How to make ghost or skull boards for a DIY bean bag toss game for kids. Perfect for a spooky party or Halloween!
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Here’s another spooky activity that we did for JJ’s ‘spooky sixth birthday party’. (We also made Fruit Mummies as a healthy (but spooky) snack, and DIY bloodshot eyeballs for eyeball and spoon races. And I have a few more spooky ideas to share shortly – stay tuned!)
I made these ghost and skull boards while JJ was at school one day. They didn’t take too long to make (maybe a couple of hours all up), and they doubled as both party decorations and as a fun party game.Continue readingDIY Skull & Ghost Bean Bag Toss Game
How to make easy bloodshot eyeballs – fun craft for a spooky party or Halloween. They’re perfect for “eyeball and spoon races” too!
This post was originally published on 11th October 2013, and has been since updated. Contains affiliate links.
We’ve made these spooky eyeballs twice now. The first time was just before Halloween in 2013, when I stumbled across a packet of perfectly white table-tennis balls, and immediately thought they would make perfect eyeballs. (I’m not the only one who thinks up strange alternate uses for everyday objects, right?)
It’s a very simple craft – I just drew on white table-tennis (ping pong) balls using my stash of black and coloured permanent markers.
I added these spooky eyeballs to my ‘treat bowl’ for Halloween that year, and was amazed to see how many kids chose an eyeball over lollies. They were quite popular!!
Fast forward a couple of years to 2016, when my daughter JJ decided to have a “Spooky Sixth Birthday Party”, and I knew these would be perfect! This time, as JJ is a little older, she was more involved in helping draw on the designs (although she gave up after half a dozen or so, and I finished the rest).
As you can see, we opted for a little less detail this time. We omitted the black outline around the iris, and the flecks within the iris itself. I actually think it turned out better, and it was much easier to draw. (Win/win!)
We used a bunch of different permanent markers (whatever we had in our craft cupboard), but I particularly liked the affect of this metallic bronze marker. It gives a lovely golden brown sheen.
Handy tip – keep the empty container that they originally came in, as it makes it much easier to store and transport. (The eyeballs have a tendency to roll under couches otherwise!)
We made two dozen, so there would be plenty for the kids to play with at JJ’s party. We even played eyeball and spoon races with them! Sorry that I didn’t take any photo of the races – I was too busy running around after 1000 kids (or at least, it felt like that many!)
I did manage to snap a quick shot of my younger daughter Bee playing around with them beforehand though. “Look Mum, my eyeball fell out!!”
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Playful gross motor and math activity for preschoolers.
(This post was originally published 28th January 2014, and has been updated.)
I’ve noticed lately that JJ has shown frustration that she can’t ‘read’ some numbers. She can recognise 1,2,3,5 & 8 easily enough, but she struggles with recognising the other numbers. At three and a half this isn’t something that she “needs” to learn yet. But as she is showing an interest and it is causing her frustration, I thought a little number recognition play would be both fun and educational.
This sponsored post is brought to you by Nuffnang and Clarks.
I know a five and a half year old girl called JJ who loves active play! She loves to run, she loves to climb, and she loves to chase.
All this playing, running, climbing and chasing is much easier if you have well fitted shoes. I’d rather JJ have one pair of well-fitting shoes, than half a dozen of ill-fitting ones. Which is why we always get the kids’ shoes professionally fitted by a Clarks approved fitter (trust me, there’s a difference). Even though we’re usually presented with a choice of shoes, we almost always end up choosing Clarks. They just fit better, and JJ says they help her run faster. It’s one of the tests we do at the shoe shop – I ask JJ to sprint around the shop, so she can pick which shoes feel the ‘fastest’.
Speed, confidence and comfort are all very important when you’re a kindergartener, playing kindergarten games! I asked JJ what her favourite gross motor (or movement) games were. Here are her favourites:
JJ’s Favourite Gross Motor Games for Five Year Old Kids
How to play: Tip
The rules are simple: one child is ‘it’, and that child chases all the other players until they manage to touch or ‘tip’ someone, and then it’s that person’s turn to be ‘it’ and chase everyone.
Kids have been playing this game forever. Tip’s a great unstructured game for any sized group, and is loved by boys and girls alike. The kids at JJ’s school play tip at lunchtime, running around (and climbing on the playground equipment), in an attempt to either tip someone, or avoid being tipped. JJ joins in almost every day.
What do you like best about tip, JJ? JJ: You get to run, and you get to play all over the equipment.
How to play: What’s the time, Mr Wolf?
