Hey there and welcome to our very first edition of LG News. First off, we’re delighted to announce that the LifeGames app has already hit 300 downloads! Thank you and welcome to all our new users!
The 40+ preloaded activities should be plenty to start making changes in the classroom and we hope you’ve already noticed improvements. Remember to let us know by sending your feedback! (If you haven’t downloaded it yet, grab your free app now for Android and Apple devices)
Also this month, we take a look at one of our premium activities, we’ve got a quick trick for you, and we’ll check out your latest comments on the app and book.
Let’s get started…
Feature Activity: Circle of Compliments
Compliments are great to receive but kids often have difficulties in giving them out. This short activity, aimed at 6-9 year olds, is designed to teach the value of practising kindness, helping to improve their self-esteem and relationships with others.
Circle of Compliments is part of the 6-9 Complete Pack available directly within the app. Open the app and select the 6-9 age group. From the main menu, select ‘Access more activities and features’, then select ‘Complete 6-9’ to complete purchase. This will give you lifetime access to all the activities for this age group and future activities added later.
Quick Trick
Did you know you can sign in with your social media account or create a free account and log in to the LifeGames app? Then you can save all your favourite activities and reviews for future reference and access them from different devices.
Introducing LifeGames – book now available
Prefer to have a physical book of the activities? The Introducing LifeGames book contains 101 activities in all three age groups: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. (Large format, full colour illustrated, ISBN 978-1690781936)
St. Mary’s National School in Carrigaline, Cork was recently featured in their local paper while using LifeGames. Seeing your school in the local newspaper is a great boost for you as teachers, the kids and the wider community, and we’ve got a plan to make it happen.
Send us a few pics of your class playing LifeGames activities, along with some feedback and the name of your local paper, and we’ll do the rest!
In our efforts to spread the news far and wide about the LifeGames app and introductory book, we’ve got ourselves a spot in the widely distributed educational magazine, The Educator.
Not only will you see our attractive self-designed advert, you can also read an interview of our two teacher writers as they talk about the growing trend of bad behaviour in schools, why a lack of life skills is the cause, and how the LifeGames activities actually address the problem.
After months of research, development, testing, pilot programmes and promotional video filming, we’re delighted to announce the launch of the LifeGames App!
Our research showed a distinct lack of essential life skills development in our current education system, reflected in the increasing news reports of classroom behavioural issues and violence towards teachers…
LifeGames activities and games have been designed to address these issues, providing teachers with the resources they need to take back control of the classroom and nurture today’s kids into emotionally mature, respectful and responsible adults.
Learn more about the LifeGames app and book and be sure to sign up for the LifeGames newsletter for updates, activity reviews, features and more…
LifeGames App
The LifeGames App is free to download and comes preloaded with 40+ activities spread across three age groups: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. The activities are arranged into 5 categories: Self, Community, World, Social Skills and Problem Solving. A further 250+ activities are available to buy as add-ons or via subscription. Download free from or the App Store.
LifeGames Introductory Book
Introducing LifeGames covers the three age groups: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12, and offers an introductory selection of activities, arranged into 5 categories: Self, Community, World, Social Skills and Problem Solving. Available now on Amazon.
LifeGames Newsletter
Be the first to know when new activities are added, enjoy a regular preview of some of our most popular activities, discover how to access the Tips and Tricks blog, and get special offers delivered directly to your inbox every month by signing up for the LifeGames Newsletter. Visit the LifeGames website and look for the sign-up box.
It’s great to see your school in the local paper: the kids love it and so does the community, and we have a plan to help make that happen…
Our LifeGames School Press promotion has 2 purposes: to promote LifeGames and to promote your school. Simply follow the steps below for everything you need to maximise your chances of local press exposure.
Send consent forms: As you know, this step is a legal requirement. If any parent/guardian does not consent, please ensure their child is not photographed
Play LifeGames: Choose any activity/activities from the LifeGames app/book and take 3-5 photos of the kids during the activity (check document ‘Advice on taking great photos’)
Get feedback: Give each student a feedback form and ask them to give their thoughts on the activity/activities they just took part in (please give us your feedback too!)
Send it to us: Send your images (3-5 max. please), feedback forms and the name of your local newspaper to sarah@lifegamesbooks.com and we’ll do our best to get them published!
As we’re toiling away preparing for launch on September 2, we’re thrilled to see LifeGames in The Carrigdhoun, an Irish local newspaper!
It comes after the hugely positive promotional video filming at St Mary’s National School in Carrigaline, County Cork, where the kids got to try out some of the games featured in the upcoming LifeGames app.
Hopefully this will be the first of many press features for LifeGames!
Established in 2017, LifeGames is an educational publisher that provides teaching resources to schools to improve life, social and awareness skills such as empathy, responsibility, respect and cooperation.
Our initial research revealed a distinct lack of essential life skills development in our current education system, with teachers struggling to cope with increased behavioural issues as a direct result.
The LifeGames downloadable app and introductory book were developed by our team of specialists in child care and education, delivering a collection of fun and engaging classroom activities and games specially designed to address these shortfalls.
