Uncatecorized

A fortune teller

Get a piece of paper (white or coloured) and cut it into a square.
Now fold each point of the square into the centre point of the square.
After that flip your sheet of paper over and fold each corner point into the centre point again.
Flip it over, pick up in your hands and slip your fingers into the pockets of paper in each of the four corners.
All you need to do is to decorate it, marking the outside with colours or pictures and the inside with numbers and the under flaps with fortune messages.

How to play:

The player asks a question of the person holding fortune teller and then chooses colour or picture in the outside.
The holder opens and closes a fortune teller as he spells the word.
Then the player choose a number from the inside and the holder opens and closes the toy as he counts to that number.
Finally the player should choose one of the flaps revealed. The child with a fortune teller lifts the flap and reads the prediction underneath.

Children like easy answers and predictions such as:

Your desire will be fulfilled.
Pleasant surprise is waiting for you.
You will travel to many beautiful places.
Soon you will find what you are looking for.
You will be invited to an exciting event.

A chain of paper dolls

Creating a chain of paper dolls is a great way to spend rainy afternoon with children as well as make colourful decorations for birthday parties. It is simple and fun!

You will need: paper, pencil, scissors, coloured pencils.

1. First of all take a white or colour sheet of paper and fold it in accordion style.

2. On the top piece of the folded paper draw a person (hands should extend to touch the folds of the paper on each side).

3. Cut the folded paper following the drawn lines, but do not cut where the hands meet the folds.

4. Draw a face on each person and colour them with crayons, coloured pencils or oil pastels.

5. Unfold the paper strip and take a look at your chain of people.

Limbo Dancing

You will need: broom handle or long smooth stick and music to play this game.

Two players hold the stick at a quit high height for a start.

Turn up some upbeat music and ask everyone who want to play to form a line. Players start limbo dancing under the stick.

Players may not touch the stick. Another rule is that players should lead with feet and knees, while walking head first is forbidden. Only feet can touch the ground.

When all the players had a go, the stick is lowered a little. Players, who touch the stick or fall, are out of the game.

Repeat the process until you have a winner.

Limbo Game Variations

Funny Limbo – Funny variation of this game: all game rules are the same, just give players 2 pillows and ask to attach them from the front and from the back side with ropes or belts, and then put large-sized t-shirt to hide pillows. Now you can play, have dozens of fun!

You can also try Flashlight limbo, if you are having a late night party, when it‘s dark outside. All you need is a flashlight instead of a stick. If some body part comes into contact with light, the player is eliminated.

In hot summer days it’s really fun to play Water limbo, when you use a water hose instead of a stick. Tip: the ground will become wet, so expect lots of slips and slides!

Backwards limbo – in this variation the players have to walk under the limbo stick not forwards, but backwards. This creates some extra challenge. Lower the stick after each round. Each player, who cannot walk backwards under the stick, is eliminated. The last player is the winner.

Limbo with hats – for this game you need to prepare several large hats. In the first round the players walk under the limbo stick as usual, but in the second round all the players have to go under the limbo stick with hats on their heads.

Cat Tails

Make tails from long strips of cloth (one for each child). Kids should tuck their tails into the back of their pants so that it just touches the ground and be sure that the tails are able to come off easily.
After the word „Go“, players try to step on each other’s tails, while protecting their own tails. The player, that lost his tail, is out of the game. The last kid with the tail becomes the winner of this game.

Wolf, shepherd and sheep

One of the players becomes „wolf“, one – „shepherd“, all other players are sheep, standing in a row one after another, putting hands on the shoulders. The shepherd stands first in the row. While the wolf is trying to tag the last sheep, the shepherd is trying to prevent this. It could be set some period of time, during which the wolf should tag all the sheep. If he does, he wins. But if the shepherd manages to keep some of his sheep, then he is the winner of the game.

Eleven combinations

For this game you will need a pair of dice, a piece of paper and a pen/pencil.
There are eleven combinations that the dots on a pair of dice can compose. It would be: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The aim of this game is to roll all of these combinations.
Ask players to sit in a circle and take turn rolling the couple of dice. All the results (the sum of two dice for each roll) are written on a piece of paper. The player, that will catch all eleven combinations first is the winner.

Team Juggling

It is better to play this game in your backyard or in the park. You will need 5 tennis balls for 5 players (number of balls should be the same as number of players) to play this game.
All players should stand in a circle and discuss the scheme, how the ball will be thrown. Scheme could look like this: the first player throws the ball to the third player, the third – to the fifth, the fifth – to the forth, and the forth – to the first. And so on.
Tip 1: start with two balls, and gradually increase the number of balls till it reaches five (or more, depending on number of players).
Tip 2: so that juggling would be successful try to keep the even rhythm of throwing balls.

Paper Plane Attack

For this game prepare a pile of paper.
Divide players into two teams, give them paper and ask to make a lot of paper planes.
Place some tall divider (for example, a couch) across the room and get teams on either side of it.
On the command „go“ each team starts throwing their planes across the divider to the other team. Important rules: one player can pick up and throw only one plane at a time.
After 3-4 minutes the leader gives a ten second countdown and shout „stop“. Players should stop throwing planes and the leader counts the number of planes on each side.
The team with the least number of planes wins the game.

Wacky waiter

You will need: a large plastic dinner plate and a ping pong ball for each team.
Split players into two teams. Then put a ping pong ball on each plate and give one to the leader of each team. Teams should line up at the start line and on the “Go“ the first player of each team begins to run as fast as he can, holding the plate waiter-style, to the turnaround point, then runs back and gives his plate to the next player of his team, who does the same. The fastest team is the winner.
If any player drops the ball, he picks it, puts back on his plate, and begins from the spot, where the ball was dropped.

Three-Legged Race

For this game you will need scarves or fabric strips that will be used for tying children’s legs together.
Divide children into pairs. It would be perfect, if children have similar height and build.
Players of each couple should stay close to each other, so that leader of the game could tie their inside legs (right leg of player in the left and left leg of player in the right).
Then couples stand before start line and on the command “go” start walking or running as fast as they can. The couple that reach finish line first becomes the winner.

Little crocodiles

All players divide into teams of 3, 4 or 5 players. Players of each team should form up a line, and between each player there should be one balloon, which is hold by backs and chests.
The aim of this game is to run a certain distance. The fastest team is the winner.
If any balloon is dropped, player should replace it and start moving from the spot where balloon was dropped.
If the balloon had burst, the team is disqualified from the game.

Fun party games with food

Longest peel competition

The aim of this competition is to see who can make the longest apple peel during a certain period of time.

