Board Game Inventors

Submitted by ababluck on Tue, 2016-02-16 16:12

Description:

A program for children 8-13 years of age. Participants collaborate to design a board game (ours had a zoo theme), come up with rules of play, a name, and then play the game.

Number of sessions:

Length of program session:

> 120 minutes

Presenter(s):

Valerie Moss

Audience

Primary Audience:

Intermediate (Gr. 4-7 or aged 9-12)

Resources

Resources required (materials/supplies; food/refreshments, etc.):

For the game, we provided cardboard (for the game board), paper money, dice, plastic animals, glue sticks, felt markers, scissors, etc. Because the session lasted four hours, we also provided a free pizza lunch (with juice and water) for all participants.

Funding (grants/foundations/corporations):

United Way of Northern British Columbia

Budget for this program:

$100

Evaluation

What were the goals/objectives of your program?:

Our main objective was to get the children to work together and exercise their creativity to create something fun. We brainstormed ideas, such as a name for the game (Zoomanji - very creative), and the rules of play. We then created a rough draft of what we wanted the game board to look like, and the kids took turns coloring and writing the information on the board.

Feedback from Participants:

They all seemed to have a good time, and enjoyed working as a team. Their parents also commented on how much fun the children seemed to have. The free pizza lunch was a definite bonus!

Highlights - what worked well?:

We limited the number of children registered to 8, so that the group was small. They really enjoyed working together to come up with ideas. They also had a lot of fun (and laughs) playing the game at the end of the session. I found it very helpful to have come up with a theme for the game in advance, so that we had the proper supplies ready (ie. the game was 'zoo' themed, and I purchased the plastic animals, and printed off some of the pictures used in the game in advance.)

What would you change about this program?:

Maybe make the age for registration a little closer. I found that 8-13 years of age was quite a big spread. I would maybe make it for 9-12 years of age. Perhaps have two different sessions, if funding allows.

Program photos:

More Resources From MacKenzie Public Library