Following on from a successful pilot programme involving 51 schools across the UK and Ireland in early 2019, the downloadable app and introductory book were launched in September 2019.
Staff
Colin R. Turner
Irish author, musician and entrepreneur, Colin is the founder, creative director and designer of LifeGames. Driven by his belief that personal development is just as important as academic development, Colin draws upon his years of experience in business, design and social activism to lead the creation of valuable, effective resources that nurture more rounded, emotionally mature and capable adults of tomorrow.
Sarah McIver
Scottish writer, marketing expert, advocate for change and teacher in training, Sarah is the co-founder, marketing director and publicity manager of LifeGames. Fuelled by her passion for making the world a better place for all, Sarah brings to the table her marketing communications expertise, capturing the essence of LifeGames in words and raising awareness with educational professionals and media outlets.
Lukarte Turner
Spanish illustrator and former childcare worker, Lukarte brings her unique educational skills and childcare experience to LifeGames as staff writer and illustrator. She is driven by a strong desire to see a better education system tasked with preparing young people for the real issues of life and learning how to love and respect themselves better.
Gabriela Andino
A former primary school teacher from Argentina, Gabriela is now a full-time mum and part-time staff writer for LifeGames. Her years of experience in the field with children of all ages and from difficult backgrounds bring a final rigorous quality control to all the activities.
Product Factsheets
Available as a downloadable app and an introductory book, LifeGames is a collection of fun and engaging classroom activities and games, organised into 5 key categories: Self, Community, World, Social Skills and Problem Solving, aimed at children of ages 3-12.
LifeGames App
The downloadable app is free and comes pre-loaded with 40+ activities spread across three age groups: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12. Another 320+ activities can be purchased in a variety of ways, through add-ons or via subscription:
App download with 40+ activities (iOS or Android)
FREE
12 activity ‘add-on’ pack
€6.99
Monthly subscription, access to premium features and 12 new activities per month
€4.99/mo
Complete set of 120+ activities in a single age group and premium features
€29.99
Ultimate set of all 320+ activities in all age groups and premium features
€74.99
Annual School Licence – up to 20 devices on one account (price per device)
from €30
LifeGames Introductory Book
The book covers the three age groups: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12, and offers an introductory selection of activities. A sample of the activities as used in the pilot programme is available to view here.
Introducing LifeGames
€29.99
Market Research
In October 2017, LifeGames conducted a survey of 227 teaching professionals of predominantly pre-school and primary school age children across the UK and Ireland.
Notable results:
99.6% agreed when asked if better social skills and traits like empathy, compassion, trust, respect and responsibility could help create a better society
98.7% agreed when asked if they thought schools have an important role to play in developing these skills and traits in children
77.1% agreed that schools could do more to help develop these social skills and traits
86.8% said they were likely to use a product that helped develop these skills and traits
89.9% said they’d use such a teaching product at least once a week
Empathy was the most lacking of social skills taught in the current education system, with others such as compassion, respect, cooperation and responsibility also mentioned
The full survey and its results are available on request.
Pilot Programme
In January 2019, 51 schools across the UK and Ireland volunteered to participate in our pilot programme, which involved rating and reviewing the simplicity, popularity and effectiveness of a small sample of activities with their students.
216 reviews were returned, with many detailed comments on each activity from both the teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Activities were rated 4 out of 5 for simplicity, popularity and effectiveness, giving an overall rating of 4 out of 5.
The full results of the pilot programme can be viewed here.
St Mary’s National School, Carrigaline photo gallery
30 pupils and 2 teachers from St Mary’s National School in Carrigaline, Co. Cork, Ireland took part in some LifeGames activities as part of our promotional video filming:
LifeGames Promotional Video
Featuring the pupils and teachers of St Mary’s National School, Carrigaline, Co. Cork, Ireland.
LifeGames logo
Teachers word cloud
As part of our market research survey in 2017, we asked teachers what life skills, social skills or character development strategies they’d most like to see in our educational system, and created a word cloud of the results:
Delighted to announce that our LifeGames app for teachers is now in production and will be officially released in August 2019.
The app will be free to download on Android and Apple devices and will come with 40+ full activities to try in your class or group. The activities are divided into three age ranges: 3-5, 6-9 & 10-12, and also into five basic categories: Self, Community, Social Skills, World & Problem Solving.
In January 2019, we ran a pilot program across 51 schools in UK and Ireland. We asked teachers to try a selection of 36 activities in their classes. Classes ranged in age from 4 to 12.
Using a 1 to 5 star rating system on each of the following aspects:
Simplicity of the activity
Popularity with the students
Effectiveness of the activity
The selection of activities maintained a consistent average of four stars across all schools. There were also many useful comments from the teachers – and the students themselves.
Many thanks to everyone who responded to our teachers survey – and the results are overwhelmingly positive for a product like LifeGames. Over 86% of teachers said they would use a product like this.
We also compiled a word cloud of all the comment responses from the survey respondents which highlighted quite graphically the areas where teachers felt improvements in education were needed.
