As humans, we learn through play. While playing games is fun, it also teaches valuable lessons to children. I first tried the art project below with a group of 4th-graders, ages 9-10, and I survived to tell the tale. ;-)
Board Games Kids Love
Begin this project by asking students what board games they know. Popular games include Monopoly, Clue, Life, Sorry, Trouble, Chess, Checkers and Parcheesi. I brought in an ancient Parcheesi board and a nice book on Victorian American board games so that the kids would have more examples of board games to draw upon for their own game designs.
Talk About Games
We discussed what made a board game successful and decided that color, pattern and fun were all necessary elements in game design. Then we discussed the ideas behind their favorite board games. Monopoly is about making money. Clue is about figuring out who murdered the victim. Chess is about putting your opponent into checkmate. Checkers is about consuming your enemy.
Start With the Idea
Any new board design must begin with an idea. Ask kids to create an idea for a board game that involves something they love. A student who loves gymnastics came up with a meandering line game that involved traveling to different pieces of gymnastic equipment. A student who loves listening to her MP3 player had players travel a tangled set of headphones to get to the treasure iPod in the center. Another student made a Treasure Island pirate map kind of board game.
Create the Rules of the Game
Remind students that their game design must be playable, colorful, and fun. Students can make quick game pieces by tracing pennies and cutting out perfect circles. Then each player decorates or distinguishes their own piece or token that is moved around the board.
And don’t forget, games need bonuses and punishments. The game can make you lose a turn, lose your place, or give up treasure. But the game can also reward you by giving you an extra turn, by going ahead or finding treasure.
The Name of the Game
One problem that many of the kids had was that they needed to draw individual segments for each move. One way around this was to offer graph paper for the kids to work on, though many also ignored the grid and freehand drew their game board. Encourage your student to think of a name for their unique game.
Finally, have students play each other’s games and talk about the ones that are the most fun visually, the games with the best idea, and the most fun to play. I also included a flat die or dice template that the students could cut up, fold, and play the game with. Remind students to write numbers on the dice before taping it or gluing the die together. (The reality is that I ended up cutting, folding and taping many dies that day!)
Learning Through Gaming
We created our game designs with pencil and then added color with colored pencils and crayons. This fun art project for 9-to-10-year-olds teaches problem solving, logic, critical thinking and mechanical reasoning.
Mary Rayme - Mary Rayme is a graphic designer and arts educator with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
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