For parents and teachers
Tools and adaptations to support learning
The adaptation options and tools in the game.
Tools and adaptations
Each tool is in the place where you play. Click a link to open it.
In the online game
These tools are inside the game.
- Hint
- A hint for each kind of exercise. For example, times 9 is times 10, and then you take the number away once.
- Multiplication chart
- Available at any moment during a turn.
- Show answer
- Shows the answer and ends the turn. The food pieces already collected are kept.
- Practise again
- Brings back exercises for more practice. The list appears on the results screen. Available when playing together on one device.
- Friends can help
- Whoever is not taking a turn can solve the same exercise and help the player whose turn it is.
- Guided tour
- A short demonstration of one turn, before you play.
- Excel file with a performance report
- On the results screen you download an Excel file: a summary sheet and a sheet with every exercise, the answer, the tries and the time. The file is made on the device and is not sent anywhere.
Play with your dog!
Everything you need to play with the dog. When the page is refreshed everything resets.
- Turn timer
- Choose a time for each turn before the game.
- Dice
- Roll two dice, and the answer is shown to the players checking the answer, after the player has said it.
- Food pieces calculator
- Works out how many food pieces to prepare for the steps of the turn.
- Scoreboard
- Records every turn, and totals the score after 4 rounds.
- Multiplication chart
- For the players checking the answer, and it can be printed.
- Printable play mat file
- 20 numbered tiles to print at home.
Dogylicious Dice
Roll two dice and type the answer, with a clock if you like. Every roll is recorded on a hexagon board. At the end, choose which exercises to practise calmly. At the end of a round you can download an Excel file with a performance report.
Open: Dogylicious DiceTips for parents and teachers
A few ideas for using the tools.
- Start at a level where the child succeeds. Move up from there.
- After a mistake, help the child see where they went wrong.
- You can download a detailed Excel file with a performance report. It shows which exercises were answered correctly on the first try and how long each answer took, so there is no need to write them down by hand. It helps to plan the next session.
- You know the child. Stop when needed, or change the level.
Who each adaptation may suit, and why
Each option is an idea for whoever supports the player to choose, not a statement about the child.
- Quiet board (focused practice)
- A board of regular hexagons only, with no special hexagons or surprises. It may suit those who prefer a quieter screen, or when the aim is to concentrate on the exercises themselves, for example while practising newer facts. With fewer elements that are unrelated to the exercise, more room is left for thinking about the exercise.
- Shared game (calm and together)
- All the players are one team: food pieces are collected into a shared pot, with no stealing and no single winner. It may suit practising in a pair, a family or a group, when the aim is shared success rather than competition between players. When the goal is shared, there is room for helping one another, and who solved more exercises matters less.
- Switching off stealing
- When stealing is on, a player who reaches the robber hexagon can take food pieces from another player. From Advanced up it is on by default, and you can switch it off. It is worth switching off when you want one player's turn not to change another's standing, for example in a group with different levels, because competition can prompt both a wish to succeed and a fear of failing.
- Practising strengths alongside challenge
- You can combine facts that are familiar with more challenging ones, and bring back exercises that were answered wrongly or slowly. It may suit those who want to keep an experience of success alongside returning to what still needs work. Trying to recall an answer and then getting feedback strengthens memory, and returning gives another chance to recall.
- Playing with and without a clock
- The clock limits the time of a turn and adds time pressure. From Advanced up it runs by default, and you can switch it off. When the aim is understanding or accuracy, it is worth switching it off; you can switch it on when the facts are familiar and you want to practise answering quickly. Time pressure adds load to thinking, and fluency is built through repeated practice, so the two conditions are useful at different stages.
- Encouraging strategy
- The route passes through doors of different colours, and each colour is a different family of facts: doors that earn fewer food pieces and doors that earn many more. The level sets which doors exist. It may suit those who enjoy planning a route and weighing a safe success against a challenge, and a helper who wants to see how the child chooses. You can ask: why did you choose this door? What might happen if we choose another door?