Thinking Outside the Box: Make a Board Game

As an introduction to this task, I asked the students what board games they liked to play.  I chose a few games that many kids were familiar with, such as Candyland and Snakes and Ladders and we talked about the rules for these board games.

I unpacked a whole bunch of cereal boxes, cracker boxes and cardboard that I brought from home and told the kids they were going to create their own board games.  The only criteria, their game could have no more than three rules.

Each student had to complete a planning sheet before beginning to build the game including the name of the game, the rules and materials needed.

The part that the kids enjoyed the most, was teaching their game to others.  We spent some time, once the games were all completed trying out the games.  The inventor of the game took the role of the teacher and taught the other participants how to play the game.

A new version of Snakes and Ladders called Swim to 100.

Shake the apples board game.

A soccer game for two people.

A fishing game.

An elaborate game modeled after the board game, Mouse Trap.

This game was a board game version of the solitaire game called Mine Sweeper.