Create Your Own Board Game

Apr 5, 2019

Promote your child to game designer! Create a unique board game to help your child learn a specific skill or task.

Looking for your children to get some extra practice with their times tables? Review for an upcoming spelling test? Or perhaps you’re looking for an all-inclusive activity to weather through the day? Accomplish it all with a great big do-it-yourself board game.

For today’s Adventure in Learning, we’re promoting the kids to game designers. Creating a board game offers kids lessons in design, teamwork and whatever else you’d like to include.

In a nutshell, the game works like this: players roll a die, land on a color, choose a matching color card and then perform the task written on the card. The game is straight-forward, but the possibilities for design and challenges are endless.

You can also scale this activity up or down to include any number of people at varying degrees of difficulty, which makes it great for family game nights and gatherings this holiday season. You can even play in teams!

Materials

Directions

Roll out paper to cover your table.

Cut construction paper into 4 inch by 4 inch squares. You’ll want to cut enough to make two sets — one to cover the board and one to use as game cards.

Have your children create a path with the squares. Then glue the squares to the paper to create a game board.

Write down activities on the stack of blank game cards. Feel free to get creative! You could even assign different colors to different family members, so each family member would be responsible for creating all the activities for one card color. Here are some ideas:

Math facts: count by 3s, 6s, 8s, etc
Motor actions: turn around three times, use the table as a drum to make a beat, do 12 jumping jacks, pat your head and rub your tummy while you count to 20, etc
Create a list of words that rhyme
Name a state capital, state flower, bordering states to your own, etc

Leave most of the squares on the game board blank. Add a few spaces that redirect players forward or backward. You want enough challenge to keep things interesting, but not enough to make it impossible to win.

As a family, lay some ground rules. Who gets to go first? Who gets to go next? What happens if you aren’t able to perform the activity on the card? Can you ask for help? Can you pass turns?

After your family agrees to the rules, it’s time to play.

Each player takes a turn rolling the die.

When a player lands on a color, chose a corresponding playing card. Perform the task on the card. If the player can’t, refer to your family rules.

The first player who makes it to the end wins.

Notes

You can find rolls of paper in most craft and office stores. Rolls of paper are versatile, so they’re great to have on hand for coloring, protecting the table from art projects, sketching out ideas, etc. You can also use the underside of old wrapping paper.
If you don’t have construction paper, have the kids draw a game board using markers or crayons. They can write in challenges directly on the squares on the board.
Again, the possibilities are endless. If your children seem overwhelmed by choice, which can be normal reaction, try offering them some parameters. For instance, restrict them to only animal movements: dance like a chicken, roar like a lion, pretend you have a trunk and swing it like and elephant, etc.

Jennifer Cooper is the blogger behind Classic-Play.com, an online resource for creative families. Her favorite pastimes include: dancing around her living room, watching the Pink Panther with her kids and daydreaming. She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband, photographer Dave Cooper, and two children.

Activity Type

Craft

Topics