Snakes and ladders maker

How to play

1. Each player puts a counter just before square 1. Take turns rolling one die.
2. Move your counter forward by the number shown, following the numbers back and forth up the board.
3. If you stop on the foot of a ladder, climb straight to the square at its top.
4. If you stop on a snake's head, slide down to the square at its tail.
5. The first player to reach the last square wins. Agree before you start whether you need the exact number to finish; many families bounce back the extra spaces.

Tips

• For young children, choose the 8 × 8 board with more ladders than snakes. Rounds are shorter and less frustrating.
• Print the board on thicker paper or card so it lies flat. Buttons, coins or beans make good counters if you skip the cut-out pieces.
• Fold the paper die carefully along the dashed lines before gluing the tabs. A standard die's opposite faces add up to seven.
• Turn it into a learning game: ask a question or say a times-table fact whenever someone lands on a ladder.

Where it comes from

Race games with snakes and ladders come from India, where versions known as Moksha Patam or Gyan Chaupar linked the squares to virtues and vices: good deeds lifted a player up, misdeeds sent them down. The game reached Britain in the late nineteenth century and became a nursery classic around the world, usually with the moral labels left off.

Played in: South Asia · Europe

Questions