STEM Activities for Kids: Unicorn Magic {a screen-free early coding game}

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I have a beautiful and smart 4-year old who's favorite things in the world include fairies, unicorns, rainbows, and princesses. Does this sound like anyone you know? If so, you will probably love this {screen-free} Unicorn Magic early coding game! It's free too--you just need to print it and cut out the pieces!!


I love how much kids learn from board games! I was inspired to make this game after talking to Sarah at Little Bins for Little Hands about a similar coding game she plays with her son. 

This game is a lot more girl-y! (Remember my little princess!) Aaaaand, (even though I made it to impress my daughter) all my kids all love imaginative play and my boys have jumped in and had a great time with this too! It teaches logic skills, early coding concepts of sequence and series, a concept of 1-to-1 association, and all the social skills that every board game includes like taking turns and direction of play.



The game itself could be considered a STEM game because it integrates planning, problem solving, and math:

SCIENCE: problem solving, creating a plan and testing it
TECHNOLOGY: making the unicorn playing pieces stand up with the cardstock stand
ENGINEERING: designing a path to get your unicorn from the starting square of your choice to the gems in the order you set up
MATH: 1-to-1 correlation, associating the design path on the rainbow cards with a physical path the rainbow follows on the game board (this is also a logic activity AND an early coding skill--as a "pre-coding" skill it could also be considered technology).

It would work great as a family activity or a station center or reward in a classroom!



How to Play Unicorn Magic {A STEM Game}:

Each player in the game chooses a unicorn to represent him/her on the board. You can decorate, accessorize, and name your unicorns!

You goal in the game is to collect one gold gem and one silver gem so your unicorn can have Ultimate Unicorn Magic and protect everyone in Unicorn Land. You collect a gem by landing on its space and continue to play until everyone wins with Ultimate Unicorn Magic!!



To get to the gems, you use the rainbow cards to build a path of instructions to get your unicorn to each gem. Once you collect one gem, start a new path from that gem to get to the other one.

Shuffle the cards and deal all players two cards. Start with the youngest player. On your turn, draw another Rainbow Card. You can "play" one Rainbow Card on each turn face up in front of you. If you don't have any cards you want to play, pass to the next player. If you do have a card you want to use, play it on the table and move your unicorn according to the directions. For example, if you
start in the top left box, you may play one right arrow Rainbow Card on one turn, another right arrow Rainbow card on your next turn, and a down arrow Rainbow Card on your 3rd turn. Then you would collect the gold gem and head towards the silver gem. There are more than one ways to build a path!

As each player wins, review the path their cards show to get from the rainbow square to the gems!



Click HERE to download a {FREE} copy of Unicorn Magic, a STEM Game!

I hope your girls (and any other unicorn-loving kiddos!!) have a great time playing Unicorn Magic! We usually end up playing a huge imaginary unicorn game after each round of it...all the characters finish with Ultimate Unicorn Magic, you know!  ;D

I would also love to see pictures of you playing this game! Feel free to send me an email or share on Facebook or Instagram and tag me (I'm Preschool Powol Packets on Facebook and Carla.Mae.Jansen on Instagram)!!

Did you know I have a BIG collection of STEM activities for kids that are appropriate for preschoolers as well?!  Check it out HERE!



And did you know that February is the 28 Days of STEAM at Left Brain Craft Brain?! Every day this month there will be science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics activities shared HERE! Be sure to pop over and check it out!
Happy Educating,
Carla




Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!


I may share at any of these parties!




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Comments

Unknown said…
I love this printable, but may I ask why it has a huge black border all the way around it? There's no way I can print it without using a ton of ink. :(
July 9, 2017 at 1:28 AM
Carla at Preschool Powol Packets said…
The black border is there for two reasons: 1- it creates continuity between the two pages of the board game and 2- I like how it looks. :)
September 8, 2017 at 1:01 PM
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