Cascadia Junior is the newest game in the Cascadia universe, specifically designed for kids to enjoy. In this simplified game, kids will be able to draft tiles, expand their map, and add animal sightings to their panorama.
How Cascadia Junior plays
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
On your turn, choose one of two available tiles, each featuring land types and animals.
These tiles are added to your map where you can choose to match animals and habitats together. Each time you place a tile, take its matching animal token and add it to the tile. These help you track which animals you’ve used and which ones you still have available to turn in for a panorama token.
With the basic rules, collecting three identical animals lets you add that animal to your panorama. For a challenge, players must form specific patterns with their tiles instead.
Each turn works just like this, with players selecting a tile, adding it to their map, and resolving any animal tokens they may have earned.
At the end of the game, players will also earn additional tokens for habitat types grouped together.
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
Final Scoring.
On the backside of each animal and habitat token are 1 or 2 pinecones. These are your points for the end of the game.
Players flip over all their tokens, count the pinecones, and the player with the most pinecones is the winner.
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
Our thoughts on Cascadia Junior
A faithful adaptation for kids.
I love how Cascadia Junior distills the pattern-building and puzzle-like feel of the original into a format perfect for preschool and early elementary kids. Beth Sobel, the artist for Cascadia, captures this really beautiful, almost storybook feel to the game that I absolutely love! It’s the perfect look and feel for kids.
While the adaptation is solid, there’s no need to have any familiarity with the original Cascadia.
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
On it’s own, Cascadia Junior is a fantastic kids game!
One of my favorite parts of the game is the cute little Panorama board. It might seem unnecessary, but it keeps kids engaged and thinking through their choices.
As you add your earned animal tokens to the board, it ends up looking like a little play scene. That storybook feel to the art really comes into play here. All of our kids are highly motivated to add animals to the board to play with them and tell a little story. If they add a bear, then they start looking for ways to add a salmon so the bear has something to eat.
It’s these small but impactful, kid focused additions that set great kids games apart. (And I’ll be honest, I love it too!)
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
Best Ages to Play Cascadia Junior
We tested this game out with each of our children and found there to be a clear sweet spot to start playing between the ages of 4 and 5.
Our son is newly turned 4 and is a bit more on the rambunctious side. He greatly enjoyed Cascadia Junior but needed a bit more help from us along the way. He’s really only interested in collecting animals for his panorama (whether or not he’s earned them,) and that’s okay.
Our 5 year old daughter is able to play completely independently. She loves grouping her animals together to add them to her panorama.
On the older side, our 7.5 year old son is thriving with the game. He’s too young to play Cascadia on his own, but absolutely loves this version. He can set the game up independently, teach it to his siblings, and run the game.
Our 9 and 10 year-olds enjoy the game, though their on the older side and would be considered “aged out” of the game. They’re still happy to play with younger siblings, which is great to see.
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
Adjusting the Difficulty for Older Players
Some may think the original Cascadia is better for ages 7-9 due to its challenge, but I’d push back on that.
More challenge doesn’t always mean that the game is helping a child more. There is great value in finding a game that a kid can thrive with and grow in confidence while playing.
It’s still relatively challenging to focus on both animal and land groupings in Cascadia Junior. It’s the right amount of challenge while still allowing a kid to feel really confident in knowing exactly how to play. That confidence is essential to helping them overcome future obstacles in both games and education. Knowing that you are smart and capable is huge; Cascadia Junior has the perfect framework for kids to learn that!
You can easily adjust the difficulty for each player and give older players a more challenging game while playing with younger players.
Adjust difficulty by giving older players tokens with fewer pinecones or having them use the advanced animal placement rules.
Either way (or both!) is a great option!
Cascadia Junior / Wooden Bowls (Similar)
Cascadia Junior: A Top Choice for Kids!
For a game to truly earn the Junior title, it should both capture the essence of the original in a way younger players can enjoy and be thoughtfully designed for their skill level. Cascadia Junior does both beautifully, making it a fantastic introduction to the Cascadia universe.
From its approachable gameplay to the delightful panorama board that sparks storytelling, every element has been designed with kids in mind — while still offering enough depth to keep the whole family engaged. It teaches multi-step planning through simple drafting and puzzle-like placements, striking the perfect balance between accessibility and challenge.
It’s streamlined without being simplistic, engaging without being overwhelming, and — most importantly — fun for both kids and parents.
That’s why Cascadia Junior earns a Tabletop Family Top Choice seal!
