CONTAHISTORIA
The CONTAHISTORIA, or ‘history-telling’ game was the result of the cooperation between the Universitat Politècnica de València and La Petita Figuera. It is an educational game devised for children from the age of 5, inspired on the island and the vernacular heritage, hand-made in natural wood. It consists of different panels with a feature of the island on each (a lighthouse, church, cistern, etc.) and a bag containing various slide rulers for each number. The slide rulers are aimed to help the children learn the concept of number, which is also known as ‘colour number’. They come in different colours depending on their length: the cube has a side equivalent to 1 and represents the unit, the others are multiples.
The game consists in finding the slide rule that fits each side of the drawing or a combination of them, thus promoting the knowledge of quantities in numbers, opening a path toward the mathematical operations of adding and subtracting, and focusing the attention of the child on the different possibilities of numerical combinations. Furthermore, as he or she is learning about numbers, with each panel the child gets to know and become familiar with the features of the island of Formentera: lighthouses, mills, churches, etc., since every drawing is accompanied by a brief description.
On an island where the economy is predominantly based on seasonal tourism-related activities, this type of game promotes knowledge and appreciation of the traditional architectural heritage which is so important in terms of the cultural identity of the island. Through play, the child discovers the existence of singular architectural elements on the island, both monumental and public or humble and vernacular ones, and this discovery contributes to raising awareness from an early age regarding the need for their preservation as part of the built cultural heritage of the island.