A group of kids line up along one side of an open space, with one child (who is ‘Mr Wolf’) standing on the opposite side, with his/her back turned towards the others. The group call out “What’s the time, Mr Wolf?”, and Mr Wolf responds with a time (2 o’clock, or 4 o’clock for example). The group of kids walk forward for the corresponding number of steps (counting as they go), and then they ask the question again. Tension mounts as the kids get closer to Mr Wolf, because at some point, Mr Wolf will choose to reply instead with “Dinner time!” and turn to chase all the kids back to the starting line, trying to tip someone along the way, who will then become the next Mr Wolf.
This is a fun game that always elicits lots of squeals during the ‘dinner time’ chase. It works well for large groups, which is why it is often played at birthday parties. Sometimes we change the name ‘Mr Wolf’ to something else (like Captain Barnacles for example) to suit a particular party theme. I love how it includes lots of playful maths practice as well.
What’s the best thing about playing What’s the time, Mr Wolf? JJ: You get to be the wolf, and you get to run fast when it’s dinner time.
How to play: Hide and Boo
One child closes their eyes, and counts aloud to twenty, finishing with, ‘Ready or not, here I come!”. Meanwhile, the other children (and grown-ups) hide themselves around the house. When the first child finishes counting, he/she searches for the others, whilst the other people try to jump out from their hiding spot and shout ‘Boo!’ before they are found. Once every one is found (or has jumped out and said ‘Boo’), a new person is chosen to be the counter/seeker.
This is an easier and faster paced version of the traditional hide and seek game, which is great for including younger siblings who might not be particularly good at finding hiding spots, or waiting patiently to be found.
What’s the best thing about playing Hide and Boo? You get to hide, and if the person can’t find you, you get to jump out and say ‘Boo!’
How to play: Duck, Duck, Goose!
The kids sit cross-legged in a tight circle, except for one child who is the ‘goose’. This child walks around the outer edge of the circle, selecting who will be the next goose, by patting the other kids on the head, saying “duck, duck, duck, duck, duck… goose!” The child who is chosen to be the new goose, stands up and chases the old goose around the outer edge of the circle, trying to tip the old goose before he/she can make it back to sit in the newly vacated spot. Then the game repeats.
This is a fun game that is great for large groups of kids at birthday parties or for preschool / school groups. You can easily change the words to something else (like ‘shark, shark… seal’ to suit a party theme. JJ plays this game in her Mandarin class, except the kids say duck and goose in Mandarin. We’ve also recently played a fun version, where the kids get to choose their own words each time. They came up with things like ‘knife, knife… fork!’, ‘money, money… wallet!’, or ‘toilet, toilet… sink’. (My kids found this version absolutely hilarious!)
What do you like best about playing Duck, Duck, Goose? We get to choose our own words, and if you get tipped by someone you have to sit in the middle, and if you don’t, you get to sit in their place.
I grew up wearing Clarks school shoes too. (Apparently they’ve been fitting school shoes for the past 170 years, but I can only vouch for the past thirty years or so…) I still remember that the shoe shop lady paid a lot of attention to getting the right fit, and they still pay that much attention now.
JJ has a very narrow foot and heel, and so properly fitted shoes are very important.
JJ’s new school shoes, after a week or so of wear.
Clarks shoes just fit better. JJ’s school shoes for this year are Clarks, and she’s been wearing them 3 days a week at school (compulsory), and most weekend days (by choice). They fit so well, that she’d actually prefer to wear her school shoes on sports days too, if she were allowed. After eleven months of intensive wear, they are still holding up remarkably well. Compare that with people who have bought their children 2 or 3 pairs of school shoes, not because their child has outgrown them, but because they’ve ‘worn them out’, and I think Clarks shoes make a lot of sense.
Complete with her (just over 100 days old) Clarks school shoes – and intentionally mismatched socks! (She’s suck a little punk!)
Did you know that with Clarks shoes, you can go back and check the fitting (for free) mid-year? We did this after the first three terms of kindergarten, just to make sure that her shoes still fit well for term 4.
Recently I also bought a pair of Clarks sandals for JJ to wear this summer. They are really pretty, and fit high and snug around her narrow heel, with adjustable velcro at the front to keep the shoe on properly (even if she’s climbing half way up a tree). She loves wearing them on the boiling hot days, (although on milder days, she still chooses to wear her school shoes, lol.)
Lizard spotting at Taronga Zoo in October, wearing her (now 10 month old) school shoes again, minus the socks this time.
