Mode of Operation of Educational Games

You have learnt about different types of games and their advantages in the context of nutrition and health education. Educational games can be fun to play and can at the same time teach important nutrition and heath information and practices. 

With creativity and imagination, commonly played games can be. adapted to teach the principles of nutrition and health. New games can be created in the form of board games, card games, puzzles, action games and many more. Let us now learn  the method of playing a game. Playing the  game motivates  the players to modify nutrition behavior. 

How to Play Nutrition Snakes-and Ladders

Here is a die and board with snakes and ladders on which desirable and undesirable nutritional practices and their consequences are pictorially represented. Start playing the game following the rules specified. 

1. The players throw the die and  the player with the  highest number starts the game by throwing the die. He or she then moves the counter the number of spaces indicated by the number shown on the die. 
2. If a player scores a 6, he or she moves the counter 6 spaces and then throws the die again. 
3. If a counter stops on the head of a snake, the player must slide the counter down the  snake to its tail and carry on from that point in the next round. If a counter lands at the foot of a ladder, the player moves it to the top  and carries on from that square. 
4. Both the snakes and the ladders carry messages that  the players read aloud to the other players when a-counter lands on them. 
5. The first player to reach  the end of the board  wins. 

SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD CARD GAME 

Here is an another game which resembles the playing card game. This game is adapted to help  the mothers to understand how to supplement the diet of infants and preschoolers. 

How to make food cards 

Materials you will require : 

• Chart paper or other stiff paper 
• Pencils, marking pens 
• Paints and brushes. 

Method of making food cards : 

1. Cut out eight to ten 5 cm squares from the chart paper. 
2. Draw wt some supplementary foods on these cards and colour. 
3. On the reverse side of these cards, put a RED, YELLOW or GREEN mark depending on whether the food is suitable for severely malnourished, moderately or mildly  malnourished, or for normal children. Thus,.a food suitable for all three will have all three colour markings while one unsuitable for severely malnourished infants will have only yellow  and green  markings. 

How to play supplementary food card games : 

1. Display the cards on the floor facing the pictures. 
2. The player is asked to select foods suitable for severely and moderately malnourished and for normal children. 
3. Turn  the reverse side of the card and check with the colour key provided  and count your score. The one who gets the  highest score is the winner. 
4. Any number of people can play one after the other. 

So far you have read modifications of the snake and ladder game and playing cards for teaching nutrition and health messages like this.