Lego Birthday Party - Games - Part 2

The party was a hit and the kids had a great time!  I had plenty of games, in fact we didn't have time for one of them and there are a couple I wanted to do that I left out completely.  As the party goers arrived they went into the kitchen to decorate a Lego Figure Head.  It was just the head on yellow paper.  I did have this picture up on the computer to give them some face ideas.  These would be used later in the game of pin the head on the Lego Man.  After they did that they made a guess of how many Lego's were in this jar:

I had slips of paper with their name on it (in Lego font of course) so they just needed to write their estimation on it.  This jar and an empty jar to place their slips in were on the party table.  After most everyone arrived we played the hit of the party, especially among the boys!  

It is similar to Pictionary and they do sell it as a Lego game called Creationary.  I spent some time on YouTube checking it out.  First of all I wasn't going to invest more into this party (the game isn't cheap) and second, the reviews weren't great.  They said the idea behind the game was good, but there weren't enough bricks.  So I decided to create the game myself.  First we sorted our Lego bricks by color.  I used a party tray (veggie tray) to store them in.  Next I made the cards.  I made 9 cards in five different themes.  We had animals, nature, vehicles, buildings, and food.  I printed the pictures off on white paper and then I printed number cards on colored paper with each number having its own color.  I cut all the cards out and glued a picture to a number card keeping all the same theme with the same number/color of paper.  For example all of the nature themed cards were on green paper with the number 5 on the back. I then laminated the cards for durability.

These are the building cards.

When it came time to play I was able to let the kids know what numbers/colors went with what theme.  Nature is green 5, vehicles are purple 3, buildings are blue 6, etc.  We divided into two teams.  Each team rolled one die.  The number on the die was the card they picked.  So if they rolled a 5 they picked the card with a five.  Their team could guess as many times as they could in two minutes.  After two minutes the builder had to stop building and each person on their team got one guess.  If they guessed correctly they received a point.  If they didn't the other team could guess it correctly and steal the point.  The cards were numbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6.  I left out 2.  If they rolled a 2 they got a chance for double the points and the other team got to pick the category.  Amazingly enough 2 was the only number that wasn't rolled.  The boys REALLY loved this game and wanted to keep playing it.  We let each person go once and that was all we had time for.  If you want to use the cards I made, you can download them at the bottom of this post.

I didn't give the winners anything special.  Instead after each child played each game they were able to go pick a Lego Crayon Man:

Sorry this isn't the best picture.  I went a little crazy in the crayon prep and made a whole bunch of these cute men.  We laid them out in rows of color and wrote their color at the bottom of the row. After each game was completed they picked out a new crayon.  So far two games were played - guesstemation (being a little creative with the words - estimate/guess) and the creationary game.

Next we played pin the head on the Lego man with the heads they created:

Using a projector at work I traced a Lego Figure onto a large piece of paper.  I brought it home to create our Lego Man.  First I took wrapping paper in red and blue.  Using spray adhesive I adhered the paper wrong sides together so it became double sided.  I cut out the pants out of blue, shirt out of red, and the hands and head out of yellow paper.  I drew on some details.  We gave the front of our Lego Man a face, but left the back blank.  I hung him on the glass door and taped some balloons in his hand (it turned out to be a VERY windy day so the balloons ended up getting taped in several places).  When the party goers came to the door our Lego Man was there to great them.  When it came time for the game you could still see him on the inside minus a face. If you look at the collage above you can see some of their artistic abilities.

We announced the winners of the guessing game and then had cake, ice cream, and presents.  Then it was back to more games.

For this game you had to use a straw and move all your Lego pieces off of your plate and onto the floor using only your sucking power.  You could also spread out Lego pieces on a table, set a timer and see how many pieces you could put on your plate using a straw and sucking in a set amount of time.  The birthday girl liked the first idea so that is what we did:

To make it more fun I took yellow square plates and drew Lego faces on them.  We also added the top part of the head by cutting it out of construction paper and gluing it on.  I used polka dotted straws and hot glued a Lego head to it.  I forgot to take pictures, but they are the same heads I used for the juice straws.  We put equal bricks on the plates, same size and amount on each plate.  They formed a circle with their backs to the center.  On go they moved those bricks off their plate as fast as the could.  After the game they could keep their plate and straw if they wanted.

