WW2 rationing
Rationing game board
Subject: / History
Age group: / 8 – 11, 12 - 14
Topic: / World War II

Learner instructions

  • This is a game for 3 or 4 players. One of the players is the shopkeeper, the other two or three are shoppers.
  • Decide how long the game is going to last – e.g. 15 minutes.
  • Each shopper needs a ration card.
  • Each shopper needs a token to move around the board and enough counters to cover up the foods on their ration card.
  • Each shopper places his or her token on ‘Start’.
  • The first shopper rolls the dice. They move the number of spaces on the dice. They can choose to move in either direction around the board (clockwise or anticlockwise). They must then ask the shopkeeper if they can buy the type of food in the square they land on: e.g. ‘Please can I have 25g tea?’
  • The shopkeeper then looks at their ration card to see if they have used their ration for that food. If they still have a square that says 25g tea the shopkeeper says ‘Yes, you can’ and they cover one tea square with a counter. If not, the shopkeeper says ‘No, sorry, you’ve had your tea ration’, and the play moves on to the next shopper.
  • The winner is the shopper who has filled the most squares on their ration card at the end of the agreed time.

Start /
25g bacon /
1 pint of milk /
20g jam /
25g cheese /
30g sweets /
carrots /
potatoes

potatoes / The Rationing Game
/
apples

apples /
10g butter

25g cheese /
25g bacon

20g jam /
30g sweets

25g cheese /
1 pint of milk

25g tea /
25g bacon

1 pint of milk /
25g cheese

apples /
carrots

10g butter /
20g jam /
30g sweets /
1 egg /
25g tea /
10g butter /
potatoes /
10g butter

Tokens to move around the board

Counters to place on ration card

Image attributions

Apples: public domain via pixabay.

Bacon: By Made20rder555 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Butter: public domain via pixabay.

Carrots: By NY -

Cheese: domain via pixabay.

Eggs: By Evan-Amos (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Jam: public domain via Pixabay.

Milk: at English Wikipedia [GFDL ( or CC BY-SA 3.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons

Potatoes:

Ration book: By The National Archives UK (Your Ration Book Uploaded by oaktree_b) [No restrictions or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sweets: Round sweets of red and yellow color by Michael Stern

Tea: By Factorylad (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.