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Get your game on!: Snakes and Ladders revisited

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 GET YOUR GAME ON!
SNAKES AND LADDERS REVISITED
James Russo, Wilandra Rise Primary School and Monash University
and Sarah Hopkins, Monash University

INTRODUCTION
This article considers how a simple board
game, Snakes and Ladders, can be used
to teach a rich variety of number concepts
from Foundation to Year 4, through subtle
modifications of game rules and student
instructions. One modification in particular
offers a powerful means of attempting
to move students on from count-on to
using more efficient mental computation
strategies.

WHAT IS SNAKES AND

LADDERS?
Snakes and Ladders is a very old board
game with Indian roots which is played by
families around the world. The premise of
the game is simple: to be the first player to
reach the end of the board. The version of
Snakes and Ladders relevant to the current
article is included in Figure 1.
The basic rules of Snakes and Ladders
include:
• It is suitable for 2 to 4 players, with
each player represented by a counter.
• The highest roll goes first, then play
moves in a clockwise direction. All
counters begin off the board, at zero
(get students to place the counters
under the number 1).
• If, at the end of your count, you land at
the foot of a ladder, then you can take
the ladder up.
• If, at the end of your count, you land
at the head of a snake, then you must
slither down to its tail.
• The first to cross the finish line of 100
is the winner
WHY PLAY SNAKES AND
LADDERS?
Snakes and Ladders is an engaging game
for young children which can be subtly
tweaked to cover a range of ideas in
number and algebra including:
PAGE 6
Figure 1. Snakes and Ladders (downloadable at www.presentationmagazine.com/snakes-and-
ladders-board-game-8031.htm)
corresponding numerical value.
• Addition and subtraction strategies,
such as count-on, count-back, adding
10 (e.g., 26 + 10 = 36), compensation
(e.g., 26 + 9 = 26 + 10 – 1 = 35),
building to 10
(e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14),
doubles (e.g., 8 + 8 = 16) and tens facts
(e.g., 7 + 3 = 10; 4 + 6 = 10).
• Place value ideas, such as place value
partitioning to support addition (28
+ 24 = 20 + 20 + 8 + 4 = 40 + 12 = 52),
exploring numbers between 0 and 100
and exploring numbers between 0 and
1000.
• Skip-counting and multiplication.
Playing a well-known game with clearly
established rules also has the benefit of
increasing learning efficiency. Students do
not have to spend value time and mental
energy learning the basic mechanisms
of the game, but rather can focus
more of their attention on the relevant
mathematical concepts (e.g., Russo, 2015).
COUNTING, COUNTING-ON
AND BEYOND
These three versions of Snakes and
Ladders are intended to support students
move from basic counting (Foundation), to
accurately counting-on (Year 1), to using
more sophisticated mental computation
strategies (Year 2 and beyond).
COUNTING PRINCIPLES:
FOUNDATION
Dice: 10-sided (1 to 10) or an 11-sided (0 to
10) dice. Alternatively, students could play
with a 6-sided dotted dice (to reinforce
subitising), or a 10-sided dice labelled with
the number names (e.g., three), rather than
digits.
Game-play and student instructions:
Play the game as outlined above. Allow
students to move around the board without
engaging with the numbers they land on.
For example, if a student is on the number
56 and rolls a 5, they can simply state, ‘1, 2,

• Early number concepts, such as one- In the educational psychology literature, 3, 4, 5’, moving their counter accordingly,
to-one correspondence, the cardinality this process is referred to as designing without paying attention to the fact that
principle, recognising digits from 0 to a task to reduce or remove extraneous they are now on the number 61.
9, subitising and linking digits to their cognitive load (Sweller, 2010).