We’ll be heading in to our shoe shop to get a new pair of school shoes fitted shortly, as JJ will be going into Year One in 2016. Whilst I’ll let JJ choose the pair of shoes that feel the ‘fastest’, I’m fairly confident they’ll be Clarks.
xx Danya
Disclosing that this is a sponsored post for Clarks. All opinions are, as always, my or my kids’ own.
Mr Banya came up with today’s number game, so I can’t take the credit, but I thought I would share it with you just the same. I’ve also included a huge list of awesome DIY dice games for young kids at the end of this post – lots of ideas to try!
How to make a DIY dice game for kids
Make two or more ‘number boards’ with the numbers 2-12, and at least one set of corresponding 2-12 number pieces. You’ll also need two regular dice.
To make our number boards and number pieces, Mr Banya used a piece of thick white cardboard, a permanent marker and a ruler. He ruled out a grid, and drew the numbers 2-12 in four rows, cutting the first three horizontally to make three boards, and the last row into individual number pieces.
How to play
Number of players: 2 or more
Age: 4-6 year olds
You will need: a 2-12 number board per player; a set of 2-12 number pieces; 2 dice.
Playing time: 10 minutes
Object of the game: to collect the most number pieces by the end of the game.
The youngest player goes first. She rolls the dice and selects the number from the pieces in the centre. She places the number piece over the corresponding number on her board.
The next player then rolls the dice and selects a number as above. If the number rolled is no longer in the centre however, then she can take this number from another players board and place it on her own.
The play continues in a clockwise direction, with each player rolling and taking a number piece – either from the centre, or from another players board – until there are no more pieces left in the centre. The player who has the most number pieces on their board wins!
(Sometimes it can take a long time to roll the very last number, so you may wish to declare the game finished when there is only one piece left in the middle, especially if you have kids with short attention spans or who get frustrated easily. After all, it’s supposed to be fun.)
And then you play again!
Variation: If you want to add to the number of players, make additional boards, and also an additional set of number pieces. While playing, if there are no more corresponding number pieces in the middle, players get to ‘choose’ which player to take the corresponding number piece from.
This game might seem quite simple, and it is, but it still works on quite a few early maths skills.
Math principles in play
Counting – being able to recite 1-12 in the correct order
Numeral recognition – understanding that a numeral represents a number, and being able to recognise that numeral.
One-to-One Correspondence – count a group of dots or along a number line, and understanding that each dot or number is counted once.
Counting on – starting with a number and counting on from that
Subitising – recognising that a certain pattern of dots on a die represents a particular number, without having to count each dot
Addition – adding the two numbers on the dice
My daughter JJ, at 4 years and 9 months, found this fun, even though some of these math principles are tricky for her. You see, JJ is still learning to recognise the numerals 6, 7 and 9. (For some reason, these particular numerals get muddled up in her head.)
This game allowed her to practise her numeral recognition in a non-confronting way, work on a few different skills at the same time, and all whilst having fun.
To give you an example, if JJ rolls a 6 and a 3, she counts the dots on the dice to 9, but can’t yet recognise the corresponding numeral 9 from the number pieces in the centre. So she will ‘count on’ (starting from 2) using her board as a reference, until she reaches 9. She can then use the number on her board as a visual reference to figure out which number piece to take. Tricky!
Subitising (estimating a quantity) is a great math skill for kindergarteners, and dice are perfect for learning to subitise to 6. When kids roll one die, they can learn to recognise how many dots there are by the pattern, without having to count individual dots. Or if they roll two dice, they can subitise to work out the first number, and then use that number as the starting point to ‘count on’ from. Both help with speed, accuracy and confidence with board games and maths in general. JJ is still working all of this out – currently she can subitise to 4, but still counts dots if she rolls a 5 or a 6.
A great way to practise all of these skills, is through lots and lots of dice play! And, it’s not only educational, it’s also fun! I’m super keen to implement a regular games night in our house. It might sound daggy, but it’s also a great way for families to connect, screen-free. Plus I may be super-competitive. (Just saying…) 🙂
I’ve been looking up some fun kindergarten dice games to play with JJ, and also some introductory toddler or preschool dice games so that we can include her 2.5 year old younger sister, Bee. I’ve found so many awesome ones, that I just had to share them with you. Happy rolling!
Fun dice games for young kids
Dice play can be as simple as counting out small manipulatives – change up the manipulative, and you have a whole new game. Ha! Buggy and Buggy has some great ideas, including making a simple die for beginners.