Doughnuts-on-a-string

For this game you will need: a rope, ribbons, doughnuts (one per player).
Get two people to hold a long rope (or tie it between trees if you play outside).
Then tie a piece of ribbon to doughnut and hang them on a rope. Doughnuts should hang at the height that is slightly above mouth level.
Players must eat their doughnuts without using hands and without letting it fall!
Let‘s start, who will eat his doughnut first?!

Chopstick chase

For this fun team game you will need: pair of chopsticks per player, 2 bowls per team, 2 chairs per team, marshmallows or similar.

The aim of this game is to put all marshmallows from one bowl to another bowl using chopsticks.
Separate chairs at an equal distance from each other. Put a bowl on each chair. For every team there are two bowls, one is with marshmallows, and the other is empty. Put equal number of marshmallows for every team.

Give chopsticks to kids, divide them into teams and line up behind chairs with empty bowls. On go, the first kid runs to the bowl with marshmallows and tries to carry a marshmallow to the empty bowl. If marshmallow is dropped, a new marshmallow is put in the bowl and the player has to run from the start line.

The team, which carried all marshmallows from one bowl to the other bowl faster than other, is the winner.

Higher than the ground

The leader is catching other players in some location, where some hills, large stones, stairs or some other places, higher than ground. Players try to run away from the leader. The player can become inviolable, when he gets on a higher place – the leader cannot tag him there, so he should wait till he climbs down or try to catch another player. The player that was tagged becomes the new leader.

Bobbing for Apples

You will need buckets of water, some apples.
The aim of this game is to remove apples from the bucket without using hands.
Tip: have a bucket with 3 apples for each child, so that it would be a race to see who will get all the apples of the bucket first.

Variation of this game:
Hang apples with some string at child height. Aim of this game is the same – to grab the apple without using hands.

Tree and stone

One player is the leader, who is catching all other players. When he tags one of the players, he says: „tree!“ or „stone!“. If the leader says „tree“ , the tagged player should rise his hands and stand with legs wide apart, while if the leader says „stone“, the player should squat. Other players might release them, for this purpose they need to jump over the „stones“ or crawl under the „tree“. Then tagged players can run again.

Freeze

One player is the leader, who is catching all other players in some definite field. Player who is tagged becomes “frozen” and must stand in place with his arms stretched out until he is unfrozen – other players can perform an action to unfreeze him, such as tagging him. When all the players are standing “frozen”, the game is over.

Stork and frog

The leader jumps with one leg and tries to catch other players, which are squatting.

Sick cat

One player is a „healthy cat“, which tries to catch other players. If the leader manages to reach out and touch somebody, then the caught player should hold his hands in those places, where he was touched. The caught player becomes „the sick cat“, which now is catching other players along with „the healthy cat“. The last player, who was not caught, becomes „the healthy cat“ in the next game.

Kangaroo Hop Racing

Each player put a balloon between the knees. Players should line up at the start line and after the command “Go!” everyone begins to jump like kangaroos, seeking to reach the finish as fast as they can.

If any player drops his balloon, he should place it between the knees again, and start jumping from the spot where balloon was dropped.

If balloon had burst, the player is disqualified from the game.

Water relay

To prepare for this fun outdoor game you will need:
A bucket and a large bowl per team, one cup per team, water.

The goal of this game is to fill a bowl with water from a bucket using a cup as fast as possible.

Separate bowls and buckets at an equal distance from each other. For every team there is a bucket filled with water and a large empty bowl. Divide kids into teams, line them up at a start line (behind empty bowls) and give a cup to each team. On “go” the first kid runs to his bucket with water and tries to carry as much water in a cup as possible and as fast as he can.

The team, which will manage to fill the empty bowl with water faster than other becomes the winner.

Create new sayings

The goal of this game is to create new sayings from a given well known proverbs. In the beginning you choose one proverb, for instance it could be „The longest journey starts with a single step“. And the task of the players is to make analogical sayings to this given particular proverb. The saying could be like this:

„The highest building begins with a single brick“.
„The greatest novel begins with a single word“.

What did you like most

Everyone tells about one favourite, the most exciting experience that he had during a week, month or a trip.

Acronym interpretation

Leader of the game should choose one well-known acronym and all the players one after another try to decrypt it. In the end you can vote for the wittiest description.

Examples, how acronyms could be decrypted:
NASA – no aliens seen anywhere
BMW – broke my wallet
CNN – constantly negative news

Another fun activity is to create words using letters of car number plates. Just look at the last 3 letters and make a word.
Examples:
When car number plate is „303 mrg“, word can be „morning“.

Who is the leader

All players stand in the circle.

Then one player stands in the middle and closes his eyes, while other players quietly choose a leader. Then the middle player opens his eyes, and the rest of the players make the same moves like the leader, follow all his actions.

The middle player should watch their actions and guess, who is the leader.

Tip: players should „follow the leader“ as fast and as precisely as possible.

Guessing game ideas

Game „Hot-cold“

One player thinks of an object and other players try to guess it by given directions: warm, hot – when they are close, and cooler, chill or cold – when they stray far away.

Game „What is my profession?“

One player thinks of some profession, and other players should guess that profession buy asking questions, requiring answer „yes“ or „no“.

Blind conductor

All players stand in a circle and go round singing a popular song.

„Blind conductor“ stands in the middle blindfolded. After some time he points at one the singing players and that player should sing alone with a changed voice. „Blind conductor“ tries to guess that person, and if he succeeds, then the singer becomes the new „blind conductor“.

Who am I

This game is a great icebreaker for larger groups of people, who don‘t know each other well. Just pick one name for each person, write it on a label and stick it to his back, so that he couldn‘t see it.

The name can represent celebrities, movie characters, historical personalities and so on.

Each person will get 15 „yes/no“ questions to find out whose name he is wearing. The questions could be the following: „Am I a woman?“, „Am I alive?“, „Am I a singer“, etc.

One of the rules is not to ask only one person, but mingle. Whoever guesses his name correctly first becomes the winner.

Short words

The point of this game is to choose one long word and compose many short words from its letters. Players tell short words one after another, until nobody can think of new short word. The player, who creates the last word, becomes the winner.

Examples of long words: temperature, presentation, magnificence, improvisation, transparency.

Example of short words derived from „temperature“: map, rat, pet, pure, put, pear, tear, tap, tare and so on.

Fun with proverbs

This game will help you to remember proverbs that you already know and learn new ones. For this purpose the leader of the game should prepare a list of proverbs. And when the game begins he reads only the first half of the proverb (like „Every cloud…“, while all other players try to complete it by saying the second part. The player, who knows and tells the ending of the proverb first („…has a silver lining“), gets one point. Then leader says the beginning of the second proverb and so on. The player with the biggest amount of points becomes the winner.

Tip: if children do not succeed in guessing proverbs, you can make this task easier – write the second parts of proverbs on separate cards and put them in front of the players, so that they could read and choose the one that seems correct.