The next game was memory.  I had a friend save baby food jars. I painted them like I have seen on various blogs.  I used spray paint, but it has been cold, wet, and windy here.  Unfortunately I don't have a garage so I tried to cheat and many of them didn't turn out well.  So I switched tactics (wish I thought of this first) - I put some yellow paint inside the jars, swirled it around and then dumped out the extra.  They were nice and smooth and pretty.  To make the faces I wrote on the jars with a sharpie. The jars that had paint inside were actually easier to write on.

On the bottom of the jars I put pictures of Lego pieces.  I had two of each picture.  The kids played just like memory.  Inside of the jars I had Lego Mini Figures.  I was going to use them for the next game, but we ran out of time.  

The last game ended up being fun.  We played it on Date Night.  (To see how we do Date Night see this post). 

This was an idea floating around Pinterest, but it was just a picture, no game.  I wanted to play the game so I created it.  You need one die, a mini figure (one per player), a board, and Lego bricks.  Above the kids used a 2x4 Lego block but a 2x2 or 2x3 would fit a little better.  I made a couple options.  I chose to print the first link (it used less ink) and trim it down.  I then glued it to colored card stock and laminated.  To play you roll the die and follow the instructions.  They always have one base block and can never lose that one.  They loved the game and played it several times. 

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download the Creationary Game Cards Here 

Download the Lego Board Game Here 
and Here
and Here

Lego Matching/Memory Game

I link up with parties listed here.

Lego Party Part 3 Coming soon. 

Lego Birthday - Part One

 

For the first time in our lives we are into Legos.  Not sure why it took until right before my baby turned 9, but it did.  And we are hooked.  She is especially so we went with Lego for the birthday party theme.  There are SO many things you can do.  It was awesome!

There are a few other posts to check out what we did.  Questions just ask.

Check out:
Lego Games
Set-up {Coming soon}

3.14 = Pi = Pie

This is our second year of making pie on Pi day or March 14 (3.14).  To see last year's project and how to make pie on a stick click here.  This year the middle school didn't do their pie fundraiser (bummer), but we still wanted to give the teachers a little bit of pie.  We made pie on a stick again except this time I used a kit I bought at Target on the Christmas clearance.  ~I'll most more about it later~ These pies are smaller than using a cookie/biscuit cutter.  You can do them any size you want and and shape you want.  Just a little advice don't make them too big, last years pies were a bit heavy and some of the pies fell off the stick.
Since the pies were smaller I wanted to make smaller tags.  Here is what I came up with:

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day! 

Download the PI Tag Here 

Thanks for stopping by.  To see who I link with check out the page tab above.

Artwork/Handout Holder for Nursery

This is a post that is over a year late, but better now than never.  When I was called to nursery I made a bunch of changes.  This one is one of my favorites and everyone else seemed to love it too. One of the things I loved was when my kids visited a nursery in Utah they had a cute tree on the door with birds on it.  When the kids came they moved their bird from the tree to the chalk board.  In fact when I went to search for ideas on Sugar Doodle I found the suggestion there.  I also found a similar idea there with the pictures ready to be downloaded and printed.  I loved the idea of jungle and animals.  Then I had another idea.  It came from school, some of the new teachers glued clothes pins to the wall to display the kids' work.  I debated back and forth what to do.  In the end this is what I decided.  I printed several copies of the animals at Costco - it is not expensive and I love the quality.  I then cut them out, wrote names on them and laminated them.  After that I hot glued them onto clothes pins.

Then I turned them over and glued magnets on the back.

As the kids arrive (or after nursery starts and things are settled) I put the magnet of each child who was there onto the bulletin board.  As we did our art activity I would clip it onto their magnet.  It didn't even matter if we had time to write their name on their paper as long as it went straight onto their clip.  When it was about time for church to end I moved the magnets to the outside of the door of the nursery.  When parents came to pick them up they would take anything on their child's clip (notes, handouts, artwork, etc) and their child.  It is nice, convenient, and saves a lot of time when multiple children are being picked up at once.

