Fun memories #7: Chubby Bunnies

This is another old stand-by game that was a lot of fun with the kids. Back in our youth group, we used to play this game with regular white marshmallows. A few volunteers had to go in front of the group, stuff their mouths with marshmallows one at a time, and whoever could get the most marshmallows in their mouth and still say "Chubby Bunnies" was the winner. In our country, we don't have white marshmallows, but we do have a soft marshmallow candy like you see here...these come in the shape of marshmallow hamburgers. The kids had a lot of fun with this game. A couple caveats: 1) Make sure you have a bag for the kids to spit the marshmallows into when they are done...those marshmallows have to go somewhere. 2)Some of the kids will really get into it and stuff marshmallows into their mouths until they gag themselves or make themselves sick...make sure you watch them and MAKE them spit the marshmallows out before they get choked or make themselves sick...also make sure you consider age/maturity level when choosing your "volunteers." Younger kids could always be the ones to shove the marshmallows in rather than being the actual volunteer with the marshmallows in their mouths. My girls were too young to stuff the marshmallows in their own mouths, but helped hand out marshmallows and prizes for winners at the end.
We had three or four teams...each team had someone to unwrap the candy, another to give the candy to the volunteer, someone to hold a plastic sack to spit the marshmallows into when the volunteer was done, and the volunteer himself who was trying to say "Chubby Bunnies." This way, more kids could get involved and work together.

Fun memories #6: Mummy game

This game is probably old news for many of us...but I included it just to show that anywhere you can get toilet paper, you can play this game! The kids had a lot of fun with it. We played this at a birthday party for a local friend who asked us to bring some games. This worked well for a situation where there could potentially be a large group, but I didn't know exactly how many kids there would be. We divided the kids into teams, and let the teams work to decorate each volunteer who would be the mummy. Then, you can let kids who didn't play help you "judge" which "mummy" is wrapped up the best. All you really have to provide is a few rolls of toilet paper for wrapping. But we also brought a few prizes (SMALL, SIMPLE prizes like fun pencils) for the winning team. Make sure to let the kids know NOT to cover the "mummy's" mouth, nose or face with toilet paper. It was so funny to see all the kids laughing and having fun with this.

Craft project #10: Helmets

These were made to represent helmets of s-lv-ation when we studied Eph. 6. This was a VERY simple and easy craft, but the kids LOVED it. All you need is:
Scissors
glue
staples/stapler
heavy paper (Card stock works nicely)
markers or stickers for decorating
I got the template from an old craft book, but by looking at this picture you could probably figure out what to do. I cut the template for the helmets ahead of time, along with the small tassel stuck to the top and the strips we used for attaching them to the kids' heads. So, during craft time, the kids just glued the tassel on top, and decorated their helmets however they wanted to. Then, I went around and stapled strips to the sides, then stapled the strips together in the back to match their heads. It was a pleasant surprise to see how excited the kids were to wear their little helmets. A nice little take-home project like this is a good place to attach the week's v-rse, so the kids have a little reminder for studying the rest of the week.

Craft project #9: Home made kite

We made this kite for Maggie...still are not sure if it will fly! But she had so much fun making it, and was so proud of it. I think it's still a worthy project because it was a lot of fun. We got a strip of bamboo (readily available around here, and it cost about a quarter for a few strips...another material might be more readily available for this cheap in your area) and cut them in half. Then, we had our driver, Saw Washi, help us make notches in the end of the bamboo strips. We took some lengths of yarn, and threaded it around the strips to make our frame for our kite. Then, we cut the brown paper to fit around the frame, and taped it down on the back with "binding tape," which is a lot like duck tape but comes over here in a variety of colors. Then, we just let Maggie decorate the front with markers. She decided to make her kite a "princess" kite. Then, we took some strong string, made a loop around where the bamboo strips connect on the back, and tied our string to that loop. We made this one for flying, but even just as a decoration, it's a fun project. We made some smaller versions for decorations for our home school room.

Fun memroies #5: "Prize" walk

These pictures are from a really simple party game we did for Maggie's birthday party...this game was SO easy to put together and a real hit with the kids. We did sort of a "cake walk," but instead of cakes when the music stopped, we gave out small (very small) prizes from the gift bag we made (you can see it here).
We printed up coloring pages from the internet. Since the party was a Minnie Mouse party, we did all Mickey characters and friends. You could do this for pretty much any character/theme. We let the girls color the pages first, which was a really fun part of party preparation for them, and something they could do themselves. We stuck the pictures to the floor with masking tape in a circle. The kids walked around the circle to music from an ipod, then when it stopped, the winner got to choose a prize. Of course, we had enough prizes for all the kids to be winners. (NOTE: Kids at this age do NOT do well with losing, so please make sure you have a prize for everyone! Our prizes cost maybe a quarter each...you could do this with a piece of candy or a sucker...does not take much to please at this age).
Lots of fun, very cheap, and very easy. Even the shy kids got into this eventually.