Suggested proverbs:

Well begun is half done.
The best things in life are free.
Better late than never
If you want a thing done right, do it yourself.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
No bees, no honey; no work, no money.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
When the cat is away, the mice will play.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Rome was not built in a day.
The darkest hour is just before the dawn.
The longest journey starts with a single step.
Where there is a will there is a way.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Fun personality test Jungle

This game is for those, who like to explore their personality. You can play it with your friends or family members on a rainy day at home, or having a picnic somewhere in a beautiful place. It is a chance to let speak your subconscious and know more about yourself.

The leader tells: Imagine that you went for a walk and you approached a jungle. What do you do? Do you go deeper in the jungle? How do you feel? How does jungle look like? (All players should write their answers to themselves)

Leader: You walk through the jungle and find a key. How does it look like? What is it for? What do you do with the key – take it or leave it? (Players write their answers)

Leader: You go further and find water. What kind of water is it? What is your action? (Players write their answers)

Leader: Then you approach to the house. How does it look like? What do you do? (Players write their answers)

Leader: After some time you find a burrow. Who does this burrow belong to? How do you act?

After all the players have written their answers, the leader of the game explains: Jungle means your attitude to life, key means art, water means love , house means science and burrow means death. Now look at your notes, maybe your will discover something new about yourself.

Associations

This game works great both at home and while travelling, both for old friend and new ones, no matter what age are they. Moreover, you don‘t need any materials and any preparation to play it. So let‘s get started.

The first player starts the game with any word he likes. (for example „sun“) Another player quickly tells a word that comes to his mind after hearing the first one. (for example „summer“) The third player shares his word, which associates with the second word. (for example „vacation“).

Tip: the point is to say the words without thinking, only the one that comes to your mind first.

The association chain could look like this: Sun – summer – vacation – sea – beach – sandcastle – fairy tale – … and so on.

Tongue twisters

To play this game you don‘t need any preparation, no materials – just your tongue.

Choose one of tongue twisters and say it as fast as possible. The player, who says tongue twister faster than others without messing up, is the winner. Examples of tongue twisters:

A box of mixed biscuits, a mixed biscuit box

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore

We surely shall see the sun shine soon

Freshly-fried flying fish

I can think of six thin things, but I can think of six thick things too

Red lorry, yellow lorry

If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch

Stop and go

This game is versatile, it is fun to play it for all ages, so your friends and family members will love it. All you need is a group of people (the more the better, but you can start with 5-7) and pretty spacious room. Or you can play this game outside.

The players are walking in the room and watch each other. When one of the players stops, other should do this too, and one of them starts walking or jumping or make other movements, all other players should repeat his actions.

Version II: The player, saying „stop“, is staying in some pose, and the players should freeze in that pose. When one of the players says „go“ and moves in some definite way, all the players start moving the same way too.

Version III: All players move freely in the room. When one of the players says „stop“, everyone should freeze. Then one of players might say „go“, and everyone starts walking.

Name that number

This fun guessing game is perfect to play anytime you have a few extra minutes during car rides or waiting in a queue. One of the players should think of a number from 0 to 10, while another player makes guesses. The first player should give answers „higher“ or „lower“ to help steer to the unknown number. Depending on the child‘s age, the range of numbers could be from 0 to 50 or more.

The game could go like this:

1 st player: I will think of a number from 0 to 15.

2 nd player: Is it 15?

1 st player: No, lower.

2 nd player: Is it 10?

1 st player: Now, higher. So it is a number between 10 and 15.

While playing this game, kids are learning how to compare and order number by more or less.

In the beginning, if it is too difficult for a child, parent can prepare a short line of numbers from 0 to 10 on a paper. And if the task is too easy, you can limit the number of guesses or guess the number during a certain period of time.

Zzip and Bzz

Math can be fun! Try the game “ZZip and Bzz” that help kids to learn math in a fun and interesting way.

The goal of the game is to count from 1 to a target number (for example 40). First player starts by saying the number “1”. The next player says “2”, third person says “3”, and so on and so forth. Whenever you get to the number “5” or a multiple of “5” (ex. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 , etc) that person must say Zzip, and when you get to the number “7” or a multiple of “7” (ex. 7,14,21,28, etc) that person must say Bzz. And for multiples of „5“ and „7“ (35, 70, etc), player should say „zzip bzz“. If someone messes up, the counting starts from the very beginning.

Trip with a purpose

Players one after another think of city /country and action, starting from the same letter and create a sentence.

For example:

I will go to Switzerland to ski.

I will go to Rome to run marathon.

I will go to Paris to play the violin.

Create a story

First player starts telling a story. He can start with “Once upon a time” or with one sentence and leave it incomplete, possibly ending with words (suddenly, however, then, etc.). Next player continues the story and also cuts his sentence, passing it to another player. The story telling lasts as long as players wish.

For example:

1st player: One day Susan went to a nice park for a walk and suddenly …

2nd player: She saw a small white dog, which …

3rd: Looked lost and very sad, so Susan …

And so on.

Tip: Decide on a genre of the story in advance – will it be a fairy tale, a ghost story or something else.

More complicated way to play this game: make a story without a chosen letter. All rules are the same, but it is forbidden to use one chosen letter. For example all words should exclude letter „c“. Those players, who accidentally have used „the forbidden letter“, are removed from the game. The last left player wins.

The same letter

The goal of this game is to make a sentence using words that start with the same letter.  For example: you decide to make the sentence using words that start with letter „W“. The sentence could look like this:

While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington’s windows with warm washing water.

The author of the longest sentence is the winner!

Funny Singing

You can choose any song that you all know. The point of this game is to sing this song not in a simple way, but in a funny way. For example you can offer to sing it as a chicken, as a dog, Winnie-the-Pooh, etc.
The first player tells the second one, which animal or character he should imitate.
After the second players sings, he tells what character should be imitated by the third player.
And so on.

Create your own Fairytale

Now turn on your imagination and Create your own Fairytale. Start with a title of the story or just a first sentence. Here are some ideas for your stories:

1. Dog that lived in a cruise ship

2. Man that invented a flying house

3. Frog that dreamed to be a rock star

4. Bear that was a gourmet

5. Caterpillar that became a butterfly

6. Girl that learned to dance like a ballerina

7. Penguin that never saw the ocean

8. Cat that read thousands of books

9. Boy that liked to watch the stars

10. Beaver that built a wooden skyscraper

Ways to share love

“All you need is love!” The Beatles sang and looks like this is an answer to all the questions of life. And here are some ideas how to express it and good ways to keep in touch with your kids or beloved ones while being away.

Love notes/letters is old-fashioned but the most pleasant way to say things to your dear ones! If you do not trust snail-mail ask someone to help you and put letters which you have prepared before your leave in one place so that your kid could find them every day. (You can also make a post box from a shoe box so that the “mailman” could bring the letters).

