DIY Family Rainbow Game

The kids are really starting to get into playing board games and we make an effort on a Sunday evening to switch off everything and sit and play a couple of games with them of their choosing. Taking this I wanted to work on some skills and decided with Saint Patrick’s day on the way and Spring which always brings lots of rainbows it was time to make our own board game.

Inspired by the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow I created a game board and made some gold coins to go in the pot and then set about thinking up some activities that we could add to the cards that the children would pick when they moved onto a space. Physical skills, simple letter activities plus a few Wild cards meant that we sat and played as a family for an hour going over and over the rainbow putting our coins in the pot each time.

What you need for the DIY Family Rainbow Game

Large sheet of white paper
Marker Pens
Coloured Paper – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet
Scissors
Pencil
Gold Mirror Card
Dice

Setting up the Rainbow Game –

On the large white piece of paper draw a cloud at one end and a pot at the other – between then draw a flowing path. Divide the path up into a multiple of 7 sections (we had 21) and then colour them in the order of the rainbow.

Cut up the coloured paper into small cards and on them write various activities – on the yellow, and violet cards I added typical board game cards – jump forward spaces, go back spaces and miss a turn. On the other cards I focused the red and green on movement activities, jumping, hoping, running on the spot etc… on the orange and blue finding objects of a particular colour or starting with a letter and on Indigo silly emotions to pull with our faces.

I drew around the bottom of a cup on the back of the mirrored card to make our gold coin game pieces and then to distinguish them wrote our initial on each. You could write people’s names especially if you have more than one person in the family with the same initial.

Playing the Rainbow Game –

Place the counters on the cloud and the youngest goes first – roll the dice and move that number of places

Pick up the card and read what the activity is and then quickly do it.

Move onto the next person and repeat

Enjoy!

You could easily put learning activities on the cards, things to find, food to eat etc… it’s open to all sorts of possibilities.

Author

Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.