Activity Introduction
You know the difference between good and boring lessons at school is often when your teacher gets you to play educational games rather than do worksheets and questions. If you want to teach other kids about sustainability and the environment, invent a board game which is both fun and educational. But there are a lot of steps involved in being a board game designer! You will have to go through the whole process of creating a design brief, writing the rules, drawing all the art and creating the board and pieces.
This is a good activity for kids to complete independently or with others.
Ideal for: Upper Primary Ages 10 – 12
Themes:
- playtime
- brain teasers
- be creative
Time required: 40+ minutes
Curriculum connections: Visual Arts, English, Humanities, Critical and Creative Thinking, Sustainability
One of the hardest things for kids to develop is persistence when things don’t work the way they want straight away. Designing a board game might seem easy at first, until it’s put into the hands of someone else who can’t understand the rules and doesn’t play the way you want.
Encourage your kid/s not to get frustrated or discouraged because they think they’ve done badly or ‘wrong’. Instead, remind your kid/s that a growth mindset would see solving problems as an improvement well beyond their first attempt at the task.
The core of this activity is the rule book. Kids will really have their written communication skills tested as they need to be specific and detailed in describing the rules. If you end up play-testing the game with your kid/s, be deliberately obtuse when interpreting the rules and don’t let the designer verbally explain their way out of your potential cheating! Remind them that they won’t be around in every house whenever someone wants to play their game. This will force them to be clearer in their directions.
Curriculum codes:
- Lentils, chickpeas, buckwheat or other similar seed; use about 5-10 as some will not germinate
- Paper towel
- Small plate or lid with a lip
- Water
[email protected] from Cool Australia
[email protected] resources are designed for parents and teachers to use with children in the home environment. They can be used as stand-alone activities or built into existing curriculum-aligned learning programs. Our [email protected] series includes two types of resources. The first are fun and challenging real-world activities for all ages, the second are self-directed lessons for upper primary and secondary students. These lessons support independent learning in remote or school settings.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
