The past two weeks the girls have had a big project to take on- creating their own board games. I found a book for older kids in the used bookstore awhile back and bought it for fun. When once again, my original school plans weren't going to work out, I went through that book and took out the instructions that would apply to them. We went through all the steps using notecards to organize their thoughts. First they chose three of their favorite books. After we discussed them, they decided on 1 book on which to base their game. They could stay as close to or as far from their source as they wanted. Here Hannah is checking out game boards for inspiration.
Hannah chose this book and here are her notes.
The only supplies we bought were wooden boards, spray paint, and a few stickers. They picked out their paint and sprayed everything themselves. They learned quickly not to spray into the wind : )
We planned for several days, built, then planned more. The rest of the materials we gather from what we had. Pine cones from a potpourri stash, chunks of wood, pain chips, styrofoam balls, etc.
Hannah's turned out wonderfully. I had to make a few suggestions here and there, like, "what will happen if they land on a sticker?" And sometimes I had to translate their ideas into particular rules, but really most of the ideas and layouts were theirs. Hannah decided on the (in my opinion) Hunger Game like start to her game, Forest Brothers.
She chose colors for each brother that coincided with colored paths for each animal. To win the game, you have to collect all 5 forest animals and exit the forest on the other side. Once you collect one, you can switch paths to find the next.
Here's the fox in its fox hole. She decided on the egg carton and sticks- I did the bad hot glue job.
The bear lives in Pine Cone forest.
Here you see the animal cards. She chose each image from Google images, and I printed them. She colored, cut, and glued them all. In the middle are the space cards. If you land on a sticker you might have stepped in a red ant hill and have to lose a turn. On the right are the forest brother envelopes. You open one to find out on which animal path and, therefore color, you are.
She was especially excited about the king cobra and I was shocked we found a cobra sticker at the store. Don't get bitten by the spider!
The deer meadow. Don't get sprayed by the skunk : ) You'll also notice Hannah hand drew each animal's prints for the spaces. We got the images off the computer and she drew her own versions. We finally finished and played the game yesterday, and it worked great. It really involved quite a bit of strategy besides luck, and kept everyone busy the whole time. I would absolutely buy this in a store! Awesome job by Hannah!!
Chloe had her game in mind from the start. Sleeping Beauty goes to India. She immediately used her hands to describe her game being a picture of the world and the princess would fly across the world to visit Shaharukh, her favorite movie star.
We looked at a their school map and I drew a very basic version of the world. She decided on several countries Sleeping Beauty (or each player) would have to visit. At each country, they would collect an item depicted on a card. I outlined the countries in paint colors she chose and she painted the rest. She decided where all the stickers should go and I helped her route the passages. This girl chose 50 images from the computer and colored, cut, and glued almost all of them herself. If you go to Spain, you visit a bullfight and collect a bull card. Italy- gondola. Texas- collect a friend : ) I thought that was cute. Canada- ice fisher, France- climb the Eiffel Tower, Russia- go to the circus, etc. The first person to collect all the country cards and make it to Shaharukh's house in India wins.
There are some treacherous spots along the way.
We played her game as well, and the only complaint I would have is that with so many country cards to collect, it got a bit confusing- and that perhaps rolling only 1,2, or 3 would make the game a bit more challenging. However, the whole thing is wonderful and I can't believe how well they did and how patient they were with the process. They learned geography, natural science, art, decision making, strategy, measurement, and endurance. They also reviewed much we learned throughout the year. I never would have guess all this could come from just grabbing a book at the store. We hope to invite a few friends over to play their game- and we still need to write instructions. Now where to keep these large 3-D game boards....
In other news, the kids were thrilled to receive their Quest Club badges in the mail! I was even giddy. They've worked really hard for these. Their vests will arrive soon, but when these came today and I ceremoniously handed them out, I can't describe the looks and grins on their faces. Worth every minute of work.
Chloe is posing with a work from her watercolor badge. One instruction was to learn about 3 watercolor artists and view 10 of their works. She was very particular about whom she chose. We color printed a page for each artist and she chose 1 work from each to emulate. This one is a Georgia O'Keeffe. Next week we read the story of Albert and study birds.
