Make your very own Mancala game board from materials in your home!
(Click photo to see more clearly)
STEP 1: Learn how to make Mancala
1. Separate an egg carton into a top and bottom. Recycle the top and keep the bottom.
2. Find two recyclable containers (like a plastic cup) to use as containers at the end of the Mancala board.
3. You can use dried beans, corn, or any other small item (e.g. marbles) as your pieces. You’ll need 36 pieces total — place three in each hole of the egg carton.
4. Your game is ready to play!
STEP 2: How to Play Mancala
(from Chop Chop Magazine)
The goal of Mancala is to get as many beans as you can for yourself. The player with the most beans at the end of the game wins.
1. You and the person you are playing against will sit across from each other. The six holes that are closest to you, belong to you, and the six holes on the opposite side are your opponent’s holes. The small cups are each player’s Mancala — one for each player.
2. The player that starts will take the beans out of one of their holes and puts one bean in each hole. You move around the board counterclockwise, putting one bean in each hole, until you run out of your beans. You should place a bean in your own Mancala cup as you go, but not in your opponent’s Mancala cup.
3. If your last bean lands in your Mancala cup, you get another turn. If not, it is your opponent’s turn. However, if your last bean lands in one of your holes that is empty, and the hole opposite contains beans, you get to take your opponent’s beans from that hole and place them and your last bean in your Mancala cup. Then it is then your opponent’s turn.
4. The game is over when one player is out of beans, or when a player’s Mancala cup holds more than half the beans in the game.