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DLTK's Crafts for Kids
King Cake Game (Craft)

This is a simple dice board game, but a lot of fun when celebrating Mardi Gras.  The real king cake is baked.  A small doll is baked into it and the one who finds the doll becomes king.

Tasha (6 years old) had a lot of fun with this game.  They use dice games a lot in school for math.

Don't have dice?  No problem!  Make some really big dice to go with the game!
  

king cake game

I've provided a few alternatives for making this game and a few alternatives for playing this game.

To Make the Game:

TEMPLATE ALTERNATIVE

bulletprint  out the template of choice 
  
bulletOPTION:  glue the template to a piece of thin cardboard (ex:  old cereal box) if you think this is going to be played with for some time.
  
bulletcut out the template piece
  
bulletif you want making the game to be as quick as possible, just print the color one and you're done at this point (move on to PLAYING THE GAME). 
  
bulletif you want making the game to be more of a craft project and a bit more educational, choose the black and white option:
bulletcolor the squares in a green, purple, yellow pattern.  
bulletYou don't have to use the same pattern we did, but you should use all three colors (they're the mardi gras colors)  
bulletIn Tasha's grade 1 math lessons, they do a lot of work on patterns.  Let the child design a pattern to use when coloring the squares (ex:  2 green, 2 purple, 1 gold... etc and follow their pattern all the way around the board).
bulletIf you're doing this with a group of children, it's interesting to see all the patterns they come up with using 3 colors. 
  
bulletColor the word FAITH in green, JUSTICE in purple and POWER in gold.  That's what the colors stand for. 

NO TEMPLATE ALTERNATIVE

bulletEven older children may wish to try this without using the template.  
  
bulletUse paper plates or circles of thin cardboard.  
  
bulletAn older class (say grade 6) can make some really big game boards as gifts to some of the younger classes to play with.  
bulletUse large pieces of poster board to design the game (use a piece of string anchored in the center of the board to make your circle)
bulletPaint in the squares with bright poster paints.
bulletMake some REALLY BIG DICE to go with the game
bulletGive the game(s) to the school media center (library) or to some of the kindergarten, grade one and grade two classes.
  
bulletLet them draw out the game squares (they can try measuring them out, but it's really easier to estimate).  
bulletcolor or paint the squares in a green, purple, yellow pattern.  
bulletYou don't have to use the same pattern we did, but you should use all three colors (they're the mardi gras colors)  
    
bulletColour the word FAITH in green, JUSTICE in purple and POWER in gold.  That's what the colors stand for. 

To Play the Game:

Young Children:

bulletIf you have very young children (my 3 year old, for example) or are playing with a mix of old and young kids, just use one die (instead of two) and play until someone lands on OR passes the baby. 
bulletIt should only take 5 or 6 rolls to get a winner.
bulletThat way you can play many times giving all the children the chance to win
bulletAND you can easily stop playing when the kids get tired.
  

Older Children:

bulletIf you're playing with school-aged children, use two dice (so they get to practice adding them up) and play until someone lands on the baby.
bulletIt could take quite a number of rounds around the board until someone rolls the exact number to land on the baby, but with two dice, the rounds go a lot quicker (you can make it all the way around in just 2 rolls)
bulletThis makes the game a bit more challenging and increases the "suspense"
  

The Templates!

bulletClose the template window after printing to return to this screen. 
    
bulletSet page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers). 
 

Template   colour   or   B&W
 

 

     

Printable version of these instructions.