3/21/15

Easter Egg Toss Game

(Matthew 21-28) Holy Week events &
(Matthew 28:6) He is risen!





Here's another idea that bloomed from Pinterest! The original idea came from Mammabeefromthehive.blogspot.com.au , but I made a change or two to make it into an educational game.


How To Play:


I added an element to the traditional toss game to make it educational by filling sixteen easter eggs with one question each. 


Each child, in turn, will pick an egg from the basket, open it, read the question aloud, then answer the question. If they get the answer correct, they get to toss their egg into the cups. If it lands in a purple cup, they get a treat (jelly bean, piece of chocolate, etc.) If it misses the cups or lands in a clear cup, no treat. If they get the answer wrong, they return the egg (with the question still inside) to the basket for someone else to pick. [Note: they do not get to toss the egg if they get the answer wrong. This sounds a little harsh, right? Well, not really, because we will have just reviewed all the answers in detail while making our Holy Week Bookmarks (see post below). When we are going to play a game, I always tell the kids to pay close attention to the lesson because they will have to answer questions during the game. This makes them extra alert! :) I make it very clear what questions may be asked during game play, so the kids are well prepared by the time we get to the game.] After all the questions have been answered, everyone gets to toss empty eggs until they tire of it.




Materials:


I am sure lots of different materials would work for this. I scouted around my house and used what I already had on hand. Feel free to do the same. I love it when I can recycle items AND I don't have to go to the store!



1 Foam core board
34 Clear plastic cups
X-acto knife
Scissors (or paper cutter)
Ruler
Cylinder (soup cans, empty Pringles can, wrapping paper roll, 2 more of the clear plastic cups, or anything that can serve as legs)
Basket
Plastic Easter eggs
Questions & Answers (download here) 
Approximately 6 pieces of purple construction paper (purple because that is the liturgical color of Easter)
Optional: circle cutter


How to build:

1) Line up the cups 5 columns by 7 rows. 

2) Measure the area at the bottom of the cups. 

3) Cut the foam core big enough for all the cups to fit on.

4) Hot glue the cups to the foam core. I wasn't sure if the hot glue would make the cups melt or not. I'm happy to report, it didn't. The hot glue worked beautifully.




5) Cut the cylinder to the desired height. 




6) If using a cardboard cylinder, cut one end at an angle to hold the core at an angle. If using something like cans that cannot be cut, just hot glue the edge that touches the board. There is no need to make this thing super strong. The cups weigh next to nothing and there will not be any pressure put on the board. The only purpose of the legs is to tilt the board at an angle.



7) Hot glue the legs to the underside at the top end only. The bottom end will rest directly on the floor. Exact placement doesn't matter as long as it isn't wobbly. 

8) Cut eleven strips of purple construction paper to fit inside the eleven cups that form a cross. I also added circles to the bottom of the cups because I like the way it looks better. The circles are completely optional, though. It would be fine either way.



9) Print and cut out each question. Place one question in each egg. Place eggs in the basket. NOTE: My questions are about the days of Holy Week. Of course, any questions would work just as well. I typically have 7 to 10 children in my class any given week, so 16 questions were plenty. If your class is larger, you may want more. If you need question ideas, send me an email, and I'll be happy to help.

That's it. Very easy. Very fast. Once I decided on the materials, it only took about 30 minutes to build the game board and another 5 or 10 to prepare the eggs.


Happy Easter! 


~~~~~Update: 
Oh, what fun we had today! The kids loved this game! And I have to say, making the bookmarks before playing the game worked out perfectly. By the end of the game, everyone had a great understanding of the order the Holy Week events and were excited to take their bookmarks home so they could refer to it each day during the upcoming Holy Week. 


The kids were not ready to go home when their parents came to pick them up. Don't you just love it when that happens?!




I am very careful to not take pictures of children for the blog for privacy & safety issues, so sometimes my pictures do not adequately reflect the excitement we experience in class. This is definitely one of those times.



NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

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