Member Kim T writes...

Take a look at www.trainerswarehouse.com

We purchased the jeopardy & wheel of fortune gameboards & frames from them, and while the were not cheap, I am very pleased with them. Our youth and adult groups have wanted to use them too. This site has a bunch of other game supplies, including big dice, buzzers, prizes, spinners.

Member Amy C writes....

CRANINUM.....

For a few of our Rotations, we have played a variation of Cranium. I guess we've done a bit of borrowing from Trivial Pursuit too. For each category of tasks (word puzzle, charades, drawing, humming)they earn one coloured card. When they have collected all the cards, the final task is to put the cards (which contain words from the key verse) into the proper order.

Our kids, and the leader of this game, have a blast. It is a bit of work coming up with the different activities, since I try to use activites specifically related to the story, but I think it is easier than coming up with Jeopardy questions. It is also easier to include more kids in the game, since you play on teams.

See a lesson that uses a "Cranium" like game for Joshua, written by Heather Jones from Thornhill Presbyterian Church, Thornhill, Ontario, Canada,

Canvas Painter's Drop Cloth, Life-size Game Board

Here is  life-sized board game "Faith Journey" that we made out of two canvas painter's drop cloths (we found at Home Depot -- 12X15 feet).

Here is another game board made on a drop cloth:

The three boys in front are creating something from Play-doh as a part of a Cranium-like game.

Here's how we made our canvas game board:

I purchased two canvas dropcloths and sewed them together (this was the hardest part because it was so large!). Next I drew out a twisty, windy path on the drop cloth and divided it into sections. (I used a yard stick to help me keep the path even) I added three symbols: Cross, Questions and a Firecraker to some of the spaces. I used latex paint to paint the path and the symbols and the title of the game.

To play kids move through the game board as a team (adds to the fun that you have to squeeze a bunch of kids on one space)after rolling a large foam dice (purchased on-line).

When they land on a question, cross, or firecracker space, they draw a card from a pile (we created a space on the board for this). The cards reflect a variety of things.

• Cross questions reflect situations where kids choose to do the right thing and they get to move ahead one space. (ex: you spent the night with a friend and stayed up late, but you made it to church on time).
• Questions cards ask questions that help review the lesson.
• Firecracker or explosion cards show situations where kids made the wrong choice (ex. you gossiped about the new kid in your class) and they have to move back a space or even go back to Start.

To make it more fun we also include lots of hands-on activities -- like going to the white board and writing the memory verse, finding a location on the wall map, building an altar from stones, digging in a bucket of sand for something, etc. Kids LOVE this game and ask to play it all the time! Finished size is about 15 X 24 feet so it takes up a lot of space. To store, we got an empty carpet roll and just roll it up and push to the edge of the room.

I'm the games lady at my church! GAMES RULE!!!!

Jaymie

Directions attached for making Jaymie's canvas drop cloth game board.

"CRANIUM" style game (CADOO)

A favorite game we use is life size kids cadoo. It's great for stories with lots of parts and sequences. Lay out 16 2x2 felt squares and provide markers for kids to make a cadoo (see regular game rules) use clay formation, drawing, quiz and charade questions and play 3 or 4 to a team

Cadoo instructions: https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/CraniumCadoo.pdf
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Exchange Volunteer added link to instructions.

TIC-TAC-TOE LIFE SIZE BOARD GAME

Supplies:

• 4 pieces of rope (or could use painters tape)
• 8 cans of soup (use as weights to hold ends of rope in place)
• Name tag Badge Holders with Neck Lanyard (set for each team (example Pentecost: Teams - Wind & Fire Symbols)
• question set
• white board / marker to track points

Game Play:

• roll dice to see which team goes first
• when a team gets a right answer a member gets to stand inside the tic-tac-toe board.
• points could be 1 for each team on the board, 3 points for making a row on the board

GIANT PLINKO GAMEBOARD (like the one used on Price is Right)

Pictures and directions to build a Plinko Game
Directions with pictures:  http://www.instructables.com/i...e-board-or-costume!/

A DURABLE EASY TO MAKE ROOM SIZE GAMEBOARD.

LauraCarol
Posted August 29, 2008

I used a large clear, plastic painting tarp and hot-glued 4 different colors of paper in a gameboard pattern and then flipped it over.

Option:

Spray paint a large plastic dropcloth (outside) with squares, and 'scenery'/messages.

Update: Don't try painting a plastic dropcloth, see Jennie's experience below.

Connect-A-Mat™ available at Walmart and other stores.

Interlocking 4 square pack - each square is 24" x 24", 12mm thick, and made from Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA).

Comes in a multiple of colour combinations, such as:

• black & white
• red & black
• grey & orange
• purple & lilac
• black & grey
• red
• blue
• black
• brown & blue
• green, blue, yellow, red
• pink & fuchsia
• purple & fuchsia
• turquoise & lime

Below is a photo, showing a portion, of one set-up at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Lindsay, ON.  The dice they made by covering a box with paper and drawing on the dots.  Can mark a start and finish or have kids start at all corners with no start and end.

Below is the one we set-up for our Last Supper games workshop.

Here is a really fun and easy "tilting maze" board we made in our church for a rotation set on Paul and the Bright Light.

You'll notice that we labelled the holes/pitfalls and rails (helps), and added barriers (also labelled) to represent ideas in the story we wanted to teach. We used post-it notes so the kids could quickly adhere labels and remove them to change the game. We had a roll of tape to stick the barriers on after the kids labelled them. The young girl is holding the larger of two balls we played with. The table is balanced on a box until they lifted the board and started to tilt.

Such as maze board can be adapted for many stories and talking points. Lots of variations!

A few more notes here about the game board.

See my Paul and the Bright Light game workshop notes here.

Create a giant game board using a tarp and duct tape

How I made this?

I measured the classroom where we will primarily use this game board and bought the largest tarp to fit.  This one is a 10’x20′ tarp and I think it was around $20.

Then you’ll need duct tape….about 4 rolls of each color. Yes, that is a LOT of duct tape!

Make the outline of your game path first.

Then simply fill in your squares with solid colored duct tape.

Now, all you need is to create different types of trivia questions based on your Bible story.  

Assign each category of questions a color, so that when kids land on that spot, they know what type of question or activity they will have to answer or do.

Make one color a penalty color with scenarios that send the kids backward instead of a certain number of spaces forward.

We had a set of oversized dice on hand already. I’d love to get some giant dice at some point, just for the novelty of seeing the kids roll them.

Tip: Don't paint a plastic tarp

Not having seen all these ideas before I created my own game board, I thought I was being smart and cost-effective by purchasing a plastic tarp at Lowe's and painting it with latex paint.

After spending several hours painting and letting it dry, I discovered that the paint will peel right off if you aren't careful.  

Since I needed to use the board that Sunday, I had the children wear socks when playing which worked fine, and then I rolled up the tarp on a carpet roll.  However, I'm pretty sure that the paint will start to peel off when unrolled.  Therefore, i plan to salvage our board following the duct tape suggestion above unless we decide to invest in a painted canvas drop cloth, which is sure to be more durable overall.

Jennie Shirey posted:

Not having seen all these ideas before I created my own game board, I thought I was being smart and cost-effective by purchasing a plastic tarp at Lowe's and painting it with latex paint.....However, I'm pretty sure that the paint will start to peel off when unrolled.

 

Thanks for also sharing what DIDN'T work--you may very well save someone from dealing with the problem that you had!