This roll and cover train dice game (with free printable) from Craftulate looks like a fun and easy introduction to dice. {Bonus points that it’s about trains – one of Bee’s favourite things!}
Plant by number! Inspire a budding florist with this simple spring dice game by Fun A Day.
Another fun spring toddler dice game: sing along to “Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?” and roll and build a flower, with this free printable flower download from Best Toys 4 Toddlers.
Combine dice with animal figurines to create some playful counting, addition and subtraction opportunities. Rainy Day Mum has a really cute count and add farm game, and another speckled frogs counting game for you to try.
Kitchen Floor Crafts’ Sum, Say & Spray math game is the sort of game that we would play in our backyard. I love that it takes maths play outdoors in a fun way. I might just borrow this one for an easy 5 minute after school activity.
Roll the dice and construct a wall – Simple Fun for Kids uses foam cups for this activity, but you could use plastic or paper cups, or anything stackable really. Another low prep idea that is great to have up your sleeve when the kids start getting restless…
Simple board games are great for turn taking, counting and subitising too, like this cute DIY Family Rainbow Game from Rainy Day Mum.
Combining numeracy with literacy, Kitchen Floor Crafts has a fun addition and subtraction dice game based on the children’s book Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons.
Have any plastic eggs left over from Easter? See who will win with this Racing Eggs game from Best Toys 4 Toddlers. (Love that it can be multi-player.)
The big question is, which one to play first. 🙂
Speaking of learning through play, you might also be interested in a new ebook called ABCs and 123s. It’s a collaborative ebook with literacy, numeracy and geometry activities from over 40 like-minded kid bloggers, who all believe that kids learn best through play. It’s a great resource for parents (grandparents, carers or teachers) who want to introduce letters, numbers and shapes to their kids in a fun, hands-on and playful way. There’s over 40 tried and tested ideas, with materials lists, step-by-step instructions, and full colour photographs. You can read more about it, and see page examples here.
I’m a huge fan of learning through play. A while back we played a fun number recognition game that involved jumping and chalk, and JJ thought it was awesome. She got to spend quality time with her family, got to jump her jiggles out, and got to practice learning her numbers in a non-confrontational playful way.
So I ‘jumped’ at the opportunity to be a part of the 31 Days of ABCs series with another fun way to combine number recognition with gross motor play.
You might be thinking – what do the ABCs have to do with the 123s?? Yes technically we’re changing subjects from literacy to math, but number recognition actually uses many of the same developmental skills as learning to recognise letters. Both involve recognising numerals and letters as symbols that each have a particular name and shape.
My daughter JJ is 4 years and 5 months old. She can count to the cows come home. She can count backwards. She understands 1:1 correspondence, and is starting to initiate play that involves early addition and subtraction. “Mum!! Did you know that 2+2=4?”
But, she can’t “read” all the basic numbers yet. She struggles to recognise 6, 7 & 9, and anything beyond 11. Personally I don’t mind. She’s only 4 and she’ll learn at her own pace. But my daughter wants to learn to read numbers, and is getting frustrated that she can’t.
And so we came up with a new number recognition game, this time involving trampolines, balloons and a sharpie…
It’s a very simple game. I blew up eight balloons, and wrote a different number on each of them. (Actually I wrote the number on each side of the balloon, so you could still read it if the balloon flipped around.)
Then I tied the balloons to each of the trampoline posts using kitchen twine. (Gosh I love that stuff!).
I purposely hung the balloons up out of order, because I wanted JJ to use her numeral recognition skills rather than her counting skills to “read” the numbers.
The rest we made up as we went along.
Sometimes I would call out a number, and JJ would jump up and hit that number. And then I’d call out a different one, and have her bounding around all over the trampoline.
Sometimes I’d call out a number and ask JJ to hit the balloon to the left or right of that number, and see if she could tell me what it is.
Sometimes I’d describe the shape of a number. “Can you hit the number with the flat top and the diagonal line coming down?” (Spoiler alert: that’s a 7.)
JJ came up with a game she dubbed “number rocket” where she pulled back on a balloon and tried to fling it over the other side of the netting. She’s quite good at it!
Bee and I got in on a bit number jumping action too. Love the expression on Bee’s face in this pic!
So after all this, has JJ’s number recognition improved? Maybe or maybe not. But we had such a lovely afternoon. It took just five minutes set up (which the kids helping) and we ended up playing for hours. The trampoline got the biggest workout yet. The kids went to bed with exhausted legs and smiles on their faces. And JJ thinks maths is loads of fun.
There’s loads more letter (and number) recognition play below. Read, play, learn, post, link up and have fun!!
