Snow Day Fun - Indoor Carnival!

Being stuck inside on a snow day is no excuse for boredom! I decided to transform my whole house into an indoor carnival when my two kids were home from school on a very cold snow day. Each room had a couple different games in it and I acted as their ring master to guide them from game to game. As my kids watched tv, I set it all up and had it ready to play, but then my kids had a fun time coming up with their own games! My daughter even set up a prize stand in her room, assigning points to each item so it was a great bit of math practice when it was time to cash in our prizes!

Here are a few of the games I came up with:

I used Washable Crayola markers to draw a huge target on our living room windows and had the kids shoot their dart guns at it.

We bounced plastic buttons into a display of plastic trays... from the Dollar Spot at Target! Score!

Just timing each other while we did a simple puzzle was really fun.

Here's my favorite one: a water shooting gallery!! I drew several circles across the back of my bathtub using Washable Crayola markers. Then the kids stood next to the tub and shot at the dots with water guns! The only thing to get wet was my bathtub, and as they kept shooting, the colored dots disappeared! We actually re-did this game a few times because it was such a big hit!

Here's a giant ring toss consisting of a hula hoop and a skinny little shelf I had in our family room.  You just need something sturdy enough that it won't fall over when the ring hits it! Even a person sitting down will work - we did it that way too. ;O)

We tossed a small basketball into a large basket in our hallway...

... and I set up a bean bag toss using a few bowls from our kitchen. Check out a Valentine's Day version I made HERE that shows how to make homemade bean bags!


We did have a few other simple games, and then my kids' games they made up got a little silly, but it was definitely a fun and different way to spend some time at home on a snow day! Plus we got prizes! Have fun!

Valentine's Day Party Bean Bag Toss

My daughter (5) requested a bean bag toss for her class Valentine's Day party at school this year. I make bean bag toss games for many holidays and parties so it was easy to make one in just a short time.

Here's what you'll need:

cardboard box
old steak knife or cutting tool
paint
half a yard of fabric total in different patterns as desired
plastic sandwich baggies
dry beans
sewing machine/needle and thread

Start with a cardboard box in the size you wish your bean bag toss game to be.  Trim off all the flaps so you're left with a solid base to cut on.  Draw your design on the box, including holes for the kids to toss bean bags through.  I made the word "LOVE" with the "O" being a toss hole, and a couple hearts for Valentine's Day.  Now carefully cut out your design using your steak knife or other cutting tool. A simple steak knife works so well for me and I have so much control when cutting out shapes like hearts!

Now you're ready to decorate your box. I painted mine with Crayola washable paints, which dry really quickly.  You can also use construction paper or markers if you're in a time crunch.  But really, the paint goes on fast and dries so quickly!

As that dries, start making your bean bags. Cut your fabric into 5 inch squares - you'll need two squares for each bean bag.  I made a total of six bean bags in three different patterns.  I found really cute, inexpensive fabric at Wal-mart for this project.

For the inside of our beanbags, I bought a bag of dry beans from the grocery store. Molly helped me fill six sandwich bags with about 3/4 cup of the beans in each and seal them up.  Fold each bag in half, then in half again so it's the right size.

Place two squares together, with the fabric design facing each other.  Sew around three complete edges, and part of another edge. Leave that hole open so you can turn it right-side-out. Then put the plastic baggie filled with beans inside your semi-sewn bean bag.

 

Finally, fold the open edges in a little and sew it closed. That way you won't have any rough edges poking out. You can also sew this part by hand.  Be careful not to sew the plastic bag inside so you don't mess up your sewing needle.  I have a set of bean bags I made this way from five years ago and they're still perfect, so these will stand up to lots of play and last for years to come!

Valentine's Party Game Ideas

The first month and a half of 2013 has flown by and Valentine's Day is tomorrow!! I am in charge of the games at my daughter's kindergarten class party tomorrow so I thought I should hurry and share my ideas before it's too late! I have researched and come up with three different game stations for tomorrow. These games are really simple so you should have no problem throwing them together at the last minute.

