We were really excited earlier this year to be chosen as members of the BigJigs Play Patrol where every month we review one of the many fantastic products from the brand. So far we have had the fab magnetic weather board, animal safari building blocks and the write and spell board – all things that are used over and over again by the kids.

This time round, perfectly timed for the summer holidays, we were sent the KS1 Dude Dice Pack, which retails at £12.99. I was really pleased that we had these – I wanted some fun learning games to play with Harrison over the summer to keep him at the level he finished Year One at. Whilst it is aimed at Key Stage One children (years 1 & 2), Alex, who is just going into reception, had fun with them.

There are two games included – one numeracy based and one literacy based. The idea of the numeracy game is to roll the three dice – two numbers and a maths operation. Whoever has the highest number at the end of the round wins a Dude (cute little monsters that I had to hide from Benjamin!). The person at the end of the game with the most Dudes wins. We played it both following the rules and by making our own up. Harrison loves to have us write number sentences out for him to simply sit and answer, so having these dice meant he could do it by himself.

The literacy game had three dice with letters on. The idea of this game is to make as many words as possible from the letters showing on the dice before the timer runs out. The highest scorer wins a Dude, and again, the person at the end with the most wins. They found this one a lot more tricky but it’s a really good challenge. We did end up using our own timer for it, as the one included didn’t give very much time at all.

The two games, which come in handy little drawstring bags, are a brilliant way to keep learning fun. If I was still teaching, I would almost certainly be buying a few sets of these for warm up games in the classroom

*We were sent these products free of charge for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are our own.