Teaching Children Numbers and Patience with Snakes and Ladders
A parent and teacher friendly guide to using Snakes and Ladders for counting, number recognition, simple addition and emotional resilience, with activities for different ages.
Ask a teacher of young children to name a game that helps with numbers, and Snakes and Ladders will usually come up within seconds. It is cheap, familiar, quick to learn, and full of small learning moments. But there is a difference between simply playing the game and using it deliberately. With a little intention, a few rounds can build counting fluency, number sense and even a bit of emotional maturity.
This guide is written for parents, grandparents and teachers who want to get the most out of the game, whether on a printed board or the 3D version in your browser.
Why the board is a great number line
A Snakes and Ladders board is essentially a number line from 1 to 100, folded into rows. That structure is powerful for learning:
- Numbers increase in a predictable path, which reinforces counting order.
- Every row of ten makes the base-ten structure visible. Children can see that 30 is three full rows.
- The zig-zag path forces children to read numbers carefully rather than just following left to right.
Many children can count to twenty or thirty out loud before they really understand larger numbers. Moving a token along the board makes those numbers physical. "We are on 47" becomes a real place, close to 50 and far from 100.
Activity one: recognise the dice
For the youngest players, start with dice recognition. Instead of counting dots one by one, encourage children to recognise patterns. Two dots on a diagonal is a two. Five is the four corners plus the middle.
Recognising small quantities at a glance is called subitising, and it is an important foundation for arithmetic. Children who can subitise quickly have more mental energy left for the next step, which is counting forward on the board.
A fun variation is to ask the child to call out the number before touching the token. After a few games, most children stop counting dots altogether.
Activity two: count on, not from one
A common habit in young children is counting the starting square as "one". If they are on square 12 and roll a three, they touch 12, 13, 14 and land on 14 instead of 15. Gently correct this by teaching them to count the jumps, not the squares: "Hop, hop, hop: 13, 14, 15."
This idea, counting on from a number, is a crucial step towards addition. Once children can do it reliably, you can ask, "You are on 12 and rolled three. Where will you land?" before they move. That turns each turn into a little addition problem.
Activity three: predict the ladder
Once children are comfortable counting on, introduce prediction. Point to a nearby ladder and ask, "What number do you need to climb that ladder?" If they are on 5 and the ladder starts on 9, the answer is four.
This is subtraction disguised as a treasure hunt. Children are motivated because they genuinely want the ladder, and they quickly learn to look ahead on the board.
You can do the same with snakes: "What number would make you land on the snake? Let us hope you do not roll that!"
Activity four: tens and ones
For children starting to learn place value, the board's rows are ideal. Ask questions like:
- "Which row is 43 in?" (The fifth row, because it has four full tens before it.)
- "How many more to get to 50?"
- "What number is directly above 23?" On many boards it is not 33 because of the zig-zag, which leads to interesting discussions.
Activity five: keeping score of turns
Older children can track how many turns each player takes to finish, then compare results across games. Who took the fewest turns? What was the average? This connects to data handling and introduces the idea that chance produces different results each time.
The emotional lesson of the snake
Snakes and Ladders has a famous emotional moment: sliding down a snake when you were nearly at the top. For a small child, this can feel unfair and upsetting.
This is a valuable experience in a safe setting. Children learn that setbacks happen, that they are not personal, and that the game continues. Adults can help by:
- Naming the feeling: "That is frustrating, isn't it? You were so close."
- Showing perspective: "Remember last game when you climbed the big ladder?"
- Modelling good behaviour when it happens to them, with a playful groan rather than real annoyance.
Over time, many children start to laugh at the big snake rather than cry. That shift is a small but real step in emotional resilience.
Patience and turn-taking
Because the game has no decisions, the waiting periods are short and predictable. That makes it ideal for practising turn-taking. Encourage children to watch other players' moves and count along with them. Their attention stays on the game, and they practise counting even when it is not their turn.
Using the online version with children
Playing online has a few advantages for learning:
- Pawns move square by square with a small hop, which helps children follow the counting.
- The die result is clear and consistent.
- Ladders and snakes animate, which makes their effect obvious.
You can play together on one device against computer opponents, or invite a relative to join from another city using a private link. For very young children, sit beside them and count each hop out loud together.
A short session plan
If you are a teacher or tutor, here is a simple twenty-minute plan:
- Five minutes of dice recognition with a real or virtual die.
- One game where children say their landing square before moving.
- A short discussion: which ladder was the best and why?
- A final game where children predict the number needed for the nearest ladder each turn.
By the end, children have practised counting, addition, subtraction and prediction, and most of them will think they have just been playing.
The bigger picture
The best learning games are the ones children ask to play again. Snakes and Ladders earns that request easily. With a little gentle guidance, each game can quietly strengthen number skills and the patience to cope when luck does not go their way. Few lessons are so cheerful.
Ready to put this into practice?Play Snake & Ladder free