Make Your Own - Monopoly

On this day (February 6th) in 1935, the board game, Monopoly went on sale for the first time.  That makes the game 78 years old! This game was a family favorite when I was growing up. Since then, things have changed, and so has Monopoly! Well, people have changed Monopoly, and you can too!

This Lord of the Rings-opoly is from Alida Saxon on flickr, and this is what she says about the game she made:

...I wanted to get my brother a Lord of the Rings version of monopoly, but I didn't like the commercial version with the actors' faces plastered on it and such... so I made my own, with a twist. Here it is all set up. I made the coins out of polymer clay, the houses and castles are wood, and the surface is of symbols I've designed to represent each of the properties, along with the official map in the center. I printed my designs and the map all on some antique-colored calligraphy paper, and then roughed it up and tore edges to make it a little more faux-ancient....

Railroads have become rivers, utilities have changed to things more ancient, Chance has become the Palantir and Treasure Chest has become Treasure Barrows. Coins instead of bills and no ones any more - we round up to the nearest 5, the copper colored coin....

On Squidoo, Shauna7084 has some free templates for the basic board in various sizes (also editable versions) and other templates for money, etc. Here is an awesome idea left by a kindergarten teacher in the comments:

Kaite Dec 15, 2012 @ 8:22 pm

Love this! I am currently working on making a Sight-Wordopoly for my kindergarten classroom! I am making it on 8x11 sheets of paper so I can send games home with students so they can play with their parents and so i can make multiple versions with different sight words. I am having students play with real pretend money, so they may have to pay $2.43 for their sight word. They also go to time out instead of jail. For chance and community chest, I turned it in to "math it" and "fix it". For math it, they have to solve the basic math problem - maybe its just reading a number in the beginning, or doing 1+1. They move the number of spaces of the answer. The fix it card is one that has a sentence with mistakes in it and they have to figure out what the mistakes are to move. Mistakes include capitals, punctuation and misspelling of sight words. The game is played with one die - practicing subitizing here a little bit. You can amp it up later in the year by adding two die. When they land on go, they have to read out all of the words they own. When they land on free parking, they have to count all of their money. This combines reading sight words, counting, money, subitizing, capitalization, punctuation, group work and following directions all into one fun game. They won't even know how much they are learning! And when they think they know it all, it is super easy to change up and make harder as the year progresses!!

WikiHow has some great tips on How to Make Your Own Version of Monopoly, which would be very helpful for the planning stage of the project.

eHOW has a good step-by step, as well.

Now, if the little voyagers were to make their own version of Monopoly, I am almost certain they (the two girls, at least) would want to do a Little House version. And Little House on the Prairie would be an awesome theme for a Make Your Own Monopoly game!

Things are Heating Up!

A big part of "WEATHER" is the temperature, and so, our little voyagers are learning to read a thermometer and record their findings. They are trying to do it everyday, morning and afternoon, and, have been mostly successful.

This was project #2 for the DIY Meteorologist badge:

To spark interest, and introduce the "temperature" concept, we started off with our own version of  this (DIY recommended) thermometer project from Instructables:

We didn't have any film cannisters, but these protein scoopers were a similar size, and we had some Zero Water lids that were a tight fight, so... this is what we used:

Materials Needed:

small plastic containers with tight fitting lids

thin straws (we used the stir straws for coffee)

food color

modeling clay or hot glue gun for sealing

water

First, drill a hole in the center of lid. This is where you will stick the straw.

Now, insert the straw...

See - Like this!

Next, add water...

Add food color...

And more water -- We added a little water, the dye, then more water, 

so we wouldn't have to stir it.

Put the lid on -- Make sure the straw is way down in the container, but not touching the bottom. Then use the modeling clay or hot glue to create a good seal around the straw.

We first tried using our hands to warm the "thermometers," but that didn't do anything! We tried cold water -- uneventful. But the hot water worked! Especially in the case of Spiderman's blue thermometer! 

His worked the best out of the three --maybe because he just had to add "a little extra" dye, which made the rising water easier  to see in the straw. He also pushed his straw down in a little further than the girls, and that might have helped, too! So much for following the adult's directions, and good thing he didn't, or we would have been sorely disappointed.

Although this was a fun project, if I were to do it again, I would probably try a different homemade thermometer. This one from EnergyQuest is VERY similar, but looks like it would have more potential for success:

I think using a bigger bottle would make it easier to see the temperature change. Has anyone made this type of thermometer before? How did it work?

A Club for Makers

From DIY.org:

DIY is a club for Makers to earn Skills. DIY Makers do challenges, share their work with the community, and earn patches for the Skills they accomplish.

What kid doesn't like to make things? Heck, even us grown-ups like to make things! Since we are home-schooling the little voyagers, what better way to build skills than through creative projects! 

And for even more motivation, BADGES! 

Our little voyagers are starting out with the Salvager. It is simple enough for our youngest voyager, and easy on our pocketbook!

Be sure to check back to see our progress and our projects.

To become a Maker visit : https://diy.org/

Make sure to come back and share your, screen name, projects, and progress with us. Our screen names are Rosetta, Saralina and Spiderhoot (Spiderman was taken).