Mennonite
Central
Committee

Mudslides and Climbing Vines

This game is designed to be relevant to a variety of ages and general enough to be used for several years. It will be portable, easy to store, and quick to set up. It will need 2-4 adults or teenagers to operate it.

Supplies

• 13.5 yards of 60" cotton canvas duck fabric
• Latex/Acrylic paint (assorted colors we used some of the small
• bottles or craft paint)
• Foam paint brushes (1/2"-3") artists brushes assorted sizes details
• Velcro sticky tabs (2 for each project page)
• Vinyl page protectors 8.5 x 11
• Paper 8.5 x 11", assorted colors
• Tin cans (one for each project page)
• Poster board
• Papers clasps
• MCC and ME stickers

 

Building the Game Board

Cut the cotton duck fabric into 3 equal lengths (60"x 162"). Construct a 13' x 15' rectangle by sewing 3-60" widths of the canvas duck together the long way serge around the outside perimeter to prevent fraying.

 

Painting the Game Board

Use a number 3 pencil to draw a serpentine game board with squares, mudslides, climbing vines and other art work. Be creative....we used clip art with an international flair and different styles of homes.

Place a plastic protector on the floor lay the game board over it. Use a variety of latex paint colors paint the squares and art objects in bright colors. The paintings on the canvas will tastefully depict homes, children and activities that MCC promotes and supports. Each space will have an instruction. For example: Pay 5 cents for each television you have in your house and move 3 spaces forward or if you land on a "mudslide" the space might say, "It's been raining for 18 days in Venezuela and this hillside turned into mud washing your home away."

The spaces that ask for a donation are an opportunity to learn about MCC as well as contribute. The projects chosen are general examples of the work MCC typically does.

 

Spinner

Cut a 5" square and a spinner from the posterboard, number spaces 1-8 and attach an arrow spinner with a paper clasp. You will need several of these because more than one person can play at a time and each player will need one.

 

Game Set Up

Spread out the painted canvas. Put a project sheet and tin can on as many squares as you like. You are ready to play.

See Mudslides Layout (PDF)

 

Project Sheets

Make an 8.5 x 11 sheet for each giving project, insert into a vinyl page protector. Use velcro stick tabs to attach sheet to the squares on the canvas. We used clip art and colored paper to add interest.

See Mudslides Project Sheet example (PDF)

 

Ideas for project sheets

1. Ukraine: Sheltering Street Children
   10/ contribute 10 cents for every house in which you have lived
2. Uganda: $2.00 purchases a hoe for working in the garden
   5/ contribute 5 cents if you have a garden
3. Pine Ridge, USA: Help buy firewood for heating houses in the winter
   5/ contribute 5 cents for every thermostat you have in your house
4. Habitat for Humanity and MCC: Pine Ridge, SD
   15/ contribute 15 cents to buy nails for Habitat.
5. Syria: Computer for School children
   1/ count the computers in your school and pay 1 cent for each one/or 5 cents
6. Egypt: Books for the library
   15/ contribute 15 cents for a library book.
7. Global Family Program: Support Children Around the World
   10/ give 10 cents for each member of your family.
8. Cambodia: Latrine project/ $8.00 build one latrine
   15/ contribute 15 cents for each bathroom you have at home.
9. India: Teachers salary/ $12.00 pays one teacher for one month
   5/ give 5 cents for each grade you have completed in school.
10. Bolivia: Business training for Women
    10/ contribute as many dimes as you want to the training project. It take 500 dimes to train one women.
11. Mexico: $5 buy one book "Where there is no Doctor"
    15/ Pay 15 cents if you have been to a doctor this year.
12. Haiti: Turn on the Lights at a Church
    5/ contribute 5 cents to purchase a lantern for churches that have to meet at night.
13. Guatemala: Vegetable Garden Seeds
    5/ pay 5 cents if you ate a vegetable today
    10/ pay 10 cents if you did not eat vegetables today.
14. West Bank: Summer Camp for Kids
    15/ contribute 15 cents if you go to summer camp
15. Alberta Canada: Refugee Assistance Camp
    5/ pay 5 cents for every suitcase your family has
16. Botswana: AIDS
    10/ give 10 cents to the AIDS victims for medicine
17. Monsoon Rain Season: mudslides and flooded houses
    1/ pay a penny for every window you have in your house.

 

Playing the Game

1. Remove your shoes, take a numbered spinning wheel and make sure you have $2.50 in coins (pennies, dimes and nickels). Spin the dial on the number wheel and advance that many spaces (be sure to follow the footsteps).
2. Complete the instructions on each space, spin again and advance the number of spaces shown on the wheel. Climb a vine, slide down a mudslide, hop, jump and run until you reach the end! Have fun and learn about MCC and you—working around the world.

 

3D Ideas for the Game

1. Ethiopia - Have a sliding board to depict drought wiping everything away; you have to go back and start over
2. Teddy Bear Doctor - Place 15 cents in the cup if you have been to the doctor this year
3. Cambodia - (Representing latrine projects) Have a latrine in place; children drop 10 cents into the hole for every latrine (toilet) they have in their home
4. Honduras - To represent mud slides, have a play tunnel to represent traveling through a culvert
5. Construct a sliding rope tow to represent "every time someone gave you a lift" and drop a coin

At the end, let the children participate in a marble roll to represent helping other kids have fun, too. Have a donation box there marked "leave a donation of your choice." Children feel very proud if they deposit the balance of their coins on their own in the box because they know they are helping other children.

 

To borrow a video showing children playing this version of the game, contact the North American Relief Sale Coordinator.

 

Resources

"a Common Place" magazine

MCC Giving Projects