Candy Land

1 Game Overview

Candy Land is one of the most iconic children's board games ever made. Originally designed to entertain children in polio wards, it requires no reading and no counting - just color matching. Draw a card, move to the matching color, and race to the Candy Castle.

Perfect for ages 3-5. Simple, colorful, and great for teaching turn-taking.

2 What You Need

• 1 game board (winding path through the Candy Kingdom)
• 4 gingerbread person pawns
• 1 deck of color cards

3 Setup

1. Unfold the board. Place all pawns on "Start."
2. Shuffle the card deck and place it face-down.
3. The youngest player goes first.

4 How to Play

1. On your turn, draw the top card from the deck.
2. Move your pawn forward to the nearest space of the matching color. If the card shows two colored squares, move to the second matching color space ahead.
3. Special character cards (Gramma Nutt, Lord Licorice, etc.) move you directly to a specific picture space - which may be forward OR backward.
4. If you land on a space with an arrow, follow it to where it points.
5. Return your card to the bottom of the deck. The next player draws.

5 Winning

The first player to reach or pass the Candy Castle at the end of the path wins! You don't need an exact color to finish - any card that moves you to or past the castle counts.

6 Tips

• There's no strategy - Candy Land is 100% luck. That's the point for this age group.
• Teach concepts: Colors, taking turns, good sportsmanship with wins and losses. That's what this game is really for.
• Speed it up: With young kids, you can remove the "backward" character cards to keep the game moving forward and frustration-free.