Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Angry Birds Birthday Games - Toddler Approved!

In my previous post, I detailed how we made Angry Birds Visors as party favors for my son's third birthday.
Here I'll explain two quick and easy games we played that were appropriate for our guests aged 18 months through 5 years.

First,

Angry Birds 3-D! 


Materials
  • An assortment of empty boxes in various sizes
  • Candy or favor filled eggs (or baggies), several per child.  You could use green tissue paper to wrap "piggy packets;" we just used Easter eggs. 
  • Tape, for marking the throwing line on the floor. 
  • Missiles! We used the angry birds I crocheted, but you could use either purchased Angry plushies, bean bags, or light weight yellow, red, and blue balls.  
  • Optional: a light weight, toy sling-shot, such as is sold by the Dollar Tree in summer time for firing water balloons. 


To Play 

  • An adult sets up the "scene" by stacking the boxes on top of one another, then placing 3-4 candy filled eggs (the "pigs") in strategic locations throughout. 
  • Each child stands behind the throwing line and is given the same number of "birds" to toss. 
  • Any "pigs" that fall down and hit the floor are collected by the child after he's thrown all of his "birds."  
  • The adult then resets the scene for the next child.    
Tips 
  • Consider making two "throw" lines for different ages of kids, and definitely be ready to adjust on the fly.  It is surprising how difficult it is for a three year old to throw a ball with any accuracy even 3-4 feet. 
  • If you have older kids, definitely considering creating a sling-shot of some sort for firing. 
  • Let the adults play too!  It's quite entertaining!   

And now, a bonus game

Pin the Face on the Bird


Materials 
  • Big piece of white poster board
  • Big piece of red poster board
  • Construction paper in white, black, and yellow
  • Double-sided tape (or loops of ordinary cellophane tape) 

Construct the Game 
  • Use a compass to draw a circle on the red poster board about 70% of its width for the bird's body. 
  • I jury-rigged a compass from a string and two pencils, one of which serves as the pivot and other of which draws. This is harder than it sounds... be patient!  :) 
  • I think I used a second piece of white poster board for the tummy, but I don't remember.  You could patch something together out of two pieces of white paper.  Again, making the curve takes a little effort: I recommend tracing the bottom arc of the bird body, and then reversing that line for the top arc of the tummy.  
  • Eye-ball the rest of the features and cut them out of construction paper.  
  • I made two white eyes, two black eyeballs, two black eyebrows, two red head feathers, a beak, and a set of black tail feathers.  
  • Mount the red bird body (and, if you like, the tummy) on the white poster board.  Add a title, if you'd like.  Hang the whole game on a convenient wall or door at kid's eye level.  

Play! 
  • Prepare each piece with a piece of double-sided tape on the back.  
  • Have each child take one piece and apply it to the appropriate place on the board.  
  • (Make sure you hand out pieces in rough order - i.e. eyes before eyeballs, and eyebrows last of all!) 

Tips 
  • Depending on kid age, you could blindfold the players before they place their piece on the board.  We didn't, because they were mostly 2 and 3 years old.  
  • If you have older kids you could brainstorm ways of making the game competitive, a-la "pin the tail on the donkey." Again, we didn't - it was plenty of fun just to build the face, and all 5 or 6 kids were into it.  
  • Or, just enjoy the funny face when they're done - I thought ours ended up looking more concerned than angry!  :) 






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