Recently I put together a life-sized Candy Land game for our Easter event. I am going to be honest, this was not an easy project, but once it was finished it was great. The kids loved it, the parents loved it, and we’ll have it for years to come. In this 3 part series I’ll discuss how we did this and alternatives we considered that could save you time and money.

Before starting this project you need to answer the following 7 questions (along with what I decided to do):

1. What do you want to use for the colored spaces that the kids will walk on? (We used interlocking mats.)
2. Will this be a one time use or will you use this life-size Candy Land game for years? (We wanted to make it durable enough to last for many years.)
3. What surface will the game be on; grass, concrete, dirt, indoors? (We placed our game on a basketball court.)
4. How do you want to represent the characters; wood, paper, real-life? (We went with wood. Although, having real live people dressed up like the Candy Land characters would be really neat.)
5. Do you want to use a die or cards for the game? (We went with a huge die.)
6. How much are we willing to invest in this project? (Our version came in at about $900. You can do it for less and I’ll discuss how.)
7. Are you willing to invest the time into this? (Overall I’d say we spent a total of 110 hours divided by 5 people, or 22 hours each.)

So you read over the questions, considered the commitment and decided to go ahead with it. Great! Let’s get started.

PART 1 – The Game Board

When we were trying to figure out how to set up the spaces of the game board we went through a number of ideas, we asked other organizations how they designed their Candy Land set-ups and we researched other ideas.

We wanted the game spaces to last a long time but they needed to be light because we new we’d be carrying them to and from storage every year. We also needed to have them 6 or 7 different colors based on the game itself. Another consideration was the time it would take to create 70-120 spaces. We knew we would be cutting and painting characters and felt we didn’t want to spend the extra time cutting and painting spaces as well.  Below were the options we considered:

Plywood Squares – These fit the durability test, but they needed to be cut, sanded, and painted. Plywood can also be very heavy.

Paper Squares – For a one time use, indoors we might have considered this option. We needed long lasting so this was not the right fit for us. This is probably the least expensive route, however. Purchase card stock and it should last you one event, indoors.

Laminated Paper Squares – This would be more durable, but not good enough. It definitely wouldn’t have worked outside and inside the slickness of the lamination would make it slippery. we don’t want anybody falling.

Poster Board – I like the size of these and we would have been able to order them in the right colors, but they would not have been durable enough for years of use. However, due to the cost, especially if we would have recycled the poster board for future crafts, this is a good option. You would just need to buy new poster board each year.

6 Large Canvas Tarps (with the spaces painted on them) – This is one I seriously considered. Once it was painted we would just unroll it and play. It would have taken 6 canvas tarps (at least the ones I liked) to cover the basketball court. It would have taken a fair amount of paint, but paint we had.

Poly Spots or Poly Base Markers – Here was our second choice. We found 14″ Poly Base Markers that would have worked very well. The 6 pack came in the 6 colors of the game as well. They are durable and there is no prep work (cutting, painting, etc.) needed.

Interlocking Foam Tiles/Mats – We have used the poly spots and the foam mats in other programs so we knew they would both hold up to the abuse of a special event. The reason we went with the foam mats is because they interlock and they are bigger than the poly spots. We didn’t want the spots moving around. The mats also came in the six colors we needed. I purchased the 1/2″ 24×24 premium interlocking mats at WeSellMats.com. They came quick and in perfect condition at a price I couldn’t find anywhere else. I purchased 15 sets (90 tiles).  Over the long haul I’m certain this will prove to be the most frugal option, especially if we use the mats for other programs.

Note: In Candy Land there is a seventh color, pink, which are the spaces the “treats” are on. We decided that we didn’t need pink and placed pictures of the “treats” on one of the regular colors.

Next I found the different treats that are in Candy Land like the gingerbread man, a candy cane, an ice cream cone, etc.  I printed each one out and laminated them. At the event I duct taped them to one of the mats. I had the treats in the same order and general location as the board game.

The Game

Now that we have a board it’s time to give you the rules of the game. It is very simple. I learned a few things I should have done after the first event and the rules below include them.

1. The participant starts behind the “Starting Line”. No more than 2 children can go together. If you are using small squares you might want to limit it to one child or one child and one parent.
2. The facilitator rolls the die. Whichever color comes up the child will move to that color space.
3. On the next roll of the die any child already on the game board, as well as the child at the “Starting Line” will move to the color that comes up. For example, If the facilitator rolls the die and it comes up blue everyone moves to the next blue space from where they are standing. There will multiple children on the game board at any given time.
4. You’ll need one adult at each “treat” space. When a child passes a “treat” space they get a candy. If they happen to land on the “treat’ space they get a premium candy. For example, the candy cane might be taped to a red space (if you’re not using the traditional pink spaces). If the die is rolled and red comes up and the red space that happens to have the candy cane on it is the next space a player (child) goes to, the player receives a premium candy. You can give out small candy canes for the children that pass the “treat” spot and a normal sized candy cane for those that land on the “treat” space.
5. The child will also get a candy for completing the game.