PRIME NUMBER: VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1. 2017

!"The Mathematical Association of Victoria
Curious students can be encouraged to use
the number layout on the board ordinally
(i.e., so they know which direction to
move in), however if the teacher is finding
that the numbers on the game board are
becoming distracting or confusing for
students, consider replacing the numbers
with directional arrows.
Mathematical concepts: Connect number
names, numerals and quantities, including
zero, initially up to 10 and then beyond
(Australian Curriculum, Mathematics,
Foundation). Students need to understand
that rolling the dice (e.g., rolling a 7)
corresponds to moving their counter that
many squares along the board (e.g., 7
squares). This seemingly simple process
exposes students to important ideas in early
number, including the cardinality principle
and one-to-one correspondence.
MOVING FROM COUNTING TO
COUNT-ON: YEAR 1
Dice: A 6-sided dice (labelled 1, 1, 2, 2, 3,
3). Alternatively you can play with a regular
6-sided dice (labelled 1 to 6), however if a
student rolls a 5 or a 6, they miss their turn.
Game-play and student instructions:
Play the game as outlined above. However,
as students move around the board, they
have to engage with and verbalise the
numbers they land on. For example, if a
student is on the number 56 and rolls a 3,
they state out loud ‘57, 58, 59’. It is vital
that students verbalise the numbers as they
move, and do not resort to simply counting
the squares (i.e., ‘1, 2, 3’ in our example for
Foundation).
Mathematical concepts: Represent and
solve simple addition and subtraction
problems using a range of strategies
including counting on, partitioning and
rearranging parts (Australian Curriculum,
Mathematics, Year 1). Encouraging
students to verbalise the numbers as they
move around the board helps transition
students from viewing Snakes and Ladders
as a counting game to a counting-on game.
Ensuring the addends is small (i.e., 1, 2, 3 or
4) means that count-on remains an efficient
strategy regardless of what number
students roll.
Although primarily aimed at Year 1, this
activity is likely to also be appropriate for
older students still consolidating the count-
on strategy.
MOVING ON FROM
COUNTING-ON: YEAR 2 AND 3
Dice: 10-sided (1 to 10) or an 11-sided (0 to
10) dice.
Game-play and student instructions:
Again, as students move around the board,
they have to engage with and verbalise the
numbers they land on. For example, if a
student is on the number 56 and rolls an 8,
they state out loud ‘57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62,
63, 64’.
Again, it is critical that students verbalise
the numbers as they move, and do not
resort to simply counting the squares.
Students will likely find this version of the
game using the 10-sided dice extremely
challenging, and begin making errors,
particularly when they roll larger numbers
(i.e., 5 to 10). This is exactly what you want
to happen as a teacher!
After several minutes, stop the game. Get
students to reflect on their experience.
Some students may have begun to use
other strategies to work out where they
needed to land on before they counted on.
For example, our student on the number 56
who rolled an 8 may have partitioned the 8
into 4 and 4 to work out 56 + 4 = 60 and
60 + 4 = 64, building to the next 10.
Alternatively, the student may have
partitioned the 8 into 4 groups of 2,
and counted by 2’s (58, 60, 62, 64). Or,
the student may have chosen to use a
compensation strategy, such as adding 10
and taking back 2 (56 + 10 = 66; 66 – 2 =
64). Regardless of the specific strategy
chosen, this student then only needs to
move their counter around the board,
stating the numbers and stopping on 64.
Critically, they no longer have to keep track
of the count as they move.
After students have shared their strategies
(and you as a teacher modelled some
additional strategies if necessary), get
students to continue the game.
PRIME NUMBER: VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1. 2017
Encourage students to experiment with
these more efficient mental strategies
to work out where their counter will land
before they move it. Students should
verbalise their various strategies so other
students in their group have an opportunity
to learn from their particular approach.
Mathematical concepts: Solve simple
addition and subtraction problems using
a range of efficient mental and written
strategies, such as commutativity for
addition, building to 10, doubles, 10 facts
and adding 10 (Australian Curriculum,
Mathematics, Year 2).
Recall addition facts for single-digit
numbers and related subtraction facts
to develop increasingly efficient mental
strategies for computation (Australian
Curriculum, Mathematics, Year 3).
Our working memory has limited capacity
to process novel information from
the environment, however can access
extremely large amounts of previously
processed and organised information from
long-term memory (Baddley, 1992).
Specifically, our working memory is limited
to around five chunks of information
that can be processed simultaneously.
Counting-on as an addition strategy
imposes a significant load on working
memory, and an over-reliance on this
strategy as students enter the middle years
of primary school (i.e. Year 3 and above)
may hinder students ability to solve more
complex arithmetic problems.
As a consequence, transitioning away
from counting-on (sometimes referred
to as min counting) and towards retrieval
and decomposition strategies is a critical
aspect of a student’s developing number
sense. However, this transition is a complex
process, requiring considerable practice
with simple addition problems across a
variety of different contexts (Hopkins
& Lawson, 2002). In fact, almost one
in five students in early high school still
PAGE 7
appear to rely predominantly on counting
strategies, rather than direct retrieval, when
confronted with simple addition tasks
(Hopkins, 2009).
!"The Mathematical Association of Victoria
 GET YOUR GAME ON!
SNAKES AND LADDERS REVISITED (CONT.)

