12 Gifts of Christmas: Giant Football Game Board

I think this is one of my favorite kids’ gift ideas. I mean, who doesn’t love playing a game on a giant game board? It just makes everything so much more fun. And it rolls or folds up for small storage!

The idea for this came over the summer when I was teaching a summer school lesson. Our theme was Indiana (not so easy), and we decided that besides corn, the Colts were one of the top 5 things Hoosiers were known for. and this idea was born.

Note:  You can make a giant game board with any theme. How cute would it be with a princess theme, or superhero, or even just colored spots for more of a Candy Land idea?

What you’ll need:
*1 1/2 yd green felt (this will measure 54″x72″ because felt comes in extra wide):  background
*1 ft brown felt:  cut 20 footballs
*4″x54″ white felt:  centerline
*6″ blue felt:  Colts logo
*1/2 yd black felt:  cut into 4″ strips and use to make the field goals (cut 4 smaller rectangles and piece together)

1.  Lay out your field goals on either end of the game board. Add your logo in the center of your field goal posts. Lay out your centerline down the center of the field. Pin like crazy.

2.  Starting at one end of the field, lay out your footballs. These are your spaces to move on. Get them all positioned before you start pinning so you can adjust and get it looking like you want. Then pin like crazy.

3.  Zigzag around the edges of all your pieces. One piece of advice that I learned from a quilting website:  roll up the wide side of the game. This will make it easier to maneuver. It will save tons of headaches, pins falling out, and fabric jammed into the small opening of your machine!

I use this in my 2nd grade classroom all the time, and the kids just use little stuffed animals as their markers. I have all sorts of question sets that they play with… though today they just made up their own random questions that related to our current unit (makes a teacher proud!). Math facts, review questions, spelling words, word wall words, comprehension questions, etc. are great for older kids. For little ones, naming colors, numbers, animal sounds, etc. would work well.

If you want to make a set of large dice:  use this tutorial for cloth blocks and applique felt dots on before your attach the sides. Or think fuzzy dice, a cube box you cover with paper, a foam cube with dots painted on.

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