At a Glance
This design your own board game printable lets your little learners invent and name their very own board game using the classic snakes and ladders idea. It comes with a blank 1-100 board, a fold-up dice net and counters. A hands-on way to build number recognition, counting on, creativity and turn-taking, perfect for preschool, kindergarten and other young learners.
Rockets and black holes? Trees and roots? Rainbows and raindrops? Hand a child this blank board and the first job is the best one – dreaming up what their game is going to be about!
It comes with everything they need: a blank 1-100 grid board, a space to name their game and write their own rules, plus a fold-up dice net and counters to decorate and cut out.
As your kiddos dream up their theme and decide where things climb and where they slide, they are reading numbers, counting on and making decisions. Once it is made, it earns its place in your collection of math games and activities and can be laminated to play again and again.
Here is a fun little fact: the climb-up, slide-down idea started life in ancient India as a game called Moksha Patam, used to teach children about good and not-so-good choices long before it ever had snakes in it.
Time to get designing!
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When designing and playing their board game, your children will have the chance to practice and develop skills such as:
- Subitizing – as they look at the pips on the dice
- Creativity and decision-making – inventing the theme, naming the game and deciding what each climb and slide should be.
- Number recognition – working across a full 1-100 grid gives plenty of practice reading and locating numbers, a big building block of early number sense.
- Counting on – moving a counter forward square by square after each roll is counting on in action, helping children move beyond counting from one every time.
- One-to-one correspondence – matching each move to exactly one square (one number, one hop) reinforces this key early math skill.
- Fine motor skills – cutting out the counters, folding and gluing the dice net, and drawing their board all give little hands a good workout.
- Turn-taking and social skills – playing together means waiting, sharing the dice and coping with the ups and downs of a roll.
- Early writing and oral language – naming the game and explaining their own rules gives a natural reason to write and to talk through ideas out loud.
How To Prepare This Design Your Own Snakes and Ladders Game
First you’re going to want to download the math game by clicking on the download box at the bottom of the page.
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Once you’ve downloaded them, you’ll need to print the pages off onto paper or card.
Then, let your children get their design on!
And once they’ve finished the deign, they can cut out the pieces and get playing!
Enjoy!
