Making a Giant Board Game (with Montessori Pink Reading)

Quick post as we're treading water here. Potty training going swimmingly, children sick again, and endless cold weather. Not really cold weather, but that taunting weather... where it's just cold enough that you have to wear a jacket, and I have to persuade my daughter to wear her trousers, even though she's suddenly decided that all of them have become uncomfortable, and it's really still too cold for sandals, but I've put them into them anyway because their shoes are worn out and I am not buying winter shoes in May!

Anyway, the winter's given me plenty of time to expand upon our repertoire of indoor activities.  My son adores board games, and a couple of months ago, I had this moment of inspiration: I could build him a giant boardgame using our foam floor tiles (you've probably at least seen these around in alphabet form). 


I'd also been trying to find ways of getting my son to use his newfound (and very limited!) reading skills without repeating what he does at school. So my next idea was to make cards for each tile, so when you land on them, you have to do what the card says.  And when I say 'cards,' I mean 'pieces of paper with handwritten text' because I know that the more effort you go to, the less your children will appreciate it.

My son loved the result.

I built the above layout around our playtent.  If you land on the tile in front of the tent door, the card says 'zip' so you unzip (no nitpicking!) the tent, go through and come out of the side entrance, further down the board. 

There are several other props scattered around the board, next to the relevant card.  My son places the cards, and then I put the props down.

We move around the board by throwing a die.  Because we only have twenty-six tiles, it doesn't take long to finish a game, so we normally play it two or three times in a row, which gives us more chances to land on any one card.  Most cards are just a straightforward action, though a few move you forward. One has you miss a turn, but I haven't had the nerve to put in one that sends you back!

My son is on the 'pink reading' at his Montessori school, which means he can (if he concentrates) sound out three letter words with phonetic spellings. At school, he mostly does concrete nouns, so for our cards, I spent a day or two brainstorming three letter verbs, with a few other words thrown in. 

I can see us continually updating this game as the children get older, making it more elaborate.  God knows what it will involve by the time they're in college.

This is the list of cards that we currently use, with italics explaining where necessary. Not all of them are strictly phonetic, but my son has them all figured out by this point. There are less than twenty-six for the simple reason that I ran out of ideas.  Further contributions will be gratefully accepted!

Cut - scissors and paper provided
Dip and dab - Dip sponge in dish of water and dab on paper towel provided.
Dig mime digging (I am still trying to figure out a tidy method of indoor digging!)
Fan - fan provided
Go to red - go forward to the next red tile.
Hit triangle / cymbal / drum
Hop 2 - hop forward two spaces
Hug your fellow player
Hum
Jig 
Jog 2 - jog forward two spaces
Mad - make an angry face
Nap - miss a turn
Nod your head
Pat a cat - toy cat provided
Put on a hat - hats provided
Rub your hands
Run 3 - run forward three spaces
Sad - make a sad face
Sip water provided
Sit
Tap a tambourine
Zip purse or go through the tent

And on the final tile:
Win