Barnyard Board Game
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For a quick after-school or before-dinner activity, try a round of this fun game for two, played on an easy-to-craft homemade game board.
What you'll need
- Cardboard or foam core
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pencil
- 1-inch round, self-adhesive felt pad (available at hardware or home stores)
- Plastic bottle cap
- Acrylic paint
- Plate
- 12 identical buttons or coins and 1 different button
How to play
To make the board, first cut a 7-inch square from a piece of cardboard or foam core. Find the center of the board by using a ruler and a pencil to mark 2 crisscrossing diagonal lines across the square.
Fix the self-adhesive felt pad to the top of a plastic bottle cap. Dip the felt pad into a bit of acrylic paint poured onto a plate, dab off any excess, then stamp a circle where the lines intersect on the board. Using this circle as a guide, stamp 5 rows of circles across the board (5 circles per row) for a total of 25 circles. Allow the paint to dry.
To play, arrange 12 identical buttons or coins (the geese) and 1 different button (the farmer) on the board as shown. Players take turns sliding a button horizontally or vertically (but not diagonally) to an adjacent vacant space, with the player representing the farmer going first. The geese (who cannot jump) attempt to corner the farmer, while the farmer tries to capture the geese by jumping over them and removing them from the board, as in checkers. Play ends when the farmer can't make another move, or all but 1 goose is captured.
