Catman's Math Class: Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land

Once, long ago, we played Chutes and Ladders in my class. I found a C&L pic online, and then I proceeded to edit the pic by adding a question into EACH box! CRAZY!!!! Since then I have grown much wiser.

*We played Chutes & Ladders. It was not the first time in my (teaching career) life that I thought Spongebob was taking over. Many of the kids knew the game because of Eels and Escalators.
!!!
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You just have to provide them the game board. The cards are the questions. Duh!

I found them online and printed them on my color printer. I put them in a plastic sheet protector. and then let them use random things as game pieces. I have some pegs for a 'block game,' or erasers or paper clips. I was a few pieces short, and told the kids they could provide their own pieces if they wanted. They came up with a few pieces and it all worked out.

The came cards were various questions that the students had just been learning, just about to be tested over, or something in between.

I split the class into groups of 2-5, depending on how many supplies I have and how mature the students are.

The kid answers the question, and if s/he gets it right, then rolls the dice to figure out how many to move forward. If s/he lands at the bottom of the ladder then s/he climbs it. If s/he lands at the top of the chute, then s/he falls down it.
In Candy Land, you can play with the color cards, but I doubt you have enough. It's just easier to roll the dice.

During a pedagogical epiphany, I decided that absent students should not 'get out' of doing the work for this.
I mostly just copied the same questions into worksheet form. I didn't do them all because the game cards had several versions of each topic.

The kids got points for participating in the game. The absent ones had to fill out the paper to receive the points.