Many of you may know the popular board game “Snakes and Ladders”, but what happens when you create a life-sized version outdoors? You get an activity that allows children to get fresh air while developing some artistic and mathematical skills, that’s what!

A template to use for inspiration, plus a driveway version!

What you need:

• An open space that can be drawn on such as concrete, bricks or patio stones. Driveways work very well. If you don’t have a driveway, a backyard patio can work too. Please be sure to obey all social distancing protocols when creating and playing your Snakes and Ladders game.
• Sidewalk chalk
• Dice – either borrowed from an existing board game you own, or create a large-scale version using a cube-shaped box and drawing the appropriate numbers on each side.

Process:

• Work with your child(ren) to create a large rectangular perimeter.
• On a traditional Snakes and Ladders game board, there are one-hundred spaces. If space permits, go for it! Have children use sidewalk chalk to draw a 10 X 10 grid. Feel free to modify the amount of squares on your board game to fit what works within your space.
• Have children number squares from 1 to 100 (or whatever number of squares you have created) starting in the bottom left corner. See diagram above.
• Draw some snakes and ladders! Each snake and each ladder should start and end on one specific square and move players up and down the board. Landing on the tail of a snake means a player must travel down the snake back to its head – losing ground back towards the start. Landing on the lower portion of the ladder allows a player to “climb” the ladder up the board, closer to the finish!
• Players take turns rolling the dice, moving that number of spaces, and seeing who can reach the top of the board first!