Board Game Inventors

ababluck

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.
Source Library
MacKenzie Public Library

Program photos

IMG_0488.JPG

Program promotional materials

Board Game Inventors Poster 2.pdf

Length of program session

> 120 minutes

Number of sessions

1

Presenter(s)

Valerie Moss
Audience

Primary Audience

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

Funding (grants/foundations/corporations)

United Way of Northern British Columbia

Budget for this program

$100

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.
Evaluation

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 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.

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.