If you’re a music lover, send your dear ones a song each time you think of them! You can do it via e-mail or make a music CD with songs that remind you of a time with your beloved ones. You can rename the songs on your playlist after the moments or record your comments before each track! If you’re up to it seriously you can make such CD for every day you’re away.

The other lovely way to remind your kids that you love them is to record fairy-tails or stories, or just things that you like about them and why they are dear to you, sing their favourite songs or tell what you remember about the time you’ve spent together, games you’ve played and so on. Make a CD or audiotape if you have an opportunity (the sound is more life alike) so that kids could listen to you every day before sleep.

You can also make a list of fun things to do before you come back. For example, leave a jar with small notes about with the tasks (go for an ice- cream, read a book, watch a movie, visit your grandparents, play with your friends, and so on) so that kids could take one and see what their fun of today will be.

What’s in a bag?

“What’s in a bag?” could be a fun activity to do in a car. Before leaving prepare a bag that is not transparent and hard enough that others can’t see the form of a thing you’re going to put in it.

Players can ask twenty “yes/no” questions each to find out what is in the bag. The winner then can have a thing. That could be something sweet or some small toys, books for colouring or even things that you could use for the next activity. For example, pencils and note books.

You can also use these ideas for trips with your friends. It’s always fun to have something to do on the long road!

Waving

A person waving from a car is quite a rare thing, yet it’s usually fun and brings smiles! Before your trip write down some posters for the people in the cars you’ll meet on the road. Use wide dark marker and heavy paper or cardboard for that. Then give posters to kids and let them show those posters from the car window and see the reactions of other people! Take some extra paper in case kids would have their own ideas to write down! You can also make a competition and count how many people did actually wave for each of the kids!

Sentences for the posters could be:

Wave if you love dogs!
Wave if you love pizza!
Wave if you have a sister/brother!
Wave if it’s your birthday!
Wave if you are famous!
Wave if you’re on holidays!
Wave if you’re happy!
Wave if you’re going home!
Wave if you like ice-cream!
Wave if you like to swim!
And so on.

Natural disaster experiments

Amazing experiments can be done just with some simple household things. It’s a good way to impress someone and surely to make a start for a wonderful journey into the world of science for youngsters! Even though dangerous and destroying, the most fascinating happenings are volcano and geyser eruptions, and tornadoes. Thanks to science it’s possible to make them happen home in a safe way with a possibility to observe and discover how it works!

Volcano eruption: You’ll need baking soda (not baking powder!), vinegar, a container or big pot to avoid big mess. Then as simple as that put some soda in the container, pour some vinegar on the middle of it and watch the volcanic eruption!

Geizer eruption: The ingredients for this eruption are large bottle of Diet Coke (check the expiration date – there’s more fizz in recently packed ones!), half pack or so of Mentos, and some kind of tube or funnel (there are special geyzer tubes to buy, but you can use your imagination and create your own!). This experiment is a bit messy so do it in a place that won’t worry you when the Coke lands everywhere. Stand the Coke bottle steadily and unscrew the lid. Put the tube and prepare around half pack of Mentos. Now your task is to put Mentos in the bottle all at the same time and then run aside when the eruption comes!

Tornado: Totally safe as it will be closed in a bottle! For this experiment you’ll need a plastic bottle with a cap, water, and dish washing liquid. Start by filling around three quarters of your bottle with water and add few drops of dish washing liquid. Close the bottle with the cap tightly so there is no water leakage. Now start tornado by turning the bottle upside down and holding it by the neck spin it around quickly so there is a circular motion. Stop after a few seconds and observe tornado! It will be small and might not be seen after the first time. Therefore, spin the bottle few times more! You can also add some glitter so the tornado would be more visible! Have fun!

Fun learning projects

One of the easiest ways to learn and recognise things is when they are a part of your environment and everyday life. These are few ideas how to learn about art, but they can be easily adapted to such things as biology or astronomy as well!

To start with, every week or month prepare an exhibition at home of an artist that you’d like your kid/s to know about (that can be painters, dancers, musicians and so on)! The easiest way is to browse the Internet for some information and then prepare a board with some information and images. If you’re exhibiting a sound or visual artist, listen tracks or watch some videos.

The more difficult yet more fun way is to go library together with your kids and find some books. This way you can introduce your children to libraries and it’s always more pleasant to browse through some art books than watch it in the screen (and you don’t have to buy books!). Another big step is museum (or theatre and concerts!). If you have possibility, visit an exhibition of the works of the artists that you’ve learned about. It’s always a big difference to see an original works of art!

When your child has some knowledge of art, propose him to make his own encyclopaedia of art/music/dance/etc. Use a bigger scrapbook, printed images from the Internet or cuts from old magazines, scissors and glue to put everything into a personal (or family) art book! Encourage your kid to write down some most interesting facts about the artist’s life, techniques he used to create the work, place and year where the piece of art was made, why he likes this particular work. If there’s more enthusiasts to make such encyclopaedia they can share each other’s works and tell things they found out – it’s a great way to learn even more and in a fun way!

Easy science experiments

Our world is full of wonders. Fortunately, some of the wonders can be created with simple household supplies! Use them for fun and education!

Invisible ink might be known from movies when ancient secrets are sometimes written on old maps or pieces of paper. Apparently, it’s very easy to make at home! To prepare some ink you’ll need a half of lemon and some water. Firstly, squeeze lemon juice into a bowl and add a little water (just a few drops) and stir the juice and water with a spoon. After, take a cotton bud and grab a little of the mixture with it. Now you can write your secret message on a piece of white paper. The secret is ready to be read when the paper is dry. To do that you’ll need to heat your piece of paper holding it near a light bulb! Tip: you can use this trick in treasure hunting games. For example, by making an invisible map or one of the tasks!

Rainbow is one of the most beautiful things on the Earth. Luckily, with the help of science you don’t have to wait for a rainy and sunny day at the same time! It’s enough of a sunny day, a glass of water and white paper to enjoy it more often. Take the glass with water, paper and find a window where the sun shines into a room. Hold the glass of water between the window and the paper so that the light passes through the glass. See how the light reflects and creates a colourful rainbow on the piece of paper! Move the glass with water into different positions and see how this affects the rainbow!

Another thing that you can do with water is to bend it with static. To do this kind of experiment you’ll need a plastic comb or an inflated balloon, a water stream (from a tap or water hose) and dry hair. Start with turning on the water (make it fall as a narrow stream of few millimetres), then brush your or somebody else’s dry hair with a comb (or rub the balloon into the hair) for a few times and move the comb or the balloon near the stream of water (do it slowly and don’t touch the water!). Enjoy the water bending!