Some things to keep in mind:
I wrote first and last names on the first set of animals I made.  I think it helps if there is a substitute.  If you don't know the child's name, but know the family they belong to you can figure it out by reading the clips.  I was going take their picture and cut it out to put the picture over the face of the animal, but decided against it.  I also learned that some bishops won't let you use last names due to safety.  Just be safe and do what is best for your nursery.
 

A New Year of Sunbeams & Gift

They decided to keep me as the sunbeam teacher for 2013.  The only difference is that I'm teaching by myself.  The downside is that I have to plan a lesson every week instead of every other week and the upside is that I have to plan a lesson every week.

I decided to make my new sunbeams a gift.  I know that it is too late to do for this year, but it would make a great birthday or Christmas present.  Or save it for your sunbeam class next year.

I downloaded this free print from A Pocket Full of LDS Prints:

I printed them at home on my computer.  Then I mod podged them onto a 4x4 tile.  I used sandpaper to file off the edges of the paper.  Then I put an extra coat of mod podge on top.  They turned out SO CUTE!  Here is a picture of the finished project, but it isn't a very good picture. 

I am Thankfor for Day and Night (Primary Manual 1, Lesson 8)

Sunbeam Lesson 8:
I am Thankful for the Day and the Night

I posted Lesson 9 first so both of these posts will have some duplicate information.  So I apologize for that, but I want to make sure the introduction is here too

Lessons 8-15 talk about the Creation.  While they are titled I am Thankful for they talk about the creation.  I decided to make a book about the creation.  The lessons aren't necessarily in order of the creation.  But that doesn't matter because I'm keeping all the pages until the end.  As I do each lesson I will post it for you.

For each page in the book I'm cutting card stock in half.  Every lesson will have at least one page and some will have more which means our creation book will have more than seven pages.  

This lesson talks about the day and night.  I also covered the first day of the creation even though I'm not sure if the lesson covers it or not (guess I should blog closer to giving/preparing the lesson). All the first day is the separation of light and darkness so it leads right into this lesson and there isn't much else to cover.  For this page my cardstock was half white (I actually used more of a cream color) and black.

Then I used two pages for the rest of the lesson, one for day and one for night.  The day I used a blue piece of paper and night I used a black piece of paper.  I used my 1 3/8 circle punch and cut out yellow circles.  One of the yellow circles we are using for the sun and the other I cut into a crescent moon.  I cut two moons out of each circle. I also used yellow paint and glow in the dark paint and wipes.

I think it will be easier to see a picture first:

I put yellow paint on their index finger.  Taking their finger I made about 6 rays.  After the finger prints dried we glued on the yellow circles.  I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to make labels to put in the bottom corner of the page (day 1, day 2, etc).

Here is the night picture:

I gave them the moon to glue on their page.  I put glow-in-the-dark paint on a small disposable plate.  I asked them to dip their finger into the paint and dot it onto the paper.  If I had to do it again I would have an example because a few of them didn't know how to dot.  One thing to remember is that it needs a bit of paint in order to glow.  The fun thing about these pages is that the stars will glow in the dark!  I wish the classroom was dark enough to show the kids because they are excited about the glow-in-the-dark stars.

As I finish the other lessons I will post the links here:

For lesson 9 click here

For lesson 10 click here

For lesson 11 click here

For lesson 12 click here

For lesson 13 click here

For lesson 14 click here

For lesson 15 click here
Cover and Labels click here

I am Thankful for Water (Primary Manual 1, Lesson 9)

Sunbeam Lesson 9:
I am Thankful for Water

My new goal (on top of everything else) is to try to post my Sunbeam lessons on here.  I have had lots of fun in the last year.  Reading others ideas and working in an elementary school has really helped me step it up (I started teaching sunbeams right out of high school - many moons ago).  My goal is to teach the spiritual doctrine in the lesson, but do it hands on so they learn, remember, and are able to tell their families all about it.

I will post last week's lesson soon, but I want to do today's while it is fresh in my memory (and I still need to take pictures of last week).  For the lessons 8-15 it talks about the Creation.  While they are listed as I am Thankful for lessons they talk about the creation.  We are in the process of making a book about the creation.  

The lessons aren't necessarily in order of the creation.  But that doesn't matter because I'm keeping all the pages until the end.  I still need to make a cover and other pages, but as I finish them I will post them.

