Honeybee Stacking Game

My wife, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, requested that I print some variety of a stacking game, having shown me a few on Printables that she liked for one reason or another. Instead, I decided to develop one from the ground up. This is the result. 

About the Game: 

This is primarily a honeybee themed stacking game, but the various pieces can be used for other means within the realm of occupational therapy and even outside of that realm altogether. 

Per my wife, the game targets “fine motor control, visual perception skills, body awareness, motor planning, coordination, task sequencing, sustained attention, and fun!”.

As designed, the rules are: Either with a single player, or two-players alternating, the spinner is spun, and the item indicated must be placed on the board by the player. Continue play until a specific goal is reached (ie: # of pieces, or height of stack). That's it. There are obviously many additional rules one could add, such as, in the two-player variety, any pieces that fall during a players turn become ‘points’. Play continues until all pieces have been played. Players then count up their points, and the player with the fewest points wins. 

After I finished printing it, my wife also had several other ideas geared towards some of her various students. One variation she came up with was to not use the board, and instead hide the various pieces around the room, have the student spin the spinner, and then find the indicated piece, with the option of adding specific ways they must move, or tools they must use, in order to target that individual student's goals. 

These are just a few suggestions, the options may not be endless, but they're surely plentiful! 

Printing Information:

I do not have a multi-material/color printer, so the files were designed with that in mind, as well as reducing unnecessary bridging. As such, all the ‘Stackables’ have been provided in a split format, so that manual color changes (M600) can be used, and then the two halves are glued together after printing. I have however included the ‘Complete’ stl (and step) for each ‘Stackable’ as well for those that need them. These ‘Complete’ files can also be used if you prefer to split them and have connectors via PrusaSlicer's cut functionality. All files should be printed as oriented in the stl. 

Everything was printed at 0.2mm layer up to the color changes, then 0.1mm afterwards. You can probably do 0.2mm exclusively, probably wouldn't make a significant difference. 

Stackables - I printed 6 of each (except hexagons, I printed 10 so they could be used by themselves if the other pieces were too difficult for particular students)

Most of the ‘Stackables’ are straightforward and shouldn't require explanation. However, a couple may seem less intuitive.

The ‘Honey Dipper - Split' files are in 6 pieces, instead of 2 like the rest of the ‘Stackables’. The ‘Split; interior’ and 'Split; exterior' files make the main body of the honey dipper. They're split into 4 layers to avoid overhangs in the cutout section where the ‘Split; honey’ is inserted. Print the interior and exterior pieces, glue the two interior pieces together, then put the exterior pieces on the top and bottom. Glue the two honey pieces together. Then insert and glue the honey pieces into the cutout on the honey dipper.

There are 2 versions of the ‘Honey Jar'. One of them was obviously over engineered. I got carried away. It was quickly determined that some students of lower abilities may struggle with these, creating unnecessary frustration. So ‘Honey Jar - Flat’ can be used instead of, or in combination with the 3-dimensional version. The 3-dimensional version is 4 pieces. The main body in two halves, the lid as one piece, and a locating pin for making sure the lid is centered on the body. 

For the flower, the white centers are printed separately and then glued in. Again, just a lowly single-color printer here. 

Board

The platform should press-fit nicely onto the bottom of the board. Depending on your printer the fit may be slightly tighter or looser. If too tight, use a small file or sandpaper to sand down the necessary parts from the board, if too loose, add some super glue to the parts of the board that insert into the platform and let it dry before assembling. The added material from the superglue should make them hold together more firmly. Or you could always just glue them together permanently if you desire. 

The ‘legs’ are mirrored, and have 4 different angle slots in them. This is to allow a variety of difficulty levels for students of different abilities. Again, if the fit is too tight, remove some material from the board via sanding or filing, if the fit is too loose, add some superglue and let it dry to help fill in the extra space before re-assembling. 

The board appears one sided, but it can be flipped around and the blank side can be used as an additional difficulty level. 

Spinner

Assemble here should be pretty evident. Put the arrow over the central shaft of the spinner with the gap of the arrow on the bottom (this prevents the arrow from rubbing on the spinner preventing it from spinning as well). The pin is then press-fitted into the central hole of the spinner body, holding the arrow in place. The pieces come out sized perfectly for press-fitting on my printer, but as is usual, your printer may be different and glue or sandpaper may need to be used sparingly. 

Enjoy!