Star watching

Summer is a perfect time of the year to discover the night life of the sky. When sun comes down, the whole new world of lights opens up for exploration!

It is actually enough to go outside and lift up your eyes into the sky. However if you live in a big city you might want to go outside of it so that the city lights wouldn’t distract the view. In that case grab a blanket, flashlight, map of stars (or even telescope) and some snacks and hit the road while you find a nice field or hill to settle down. While you gazing at the stars it’s a good time to talk about some things in the space.

How do the stars move in the sky?

What kind of the moon phase is it? How to recognise it?

Where could be another planet and what is the difference between a planet and a star? Is there life on other planets?

How does the ordinary day look like on other planets?

If you could make a star cancellation – where would you put in the sky and what form will it have? Would it have a story (or ancient myth) like other star constellations?

Do you know the myths about the creation of some of the major star constellations? Share!

What other celestial bodies might be seen in the sky (like meteorites, comets, satellites, asteroids, etc.)?

How do the sun and the moon co-exist in the sky? Do you know any stories why one is seen only in the night and other only in the day? And how come sometimes it’s possible to see them both?

What do you think about possibility that the Earth can be hit by a large asteroid?

What do you know about black holes? Do they exist? How do they work?

Scouts

Having a birthday with around twenty kids, hungry for games and fun!? It’s a great chance to play a scout game! It’s fun and exciting and requires speed, courage and team spirit!

The game “Scouts” is best played in an open air with enough space to run around.

To start with, all the players must be divided into two teams (you can mark the players with scarves or strings around their hands with similar colours so that there was less confusion about to which team players belong to – it will be crucial to find out the winner!). Next you need to draw a line in the middle of the playground to divide it between two teams.

When teams locate themselves in their sides of the line, a scout from the first team (you can through a coin to set that) crosses the line into the territory of the enemies and tries to touch at least one player from the opposite team. If the scout touches an enemy player s/he has to shout “Taken!” and the enemy player becomes a captive of the scout (the captured player does not take part in the game further on). Now the scout has to cross the line back to her/his team without being touched by the enemy players. If s/he succeeds then the captive belongs to the new team. In case the enemies touch the scout s/he stays in the enemy’s team and the captive becomes free. After that the second team send their scout to the first team’s side and the action repeats.

To make it fun to everyone, try to send a new scout each time so that all players get a chance to take the challenge. The winner team is the one that takes more captives.

Steal enemy’s flag

The game “Steal enemy’s flag” is fun to play at birthdays, classmate gatherings or summer camps. The rules are quite simple but you can always make it more difficult by creating some new obstacles! Just use your imagination and strategy!

This game is best played in an open area. The simplest version is to take two flags of different colours and find a playground where it is possible to draw a line in the middle and a circle at the ends of the two sides.

Players divide into two teams and put their flags in the middle of the circles in their sides. When teams settle down it’s time to give a sign to start the game. After the sign teams try to get to the flags of their enemies. It is possible to stop the invaders by hitting them with hand. The hit player has to stop and wait while player from her/his own team rescues her/him by hitting again. When a player gets into the enemy circle with where its flag is s/he takes the flag and now runs into her/his side. The player with the flag can be also stopped by hitting with a hand of the enemy and rescued by hitting again with a hand of his team-mate. The winner team is the one that takes enemy’s flag into its territory first.

If there’s a chance to play this game in the forest or bigger territory each team can make a hiding place where they keep the flag. In this case, a team can make a strategy how to find and take the enemy’s flag. For example, to divide players into scouts, distracters, flag keepers and so on. You also need to agree on boundaries of territory for each team. Draw a map to each team to make it even more exciting!

Fun games with water hose

Playing with rotating sprinkle

All the players have to stand in a circle around the sprinkle and jump over the spring of water when it comes. The one that gets wet or misses a jump is out of the game. You can also make it a competition by counting jumps. The winner is the one who gets the highest number of jumps in a row without missing one. You can make it a few rounds! This game is also can be played by one player as children usually like to play with water as it’s vivid and gets you very unexpectedly sometimes. The player could as well jump over the water and beat her/his own records.

Limbo dance

If there’s still energy after the first game make a limbo dance contest! Take a water hose and make the spring go horizontally. Start with a stream at chin high and then lower it down each time when all the players come through under it. When a player gets wet s/he goes out. The winner is the last one to get wet.

Blind Hen

It’s also possible to adapt game Blind Hen to water hose. Let one player have it with blindfolded eyes and the rest of the players run around her/him. The blind player can shoot water spring blindly by putting her/his finger partly on the stream and the one who gets some water on her/him is the new blind hen. To calm down yet still keep themselves cool children can go to swing (if there’s a set of those nearby). Just set a fan-style sprinkler near the swings and let kids enjoy the stream while swinging!

Summer games in the garden

Get dirty and wet – it is so much fun to get dirty and wet sometimes! There are a lot of options how to do it – it depends on your creativity. The simplest way is to put on a swimming suit and turn a water hose so that kids (parents are also welcome to have this fun!) can run from the water or just enjoy the spring on them! Before or after that you can make a puddle of dirt which children can use to play – build something from it or just draw on their bodies – for example, mask themselves as spies. Or just imagine they are in SPA. It’s great that in the end this can be washed with water hose and most importantly – fun is guaranteed!

Hiding in the shadows – one more fun activity on a hot day is hiding in the shadows. You can make competition or simply make a plan with the spots that players have to visit in the garden. The condition is to walk only in the shadows. On some places that shadows are far from each other you can give three seconds to run over the sunny section. If someone fails the three seconds ask to start the race from the starting point. Or simply give some water from the hose! Finally, the best price for the winner is a big portion of ice-cream and some smaller one for all other players.

You can also use shadows as a safety place for racing game. Chose one player to be the catcher and give her/him a water hose (ask her/him to stand in the shadow so that s/he won’t get sunburn). Other players have to change their positions in the shadows by crossing the sunny places without being caught by the water and those who get wet change places with the catcher.

Art activities with nature

The planet we live on is a great place to play as it is full of natural stuff for creation! Make your day in the nature – forest, beach, or simply your garden – unforgettable experience of creating a land art!

So, to start with look around you and find as many things you may use for your picture or sculpture as possible. You do not need any previous preparation and no tools as you can use only the material that is lying on the land. No cutting or any other kind of interrupting nature – be creative with what you find with no attachment to living things.

Few examples of what you can do in different time of the year:

Autumn: forest or garden is full of leaves which you can use to create a colourful picture. For example, make ornament or detail from the leaves by arranging colours; let’s say from the darkest to the lightest. Some nice pictures could be made from apples, nuts, conkers, acorns, branches, etc.

