Hello friends (and foes),
Today I present to you the world's best (non biased self review) Snakes and Ladders game. I spent forever trying to find one online that fit what I was looking for...however I ended up making one 'borrowing' assets from various sources.
For those of you whom are not familiar with this game, it is typically aimed at KG/ES students to help them learn numbers. The game is very simple to understand and easy to play. The only required materials are a place marker and a dice... feel free to use a paper cut out and glue together dice or pick up a pack at your local 'dollar store'/online shop. The game is played by moving spaces dictated by the dice roll and then respecting the corrisponding tile. Players have the option to take a ladder UP to a higher number and advance quickly, but the tradeoff of this are the pesky snakes! When landing on a tile with a snake, the player will decend the board (head to tail) and lose positions. My version however has the "plus snake". Since the student's don't know numbers above 20 yet, if their dice roll dictates that they land on a number over 20, they are eaten by the plus snake and return to number 10. I also included tubes in the middle which can be omitted - their desired direction is down, but for a slow group they can be used for going up. I have some success with getting students to roll over X number to go up, under X to go down. This game can also be used to practice ordinal numbers if you so desire.
Through playtesting I found most games last about 10-15 rolls. Lucky payers can finish in as little as 4. Group size and luck directly impact the length of the game so I like to budget about 10-15 mins in groups of 3. Larger groups will take longer to finish the game due the time it takes to complete a set of turns.
D I R E C T I O N S
1 - Have the students assemble into groups (I find 3-5 is a good number) and get a place marker and assemble them at the 'start'.
2 - Students roll a dice and them move their place marker according to the dice roll.
3 - Students announce dice roll and count the spaces to practice the numbers.
4 - Players have the option to go up a ladder, however nust always slide down a snake.
Win condition - roll 20 exactly and choose to go up to the star.