All games have rules … can you make a fun, educational and FAIR game board for your classmates to play?

You’ll learn more about what makes a good game, solving problems, making fair rules, and then work together to make your own game!

• What makes a game good to play?
• What is a fair rule? How are game rules written?
• How can we solve classroom problems?
• What kind of game will my group make and how will we make it fun and fair?

Getting Started

You are going to make a fun and fair board game for your classmates to play. You’ll need to start thinking about what makes a good game! First, you will do some brainstorming as a whole class.

Teachers: run this activity as a ‘bus stop’ or ‘silent gallery’ task:

1. Create A2 size posters for each of the following suggestions (change or add your own)
2. Lay or pin the posters around the classroom
3. Ask students to select a texta and move silently around the room writing one comment or word on each. Allow approximately 10 minutes
4. Discuss. Display posters.

Posters

• Y chart – fun and fair games look like, sound like, feel like
• T chart – fair / unfair rules
• Brainstorm – our favourite board games
• Venn diagram – games for fun / learning / both
• Playing fairly – things to say. Brainstorm, eg ‘Good try’, ‘Well done’, ‘Would you like a turn?’ etc
• Answer question: What makes a game fun?
• Brainstorm – equipment needed for a board game
• ‘No school work tomorrow! We’re playing board games all day’ – do a PMI (Positive, minus, interesting) reflection for this idea.

Digging Deeper

What makes a good game? Have a discussion. Each student in your class should aim to bring in a game for a ‘games session’ – a chance to play and discuss a range of different board games.

In pairs, complete the Game Analysis (Word - 106Kb) for 4 different games. Discuss as a whole class. Create a class chart compiling your ‘ideas’ from the last column. The ‘positives’ could help form a criteria list for a great game!

Solving problems! Knowing how to solve problems will also help you develop a good game. Work in a pair team to think about solving problems in your class. Create a poster showing your problems and solutions. Use the ideas from the swimming pool and neighbourhood charter games to help.

Your charter: at the swimming pool (LO ID L6353) Teacher link to Digilearn (requires login)

Neighborhood Charter (LO ID L950 ) Teacher link to Digilearn (requires login)

Think about the following and include the final result on your poster:

• What problems can occur in a classroom? Select five that you think are the most important
• write down 2-3 possible solutions to each of these five problems
• select the best solution for each problem
• now organise those five problems and solutions from most important to least important.

Going Further

When playing games, it is important to make sure the rules are fair! Play these two games and start thinking about fair rules.

Make the rules: keep it fair (LO ID L1033) Teacher link to Digilearn (requires login).

Take a vote: make it fair (LO ID L1005) Teacher link to Digilearn (requires login).

How many ways can you think of to make sure a game is fair? Brainstorm a list of at least ten!

Board game makers work hard to make the rules fair. Read the rules of some of your favourite games by Hasbro and Mattel to help get some ideas.

• Print off a range of examples to annotate and discuss as a class and then in pairs. Ideally use examples from games in your class or from home
• discuss the effectiveness of the rules. Note grammatical and structural features, eg verbs to start sentences, numbered points, equipment at the start etc
• agree on a structure for writing rules
• create examples as a class and display in the classroom.

Taking Action

Now it’s time to design and make your own game!

Work in a group of 3 or 4. Complete the Planning sheet (Word - 92Kb) (A3 size) together. Then create a draft of your game board on a large sheet of paper. Finally, work together to create a good copy. Have a look at the Game assessment (Word - 74Kb) to make sure you’re on the right track.

Are you really stuck? Try following these instructions to make a simple board. Includes pictures of the steps!

Assessment

The task will be assessed on cooperation, attractiveness of the final product, clarity of the rules and creativity. Download the assessment rubric.

Teachers: make your own rubric at Rubistar.

Extension

Consider online safety and appropriate behaviour on the internet. How are the rules the same or different to those in the classroom? Present your ideas in a Venn diagram. Think about online rules and classroom rules

• Learn more about CyberSafety! Try these adventures at Netty's World
• Follow these cousins through six interactive adventures as they learn about online safety CyberQuoll
• Enter the Cyber Cafe. What is everyone up to? Can you help them make good choices? Learn more about smart choices for chat, email, texting etc
• Look at these cartoons and activities Hector's World

Teachers: More information and resources for a CyberSafe Classroom.

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