Hobbies And Interests
Flags Around the World
Flags may have been invented in China or India, but the use of fabrics as symbols has spread across the world. Use a ruler to draw a 4-inch-wide border around a large piece of tagboard. Divide this border into several squares on each side, in the fashion of a board game like "Monopoly." Draw a globe in the middle of the board. Cut out squares of white paper for each child. Ask each child to draw a flag on her square; give children a range of flags to choose from. The flag becomes the child's marker for the board game. To play the game, each player rolls the dice and moves her marker across the board according to the number on the dice. Each child wins when she reaches her original starting point.
Smiles Around the World
Divide several medium-sized pieces of tagboard into nine squares each. Ask children to cut out faces from magazines and newspapers -- six happy faces and three sad faces for each board. Supply them with photos showing a range of facial expressions and a range of different faces, including different ages, genders and ethnic backgrounds. Let children glue the faces in the squares. Play the game using a single die and start at the top right corner. If you land on a sad face, you have to start from the beginning. This game prompts understanding that everyone shares similar feelings.
Checkers From Different Countries
Creating games from other cultures can promote interest in learning about other countries. Checkers is played all over the world, with a range of variations and different names. Use tagboard and let the children color in squares in different colors. Draw different numbers of squares on the papers before handing them out to the children. The American and British game is played on an 8 x 8 board and the Polish or international on a 10 x 10 board. There are also 12 x 12 boards. Let children experiment with the variations.
Game of Wari
Different materials are used to make board games. The game of Wari is a traditional thinking game that is thousands of years old. The board was originally made of clay or wood. Let children make their own version of this ancient African game. Ask children to bring in empty egg cartons before this activity. Remove the lids, paint the egg cartons light brown, and let them dry. Decorate the cartons with stripes and spots using black markers. Use clay to make 48 small playing stones. Talk about different materials that can be used to make board games. Although Wari itself is a complex game to play, preschoolers will enjoy creating the game pieces and board and then inventing their own ways to play with it.