Part of the issue with transitioning students

on from ‘count-on’ may be the easy
accessibility of their fingers for keeping
track of the count, and the fact that there
is often no real imperative for students to
adopt a more efficient strategy (e.g., the
numbers they are confronted with are fairly
small).

By including larger addends and making

it very difficult to keep track of the count
(because students need to concentrate
on accurately stating the numbers as they
move around the board), this activity
deliberately overloads a student’s working
memory in order to demonstrate that
count-on is no longer efficient or accurate
once the addends is greater than around
4. This serves as a prompt for students
to begin to explore more efficient
decomposition strategies, and move
students towards direct retrieval.

It is important to note that students should
not engage with this version of the game
until they have mastered counting-on, and
are confident ‘trusting the count’. It is for
this reason that it may be more appropriate
to introduce this version to Year 3 students
(most of whom have likely mastered count
on, at least when the addends is 4 or less),
even though the use of many of these
more efficient strategies is also directly
connected to the Year 2 curriculum.
OTHER POTENTIAL
MODIFICATIONS
There are several other modifications that
could be made to Snakes and Ladders to
explore additional number concepts.
COUNT-BACK: YEAR 1 AND YEAR 2
Dice: A 6-sided dice (labelled 1, 1, 2, 2, 3,
3). Alternatively you can play with a regular
6-sided dice (labelled 1 to 6), however if a
student rolls a 5 or a 6, they miss their turn.
Game-play and student instructions:
Play the game exactly as outlined in the
Count-on Year 1 version. Specifically,
PAGE 8
Figure 2. Students engaged in a game of Snakes and Ladders, with a focus on ‘moving on from
count on’.
The first student to reach zero is the
winner. Note that playing this way means
that snakes are helpful (because you
go down snakes and towards zero), and
ladders unhelpful (you go up ladders and
away from zero).
Mathematical concepts: Represent and
solve simple addition and subtraction
problems using a range of strategies
including counting on, partitioning and
rearranging parts (Australian Curriculum,
Mathematics, Year 1). Although primarily
aimed at Year 1 students, this version
is more challenging than the count-on
version, and is also appropriate for Year 2.
PLACE VALUE CONCEPTS -
NUMBERS TO 1000: YEAR 2
Dice: A 6-sided dice (labelled 10, 10, 20,
20, 30, 30). Alternatively you can play with
a regular 6-sided dice (labelled 1 to 6), with
the number rolled representing a multiple
of 10 (i.e., 1 representing 10; 2 representing
20 etc). If a student rolls a 5 or a 6, they
the Year 1 version involving the count-on
strategy. However, the game-board has
been altered. Rather than containing the
numbers 1 to 100, it has been modified to
contain the numbers 10 to 1000 (i.e., each
number on the board has been increased
by a factor of 10).
Mathematical concepts: Investigate
number sequences, initially those increasing
and decreasing by twos, threes, fives and
tens from any starting point, then moving
to other sequences. Recognise, model,
represent and order numbers to at least
1000 (Australian Curriculum, Mathematics,
Year 2). This version of the game exposes
students to counting by 10’s, reinforcing the
connection between counting by 1’s and
counting by 10’s. It also explores numbers
up to 1000.
SKIP-COUNTING (2’S, 3’S, 5’S AND
10’S): YEAR 2
Dice: 6-sided dice modified for a particular
skip-counting sequence. For example,

students have to verbalise the numbers as miss their turn. students might play with a dice that is
they roll their dice and move around the marked 3, 3, 6, 6, 9, 9 to reinforce counting
board. However, rather than begin at 1, Game-play and student instructions: by threes, or a dice that is marked 5, 5, 10,
start at 100 and count back. This version of the game exactly replicates 10, 15, 15 to reinforce counting by fives.

