Snake and Ladder Mat

Let’s Have Some Fun with Numbers

On Sunday evening my friends came to my house to play and enjoy themselves. I told them about my cute little learning buddy, Musky. All of them were very excited to meet the cute little bot. I opened my Musky Kit and turned the Musky bot on. I placed it on the Start block.

My friend Amit said ‘I will roll the dice first. We started playing the game and made Musky bot move by giving it the commands. When the Musky was happy to climb the stairs, we made it dance. We had a great fun evening as we enjoyed playing and learning with Musky.

My father saw us playing the game and asked what we learned with Musky. We told him that numbers 1,2,3,4,5…..till 50. We learned which number comes after/before which number. He asked me if I knew what comes before 40. I excitedly said 39. He was happy to hear the answer. He also asked what happens if a snake bites us. Amit said, “Uncle we feel bad as we have to come back to reach its tail point”. My father smiled and said, yes, definitely! But if it’s a real snake and you find yourself in a situation like that you need to go to a doctor and get treated as many snakes are poisonous.

Had a great time playing with your cute little learning buddy, Musky? Check if you can answer these questions.

Q1. How many snakes can you see on the mat?

Q2. What happens if a snake bites us?

Q3. What are 3 skips from 22?

Q4. Which numbers come between 42 and 48?

Q5. What comes before 37?

Teachers Note

This is an interesting way to teach numbers to children. Simple as it appears what we need to do is just simply play the snake and ladder game. Let children sit in a group and turn by turn roll a dice and code Musky to follow the instruction given according to the number on the dice. It can be played by a single child as well as a great group activity.

Teachers can easily teach number sequencing, concepts like addition and subtraction, concept of what comes before and what comes after with the help of this mat, along with skip counting and colors. Simple and engaging activity to learn numbers and when a child finishes the game a rhymes can be played for the children to learn and give a sense of achievement to the winning child.