First is a game I've planned is called "Matchmaker."  I have made large paper hearts, using different paper and colors for each one.  Have fun with the layers to make it tricky and be sure to add a heart-shaped piece of white paper to the back of each one to make it tricky! Once those are dry (I just used a glue stick so it went pretty quickly), cut each heart in half. You can do a straight line or a zig-zag line, or use special scissors with a zig-zag shape to them like I did and end up with a straight zig-zag line.  You get the picture. I made eight halves, so this is for eight kids - make as many hearts as you need for your group.

Here's how to play: have all the kids stand in a circle with their eyes closed. Keep all your heart halves in a bag and take it around so each student can pull one out without looking! Once everyone has their piece, tell them to open their eyes and find their match - the student who's holding the other half of their heart! Whichever couple pairs up the fastest wins. This will go quickly, so you may want to play a few rounds or use this as a fun way to pair up students for a second game, like my next one:

Here is a racing game I've named "I LAVA You!" All you need is four big hearts total for the kids to step on. You can use large 12" x 12" sheets of red card stock like I did, or even just cut them out from paper plates. You know I love paper plates.

Here's how you play: Line the kids up so they will race two at a time and give each racer two large hearts. Use tape to mark off a starting line and a finish line on the floor. When the race starts, kids must only step on their hearts to get to the finish line. Have them stand on one heart as they place the second one in front of them, then step to that one and move the previous heart in front. Keep going until they reach the end, careful not to touch the floor with their hands or feet. Pretend the floor is hot lava - hence the cute name!

Frosty's Musical Snowflakes Party Game

Here is a fun game to play at holiday parties this year, or just as some fun indoor exercise during the cold winter months! I collected some ideas from different games I found online to come up with a new version of musical chairs: "Frosty's Musical Snowflakes!"

Start with several white paper plates. You'll need enough for each kid to have one. I decorated mine with the same snowflake design on each, drawn on with a permanent marker.

On the back of just ONE plate, draw a red circle to be the  "Hot Spot!" Be sure you can't see it through the plate from the front.
 

Now scatter all the plates around the floor, completely randomly without knowing where the "Hot Spot" is.  Have the kids pretend to be snowmen and dance around among the plates while you play some music; preferably "Frosty the Snowman!" I like the version by Gene Autry.

When you stop the music, have the kids jump to the nearest snowflake. Once everyone is standing still, tell them to look under their paper plate to see who is standing on the "Hot Spot." Whoever landed on it has to MELT and is out of the game.

Gather all the plates from the floor and take away one regular plate from the mix. Have the kids close their eyes as you once again scatter the snowflakes on the floor, not knowing where the "Hot Spot" ends up. Then everyone opens their eyes and the game continues for another round, minus one player. Play continues until only one person is left standing!

We played several fun rounds with just my daughter (5) and I, with several snowflakes out and it turned into a fun game of chance to see if one of us landed on the "Hot Spot."  Even my 2 year old can play this one!

I would recommend making a few extra plain snowflake plates as well as an extra "Hot Spot" plate just in case any of them get torn or bent. If the "Hot Spot" gets scuffed or bent, for example, kids will know which one it is and try to avoid it. ;O)

For another fun holiday party idea, check out the Wrapping Paper Game from a blog I wrote last year! I plan to use this game at Molly's class party as well, with a package of pencils so all the kids will get one.

Halloween and Fall Busy Bag Ideas

I decided to update a few items in my Busy Bag collection and wanted to add some seasonal activities for my kids! Now I have my bags separated in sets of five to be rotated out every couple weeks so there's always something new for them to play with. Here's what I've come up with so far for their Halloween and Fall Busy Bags!

Lately I've seen some really cute number games on Pinterest with a gingerbread man or a Santa theme. I decided to make a version for a Halloween/Fall Busy Bag! I used paper plates and drew a pumpkin on one and an apple on the other just to make it easy and sturdy. Then I filled the apple with smaller numbers, from 1 through 6: the numbers on one die. I filled the pumpkin with numbers you can get from rolling two dice: 2 through 12.

