How to Put Together a Life-Sized Candy Land Game – Part 3

In part 1 I discussed the ways you can create the life-sized game board.  In part 2 I discussed how to make life-sized characters, which really enhances the look of the game for kids and parents alike. In part 3 I am going to discuss the final piece of the Life-Sized Candy Land game – the cards or dice.

When a child is ready to go to a color how are you going to choose that color that everyone goes to?

In our version I decided on using a die. I felt that rolling a huge die would be more fun to watch than having someone pull a card.

The Options:

Cards – If you use cards make them large. They should at least be the size of a sheet of paper. If I were going to do this I would print out each color onto stock paper so it wouldn’t show through the paper and then laminate each sheet. I would probably create 2 o3 three cards of each color so that the “deck of cards” is bigger.
Pros:

• It’s what they use in the game so using cards is more authentic.
• Cutting pieces of poster board and coloring one side, or laminating paper sheets with the colors on one side is fairly easy to do.
• The kids can pick their own card from a pile of cards or a set of five to ten cards.
• Easy to store

Cons:

• Not a whole lot of fun to watch for the other kids.
• If the cards get bent or damaged it’s easy for the kids to pick the color they want without seeing the face of the card.
• You’ll need to constantly shuffle or mix the cards.

Colored Balls – This is an idea one of my colleagues had where the kids reach into a bag or jar and pull out a colored ball. Using a container that cannot be seen into, fasten black fabric across the top with a slit in it so that when kids reach into the container they cannot see what colored ball they are grabbing. For the balls you can use colored golf balls, colored ping pong balls or colored sponge balls. i’m sure you can think of other ideas as well.
Pros:

• I think the kids would find it neat to reach into a container and pull out a colored ball.
• This would be pretty easy to put together.
• Easy to store.
• You won’t have to shuffle or throw anything.

Cons:

• When some kids reach into something to pull out an object they like l to get a little rough. Make sure the container is sturdy and won’t break if dropped.
• It’s not as visual as the die or the cards.

Dice (Die) – I used a 36″x36″ cardboard box to create my die. It was very big and that’s what I liked about it. I covered it in butcher paper and painted each side a different color. Once it was dry I used 3 rolls of contact paper (A sticky paper that is used for laminating without a laminator. It can be purchased at office supply stores.). By the end of the event the die was beaten up and tattered from all the throwing and abuse I gave it. Looking back i would have done two things differently. First, I would have filled the box with newspaper or shipping peanuts to keep the box from caving in. Second, I would have used white duct tape to cover the box instead of butcher paper. Then instead of painting it I would used colored paper or poster board. It was a project to make it but visually it was very cool.
Pros:

• It was fun to watch the die being rolled (tossed in the air).
• The facilitator keep control. the kids do not choose the color. I like being able to dictate the pace of the game. When the kids are choosing cards or balls it slows things down quite a bit.
• It has that Cool! factor.

Cons:

• Not as easy as the other options to store.
• More difficult to make than the others.
• The kids do not have a chance to pick the first color. While I like to dictate the pace of the game, it is nice when the kids get to participate in choosing a card or ball.
• The die can be hard to manage. It’s not the ideal option if your facilitator is small.

The bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with any of these options.

I want to end this series with a few pictures and link to the ultimate Life-Sized Candy Land game that took place in San Francisco for the games 60th anniversary. The game board was create down the famous, winding Lombard Street. They used the same mats that we use, only they had a LOT more than we do. They also had people dress as the characters. This is the Candy Land to aspire to.

How to Put Together a Life-Sized Candy Land Game – Part 1

How to Put Together a Life-Sized Candy Land Game – Part 2