Shared by Mary, The Game Lady This game can be played cooperatively or competively. It is fun either way.
To Make:
I taped three file folder together on the back side using wide clear packing tape. The picture was cut from an old children's encyclopedia and attached to the file folders using glue stick. Then using white and green 3/4 inch circle stickers I created the path. I covered the game using clear Contact paper...six sheets, one for each section of the file folders.
The PLAYING CARDS for this game can be any skill. The most perfect, of course, would be questions on animals or review questions from a unit study on Africa.
ANIMAL CARDS are small cards with pictures of African animals on them...about 10-12 make for good play. These are placed around the board on white spaces before the game begins.
FUN PLAY CARDS are cards on green paper (to match the green dots on the playing board). These cards have fun things like: Move ahead 10 spaces; Move back 8 spaces; Move to the next animal and capture it; Lose one animal, return on animal to any unoccupied white space on the board; Move to the lion if it is still on the board and capture it. (Note: I usually make 2/3 or more of these positive cards...few of the lose animal kinds).
Cooperative Play:
Four playing pieces are placed at the beginning of the entrance path in the lower left hand corner. In turn, a player draws a card from the shuffled pile of playing cards. He reads and answers the skill card. IF answered correctly, he shakes two dice. He may move ONE playing piece the total of the dice or he may move TWO pieces as each die indicates. IF he chooses to move two pieces, he deals with one at a time, completing all the moves that piece makes before beginning to deal with another piece. Any piece that lands on an ANIMAL card by exact count, captures that animal. Any piece that lands on a green dot, draws a green FUN card and follows the directions.
The game continues until all the animals have been captured.
Competitive Play:
Basically the rules are the same as above, except each player has ONE gamepiece to move (OR you can allow each player to have two--this is fun play as well as it adds to the strategy). The object of this type of play is, of course, to see who can capture the most animals.
NOTE: Sometimes when we would play a game of this type, I would write the name of one of the animals on a slip of paper to be kept secret until the game was finished. The player who had captured this animal (I never tried for it if I were playing the game)would receive a special bonus. Sometimes they would just be declared something like: "SUPER HUNTER." OR sometimes I would make the game more exciting by saying something like: "Whoever captures the secret animal gets out of helping with dishes tonight."--This was always a good incentive to play. Mostly though I would say something like: "The one who captures the secret animal can choose what we have for dessert, or which park we would go to for the afternoon." These kinds of fun incentives make the children eager to play.