The object of the game is to cover all the numbers by rolling the dice and placing an object on the number as it is rolled. Use one die for the apple, and two for the pumpkin. You can cover the numbers with anything you want. I put a sandwich bag of craft pom poms in mine, but later thought some cut out shapes of pumpkin and apples SEEDS would be cute!  You can play by yourself for quiet time or as a game with two or more. Molly (5) and I played by taking turns. I love that she gets practice reading the numbers while we're having fun!

Another Halloween idea I came up with for our Busy Bag collection is a set of Felt Jack-O-Lanterns! I simply cut out a pumpkin shape and several face shapes (triangles, almonds, crescents, etc) that my kids can stick on and make different expressions with.  My personal favorite is the pirate eye patch! hehe I also cut out a few different shapes for stems and leaves. This is a great activity for my son, Ben (2), because he has been talking about emotions lately! "Ben is happy!" .. and at bedtime "Ben is sad."  Now we can practice making a happy face, mad face, scared face, and more.

Finally, I put together a counting activity with Halloween "candy!" I cut out several pieces of candy from colorful card stock in six different colors. As usual, I used my Cricut electronic cutting machine. You could totally use real pieces of candy though, like individually wrapped hard candies or candy corn for this project! I made several cards to go along with this project, including ones with a number on them to count out the shapes and many different pattern cards. I also included a few simple math equations (1+2=3) and a couple charts for counting out the totals. I allowed for charting by color and shape and also a separate sheet for charting both (not pictured... it's on the back of one of those bottom cards).

Fun Game to Practice Sight Words

My little kindergartner has homework every night! It's easy enough and the perfect amount for her, so I'm definitely not complaining! In fact, her homework time has turned into special bonding time for us each day! She'll sit at the kitchen table working while I sit with her and do my own work (paying bills, making grocery lists, planning activities, etc). She also loves to play school while we do it so I get to be her teacher! Oh, how I love this because I played school ALL-THE-TIME when I was little.

We have working time, coloring time, reading time, recess, and today I found a way to incorporate P.E. into our homework studies! She has a list of sight words to practice each week (the, in, is...) Today I wrote them each on a paper plate. Then we took them into the living room to start our gym class:

Spread the paper plates out on the floor. As you set each one down, be sure to show them to your child and use the word so they know what it is. Once all the plates are down, call out a sight word and have them stand on it as fast as they can when they find the correct one. They can run to it or jump on it or dance around them. Your child will never know they're learning at the same time! Keep calling out the words so your child can find them quickly and stand on them.

Here are some more variations:

* Use the sight word in a sentence instead of just saying it and have your child hurry to stand on that word.
* Just say the word, but then have your child use it in a sentence once they stand on it.
* Play music like musical chairs and when it stops have your child stand on the nearest word and read it aloud.
* Use the paper plates like giant flash cards.

Spongebob Squarepants Bean Bag Toss Game

For my birthday this year (back in May) my daughter told my mom that I would like a Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake. Well, she was right! In fact, I decided to make my whole birthday dinner into a Spongebob affair and we created our own Spongebob Squarepants Bean Bag Toss Game! I usually make a bean bag toss each October for Molly's Annual Halloween Party, too. Here's how we made one for Spongebob:


We started with an empty cardboard box and I used an old steak knife to cut out a large mouth-shaped hole. Then we painted the whole box to look like Spongebob using tempera paint. This was a fun part of the project for Molly (5) to help with! I added details with black permanent markers.

While that was drying, we got to work on the bean bags. I cut several 5" squares from yellow fabric. You can use a single yellow fat quarter from Wal-Mart for this and it costs maybe $1.25! I searched for "Spongebob faces" images on www.dogpile.com and found exactly what I was looking for here! Using these Spongebob pictures as a guide, I used colored permanent markers to make a different face on each of six yellow squares.

