75 min
Make a Shadow Theatre
A cardboard frame, a white sheet, a lamp, and a proper show.
🎲
Invent a Board Game
They design the board, write the rules, and then make you play it.
A long project that fills a whole wet afternoon and ends with something they can actually use.
Ce qu’il vous faut
- a large sheet of paper or card
- pens
- a dice
- buttons or coins as counters
Comment faire
- Draw a winding track of squares from a start to a finish.
- Decide what happens on the special squares: go back three, miss a turn, take a shortcut.
- Write the rules down properly, on a separate piece of paper.
- Play it once. It will be broken in some way.
- Fix the broken rule together and play again.
Pourquoi c’est bon pour eux
The valuable part is the second playthrough. Discovering that a rule they wrote makes the game unwinnable, and then fixing it, is systems thinking and revision in one. Writing rules clearly enough for someone else to follow is also demanding, precise writing.
Adapter selon l’âge
5 to 6 yearsYou draw the track, they decide what the special squares do.
11 to 12 yearsRequire a scoring system rather than a simple race to the end.
Sécurité
None needed.
Astuce rangement
Keep it. Games they made themselves get played far more than you expect.
Dans le même esprit
45 min
Build a Blanket Fort
Every blanket in the house, one afternoon, one secret headquarters.
60 min
One Box, Anything
A big box, some tape, and no instructions whatsoever.
40 min
Six Panel Comic
Fold a page into six boxes and tell a whole story inside them.
25 min
Paper Fortune Teller
One sheet of paper, eight folds, and endless silly predictions.
40 min
Invent a Secret Language
Ten words, one code, and a conversation nobody else can follow.