Können Schweine fliegen? Mitbring-Spiel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• For Parents
• Hello, Dear Children
• Before the Game
• Playing the Game
  • The Start
  • Scoring the Round
  • Example
  • Ending the Round
  • End of the Game
• Solutions
• Trait Cards
  • Is a mammal
  • Is threatened or extinct
  • Lives in or on water
  • Lives in the forest
  • Has a shell
  • Lives in a group
  • Lays eggs
  • Lives freely in Europe
  • Can fly
  • Has fins
  • Has a beak
  • Has hooves or claws

Components

• 38 animal cards
• 17 trait cards
• 16 game chips (4 each in red, green, blue and yellow)
• 55 pig chips

Object of the Game

Can pigs fly? No way! But it is not always so easy to judge animals and their traits. In each round the players take a close look at one animal. Whoever reacts quickly and is the first to place their game chips on the correct trait cards collects many pig chips. And whoever has the most pig chips after five rounds wins.

For Parents

Dear parents, so that the children learn as much as possible from this game, an adult or an older child should take part as game leader in the first games. Before the first game, please read the children the meaning of the traits. The explanations of the traits can be found at the end of this booklet.

Hello, Dear Children

Each trait card in the game shows one of 17 animal traits – for example "Has fur" or "Can fly". Before the first game, your parents or older siblings read out to you what the traits mean. If you already know this game, it is enough to look at the traits and their meaning together before the game and talk about them. In the solutions section of this booklet every animal is shown with its traits, so you can also check for yourselves which traits are correct.

Example: The hedgehog is a mammal, lives freely in Europe, has teeth, is nocturnal, has a tail and has fur.

Be careful: Traits can look quite different in nature than on the trait cards! For example, fur can have different colours in real animals, and it can be long or short. A card from this game is much too small to show all these colours and shapes – that is why the game has only one card for all kinds of "Has fur".

Before the Game

Before the first game, carefully punch the parts out of the punch sheets.

Before each game:

• Lay the trait cards face up, in any order, in a circle on the table. It is important that all players can see them well and reach them.
• Shuffle the animal cards face down and place them in six stacks a little way off from the circle of trait cards.
• Each player takes four game chips of one colour. With two or three players, the unused game chips are put back in the box.
• Place the pig chips and this booklet ready, and the game can begin.

Playing the Game

The Start

In each round one animal is the centre of attention. The oldest player turns over any animal card from one of the six stacks and places it face up in the middle of the circle of trait cards. It is important that all players can see the animal card well.

All players quickly think about which traits the animal on the card has. Remember: the trait on the animal does not have to look exactly like the picture on the trait card – only the meaning must be the same!

Whoever thinks they know a correct trait quickly places one of their game chips on the matching trait card. In each round you may place all four of your game chips on trait cards – if you find enough correct traits.

Only one game chip may lie on each trait card. If two players want to place a game chip on the same trait card, only the chip of the faster player stays there. The player who placed his chip second must take it back.

The round is over when no player wants to place another game chip, or when all players have placed their game chips.

Scoring the Round

After each round, look together in the solutions section of this booklet to see which traits are correct for the animal. Score one game chip after another.

• For each correctly placed game chip – that is, when the trait is shown next to the animal in the solutions section – the player takes one pig chip and places it in front of himself.
• For each incorrectly placed game chip, the player returns one pig chip to the supply. (A player who has no pig chip does not have to give one.)

As soon as a game chip has been scored, the player takes it off the trait card at once and places it in front of himself. The trait cards stay on the table for the whole game!

Example

Ann-Katrin turns over the seal card. Martin thinks that the seal has teeth and a tail, so he places one of his game chips each on the trait cards "Has teeth" and "Has a tail". Ann-Katrin knows that the seal has fur and places one of her chips on the matching trait card. Claudia knows this too, but Ann-Katrin placed her chip on the trait card first – so Claudia has to take her chip back. Instead she places one chip each on "Is a mammal", "Lives in or on water", "Is threatened" and "Lives in a group". Felix places one chip on "Lays eggs". Then all four players say they cannot think of any more traits, and the round is over.

