Materials
22" x 28" (55 cm x 70 cm) sheet of white poster board Clear paper
Reptile/insect wrapping paper with repeating pattern Scissors
Tape
Instructions
1. To create the game, cut the poster board in half and cut each half in half again to make four equal size rectangular pieces. These will be the game boards.
2. Cut out a portion of the wrapping paper to fit on each piece of poster board and tape it to the poster board. Now cover the prepared game board with contact paper.
3. Cut out individual reptiles and insects from the wrapping paper and cover them with contact paper. These are the game pieces.
4. To play the game, each player selects a game board. Place all game pieces face down in the middle of the table.
5. The first player selects a game piece from the pile and determines whether the game piece matches a reptile or insect on her game board.
6. If she makes a match, she places the game piece on her game board. If not, she returns the game piece face down to the pile of game pieces.
7. Play continues until the players have covered all their reptiles and insects.
8. Younger children can leave the game pieces face up. Also, they can work on covering the game boards with game pieces individually instead of in a game activity.
9. To vary the game, players might only match insects; then all reptiles drawn from the pile must be returned to the pile. Or they might match only reptiles and all insects drawn from the pile must be returned to the pile. Another variation might be to ask each player to draw a game piece from the pile and place it on another player's game board.More to doArt: Glue a popsicle stick to the back of one of each reptile or insect. The children can use these as puppets.Games: This game can be made with any wrapping paper that has a repeating pattern so with the right wrapping paper it can be worked into any theme or unit. * Using just the game pieces, each player draws a game piece from the pile and tries to act out the reptile or insect without saying a word, as in Charades. * Use the game pieces to turn the matching game into a bingo type of game. Place all of the pieces into a container and then draw one piece out of the container at a time. The children cover each reptile or insect called on their game board.
