Games

Here's a great game from schcounselor.com that helps facilitate cooperation. Put kids into 2 groups and give each group a large handful of spaghetti noodles and a bowl of marshmallows. Tell them that they have 10 minutes to work together to build the tallest tower. The team with the tallest tower at the end of the 10 minutes wins.

Here's the simplest game that is really fun! Visit: candacetodd.blogspot.com for the free download of the game board.

Here are the instructions:

Send the first player away from the game board or into another room, then have the remaining players choose which one of the twelve people on the game board will be "Pete" for the round. Place one M&M (or any other small snack or candy) in each square of the game board. Have the first player come back and begin picking and eating the candies from the game board. As soon as the player tries to pick "Pete" everyone yells "Don't Eat Pete!" The player keeps all the candy picked up before trying to get Pete. Refill the game board and play again with the next player.

Looking for a good way to pass time in the car without giving your kids your cell phone to play with? Try these great thinking games from whatdowedoallday.com.

1. Imaginary Traveler. Taking turns, and continuing with consecutive letters of the alphabet, kids imagine where they might go and what they object want to take along on their trip. For example, “I’m going to Aunt Amanda’s and I’m taking my Aardvark.” “I’m going to Bermuda and I’m taking my Blue Balloon.” Encourage participants to be as silly as possible.

2. Story Time. One child begins a story with a single sentence. Building upon that sentence the next child continues the story with his own sentence to continue the story. You can vary this game so that the story is told with alternating words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs.

3. I See A Rhyme. Taking turns, complete the sentence “I see a ____.” Each player must rhyme the last word with the previous player’s word. For example, “I see a bat”, “No, I see a hat”, “But I see a cat!” When you’ve exhausted one rhyme, start with a new word!

4. Fortunately/Unfortunately. This game is inspired by Remy Charlip’s book, Fortunately. One player starts a story with a sentence such as “Fortunately, the bus is coming.” The next player counters with a sentence such as, “Unfortunately, it turned into an airplane and flew away!” The next player starts again with “Fortunately…” My boys love this one.

5. Name Five. Choose a category such as states, flowers, animals and going through the alphabet, each player must name five things in that category. For example, if animals is the category, the first player may say aardvark, antelope, ant, anteater, ape. The next player starts with B: baboon, bee, bear, bullfrog, bird.

6. Timed Categories. The cell phone in your pocket probably has a stopwatch. Pick a category such as animals, games, plants, purple foods and challenge you children to see how many items they can come up with in that category in one minute.

The weather's warming up and it's a great time to start creating some fun outside. Here's a clever version of tic-tac-toe from trainupachildlearnaswego.blogspot.com. Simply draw a tic-tac-toe grid on the sidewalk or driveway and have the kids throw a bean bag aimed at the grid. Wherever the bag lands, have them write either an "x" or "o", depending on their designated letter. Whoever gets three in a row first, wins.

Here's a clever twist on a classic game. Fill old plastic Easter eggs, empty Playdough containers, or paper cups with paper taped over the opening, with 2 of the same kind of objects. Here are some examples: cheerios, pennies, paper clips, jingle bells, beans, beads, barley, etc. Make sure that each object has a match. Set them up in rows. Instead of flipping over cards, like clasic Memory, shake the containers to hear what's inside and try to find it's match.

(Taken from: omakoppa.blogspot.com)

(Taken from: answers2homework.com)

For a fun twist on an old classic, visit: bnute.blogspot.com for the free download to make this fun little fortune teller.

For this and many other free downloadable dot to dot printables, visit: spoonful.com.

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