Super Bowl Fun and Games

It might be a little late for Super Bowl party ideas (or ridiculously early lol), but these activities were a lot of fun, and might work for some other things too.

I "Heart" books

You know those fans that write messages like, "Kaepernick is the best" or "I 'heart' Flacco?" Well I thought it would be cool if we did the same thing with books =D

Paper Football

Some of my friends will be really bored at a restaurant or something, and inevitably, out comes the paper football. Did you know that there is actually a fun (albeit simple) game that goes along with it?

Target Practice

What's better than throwing a bunch of plastic balls at oatmeal containers, paper towel rolls, and cups? Not much apparently hehe. This was one of our favorite activities actually.

Food

I figured that a Super Bowl party wouldn't be complete without the food, so we bought some chips and some pop, and all together, we had a great time!

High School Literary Character Brawl pt. 3

Welcome to 2013 everyone =D How were your holidays?

As promised before the New Year, here is the postmortem for our High School Literary Character Brawl. Don't get me wrong. The program was awesome, and all the participants said it was a lot of fun...but that doesn't mean it can't be done better!

1. Snacks Appreciated
Apparently some food (pizza, maybe?), and some water pitchers would have been life safers.

2. Create Character-Specific events
Our participants suggested that we make the Literary Character Brawl even more of an integral part to the program. So instead of choosing random games, have participants choose their characters before the program, and then come up with games that would be appropriate for those characters. We could even offer special points if the character won their own event.

3. A Little Less Brawl
While the beat-each-other-with-pool-noodle brawls were fun, they got a little repetitive after the first time. It was also a little frustrating to do girls versus guys, so do gender specific rounds. Most of our events were physical the first time around, so one suggestion was to mix the skills needed so the most fit person wasn't winning everything.

4. More Mind Games
The riddles were enjoyed, but differentiating between trivia, riddles, and puns would have been helpful. It would also be cool to have riddles from specific places like fantasy books or Star Wars. Going back to less physical activities, games like poker, blackjack, or other card games could help also.

Got any other suggestions? Let me know =D

Strange Food Mixes: Why Not?

So here's a weird and fun programming idea for you; Strange Mixes. I thought, why not give kids a chance to experiment with different combinations of food items?

For my program I bought the following list, but you can mix and match with pretty much anything:

spreads (Nutella and cream cheese)
vegetables (celery)
fruit (grapes, pears, raisins, and a dried fruit mix)
crackers (Ritz and Saltines)
cheese (Swiss, Gouda, Provolone)
french fries
dipping condiments (ranch, barbecue sauce, ketchup, and mustard)

The idea behind the french fries and dipping condiments is if a kiddo couldn't find anything else they liked, they would at least like the french fries.

Also behind the scenes of this list was cheeses with fruit, different ways to make ants on a log, and cheeses and crackers.

Another aspect we wanted to do, but didn't have time for, was adding different spices to the spreads and condiments. My boss, Miss Karen, suggested adding cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice (experiment with each separately or all together) to the cream cheese and maybe some chili or curry powder to the ketchup.

If you are on a tight budget, buying a lot of food might be a bit expensive. But, if you have the means, this program was a lot of fun and encouraged kids to try new things and actually think about why something might taste good together.