We have had some rainy days here recently and being stuck inside combined with having a newborn has led to some cabin fever for all of us! So the other day I made a quick game using some old milk containers for some indoor fun and energy-burning!
This is SO easy and took me literally two minutes to do, so a great last minute “I’m tearing my hair out and need a diversion NOW!” idea! (we need a lot of those at the moment it seems!)
Simply cut into the bottom of a plastic milk container using sharp scissors. Remove the pieces (as shown below) and voila, two catchers with ready-made handles, all ready to play!
We found the adorable bean bag chickens that Maggy from Red Ted Art gave to Pop for her 2nd birthday and decided they were the perfect thing to throw and catch with. Check out how to make these yourself at Maggy’s tutorial here. To increase the difficulty you could try using a tennis ball or even ping pong balls!
And then we set to playing! Daddy demonstrated the perfect under-arm throw and Cakie perfected her catch. Using such a large catching device made it easy for her to achieve and she got some fantastic practise with her hand-eye co-ordination and gross motor skills.
Not to mention plenty of running around, jumping, throwing, fetching and general laughter! Food for the soul on a cooped up rainy afternoon!
Leraning Links:
- physical: gross motor movements and control, hand-eye coordination, underarm throwing to a target
- pshe: turn taking, learning how to lose!
Cakie: 3 years
Pop: 2 years
Pop: 2 years
What do YOU do on days when you feel you are going mad with little ones underfoot?!
Love this great game! I’m sharing your post on teachmetotalk.com’s FB page. Thanks! Laura
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Not sure what happened to the first post but here goes again. Recent rainy days have also meant quick thinking and we have picnics in strange places 🙂
http://nannynannynannynannynanny.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pic-nic.html
What a cute idea!!! This would be a great game to incorporate in a math lesson when teaching distance, velocity and/or probability!! I def. am not the “math teacher”…hehehe, I teach elementary or middle school language arts, but math was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this. When I taught middle school special education (pull-out/resource), I always had the most difficult time coming up with creative ways to teach math. Now, I see things that spark ideas all the time!! This was one of my determinants that caused me NOT to take the 8th grade special education position.
Thank you for sharing your creative ideas!!
Michelle
3amteacher@gmail.com
The 3AM Teacher
Visit The 3AM Teacher FB Page
I love the look of pure joy on your daughter’s face! What a great way to have some fun and get moving indoors! Great idea!
Fun! Love this idea. I’m thinking we’ll take this outside this summer to catch some water balloons;)
Brilliant – and my goodness, there are ALWAYS at least two 4 pint milk bottles in the recycling box waiting for a good use! My little man (aged 2 and a half) cannot get to grips with catching, so our games are always pretty short – this might be a way to improve that co-ordination!
Oh, I just love this idea!! We are just coming into autumn and wintery weather here so I will be keeping this activity in mind for those rainy days. Thanks so much! Love it!!
Oooh what a fabulously cute idea!!!! So pleased our bean bag chicks are coming in hand! I think we will have to make a catching utensil too! fabulous. Thanks for the mention 🙂
Maggy xx
So cute!
I’d love it if you shared this with the Fun Family Crafts audience.
FFC is similar to Craftgawker but it only features kid friendly tutorials.
Looking forward to seeing what fun crafts you submit!
http://funfamilycrafts.com
You can also make a DIY baseball plates for your little boys. They can use this for practice. You may never know if they’ll like it.