Winter: if it has snow then you can draw with your footsteps – walk a spiral, circles, smiling faces, or whatever you’ll think of. And it is always fun to find a snowman in the most unexpected places with carrot nose!

Spring and summer: stones can be a great material to create with everywhere you find them. Built them into towers, pyramids, circles, combine different sizes of them into footsteps, faces, figures and so on. If you find a pile of logs you can put them into some interesting ornament or maybe take some colours to paint small pictures.

Finally, if you have a garden and a piece of glass (or transparent plastic – just be careful with that not to cut yourself!) you can prepare some secrets. First you have to dig a small hole in the ground put some flowers or small things in it and cover it up with the piece of glass. Then put some ground on the glass to hide the secret! You may want to share it with your friends or parents, or just know it to yourself.

Nature exploring activities

Gathering of plants, leaves and flowers – this activity might need some previous preparation as you’ll need a photo or a drawing, or even a riddle about a plant that your kids are going to look for. You can make it a race or ask to find a more difficult plant to bring you and reward the one that gets more points (one point for one correct plant) with ice-cream or some other prize.

Don’t worry, you do not need to be a botanist to recognise some very simple and widespread plants like daisy, marguerite, poppies, bents, dandelion, violets, etc.

Also it’s a good activity to teach kids to be gentle with the plants – you can make it a condition for points to get only a blossom or a leaf without killing the whole flower.

So that the blossoms and leaves were not wasted put them into a book or old magazine to dry. These will do perfectly for rainy days and cold evenings to make some greeting postcards for different occasions, mosaic pictures or flower mandalas to have a nice memory of summer. And it’s just paper and paper-glue you’ll need for that.

Another fun and educating thing to make from the dried stuff is a book of plants. Take an empty notebook (with a thicker paper preferably) and stick the plants you have. Do it every second page so that in the nearby one you have a space to write some information about a plant. For example, when it blooms, where did you find it, what is its name (write it in Latin if you like too), what was the day like when you picked it up (sunny, small wind, father was watering plants, mother baking a pie; I was feeling happy, etc.).

Playing with clouds

Summer is the greatest time to do activities outside! Here are some ideas for sky exploring and daydreaming!

If you find yourself lying under the blue sky with beautiful white clouds, you can have some interesting time with your friends or kids by sharing what the forms of clouds remind you.

You can also create a cloud story by adding one sentence each in a row as a continuation to the previous, taking inspiration from the floating clouds. For example: about a castle in the sky and how a boy or girl came there and what he/she saw there?

You can wonder were do clouds come from – maybe a big giant dragon is sleeping somewhere and clouds are from his breath?

Where from does the rain come from – maybe someone is watering her or his flowers in the sky garden?

What do creatures that live in the clouds look like? What do they eat? What kind of games they play?

What is happening to the Sun on a cloudy day? Do clouds eat it? Or maybe it’s just sleeping? Or watching TV? Or painting? Maybe dancing with the Moon?

How does the Earth look like if you are watching it from a cloud? Do things and people look like giants or just like little ants?

When there’s too much of the clouds, or dark ones start to come, or you are just done with the stories there’s one more fun thing to do: cloud deleting! It sounds impossible though it’s very simple. You need to pick a cloud (start from the smallest one!) and delete it by looking at it and concentrating all of your attention. Be patient too as it might take a little time in the start!

Treasure hunt

Fun, adventurous and team building – if that’s what you expect from a game try hunting games! There are several options of them!

Treasure hunt – one of the most popular and exciting activities for kids as well as for adults! You can simply hide a treasure (box of sweets or small toys, etc.) and make up clues (for the convenience of the teams you can make clues on strips of different colours) that follow each other to the final spot – the treasure place (it can hang on the tree or be dug up in the ground, or hidden under the big stone).

To make it even more fun, think of a theme of a party! Ask everyone to dress up as, for example, Native Americans, pirates, famous travellers (like Columbus, da Gama, Cousteau, and so on), and prepare clues according to the theme you chose. Surely you need to divide players into groups and start the race!

In case the hunters are teenagers or adults, you can widen the area of the hunt and drag in some modern technologies.

Video cameras: each team has a camera and film how they complete tasks on their way to the treasure. You can ask them to pretend different animals, make a life sculpture from team members, ask some silly questions to strangers they meet, etc. After the hunt is complete all teams can gather and see how each of them was doing!

Photo cameras: all of the teams have to find a point and make a group photos so that all of the members are seen. Teams can get extra points for being creative and fun in their photos! Widen the area for the hunt to nearest neighbourhood or historical city centre! Shopping mall would also do. And afterwards you could all get some ice-cream and share your adventures!

P.S. A prize can be also a ticket to some kind of group activity. So the fun continues!

Boxes of activities

Sometimes you have tons of things to do and yet keep your child busy. Here are some rescue boxes that will help you to occupy bored children at home.

For a start, you can prepare a young baker’s box. It’s good to keep it somewhere up and out of reach so it would be more interesting for a child to use it when the special moment comes. Fill the box with unbreakable tools like measure cups, plastic or wooden spoons, bowls, cookie forms, rolling pin, and so on. Child can use these tools to play with modelling clay, dry pasta, or join you while making real dishes.

Busy box filled with pencils, crayons, water colours, paper, stickers, rubber stamps, glue, scissors, printed colouring images/books, and so on, can be a savour for bad weather or just hours when a child is in a creative mood.

Masquerade box full of different kind of clothes could be an option for occupying a bunch of children. They can dress unexpectedly or even make a small theatre! Have this box with old clothes, hats, shoes, wigs, jewels, and so on, from your or grandparent’s wardrobe. Renew it with new items from flea markets, charity shops, sales in special costume stores for more excitement each time of use!

Rainy day box is worth to keep hidden and take out only when the weather is bad or your child is sick. Try to surprise your child each time so she/he will have to be excited about. Things to put into the box could be: new set of pencils/markers/paints, paper pad for drawing, book, CD with music or DVD with cartoons, and so on.

Game ideas box can contain strips with game ideas, activities that do not need any materials. You can find a lot of those in this website!

Statues In The Shop

One player is a buyer, another one is a seller, who owns a shop where statues are sold. And the rest of the group are the statues.

Now turn on your imagination!

Before the buyer comes into the shop, some preparations need to be done. First of all, the statues need to be span around by the seller and then let go, so that they could take their positions. After being span around statues need to remain in the position that they fell or landed and must think which kind of a statue they are. For example, if one stopped with arms wide spread, she/he can decide to become a ballet dancer, or disk thrower.

The seller then goes around again and asks what kind of statues players decided to be. Then the buyer enters the shop and the seller tells about and demonstrates his statues by turning them on. To do that he needs to push “a button” and this is nose of a statue. The game might be easy if the statues are calm. But among them there might be a runner who can turn on the rest of statues causing a small chaos in the shop.

