Kubaot, a Form of Hebrew Mini Scrabble: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An educational dice game, Kubaot is similar to Hebrew Mini Scrabble. It consists of a cylindrical tube containing a set of six colored die, marked with a Hebrew letter, a corresponding number on each die face and an instruction page in Hebrew. Players take turns shaking the cylinder and throwing the die to spell as many words as possible with the Hebrew letters depicted on the die. The player who gains the most points wins the game. Manipulative educational games are particularly useful teaching devices for young children. This game would assist with building vocabulary words in Hebrew and reinforce simple addition. This game was manufactured in the 1950's though there were doubtless earlier versions.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1950s
• Object Name: game
• Object Type: games
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: cardboard (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (die material)
• Physical Description: blue; green; pink; red; yellow; beige (dice color)
• Physical Description: paper (instruciton page material)
• Measurements: overall: 10.5 cm x 7 cm; 4 1/8 in x 2 3/4 in
• Measurements: lid: 2 cm x 7 cm; 25/32 in x 2 3/4 in
• Measurements: part: dice: 2 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm; 25/32 in x 25/32 in x 25/32 in
• general subject association: Judaism
• used: Education
• classified: Toys
• ID Number: 2016.3046.01
• accession number: 2016.3046
• catalog number: 2016.3046.01
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.