PRIME NUMBER: VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1. 2017

!"The Mathematical Association of Victoria
Game-play and student instructions: This
is similar to the count-on version of the
game, but instead focuses on a particular
skip-counting sequence. As students roll
the dice and move around the board, they
would be expected to state the relevant
numbers out loud belonging to the specific
skip counting sequence under focus. For
example, if a student is on the 20 square
and rolls a 15, they would state ‘25, 30,
35’. As the 35 square contains a snake,
the student would then need to take the
snake back down to 18. Consequently,
although the game begins with students
skip-counting from zero and following this
pattern in subsequent turns (e.g., 5, 10,
15, 20, 25 etc), once they encounter some
snakes and ladders, they will have to be
able to modify the pattern. In our example,
the student would begin their next turn at
18 and follow this new pattern (i.e., 18, 23,
28, 33 etc.) until they encountered another
snake or ladder.
Mathematical concepts: Investigate
number sequences, initially those increasing
and decreasing by twos, threes, fives and
tens from any starting point, then moving
to other sequences (Australian Curriculum,
Mathematics, Year 2).
ODD AND EVEN NUMBERS:
YEARS 3 AND 4
Dice: 10-sided (1 to 10) or an 11-sided (0
to 10) dice.
Game-play and student instructions:
Play the game as originally outlined. After
students roll the dice, they need to predict
whether they will land on an odd or an even
number. Students can move around the
board as per the basic Foundation version
of the game, although they need to pay
attention to the final number they land on,
and state whether it is odd or even. If their
prediction proves correct, they can move
their counter forward to the next square
containing the foot of a ladder. They can
then take the ladder up. If their prediction
proves incorrect, their counter remains on
the square they landed on.
Mathematical concepts: Investigate the
conditions required for a number to be odd
or even and identify odd and even numbers
(Australian Curriculum, Mathematics,
Year 3). Investigate and use the properties
of odd and even numbers (Australian
Curriculum, Mathematics, Year 4).
Playing this version of the game is
attempting to help students generalise the
principles associated with adding odd and
even numbers (i.e., two odd numbers sum
to an even number; two even numbers sum
to an even number; an even and an odd
number sum to an odd number). Allowing
students to make predictions, and then
test their own predictions, is likely to help
cement this understanding (i.e., rather than
these ‘rules’ simply being dictated to them
by a teacher or another student)
MULTIPLICATION AND MULTI-
DIGIT ADDITION: YEAR 3 AND 4
Dice: One 6-sided dice. To further extend
students, consider playing with a 10-sided
dice.
Game-play and student instructions:
Students roll the 6-sided dice to determine
which particular timestable will be the focus
for the game (if students roll a 1, you may
want them to roll again). Alternatively, the
teacher (or the students) can determine
which times table should be the focus.
Students then take turns rolling the 6-sided
dice and multiplying it by the chosen
times table (students less confident with
multiplication can use skip-counting as a
back-up strategy). Students need to move
their counter this many squares along the
board using an efficient addition strategy.
For example, assume the focus of the game
is the 6 times tables. If a student’s counter
is on the square 52 and they roll a 3, the
student needs to move to the square 70
(because 3×6=18 and 52+18=70). In this
example, the student is particularly lucky
because the 70 square contains a ladder
which will take the student up to the 94
square! So the student has in fact moved 42
places (almost half the board!) in one turn.
Mathematical concepts: Recall addition
facts for single-digit numbers and related
subtraction facts to develop increasingly
efficient mental strategies for computation
PRIME NUMBER: VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1. 2017
(Australian Curriculum, Mathematics, Year
4). Recall multiplication facts up to 10 ×
10 and related division facts (Australian
Curriculum, Mathematics, Year 4).
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS
• Play the count-on or count-back
version of Snakes and Ladders as
described previously. However, replace
counters with plastic coins. When a
student stops on a particular number
at the end of their turn, they need to
place the coin heads side-up if it is an
even number and tails side-up if it is
an odd number. This activity is likely
suitable for Year 1 and Year 2 students
who are informally exploring the
properties of odd and even numbers
(this concept is not actually covered in
the Australian Curriculum until Year 3).
• As students play the count-on version
of the game, they can also be exposed
to more sophisticated addition and
subtraction strategies (e.g., building
to 10; doubles facts) by generating
relevant number sentences every
time they climb up a ladder or slide
down a snake. For example, a student
would need to work out how far they
climbed up the ladder if they began
on the 2 square and finished on the 18
square (e.g., 2 + __ = 18). The student
might reason that: ‘It is 8 more to 10,
and then another 8 more to 18. And I
know that double 8 is 16. So this ladder
helped me move up 16 squares’. This
is a potential useful modification if
playing the Count-on version of the
game with a Year 2 or Year 3 class.
• Depending on how engaged your
class is with the Snakes and Ladders
concept, a further idea is to work as
a class (perhaps as a project across
the term) to design a mega Snakes
and Ladders board containing 1000
squares (1 to 1000). Begin with the
game board grid already designed,
but with no snakes and ladders on the
PAGE 9
board. Each week during the term,
several students could be chosen to
each add a snake and ladder to the
board.
!"The Mathematical Association of Victoria
 GET YOUR GAME ON!
SNAKES AND LADDERS REVISITED (CONT.)