In the solutions section the players can see which traits really apply to the seal: Ann-Katrin gets one pig chip, Martin gets two and Claudia gets four. Felix has to give back one pig chip, because the seal does not lay eggs. The players overlooked that the seal lives freely in Europe and has fins – no player gets a pig chip for these traits.

Ending the Round

When all game chips have been scored and every player has his game chips back in front of him, put the animal card into the box. Close the booklet again and set it aside. Then the next player clockwise turns over an animal card, and the next round begins.

End of the Game

After five rounds – that is, when five animal cards have been turned over – the game ends. The player who has the most pig chips in front of him wins.

If several players have the same number of pig chips, there are several winners – or you play a tie-breaking round.

Solutions

The solution pictures in the booklet show each animal with its correct traits. They are rendered here as lists of trait names; the traits listed for each animal are the correct ones.

• Humpback whale (Buckelwal): Is a mammal; is threatened or extinct; lives in or on water; lives in a group; lives freely in Europe; has fins; has a tail.
• Great spotted woodpecker (Buntspecht): Lives in the forest; lays eggs; lives freely in Europe; can fly; has a beak; has a tail.
• Badger (Dachs): Is a mammal; lives in the forest; lives in a group; lives freely in Europe; has teeth; is nocturnal; has a tail; has fur.
• Hawksbill sea turtle (Echte Karettschildkröte): Is threatened or extinct; lives in or on water; has a shell; lays eggs; has fins; has a beak; has a tail.
• Red squirrel (Eichhörnchen): Is a mammal; lives in the forest; lives freely in Europe; has teeth; has a tail; has fur.
• Common toad (Erdkröte): Is threatened or extinct; lives in or on water; lives in the forest; lays eggs; lives freely in Europe; is nocturnal.
• European lobster (Europäischer Hummer): Is threatened or extinct; lives in or on water; has a shell; lays eggs; lives freely in Europe; is nocturnal; has a tail.
• Giraffe (Giraffe): Is a mammal; lives in a group; has hooves or claws; has teeth; eats only plants; has a tail; has fur.
• Gorilla (Gorilla): Is a mammal; is threatened or extinct; lives in the forest; lives in a group; has teeth; eats only plants; has fur.
• Grey parrot (Graupapagei): Is threatened or extinct; lives in the forest; lives in a group; lays eggs; can fly; has a beak; eats only plants; has a tail.

Trait Cards

The following explanations are printed at the end of the booklet and describe the meaning of each trait card.

Is a mammal

Animals are divided into different groups: mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and so on. Mammals get their name because the young drink milk from their mother. When a female animal gives her baby milk from her teats, this is called "suckling".

There are also mammals that live in water, for example whales and seals. (You can recognise them because their tail fin does not point upwards as it does in fish, but lies flat in the water.)

Is threatened or extinct

Many animal species lived in the past, and today not a single animal of them exists any more – they are "extinct". Some animals have died out all over the Earth and are known only from books or from finds of their remains, for example dinosaurs. Others once lived in a certain area but can no longer be found there today.

More and more animal species are threatened with extinction, because people destroy their natural habitat or hunt them. So that these animals do not die out, we humans have to take special protection measures.

(The classification as "threatened" can change and can differ from region to region. In the game, animals are called "threatened" if they were classed as "threatened" at least for some time in the last 20 years – worldwide, in Europe, or in at least one of the countries Germany, Austria or Switzerland.)

Lives in or on water

Many animals have a typical habitat in which they feel most at home. This can be the water or the forest, for example. Which habitat an animal prefers depends on its particular needs: fish can live only in water – on land they would suffocate. Other animals stay near bodies of water or regularly visit them. Examples are the pelican, which finds most of its food in the water, and the common toad, which can lay its eggs only in water.

Lives in the forest

There are also animals that typically live in the forest or on its edge – even though they are more and more often found outside the forest, for example the red squirrel in cities and parks.

Has a shell

Some animals wear a shell that protects them from attacks and injuries. The horn shell of turtles is especially well known. But every insect body is also protected by a shell, made of the material "chitin".

(The body of sharks is covered with bony plates that overlap like scales and resemble small teeth, and fish scales are also made of thin bone material. These two features are, however, not called a "shell".)

