About this game

The board shows a small garden drawn in pixel art: two empty beds, stepping stones between them, a white fence, a tree and a watering can.

Press Start listening and the game measures the room for 3 seconds. While the class stays quiet, the "next plant" bar at the bottom fills up. Each time it's full, a new plant grows up out of the soil and opens its flowers: sunflowers, hollyhocks and lavender in the back bed, and tulips, daisies, cabbages and a pumpkin in the front.

A cough or a dropped pencil only pauses the bar. If the class talks for more than a second, the plants start to shake and the bar goes back down. Every 4 seconds of noise, the newest plant droops and sinks back into the soil.

When all 12 plants are up, butterflies come and the class earns a star. The stars are kept from lesson to lesson. Then the garden starts again.

The game listens the same way as Quiet Critters. It hears the voice range only, so typing on the laptop or a fan doesn't count. You set how loud is too loud by dragging a line on the noise bar.

Good for

• Quiet reading or independent work
• Tests and assessments
• Settling a class after lunch

The pixel drawing uses the open source engine from Pixel Plays by Amir Mushich.