I've always been fascinated by the topics of memory and observation. As such, it was of enormous interest when I first found out about something called Kim's Game.
How to play
Kim's game is remarkably simple to play, but quite addictive.
Materials:
A selection of miscellaneous items, examples: eraser, pencil, dice, coins, pins, rings, small ornaments, trinkets, book etc
A notepad and pen
The list above is not comprehensive, you just need about 10 - 15 items of varied type, colour and size.
Directions:
1. Assemble the items on to a surface (like a tray) and cover them.
2. Set a timer for 1 minute
3. Start the timer and uncover the items.
4. Try to remember the items on the tray as well as colour, (number shown on the die), whether a coin is heads up or tails up. In short, don't just remember the items, but also features of the items themselves.
5. Cover the items and try to recall as much as you can using the notepad and pen.
Kim's game
There's a few ways of playing Kim's game and adaptations. But generally after being able to remember 15 items and some prominent features of those items in 1 minute, you're going to want to either increase the number of items or lower the time available - say from 1 minute to 45 secs.
Interesting fact:
Did you know that the United States Marine Corps' Sniper School teaches the game as part of its curriculum?
Further info:
https://www.greenlands.lancsngfl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/kims-game.pdf
I played some version of this during an acting class, it was the first session and we didn't know each other. We had to look at one colleague for one minute and then the trainer asked us to turn our backs at each other and remember as many details as possible regarding the physical details of that person. It was a fun and interesting game to observe what features stood out in each person, but also to be more aware of one's memory capacity.
It also makes a nice case study for eye witness reliability I think.
In university, we had a practical on Kim's game. But we played with numbers of different colours. You are right, it is fun game.