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How to Create a Recycling Board Game for Kids

If you want to educate your children about the benefits of recycling and teach them ways that they can help the environment, design a customized board game to make the eco-friendly concepts interesting. Use colorful cardstock and craft supplies like stickers, markers and patterned paper to create a game to capture the kids' imagination. Add a touch of competition with challenging questions and tasks that allow you to reinforce the environmental lessons while spending an entertaining night with the family.

Things You'll Need

Black marker
10- and 8-inch round dinner plates
12-by-12-inch green cardstock
Blue letter stickers
Earth-themed stickers
Chipboard
Double-sided tape
Scissors or craft knife
Paper trimmer
Plastic figurines

Instructions

- 1
  Use a black marker to trace a 10-inch dinner plate and an 8-inch dinner plate onto the center of a 12-by-12-inch piece of green cardstock. Use the black marker to draw 12 evenly-spaced lines cutting across the round track to generate 12 spaces.
- 2
  Use blue letter stickers to create the words, "Ready, Set, Recycle" on one space on the board. Add a sticker of the Earth and the words, "Thank You" to the space to the immediate left. Use the letter stickers to add the words, "You Littered, Go Back One Space" to a random square on the board. Embellish the rest of the game board with stickers of trees, flowers, fish and animals.
- 3
  Affix the game board to a piece of chipboard for more durability with double-sided tape and use scissors or a craft knife to cut closely around the square so the chipboard doesn't show. Have the board laminated at an office supply store or teacher supply shop to protect it from spills.
- 4
  Cut 50 to 60 3-by-5-inch pieces of green or blue cardstock with a paper trimmer to become the game cards. Write a trivia question about recycling, the earth, the environment or ways to conserve natural resources on the top half of the card. Write a recycling-related task and time limit such as "you have 30 seconds to unplug an unnecessary appliance in the house" or "you have one minute to rinse out a bottle and put it in the recycling bin" on the bottom half of the card.
- 5
  Collect an assortment of figurines from a toy or craft store to use as the game pieces. Find plastic trees, trash cans, globes and different animals, for example.
- 6
  Instruct the players to put the game pieces on the "Ready, Set, Recycle" spot on the board and let the youngest player draw a card. He can answer the question, perform the task or hand the card to another player. If a player completes the task in the allotted time or provides the right answer to the question, he moves ahead one spot. If he answers incorrectly or can't complete the task, he moves back one spot. The first player to the "Thank You" space wins.

Kids Games