Create Your Own Games!

Checkers (Adapted from EcoArt!)
Have each student bring one clean pizza box and twenty-four plastic milk bottle tops. Provide markers, paint, and rulers.

Directions: Measure and mark the inside of the pizza box with 2″ by 2″ squares. Color them in a checkerboard pattern using 2 colors of markers. Make two different colored sets of twelve game pieces out of the plastic milk bottle tops. If necessary, paint the tops.

Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Have each child bring a empty, clean cereal box and twelve plastic milk bottle tops. Provide markers, rulers and safety scissors.

Directions: Cut out the back panel of the box for the game board. Draw a three by three game board with two-inch squares on the inside panel. Paint two sets of six tops to be used for game pieces.

Cereal Puzzles

Have each student bring an empty cereal box and two reusable storage containers, such as, margarine tubs or sandwich bags. Provide safety scissors.

Directions: Cut off the top, bottom and sides of the cereal box. Using the front and back inside panels, draw two puzzle pattern designs, combining different large shapes. Cut along pattern lines to create two puzzles. Store each puzzle separately.

Auntie’s Ball In The Jug

Each student needs to bring an empty, clean one-gallon plastic milk jug, an old sock, and an old stocking. Provide safety scissors and a ball of string. (Each student will need approximately two-feet of string).

Directions: To make the scoop, draw a circle around the bottom of the milk jug starting just below the handle and cut along line. Put the sock in the stocking and tie it in a knot to form a ball. Attach one end of the string to the ball and the other end to the jug handle. Adjust the length of the string to the height of the child so that the student can successfully swing the ball and catch it in the scoop. Students can remove the string and toss the ball from scoop to scoop.

Can Walkers (Adapted from EcoArt!)

Have students bring two clean, empty steel cans of the same size. (48 oz. juice cans work well. Be sure that only one end of the can is removed.) Provide 6′ to 8′ of rope per student and a hand-held lever can opener.

Directions: Cut the rope in two equal parts. Using the closed end part of the can as the top, punch two holes in the sides of each can, just below the rim, directly across from each other. Thread the rope through the holes and knot the ends securely. Stand on the closed end of the can, holding the ropes, pulling up on the rope while walking.