It’s really fun to play snakes and ladders, especially when the children are learning math at the same time. Dalilatus Sholihah, S.Pd., a teacher at Islamic elementary school MI Darussalam in Candi district, Sidoarjo regency, East Java, has created this learning medium to make her students more interested and excited about learning mathematics. She calls this math game of snakes and ladders “Ultrasi” (Ular tangga numerasi), which is short for “Numeracy Snakes and Ladders”.

This snakes and ladders game, which contains 100 numeracy questions is very appealing to her grade one students.

Ultrasi is very easy to use, and this type of learning (playing Ultrasi) makes students reluctant to stop.

The board game can be played in pairs, where each student takes turns rolling the dice and moving the board piece according to the number rolled. Every time they stop at a square on the board that matches the number of the dice, the student gets a question. If the child cannot answer the question, he or she cannot move their playing piece forward until their next roll, which they must answer correctly in order to continue moving forward.

Students are happy when they’re playing this Ultrasi. While they’re playing, they also feel challenged by the questions they get every time they move forward on the board.

Dalilatus prepares the question in advance, making sure that they are suited to the theme of the lesson being taught. By doing this, the questions can easily be tailored according to her needs.