Set up

1. See the link below and print out the roll-a-face printable board.
2. Using your markers draw all the facial feature option on your A4 paper. Bear in mind that the eyes, nose, and mouth parts will need to be smaller than the face shape and hair so that they can be glued on to the face during the game.
3. Now photocopy your drawn facial features a few times (how many times will depend on the amount of players) and cut up all the individual pieces. This is a little time consuming so do allow yourself some time to prep this activity before implementing it.
4. Now label your 6 containers by facial feature (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth, face shape, ears and hair) and sort your pieces into the correlating container.
5. Grab yourself a dice, some spare paper and some glue and your ready to get your silly faces on!

How to play:

1. Use the dice to roll a number.
2. Count the number of dots and then find the correlating number on the roll-a-face board. Find where it says “1st turn” and run your finger horizontally along until you find the face shape that matches the number you rolled. For example, if you rolled a number 3 you will have the triangle face shape.
3. Find the triangle face shape from the face collage container and glue it to your page.
4. Now it’s the next players turn to follow the above steps.
5. Once every player has completed their first turn, repeat the above steps but follow the “2^nd turn” line to find what eyes you will need on your face shape.
6. Continue circulating through the above steps until all players have had 6 turns each in total.
7. Now compare your silly faces!

This activity provides so many learning attributes; use this game to introduce and engage with numbers, counting, shape recognition and talk about feelings and emotions. The number and shape element are obvious, you are able to label and role model these skills, but the emotional development side of things may not be as clear for some. I would encourage you, to draw your child’s attention to notice the eyes or the mouth pieces as you play. Ask them how the character might be feeling, for example- “oh look at that mouth, how do you think he is feeling? Why might they be feeling that way? Have you ever felt that way? why?  

Learning to understand feelings and read emotions and body language is a crucial skill for life. Having the ability to express and regulate your own emotions, as well as read those of others supports social development and thus friendships and relationships in life.  

Variation ideas:

• As mentioned earlier, this game is originally a drawing game. The game is played the same way but instead of finding and gluing the collage piece to your page you draw the item instead. Great idea for older children!
• There are a number of different themes that can be used for this game- perhaps it could be different parts of monsters or mix and match animals- the options are endless! For some other extension ideas and printables please click here.