It is rainy here again and my little guy was bummed that he couldn't play bocce ball outside this morning (his new obsession). I decided to come up with a little activity that kept him moving (inspired by this flip card game over at No Time For Flashcards)... but also worked on the key bocce ball skill that he needs to learn- ROLLING (not throwing) the heavy balls.
Materials Needed: notecards (or cut up pieces of cardstock), markers, straws (or popsicle sticks if you want to do this outside), scissors, and tape.
Directions:
1. Brainstorm your activity ideas and write them down. We had simple things to do like rolling or doing a somersault and then we included activities that might take a little longer (build a block tower and knock it down, play playdough, drive cars around on the car track, etc.).
We put a little picture next to the words to try and help my little guy know what the card said. Some of the pictures are terrible! 🙂 I also included a few cards that said "go to the bathroom" since we've been potty training our little guy over the past few months.
2. Tape the cards to the straws.
3. Cut slits in the bottom of the straws. Tape the straws to the floor. I'm sure you could come up with a much sturdier way to make these... but the goal of the game was to knock these down... and my son LOVED trampling these and knocking them over, so I didn't spend too much time making them (since they were going to get hammered). If you use popsicles sticks and do this outside you can just stick the popsicle sticks into the grass.
(my son is obsessed with the Beatles, can you tell?)
4. Tape the sticks all around and try to spread them out.
5. Grab a ball (We used a big soft one that was easy to roll. Smaller balls would be perfect if you want to make hitting the signs a little trickier).
6. Knock down a sign and then do what it says!
Our favorite signs were the activity ones that lasted a little longer. We actually added a few more of them after we realized how much fun we were having. This was such a great activity for what could have been a boring rainy morning! We didn't have to come up with activities because our big boulder would tell us what to do! 🙂
Here are a few pictures of our rainy day fun
I am usually not a huge fan of the rain, but today I absolutely loved it! It gave us a much needed day to spend time with each other just playing. I am definitely looking forward to the summer weather tomorrow though!
what am awesome idea!!