A game to teach maths shhh. (Hamleys Snakes and Ladders)

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Hamleys Snakes and Ladders
Date:	11/11/03 (956 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good game

Disadvantages: ?

Snakes and ladders,

Played this game at school today so though I would write an opp. I seem to remember my grandmother having a set for us children to play when we visited

Snakes and ladders.

The game of snakes and ladders is a simple board game with counters and a dice. The board has numbered squares ladders are drawn on leading from a numbered square to a square of a higher number. It also has snakes leading from a high numbered square down to one of a lower number.

The game is be played by two or more people as a race to see who can get to the top/end first to win.
Each person takes a turn to throw the dice and then moves a counter the number of squares on the dice and if they land on a ladder they go up or if landing on a snake the counter goes down.
Some people play it so that if you throw a six you can throw the dice again.
The person who can get their counter up to the top and end of the game first wins

This is a very simple game for children many toy manufactures make it. It is really too simple to hold an adults attention.

This game is a very good educational tool though for playing with your child.
It helps with simple maths, counting, number recognition, and simple addition.

You should be able to buy Snakes and ladders from about £4.00 Tesco sell some for £5.99p.

If you want a fun, huge game for the garden I have seen them available for £33.00p.

Alternatively you could always make your own game. This is quite simple to do.
All you need is a piece of card .On it you draw squares (best to use a ruler to get them =and square) then write numbers in each square and draw a few ladders going up from one square to another and a few snakes going down. You can make this game as simple as you like maybe for a younger child only using numbers up to 20 or 30) This game can be made to your own requirements.

I have made a snakes and ladders type game
to help understand the life cycle of butterflies. The counter going up the snake when it reaches a square where I drew lots of its food plant or the sun. The counter would have to go down a snake when the square denoted bad cold weather or a spider that ate it .
At the end of the game the counter would reach the squares where the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis then they would miss a turn to suggest this stage was a waiting stage and when the game was finished the last square was a picture of a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. This game I devised years ago for a butterfly conservation group of children

Where did snakes and ladders come from?
Well I did a little research and I think it originated in India as a game called Mokshapatamu Which instructs about morality the good acts going up the ladder, the bad ones going down.
I cannot find info on when this game was first played. The Victorians adapted this game in 1892 to the simple snakes and ladders we know.

I think this is an excellent game for children to play. Enjoy playing with your children playing is learning (but don’t tell the children that) Best wishes Mary

Summary: