March breACK! 2014: Design your own Snakes and Ladders Board Game

March Break Ideas Design Your Own Snakes and Ladders [Chutes and ladders] Board Game

This morning, in their first instalment of our March breACK! play, Bearicles, the kids read about a prince of a bear who encounters a couple of socially dominant “serpents in bear fur.”  This afternoon, I decided to keep the snakes and ladders theme going by having them make their own Snakes & Ladders game. We’re experienced at making our own board games. We’ve made our own Holiday Floor Scramble as well as Christmas Clue.  So, the kids already have a good sense of accomplishment when it comes to this sort of thing. This time, I left the design and implementation completely up to them! Suggesting only that they create at least 25 places to land on their board from start to finish, I handed them each a lovely 11×14 piece of paper, a couple of rulers, and a fresh set of fine-line markers and had them get to work!  The kids decided to use their tablets to consult Google for a few examples of the traditional game. Then, they spent a few minutes sketching rough drafts of the game into their new blank sketchbooks.  Finally, they got to work!  Beatrice created a very refined little board of Snakes and Ladders, with a concentration of snakes and ladders at the lower left corner.  Toby called his game “Chutes and Ladders,” adding special “snake chutes,” “riddle squares,” “traps,” and “checkpoints” to his board!  When the kids were done, we grabbed a pair of dice, a couple of lego men to use as game pieces, and we played on each board for a while!

Here’s what they came up with:
Ts Game Bea's Game

We’d love to see what you come up with, too!

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