By Shirley Carlson

Supplies:

1. 50 (or more) paper plates, inexpensive type and recyclable
2. Markers    
3. Dice or spinner

Prior to playing the game, have a family discussion about reducing, reusing, and recycling and the ways these things help our environment.  Read a book together that talks about the environment.  [See book list in this newsletter.]

 Game Directions:
On paper plates, write with a bold marker suggestions (one per plate) on ways to help our environment.  Put a number on the plate to indicate the number of bonus steps to go forward.  Probably ten plates are sufficient with positive suggestions.  Suggestions might include: recycle aluminum cans, reuse cloth grocery bags, spruce up an old toy and give it away.

Correspondingly, write ways we hurt the environment and a number to indicate how many steps to go back.  Prepare five to seven plates with negative actions on them.  Be careful not to have the penalty steps too severe or the game will go on quite long.  Suggestions might include: threw my trash on the ground, changed my clothes four times today and left them on the floor to get dirty (result: uses more water to clean them), left the lights on in my room while not there.

The remainder of the plates will remain blank except for one with “START” on it and one with “FINISH” on it.  You can elaborate on the “FINISH” plate with “3 R’S SUPERSTAR!”   Of course, the 3 R’s stand for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Put together your floor “board game”.   Make a path of plates on the floor, starting with the “START” plate.  Put a few blank plates and then a positive suggestion plate, then three or four more blank plates and another positive plate, a few more blank ones and then a negative one.  Keep building your path by interspersing the positive and negative plates along the way.  How long you want the game to be determines the number of plates you use.  You can wind the game through more than one room if necessary.

Now you are ready to play the game.  Players are the markers for this game and stand on (or near) the plates.  If possible, let each child carry a dice and roll it when it is their turn.  In turn, players roll the dice and go forward the corresponding plates.  If a player lands on a positive or negative plate, they read it and follow the instructions.  Play until all have crossed the finish line stressing that we are all winners when we have fun together and learn the importance of the “3 R’s”.  The game can be played with partners, alternating turns as to who rolls the dice and who stands on the plate.  Have fun with the game, discuss what you learned, and adapt it as necessary to fit your family and the ages of your children.