For the inside of our beanbags, I bought a couple bags of dry beans from the grocery store. Molly (5) helped me fill six sandwich bags with about 3/4 cup of the beans in each and seal them up.  Fold each bag in half, then in half again so it's the right size. I  used blue painters tape to hold the folded edge down (just because it was the closest tape at the time...any kind will do!).

Molly also helped me sew the beanbags on my sewing machine! Place two yellow squares together: one plain and one with a face on it. Be sure the face is upside down!

Sew around three complete edges, and part of another edge. Leave that hole open so you can turn it right-side-out. Then put the plastic baggie filled with beans inside your semi-sewn bean bag. Finally, fold the open edges in a little and sew it closed. That way you won't have any rough edges poking out. You can also sew this part by hand.  Be careful not to sew the plastic bag inside so you don't mess up your sewing needle. I love the facial expression in the one below - Spongebob looks pretty nervous to have that needle so close to his head! lol

The kids enjoyed playing our Spongebob Squarepants Bean Bag Toss game at my impromptu birthday party last month... and it's still in our living room being played with today so it's held up great! Mostly though, I loved making it with my little girl!

Polka Dot Tag!

We had some beautiful weather and spent some quality time playing outside with one of my favorite things: sidewalk chalk! After working on a few pictures with my daughter (5) and son (2), I started drawing some big circles all over the driveway with the intention of having my kids hop from one circle to the next like pretend lily pads.

Then we all started a game of tag! The catch? You can only step in the circles! I came up with two ways to win this simple version. Firstly, you can win by tagging someone just like regular tag. Secondly, you can win by stepping into the same circle as someone you're chasing!

As many games do, our game morphed and I added in another complication: I drew circles in a different color! The secondary color has less circles and are meant only for whoever is "it" and doing the chasing. This makes it significantly harder for the chaser to tag their victims!

Finally, I added in a final complication to our game to create the final version of "Polka Dot Tag!" In addition to all the circles, draw a half circle in each color on both sides of your driveway. These half circles serve as "home base" for both teams - the runners had white circles in our case, and whoever was "it" had the orange circles. Now here's the rules: begin in your designated color home base, on opposite sides of the driveway from each other. When you shout "On your mark! Get set! Go!" begin running across the driveway - careful to only step in your own color of circles. The object of the game is to make it across to your other home base without getting tagged! You're it!

Spider Games!

As you can tell from my previous post, I used spider rings quite a bit for my 4 year old daughter's spider-themed Halloween party. Luckily I found packs of 100 for sale at Walmart for just $1.89. Each pack included black, orange, green, and purple spiders. Once all the black spiders were used inside for treats and decor, I hid all the brightly colored ones out in the backyard before the party guests arrived. Literally 150 spiders. During the party, I had the children decorate lunch sacks with Halloween stickers and then use them to collect all the spiders they could find. Spider rings were actually really fun to hide because they could wrap around so many things, like the leg of a patio chair or our chain link fence.

Another spider game we played inside was one that I came up with myself, after bouncing some ideas off of my friend and my dad. The day before the party, I taped a huge spider web on my living room floor - the size of the living room! At first I tried white electrical tape but it was too stretchy and didn't stick very well so I ended up using strapping tape, and then a bit of plain scotch tape when I ran out. For party favors, I had bought large inflatable spiders for each guest at the Dollar Tree and had them all ready to go. Only one spider had a red monster sticker on the bottom that I put on before the party, but I didn't tell the kids which one! Everyone stood off of the web and closed their eyes as I scattered the spiders all around the giant web. When I said "Go", they all ran onto the web and placed their hand on a spider. When I counted to 3, they flipped their spider over to see who had the red monster sticker. Whoever had it got to keep a plain spider for themselves, but were out of the game. Then the game continued with one less player and one less spider for each round, until only one child was left!

Pulling up all the tape after the party was fun for Molly and her little brother, Ben (1) so I loved having the clean-up help! I put all the tape into a big ball and now, days later, Ben is still playing with it!

**The friend that helped me come up with my spider game also has a blog! Check it out: www.lifesprinkledwithglitter.blogspot.com!