Territory: A Game

Art and Geography Activity

WHAT YOU NEED

• Cardboard/tagboard
• Scissors, felt-tip pens
• Poster board
• Various board games as samples
• Reference materials with information on major territorial acquisitions by the United States
• Game Requirements list
• Spinners or dice
• Markers

WHAT TO DO

1. Divide students into territorial teams, each one representing a major territorial acquisition by the United States (for example, the Northwest Territory, the Louisiana Purchase, Hawaii).

2. Tell students that each team is to design a game board based on the settlement of a major territorial acquisition. Distribute the Game Requirements list and have volunteers read it aloud and discuss it.

3. Have teams meet to plan their Territory games. Suggest that they study other games for ideas, then use scrap paper to carefully design their own. Suggest that they play the game through to work out difficulties before they actually make the board and cards.

TEACHING OPTIONS

Suggest that students play their game in teams that represent a family that might have made the trip to the new territory. Have a note-taker record the events of the trip. Students can then use the notes as the basis for a fictional first-hand account of their adventure.

Teams can compete to be the first family/group to settle the area, but all players should complete the journey. Encourage a role-playing discussion among the competing groups on the experiences each one had.

Invite teams to share their games and play against one another.