Note: I tried to get candy that represented the “treats” in the game. I was unable to find candies that fit perfectly. I quickly found out that nobody cared what kind of candy they got. They were just excite to get something. However, they were thrilled to get a bigger candy for landing on the “treat” spaces.

Now I realize we live during a time of childhood obesity and there is a push for nutritious snacks and food to be given to our children. I’m not about to give a child a carrot in a game called Candy Land. The community I work in is very organic food friendly. Having said that I did not have even one parent complain about us giving a bunch of candy to their kids. I guess its because on special occasions like Easter and Halloween parents are more tolerant of sugar highs.

Next week I’ll give you part 2 where I’ll discuss how we made our Candy Land characters.

Years ago when I worked for another recreation department we had a life size Candy Land game. The community loved it. It was brought out every year for the Easter event. I don’t know who started the idea, but the city of Poway, in San Diego County, has been doing it for many many years.

With the encouragement of the exec. director I decided to build one for the our recreation organization.

It took a lot of work but we got it done by the time our Easter event rolled around.

Here are a few pictures with some of our youth volunteers.

We got a lot of praise from the parents. It helped raise our event to another level.

I won’t go into the details of how we did it all since I’m not sure many of you are interested in it. If I get at least 10 comments asking for more info then I will do a series of posts on how to do your own Life Size Candy Land.

One of our most popular events of the year is the Father-Daughter Valentine’s Dance. Here is how we run ours.

The Set-Up

The day of the event we set up the community room with tables and chairs for people to sit at. In the back of the room we have a few tables for crafts. At the front of the room we have a large area for dancing and the DJ. On the side of the room we have tables for food and drinks. In an adjoining room we have the check in area where the dads and daughters first come in. We also have an area for photos.

The Decorations

Decorations are purchased at Party City and include table covers, hearts that are placed around the room, and balloons that are tied to small buckets holding candy. One bucket per table with 4 heart balloons tied to them is the norm. We also have red and white Christmas lights that we hang up around the room.

The Food

We have tried all kinds of things, from dinner to healthy snacks to party snacks. What we have found is that cookies, pastries, water, punch and coffee are the winners. That doesn’t stop us from setting out small cupcakes and brownies, too. These go pretty well, but not like the cookies do. We bought a nice (and tasty) Valentine’s cake last year. Nobody touched it. In our experience, it has to be finger food.

The Event

• Fathers and daughters arrive in suit and ties (one father comes every year in his kilt) and party dresses.
• They check in and the girls are given roses. We find that they prefer the fake roses that they can keep forever.
• After checking in they get their picture taken from a professional photographer. The photographs can be picked up from our office.
• Then they move to the main room where the DJ is playing music and has the “disco ” lights” going. It takes about 15 minutes and a little encouragement from the host (me) to get the fathers out on the dance floor. Once they start dancing, though, they don’t stop.
• Daughters can visit the crafts table where we have 2-3 Valentine craft choices.
• We also have  a roaming magician. She walks around and does close-up magic for small groups of fathers and daughters.
• The last song is always Father and Daughter by Paul Simon. It’s tradition and the fathers love it. They are all on the dance floor dancing with their daughters in their arms. Very cute.

The event lasts an hour and a half. It’s a very easy event compared to our Halloween or Easter events.

Do you do a father daughter dance? If so, what do you differently?

Okay,so I can’t tell the future (I have a Magic 8 Ball for that), nor can I give you advice on your love life. But if you have a programming question, need some ideas for a class or event, or maybe you just wanna say hi (how nice), then email me at curt@recreationpros.com or leave a comment for all 5 of my readers to see.

I’m guessing you didn’t know today was Mickey Mouse’s birthday. Do you know when Talk Like a Pirate Day is? It’s September 19th.

There are over 600 pages of events and holidays in Chase’s Calendar of Events. In this great resource you’ll find events, holidays, celebrity birthdays and more. It’s a bit on the pricey side but it comes with a CD as well. I have the 2006 version and while some events and holidays get tossed out and others added, the good ones always stay around.

Every recreation programmer should have a copy on their shelf to help brainstorm ideas for programs, camps and special events. Think of the fun you can have on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Below are 10 more examples of fun dates and events that might inspire you.

• January 14, National Skating (Roller, Inline, Ice) Week
• Feb 8, Laugh and Get Rich Day – A day for recognizing that laughter and humor are good for morale in the workplace and the reality that laughter has a positive effect on a business’ bottom line.
• April 15, National Take a Wild Guess Day
• May 19, Hug Your Cat Day
• June 1, The Anniversary of the debut of Superman
• July 11, “American Idol” TV Premier Day – Did someone say “talent show”?
• August 1, Girlfriend’s Day – take her shopping, to a spa, to a play…
• August 22, Be an Angel Day – A day to do one small act of service for someone. Be a blessing in someone’s life.
• November 10, National American Teddy Bear Day
• November 22 is TELLABRATION!, a night of storytelling celebrated world-wide on or about the Saturday before Thanksgiving. http://www.tellabration.org

Now go out there and create a new community event.