, so, as per the survey done; the kids feel detached from the language and often develop a fear of it because of the limited vocabulary. As a result, they end up with lacunae in communication in this very language. Though English is not a national language, it has a huge impact on everyone’s lives as a language of communication in schools, during studies, and even after schooling.

Thus, the game was developed in order to build the vocabulary of kids ages 6 and up and can be played with no upper age limit. The card game Spell Bee Cards is designed as a family activity. A deck of cards contains a total of 56 cards - 52 colour coded cards (Red, Green, Yellow and Blue in combination) with two alphabets on each of them; 2 wild cards; and 2 blank cards. Spell Bee is an easy to play game for 2–4 players (or 5–6 players by using both decks).  The first person to finish all the cards in their hand by making meaningful words will be the winner of the game, with the condition that no words can be repeated during the entire game. A dictionary called "Spell Bee - Vocab - a Pool of Words" is also available in the deck pack for beginners. This will be a very useful resource for the players.

Card game for kids above age 6

The game was created to help children aged 6 and up build their vocabulary, but it can be played by anyone.

Unique alphabetical card game for kids

Currently, no alphabet-based card game is available on the market. Rather; card based numerical and board-based alphabetical games are there. In view of this current product, the card-based games available on the market are cheaper but, being numerical, do not help in vocabulary building, and the board games meant for vocabulary building are expensive and not handy. Hence, the current Spell Bee cards are good on every count: handy, economical, and helpful in vocabulary building. This is the main USP of the product. Apart It was thought for the beginners who have no or a very small vocabulary pool; that the cards would come with one dictionary.

"Spell Bee Vocab - A pool of Words" -A Dictionary A very first word length-wise arranged unique kind of dictionary It is not a regular alphabetically arranged word collection; but instead, this contains the word arrangement as per the length of the words. Like one letter, two-letter, and three letter words; in an alphabetical manner only.

Arrangement Glimpse:

• At First 2 letter words - starting with Alphabet “A” Ex: AN, AM…(Alphabetical order)

• On completion of 2 letter words with A; it continues with 3 letters

words with Alphabet “A” Ex: ACE, ADD, AGE... (Alphabetical order)

• Likewise, it continues till 5 letter words

• Once done with letter “A” with all 5 letter words then, the similar

lengthwise arrangement for “B” is followed till “Z”

You can find new words easily and become a word explorer…!!

No similar concept game is present in the market today; hence, the product is patented and copyrighted too.

Buy Spell Bee card game

It’s available in Hamleys stores and you may also book it online at

https://www.hamleys.in/product/youreka-spell-bee-card-game-for-kids-6y-multicolour-492910131

Fun N’ learn card game

It’s a psychologically proven fact that if you give a kid 500 words of any language until he or she is 5 years old, he or she can build a good command over that particular language. In addition, when you grow up, the developmental and building stages initiate, which demand a strong pool of vocabulary in order to execute the communication smoothly. 8 to 14 is the right age to develop language skills. With this; the game was designed and developed. This very game can improve and build the vocabulary of any player in a fun n’ learn manner. The kid can develop the vocabulary naively when he/she keeps on playing.

Thus, this game was designed and developed in such a way that anyone aged 6 and above with no age limit, can play it. A deck of cards contains a total of 56 cards - 52 colour coded cards (Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue in combination) with two alphabets on each of them; 2 wild cards; and 2 blank cards.

This game holds a potential to improve:

• Improves your Focus
• Improves your Memory Span & Attention
• Interactions with Others (Promotes bonding with family and friends)
• Encourages socializing with peers
• Teaches the brain to think quickly
• Boosts cognition
• Improves creativity
• Teaches mature communication skills as the vocabulary improves
• Improves personal confidence
• Enhances concentration skills
• Lowers blood pressure
• Builds intellectual capacity
• Enhances memory functionality
• Induces happiness
• Fosters healthy competition
• It is a fun and educational way to pass the time (Happiness Scale)

USP

Considering the current scenario, 30% of the board game market is occupied by card games, and hence Spell Bee Cards carries huge potential to penetrate the market and offers its own value proposition.

