From: Make Your Own Games Grades: Any Good for: Understanding coordinates Materials: Spinner, cardboard, paper, colored pencils or crayons, graph paper, pencil, sharpie pen, Scissors, recording sheet, 3 space ships or markers to represent them. A terror ship from deepest outer space is heading towards Earth on a direct course. (See sample game grid.) The two captains of Starship I and II have been given the mission to stop the terror ship. The spinners will give the coordinates that either captain can use to destroy the ship. Making the game is part of the learning experience. Have fun! If your child gets restless, ask them to color the Spinners, color the earth, etc. while you set up the grid. CONSTRUCTION 1. Make two spinners, each divided into eight sections. You can use spinner making as a time to learn fractions and multiplication. "I fold the circle in half and there are two sections, then I fold it again and make four. What do you think I'll get when I fold it again?" Use our spinner if you want to get started right away. Make a spinner at home. 2. Mark one spinner with the numbers 1-8 and the other spinner with the letters A-H. Use the black colored pencil to mark two segments on each spinner, and the other three colors to mark the other segments. Use each color for two segments. 3. Take six pieces of graph paper and glue them down to the poster board. Use a pencil to mark the lines. The terror ship needs a dock, leave room for this. Mark your first dot in the lower left corner. This will be 8. Measure two inches and make a dot. This is number 7. Continue to measure and make dots, numbering them from 8 to 1. Measure two inches above this, make a dot. This is where your Starship I will dock. From this dot measure two inches across to the right and make another dot. This will be A. Continue across to H, measuring two inches between dots. Using the graph paper as a guide, connect the dots across, forming a coordinate grid. Go over the lines with a Sharpie pen. 4. Glue the earth down to the upper right corner. Darken in the dots that represent the path of the terror ship - a diagonal from outer space in the lower left corner to the Earth in the upper right corner. HOW TO PLAY 1. At the start of the game, put the Terror Ship on coordinate A8. Its future course will take it to B7, C6, D5, E4, F3, G2, H1 and then to Earth. The Terror Ship makes one move per turn. 2. The captains of Starship I and Starship II work together to stop the Terror Ship. They do this by cutting across the course of the Terror Ship (in front of it) three times. They can blast him off the grid by landing on his exact coordinates. The captains must decide which ship should move; only one ship can move per turn. Spin both spinners to get the coordinates of your move. 3. Mark the moves of each starship on your recording sheet to keep track of how many times you crossed the path of the Terror Ship. 4. If your colors match on both spinners, for example, you spin a blue 8 and a blue A, you get an extra turn. Watch out for the black numbers! If you spin a black number and a black letter, you lose your next turn. 5. If the Terror Ship reaches Earth before the starships can stop it, Earth is lost. Do your best!