The size of the snake or ladder they

add could be determined by them
rolling a 10-sided 10’s dice (i.e., 10, 20,
30… 100) and a 10-sided 1’s dice (i.e.,
0, 1, 2… 9), and adding them together.
For example, if they rolled a 50, and a
7, they would need to create a snake
or ladder for the board that covered
57 squares. During the final week of
term, teams of students could take
turns playing a ‘mega-game’ of Snakes
and Ladders, playing whichever
modification of the game was deemed
most appropriate for that particular
cohort of students.

CONCLUSION
One of the authors of this paper once
overheard a pre-service teacher who,
during their first ever tutorial, stated
dismissively to another student: ‘Snakes
and Ladders. How come I’ve come to uni
to play little kids’ board games? I thought I Figure 3. A group of pre-service teachers discussing potential modifications for Snakes and
was here to learn to teach mathematics’. Ladders.

Hopefully this paper has helped to REFERENCES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

demonstrate that playing simple board
games can in fact have tremendous
educational value in primary mathematics
classrooms. The key to realising this value
is to think carefully about the mathematical
concept you are trying to teach and modify
the game accordingly. As long as the
activity remains engaging for students,
exposing students to a well-known game
which is played regularly also has the
benefit of promoting efficient learning, as
students are already familiar with the basic
mechanisms of the game.
We hope you find some of the
modifications discussed in this article useful
in your own classrooms; and, if you have
any modifications of your own you wish to
share, the authors of the article would love
to hear about them!
Australian Curriculum Assessment and These suggested modifications largely
Reporting Authority (ACARA), (2015). The arose out of a wonderfully productive
Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. discussion with a fantastic group of
pre-service teachers including: Simona
Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Ceranic, Katrina Coldwell, Rebecca Dew,
Science, 255(5044), 556-559. Timothy Dipple, Elena Fanaritis, Rebecca
Hopkins, S. (2009). The prevalence of Year 7 Fleming, Aaron Goldie, Minh Duc Ha,
students who have not developed a reliance on Molly Hickerman, Natasha Janzerli, Hayley
retrieval strategies for simple addition. Paper Jones, Claire Keyworth, Sarah Klarenbeek,
presented at the 22nd Biennial Conference Quinn-Ee Lai, Sophie Membrey, Amy
Moody, Tyler Neil, Charlotte O’Malley,
of the Australian Association of Mathematics
Naomi Ollington, Christina Pelendage-
Teachers Inc., Fremantle, WA.
Perera, Jessica Ross and Tamara Todorovic.
Hopkins, S. L., & Lawson, M. J. (2002).
Explaining the acquisition of a complex
skill: Methodological and theoretical
considerations uncovered in the study of
simple addition and the moving-on process.
Educational Psychology Review, 14(2), 121-154.

Russo, J. (2015). Get your game on: Three in

a row. Prime Number, 30(4), 16-18.
PAGE 10

Sweller, J. (2010). Element Interactivity and

Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane Cognitive
Load. Educational Psychology Review, 22(2),
123-138. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10648-
010-9128-5
PRIME NUMBER: VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1. 2017
!"The Mathematical Association of Victoria
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