After the seller calms the statues, buyer decides which statue he wants to buy. (The statue, which has been bought, can become a new buyer or seller in the next round.)

Freezing statues: Another game with statues is even simpler. You need a device or a person who plays music. While the music is on players dance and move around. When the music stops, they freeze into statues. The one has moved during the stop falls out of a game.

Hand Faces

Hand Faces is a great acting game. It’s always fun to make some hand puppets from colour paper or sew from cloths or socks.

Otherwise, you can go simple and use washable markers to draw some faces straight on your hands! You can choose a fairy tale story to act, or create a new one. Every player should choose a character that they wish to be and draw its face.

You can make a scene or a barrier over which children could hide themselves and show only their hand faces. When all is done it’s time to act!

Charades

The most known drama game is called Charades. It’s usually played in teams and the aim is to guess what a person from one of the teams is trying to visualize without words.

But there’s another way to make it even more interesting and adjustable for kids. You’ll need some balloons for that and a bunch of paper stripes with written words on them (for example, names of flowers, animation characters, fairy tales, animals, places, and so on). After that put those bended paper stripes into the balloons and blow them. Then gather the players into a circle and let the first one choose a balloon from the pile in the middle of it. The player, who guesses the word, chooses the next balloon. And so till all the balloons are blown!

The World Of Feelings

Help your kids discover the world of feelings! Usually everyone likes to talk about what he/she feels, and it is very interesting and exciting to explore and find out that everyone has them. And, don‘t forget that there isn‘t good or bad feelings – it just one of them are positive, other negative, but all are perfect in a way that a person feels whatever he has to feel at that moment to learn something out of it!

“Drawing feelings” – the aim of this activity is to talk about feelings. And usually talking about feelings brings us a sense of togetherness. You can start with naming the feelings and then thinking what colours can be connected to each of them. It‘s better to draw with pencils, crayons or water-colours as they tend to bring more freedom in the process than markers. So, after finding with what to draw take some paper and proceed! When everybody‘s finished let them tell about the colours and feelings they drew. You can also find some common points and make conclusions. Or take it easy and write a poem – let the drawings inspire you!

The next time if are about to discover more of the feelings, you can play “Impersonate a feeling” game! Start with naming different feelings and writing them down on a blackboard or on a piece of paper. Then discuss how those feelings could be expressed (for example, with some kind of movements, mimics, sounds, etc.). Someone can choose and impersonate one of the written feelings, while other should guess what feeling that was.

Playing with poetry – Burime

Originally the game Burime comes from France where it’s called Bouts-Rimés, meaning “rhymed-ends” and was invented in 17th century by a French poet Dulot). Imagine you‘re a poet. From the given four words create a poem and share it with others.

Sharing can be done in different ways. For example, few of you can choose a group of words and set the time to create a poem and then read it out loud. Also you could make sheets of paper with the words and then each poet picks one up blindly and creates a poem on the spot. If you film these readings it could be a great memory for all of you!

Here are some examples for a start:

• play- grey-pray-bay-pay

• dance- glance-advance-romance

• run- fun- done-sun

• love- dove-glove-above-kind of

• smile- mile- pile-while-style

• ocean- emotion-devotion-potion-notion

• rain- train-chain-cane-drain

• sweet- beet-wheat-fleet-feet

• plum- come-crumb-thumb-sum

• gold- cold-old-told

• Spoon, moon, tune, soon

• View, blue, shoe, true

• Head, bed, bread, red

• Zoo, chew, mew, gnu

• Lake, bake, cake, break

• Wood, hood, good, should

• Heart, art, part, start

• Tent, rent, spent, went

• Dream, cream, team, beam

• Car, far, star, jar

Still want to stay a poet, but examples are finished? Think of your own! You can use “Google” to find the words that rhyme simply entering a sentence “what rhymes with…” into the search engine!

A Book About Me

Making of “A book about me” is a great activity that allows you to learn more about yourself and your dear ones.

You‘ll need few sheets of paper (size A4), stuff for drawing and writing (also you can make collage in which case you‘ll need colour paper or old magazines, sizers, paper glue).

When you‘re ready just take the A4 papers and make a book from them by bending. If you like, you can put a colourful paper sheet on top as a cover! Join the papers using thread and needle, or just a simple stapler. Then on top of every page write a sentence with an open end. When it‘s done the fun part of drawing the ends for them starts!

Here are some examples of sentences:

My first memory ever…

I love…

My family members…

I‘m happy when…

I don‘t like when…

My first date…

My best qualities…

What I want to improve in my life…

My home…

My room…

I miss…

I will never forget…

My favourite toy is…

My best friend is…

My favourite activity is…

I like to spend time with…

My life in five years from now…

When I grow up I want to be…

My most favourite place in whole world…

And so on. You can choose the text considering the age of drawers and what you want to discuss with them.

Animal School

Imagine that you are in the class of different animals (for example, lions, sheep, goats, horses, bears). You are one of them now and have to speak only in their language.

The class has a teacher who can try to explain something, like maths or literature, in the language of a chosen animal. Meh meeeeeh!

Emotional Hands

We all know that human being is special for his ability to experience a lot of emotions. Usually you can tell an emotion by looking at a person‘s face. Mime is the ability to show emotional states by face expressions.

But emotions can be shown in other ways too, for example, with hands, (or you can even try legs later!). Express these emotions with your hands: joy, anger, fear, sorrow, love, friendliness, hatred, and so on.

Morning Exercises

Exercises can be simple or thematic. The main difference between those two is that when you make thematic exercises you stretch your muscles as barbers, chiefs, sellers, or any other professionals you can think of, do. Otherwise you can copy the moves of some kind of mechanical machine, for example, a rotor.

Try new morning exercises that could be named Navy exercises, Firemen exercises, Kitchen exercises, Spacemen exercises, Washing machine exercises, etc.

Cakewalk

You will need: paper or cardboard squares with numbers, entertaining music, small prizes, a small bowl with numbered paper pieces.

Squares with numbers (make one per child) are arranged in a circle. Then write numbers on small pieces of paper (numbers should correspond with the numbers of squares) and put in a bowl.

Ask each player to stand on a square and turn up the music. Children walk around or march and when the music stops, everyone should freeze on the closest square.

Leader of the game picks one numbered piece of paper from the bowl. The player, standing on that number gets a small gift. The game continues until each kid has won a prize.

Following grandfather’s footsteps

One of the players becomes the grandfather, who is walking in the room. Other players try to repeat his movements.

Suddenly the grandfather stops and turns back. All the players should freeze. Those players, who did not freeze quickly enough, are out of the game.

The grandfather is turning back more and more quickly, until only one player is left. He becomes the new grandfather.