Lives in a group

Many animals are not loners, or have only one partner, but live together with several members of their own kind. The badger lives with its family in a burrow. Other animals prefer larger groups: cows live in "herds", and many fish and bird species gather in a "swarm" all year round or during the breeding and migration seasons.

Lays eggs

Not only hens lay eggs – all other bird species and many other animals do too. Eggs come with firm or jelly-like shells, in different colours, shapes and sizes. Inside the egg, baby animals can grow. Mostly the young hatch only some time after the egg has been laid. Bird parents sit on their eggs until then to keep them warm and so promote the development of the young – this is called "brooding".

With some groups of animals it depends on the species whether they lay eggs or whether their young are born without an egg, like human babies. The catshark lays eggs, the great white shark does not. Mammals do not lay eggs – with the exception of the Australian platypus and the echidnas.

Lives freely in Europe

Every child knows giraffes or gorillas – but these animals can be seen in Europe only in captivity, for example in a zoo. In Germany alone, however, around 45,000 animal species are native, and throughout Europe there are many more animal species that live in the wild.

Can fly

Almost all birds and insects can fly – with the help of their wings they move through the air over long distances without touching the ground. However, wings are not enough to be able to fly. If an animal is too heavy or its wings are too small, it cannot lift off into the air. So there are also birds that cannot fly, for example penguins and ostriches.

Has fins

Fins are body parts with the help of which animals move under water when they dive. Without fins these animals could not get forward or steer where they want to swim. There are also exceptions: penguins use their wings for diving – but because penguins are birds, their wings are not called "fins".

Has a beak

Birds use their beak, which is made of horn, to pick up food and break it up, to preen their plumage, to build nests or to groom other birds. There are only a few other animals that have a beak, for example the platypus, and the octopus, whose beak lies inside its mouth. Many millions of years ago there were also dinosaurs with a beak, such as the Styracosaurus.

Has hooves or claws

Animals with hooves or claws have a thick layer of horn at the front part of the foot for protection. This layer is comparable to our toenails and fingernails. In some animals the hoof does not consist of one piece, as in horses, but of two parts. These animals include pigs, cows, goats and giraffes. If you look closely at these animals, you can see a gap in the middle. This type of hoof is called a "Klaue" (cloven hoof).

(Rhinoceroses and some other animals are also called "hoofed animals". In the game, rhinoceroses are not classed under "Has hooves or claws", because they walk on their soles and have only small hoof-nails.)

Has teeth

Teeth are hard structures in the mouths of vertebrates (animals with a backbone). Like human teeth, they consist of bone material, the "enamel". Animals need teeth to hold food, to bite off or to break it up. As a rule, animals keep their teeth their whole life. There are exceptions, however – such as sharks, whose teeth constantly renew themselves during their life, replacing worn teeth with new, sharp ones.

Mammals almost always have teeth. Exceptions are the "baleen whales", to which the humpback whale belongs, and the Australian platypus, which loses its three small teeth shortly after birth.

Eats only plants

There are animal species that eat only plants – that is, they do not eat insects or other animals. Their food includes, for example, vegetables, fruit, grasses, leaves and seeds. Baby animals often know by nature what they can eat. Some baby animals, however, have to learn this from their parents first, just as we humans do.

Is nocturnal or crepuscular

Animals that are mainly awake at night, or when it gets dark, are called "nocturnal" or "crepuscular" (active at dusk). Nocturnal animals do almost everything that is important for their life at night or at dusk – for example they go looking for food or look after their young. Because they are awake at night, they mostly sleep during the day.

Has a tail

An extension of the body that continues beyond the rear end of an animal and usually becomes narrower towards its end is called a "tail". Tails can be short or long, straight or curled, thin or thick. Some tails are built inside from vertebrae – that is, bones – others are made of feathers, as in birds, some of hair, as with the zebra, or of chitin, as with the lobster.

Has fur

The hairy coat of mammals is called fur. It protects the animals against cold, wind and water. Fur can be very short or long, and comes in many colours and patterns. It can be dense and cuddly, like the squirrel's, or very sparse and bristly, like a pig's. Not all animals have fur over their whole body: the hedgehog, for example, has spines on its back, but fur on its face and belly.

The publisher's credits and advertising for the full game, which appear at the end of the printed booklet, are omitted; they are not rules.