How to Make a Homemade Pente Game

The game of Pente is a fun two player game and what’s great is that you can make your own Pente game using stuff that you already have in your house! This is a great craft and game to keep you busy during this quarantine time.

First, if you’re not familiar with Pente, check out our Pente review with the rules of how to play.

Now for the craft part

Things you will need:

Paper measuring 11×11″ (the inside of a frozen pizza box works great), ruler, marker, pencil, about 40 1/2″ items that stay still in two different colours (beans, pasta, craft beads, rocks).

11 x 11" paper, ruler, marker and pencil with some markers are what you need
You need only simple, everyday items to make this game.

How to Make the Board

Step One: Measure a 1″ border around all the sides of the paper.

Step Two: Starting from the 1″ boarder, measure and mark with the pencil every 1/2″. Move up about 3″ and repeat the markings. Do this twice more–ensuring that your lines will be straight.

Measure and draw a grid
Measure and draw a grid

Step Three: Turn the board and repeat step 2.

Step Four: Using the marker, line up the pencil marks to draw the grid lines. Do this for both vertical and horizontal lines.

Step Five: Mark the center of the grid with a small dot. This is the starting lace for the game.

Mark the center intersection with a dot to mark the start
Mark the middle intersection as the starting spot

Now if you have markers, you’re ready to start using your Homemade Pente board. If you need makers, keep reading to see how I turned pipe cleaners into easy markers.

Pipecleaner Markers

For the playing pieces, I made some using pipe cleaners or chenille sticks, as they are now often called. For this part of the craft, you need 4 chenille sticks in two different colours for a total of 8 sticks, scissors or wire cutters, and a ruler.

How to

Step one: Using the ruler, cut the sticks into 1″ pieces.

Cut pipe cleaners into 1" pieces and curl them tightly
Curl 1″ pieces tightly to make the markers

Step two: Tightly curl the 1″ pieces into circles using your fingers.

two different coloured pipe cleaners curled make the game pieces
Two different colours of pipe cleaners and you’re ready to play

If you create your own markers with pipe cleaners or find some other markers in your house, you can now add your homemade Pente board game to your Family Game Shelf and play for hours.

Remember to check out the rules. If the game interests you but you want a professional game, check out Amazon.

If you’re looking for more fun things to do, check out our game reviews, card games and dice games.

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