Spell Bee is a novel card game that improves the kid’s intellect, is very easy to carry anywhere you go, and is extremely economical too.

This game is currently proposed for development of the age group 8-14; however, it is not limited to this age group. Can be played for pleasure purposes by

• All school Children
• Teens
• Adults
• Older Adults

How to play Spell Bee card game?

1. Shuffle the card deck and deal 9 cards to each player, directing them to keep their cards face down.
2. The rest of the cards will be placed in the centre of the table, face down, as a draw pile, from which the players will draw more cards throughout the game.
3. Turn over the top card from the draw pile to start the game. You will have to use this card to start the game, it will go into the discard pile.
4. The player who received the last card during distribution will now use the cards in their hand to make a word/spelling in such a way that it should start spelling from either of the letters on the facing up card on the discard pile.
5. The next player should look for a card from their hand and the last card on the discard pile to form the word starting from the last letter of the word played by the earlier player. Or, you can use either letter to ease the level of the game. For example, if the top card from the discard pile is A in any colour, then you can use a card of any colour to make a word from letter A, that is, ANGLE can be followed by EGG, now made by the next player.
6. If you are missing a letter to make any meaningful word, then you take a new card from the draw pile. And if you still can’t make a word with the help of the new card, then the next player can take their turn.
7. Your chance in this round will be ‘passed on’ basically like in any card game.
8. The game becomes more interesting if you can form the word of one single colour, for example: POT with all letters on a red colour background. Then the next player has to pick as many cards as the length of the word formed by the earlier player; like 3 cards if the word is POT as per this example. To illustrate in depth; if you form the word angle with all letters in either red/blue/yellow/green, then the next player has to pick 5 cards, one for each letter in the word.
9. Once you have the cards in hand with some spelling, wait until the gameplay goes around and comes back to you.
10. If you can play your final card before anyone else, you'll be the game's winner!
11. If you are unable to play your last card, pick another card and continue until someone’s hand is empty.

Pay Attention Cards:

‘Wild Cards’ and ‘Blank Cards’

• If you play a wild card, you get to choose the letter of your choice to start a word for you to play. It means that, Wild Card will nullify the letters below that card, and we can start an entirely new spelling from the letter of your choice. For example: If the earlier spelling is POT, then if you play Wild Card, you do not need to start the next word with T. Else, you can form any word of your choice from the cards in your hand.
• The blank card can be used as a replacement for any letter that is missing from the word you want to make. For example, if you want to make the word SCHOOL, but the letter H is not in your hand, you can use the Blank card to fulfil that letter. Thinking about this; the game was designed and developed so that it can improve and build the vocabulary in Fun n’ Learn interactive way. The kids can develop their vocabulary naively when they keep on playing.

The story of Spell Bee cards

During the Corona lockdown, when everyone was locked inside the home; I was just surprised by my 4 year old daughter, who was playing UNO cards flawlessly. I mean, the pleasure she was drawing from holding the cards and playing them was really a new dimension for me at that moment; and truly amazing. Then I thought, why not turn this pleasure into a learning FUN N LEARN activity? And especially the vocabulary building game kind? With this thought, I simply made the cards at home and designed the rules, and we played. She had actually started enjoying those card plays. Then I decided to print it from outside in a bit of a professional way and with catchy colours. After that, we also prepared a video “HOW TO PLAY SPELL BEE CARDS?”

YouTube link for the video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMEp0WbyT_0)

Thereafter I played it with the kids around, with peers at work, and even with friends and with my students, and I really got good feedback. Actually, I really love to design education and technology-based games, kits, and toys, that contribute to science in different ways. After designing and developing the game, we named it Spell Bee Cards. Fortunately, at that time zone, there was one hackathon for toys that was floated, named Toycathon 2021; which was a grand event by 9 different ministries. This educational game entered the grand finale of Toycathon 2021. And then I pitched it to Hamleys; and now the game is a brand of Reliance Hamleys, on a royalty basis.