For the book I'm cutting card stock in half for each page.  Every lesson will have at least one page and some will have more which means our creation book will have more than seven pages.  For this lesson I cut a light blue card stock in half.  I made this to go on it:

I cut them out and had them glued onto the blue paper so they just needed to color.  I left some room in the bottom right corner.  I'm going to make labels so they know which day of the creation it goes with.  I will take picture of the completed page, but I want to at least get this posted.  Each raindrop has something we need water for.  We talked about each one.

The other fun thing I did was a combination of ideas that I read about on sugardoodle.net.  My kids blew up some blue water balloons for me.  They are harder to blow up than they look.  I wanted to use these because they are small and I think they resemble raindrops.  We didn't have a lot of time during class, but at the end I gave each child a balloon and read the Raindrop Poem in the Enrichment activities.  They loved to throw the raindrops around and then I chased them back to their seats with a picture of a sun.  They were so excited to show their parents their raindrops!

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download the Water Creation Page Here.

As I finish the other lessons I will post the links here:

For lesson 8 click here

For lesson 10 click here

For lesson 11 click here

For lesson 12 click here

For lesson 13 click here

For lesson 14 click here

For lesson 15 click here
Cover and Labels click here

PI 3.14 Day, DIY Pie on a Stick

Pi day is March 14.  Why? Because pi = 3.14 and PIE backwards is 314.

My daughter's middle school has Pie day on 3/14 (March 14) and the parents make pies for the school to sell by the slice as a fundraiser.  So instead of making a traditional pie we made pie on a stick.  I also wanted to give a little treat to the teachers.

First roll out your crust.  I used Pillsbury frozen crusts and rolled them out.  Take a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter and cut the dough - you will need 2 of each circle.  Place the circles on a cookie sheet leaving room for sticks.

Place the sticks on the circles.  I used the large sticks.

We used apple pie filling from a can.  Scoop it out - not too much, about two apples.  Place another circle on top and seal it closed.  We used the end of one of the sticks to push it together.

Spread some egg white on top and sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar.

Cook it according to the directions on the package of the crust.  Keep an eye on it.  Print out the tags, cut out, punch, and slide onto the stick.

Here is a closer look of the tag:

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!  

Download the tag here.

See my Link Party page to view Parties I've linked to.

Hats and Rainbows - St. Patrick's Day

So I realized that I never posted what I did last year for St. Patrick's Day.  Probably because I was still finishing them as I was running out the door.  Then I figured why would you need to know right after St. Patrick's Day?  I'm working on several posts right now, but since this holiday is quickly approaching I will finish it first.  To see all my St. Patrick's Day posts go here.

I made these for the kids and their teachers:

I apologize for the pictures.  Just take note that the paint scrapes off easily after it has been sprayed.  It needs some time to dry completely so it doesn't scrape off.

I just purchased the small Glad Containers:

I laid them out on newspaper:

Carefully spray paint them green:

Let them dry.  Hopefully you have a few days to let them dry so the cure all the way.  
I didn't get pictures of the next step, but wrap black ribbon around the base of the hat.  I cut out the buckles with my cricut and gypsy using glitter yellow paper.  I like the black ribbon with the white stitching best.
After they are dry you can fill them with with treasure and rainbow (or favorite treats, or gold coins, etc).  I used Rolos and skittles: 

I put the Rolos in first like gold treasure and then covered them up with a rainbow:

I don't think that I did, but you could use one of the tags I have made previously:

Those printables are found at the link above.

For dinner I went with the rainbow theme:

Rainbow Balloons hanging from the ceiling in an arc.

Individual Rainbow Fruit.  I like the fruit rainbow I made better, but these are quick and easy too.

Rainbow Jello.  

I made each color one at a time.  I decided to pour them into glasses instead of a glass pan.  It is a lot of Jello to eat though.  It took a few days, but this way I only had to use a small box of jello of each color.

I topped the jello with a cloud of cool whip.

I didn't use this for St. Patrick's Day, but I wanted to try it out.  Put food coloring in the water and then add the pasta to cook.  Obviously the red dye works better.  The one thing I remember thinking was that I needed to add more food coloring, more than you would think.  I haven't tried it again, but it is kind of fun.

See Link Party page for parties I have linked to.