Tag Archives: game

FEAR: The Game Show

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fear the game show

Fear is healthy right? It keeps us on our toes, gives us obstacles to overcome, and adds depth to our literary characters. Fear is there to be conquered! But, as this family photo of me suggests, some fears run mighty deep. For me, it’s clowns. Clowns…and green balloons shaped like the Loch Ness Monster.

We had a discussion about fear at Cotsen Critix, our literary society for 9-12 year-olds. And while bullies, lightning storms, and spiders were all addressed, we thought it would be interesting to see how well the kids knew their literary characters’ fears. To play the game, name the character, and then have your contestants try to name the fear.

Wilbur: Being made into bacon
Captain Hook: The crocodile
Mr. Tumnas: The White Witch
The Baudelaire Orphans: Count Olaf
Matilda: Ms. Trunchbull
Peter Rabbit: Mr. McGregor
Dorothy: Wicked Witch of the West
Sherlock Holmes: Professor Moriarity
Ron Weasley: Spiders
Harry Potter: Dementors
Neville Longbottom: Snape
Professor Lupin: Full moon
Hermoine Granger: Bad grades
The Borrowers: Being discovered
Mowgli: Shere Kahn
Mrs. Frisby: Dragon the Cat
Little Orphan Annie: Ms. Hannigan
Eragon: King Galbatorix
Black Beauty: Fire
Frodo: Sauron
Taran: The Horned King
Percy Jackson: Monsters…pick one!
Lyra: Mrs. Coulter
Chester: Bunnicula
Measle: Wrathmonks
Jemmy from the Streets: A hanging
Campers at Camp Green Lake: Lizards
Ralph S. Mouse: The vacuum cleaner
Matt Cruise: The ground
Claudia and Jamie Kincaid: Being discovered
Stuart Little’s family: The mouse hole
Ella Enchanted: Stepsisters’ orders
Ramona Quimby: Picture of the gorilla
The White Rabbit: Being late!

Welcome to the Jungle

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welcome to the jungle

It’s a jungle out there, but we bet you can safely navigate your bouncy ball up ramps, over bridges, past drinking straw obstacles, and through pipe cleaner wickets to the goal!

We recommend reading The Zabajaba Jungle by William Steig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987). In a dreamy, dangerous journey through the Zabajaba jungle, young Leonard and his trusty bolo encounter a number of jungle creatures and treacherous obstacles. A Steig classic.

You’ll need:

  • 1 copy paper box lid
  • Construction paper
  • Drinking straws
  • Green pipe cleaners
  • Paper cups
  • Paper bowl
  • Poster board or tagboard
  • Scissors, tape and/or glue  for construction
  • Hot glue (optional)

Our jungle game is a copy paper box lid with as many (or as few) obstacles for you to navigate a ball through. We used bouncy balls – I bought a 6-pack for $1 at our local dollar store. Here’s our basic jungle:

just the obstacles As you can see, we had a paper bowl tunnel, a bumpy drinking straw “path,” green pipe cleaners acting as vine wickets, and a blue construction paper river. We used tagboard to make a bridge, as well as a ramp and an elevated pathway. At the bottom of the box lid are the “goals”…paper cup halves cut down to various heights. Want to fill things out a little? Add construction paper foliage:

with foliageYou can also add fabric (or construction paper) flowers for some pops of color!

with foliage and flowersTo play, drop a bouncy ball in anywhere, then navigate through the obstacles and foliage by tilting and turning your box top. The ball goes in a cup, you win! Bonus fun – use multiple balls at once, or play with one kid at each end of the box top!

Tooth Sleuth

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tooth sleuthLose a tooth? No problem! Our magnetic Tooth Finder 2000 will locate your missing teeth in a jiffy! We also added a little alphabetical deduction game to the mix, as well as a magnetic tooth fairy wand variation.

We recommend reading Cousin Ruth’s Tooth, written by Amy MacDonald, and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Houghton Mifflin, 1996). Cousin Ruth’s tooth has gone missing, and the entire Fister clan is on high alert. Uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparent, siblings, and various pets embark on a energetic search through the house, yard, and eventually, the town. In the meantime, cousin Ruth solves her own problem – a new tooth has appeared where the old one used to be!

You’ll need:

  • 1 small box (ours was 2″ x 4″ x 4″)
  • 1 mini button magnet (ours was .5″ in diameter)
  • Tin foil
  • String or mesh tubing
  • 1 drinking straw
  • White card stock
  • Paper clips
  • Pen
  • Tape

To make a “Tooth-Finder 2000,” cover a small box with tin foil, then add any other shiny stuff you have on hand (we used silver mirror board and a mini aluminum pie tin). Make a card stock handle for the machine, and a sparkle stem antennae if desired. The machine’s “hose” is a piece of mesh tubing, but a simple piece of string works too! The “wand” for picking up teeth is a half a drinking straw with a mini button magnet taped or hot glued to one end. The other end of the straw is inserted into the mesh tubing.

tooth finder 2000Cut several teeth from card stock, then tape paperclips to the back. Wave the machine’s wand over the tooth, and it will magnetically connect! We came up with a spelling game as well. To play, write different letters on the teeth, then see if kids can can pick out a particular word or their name from the pile.

letter teeth If you’d like to skip the tooth finding machine and go even simpler, cut a star out of card stock, decorate it with markers, then tape it to a drinking straw. Tape or hot glue a mini button magnet to the back of the star and you have your very own magnetic tooth fairy wand!

tooth fairy magnetic wand