Johnny tells

The leader stands in a middle of a circle and says: „Johnny tells… (to jump, etc.)“ and does the move.

Other players repeat the moves of the leader until it is said „Johnny tells not… (to jump, etc.)“ but the leader continues to make the moves as before.

After several moves the player in the middle skips the words „Johnny tells…“, but tells to do different moves.

Those players who repeat the new moves after the leader are out of the game.

Just in a minute

Mark the start and finish line.

The leader of the game gives a sign, and the players begin to move at a pace that would cross the finish line just in a minute.

Do not stop, slow down or increase the speed.

The one who will be the closest to finish line in a minute becomes a winner.

The snake tail

Players stand in a single line and each player put both hands on the shoulders of other player standing in front of him.

The first player in a row is a head of a snake, and the last – the tail.

The head has to catch the tail.

The tail is trying to avoid the head and the whole body is in motion after the head.

When the head catches the tail of the snake or the body is broken, then “the tail” or any other caught player becomes “the head”.

This game is played until all have the opportunity to be the head and the tail.

The British Bulldog

Prepare a large game box by marking two limits.

One or two players (depending on size of playing area) are selected to be “The British Bulldogs”.

They stand in the middle of play area, while other players should stand at one end of the area.

After players-bulldogs shout “The British bulldog!!!” other players have to run across the marked area from one end to the other, without being caught by players-bulldogs.

When a player is caught by bulldog, they are changed in places – player-bulldog becomes “free”, and the caught player becomes “bulldog” himself.

Guess who you are

One player thinks of who is the second player, while he has to guess who is he by asking questions to which the first player answers only “yes” or “no”.

Rhythm and clap

Players have to think of words which have stroke on the first syllable and say it two times by clapping his/her hands.

The next player says another word (without any pause) and after a few rounds the rhythm is fastening.

If some player cannot think of a new word, he is out of the game.

Example: sun-sun-moon-moon-soon-soon-fun-fun-… and so on.

You can go – You can’t go

All players sit in a circle.

The leader of the game (for example his name is Sam) starts: “I’m going to Africa and take a Sleeping bag. I can go”.

The first player (for example her name is Betty): “I’m going to Africa and take … a Backpack”.

The leader: “You can go”.

The second player (for example her name is Susan): “I’m going to Africa and take … a Hat”.

The leader: “You can’t go”.

And so on.

The main goal of this game is that every player should guess the reason, why they get „yes“ or „no“. In our example the player ‘goes’ to Africa if he/she „takes“ a thing which starts from the same letter as his/her name. If one player succeeds to guess that principle and get “yes”, he should not say it to other players.

Game goes round after round, till every player knows the principle, how to get “You can go” or till it gets boring, so you can play this game another time, till there are players, who do not succeed to get answer “Yes”.

Only me

Start the game by saying a statement.

Your partner should continue by saying „only me“, and then add his/her own statement.

For example:

1st player: I‘m not stupid.

2nd player: Only me… I never throw garbage on the street.

1st player: Only me…I don‘t eat flies.

And so on.

New names

Think of new names for objects, months, cities and other things like book, shoes, clock, fork, spoon, window, computer, car, lake, etc.

How to use various things differently

Talk about how we can use simple things in a different way than usually.

Examples of items could be a coke bottle, a stone, an old shoe, etc.

For instance, an old shoe could be used not for walking, but also for grow flowers in it, put pencils and parkers in it, drink water, as a pillow while camping in nature, catch a butterfly or a frog, as a house for a rat, etc.

Fortunately-Unfortunately

Create a story starting each sentence with words “Fortunately” and “Unfortunately”.

For example: 1st player: „Fortunately tomorrow my holiday starts.“

2nd player: „Unfortunately it‘s wintertime.“

1st player: „Fortunately it‘s possible to travel to warm countries.“

2nd player: „Unfortunately I still don‘t have a ticket there.“

1st player: „Fortunately there‘s last minute offers.

And so on.

What if?

What would you do in a situation like that:

… people could fly?

… you won the jackpot in a lottery?

… children would go to school only on Mondays?

… people couldn‘t lie?

… you could teleport?

… people could read minds?

… you could know your future?

… you could have three wishes granted?

… it‘s the last day of your life?

… you wake up in the morning and realise you‘re the only person left on Earth?

… you‘d have to create a movie scenario? About what your movie would be?

… you can do everything you want without any limitations?

… you have to leave your country where and why would you like to live?

… you‘d have only ten minutes to take things you can cary on you and later have to walk 1000 km?

… you could become invisible? Think and suggest your own situations!

Why?

Take a view at the world around you. Discuss the following questions and create new ones (difficulty of the questions depends on the age of the players):

Why does the Earth spin?

Why do cats sleep so much?

Why does the wind blow?

Why tears taste salty?

Why rainbows are visible only in the rain and sun?

Why some mountains always have snow on the summit?

Why moon is different every night or there is no moon at all?

One Word

The first player chooses one word, which will be the only answer for the second player to all questions, that the first player asks. Smiling or laughing during answering is forbidden for the second player.

Example: The word is „Hot dog“

1st player: What is your name?
2nd player: Hot dog
1st player: Who is your best friend?
2nd player: Hot dog
1st player: What you you brush your hair with?
2nd player: Hot dog
1st player: What do you use instead of pillow?
2nd player: Hot dog
And so on, until the second player smiles or laughes

Energy

All the players should gather in a circle and hold each other’s hands. You can start to play with opened eyes, but the main thing in this game is to feel and pass further a coming signal.

Energy moves in a circle and is passed by a handshake. Originally manager sends an energy boost to one side, then to the other. Energy boost has to make a circle and come back to the initial source.

After successful two or three rounds you can send impulses to both sides at the same time. This means that one person will receive energy from both sides at the same time and have to press both hands so that energy can flow further.

When the group manages to do this test, you can offer to do another test: transfer of energy with their eyes closed. Send two impulses in different directions at a time and repeat that every ten seconds.

You can proceed to send impulses faster and faster, until you hear the laughter (usually it takes about a minute), allowing you to understand that there is enough energy to start the next game.

You are invited to my **th birthday party

You are invited to my **th birthday party: (Date), (time), (location).

You will make me very happy coming to my

You will make me very happy coming to my **th Birthday Party on (date and time) at (location)

Please join us for (name) ** birthday party

Please join us for (name) ** birthday party. We‘re gathering at (time) on (day) at (location).

We hope you will join us for

We hope you will join us for **th Birthday Celebration in honour of (name).
When: (date and time)
Where: (address).

Someone sweet is turning **, and you’re invited to join the fun

Someone sweet is turning **, and you’re invited to join the fun!
In Honour Of:
Date:
Time:
Place:
Given By:

A surprise party is being planned for (name)

A surprise party is being planned for (name). Hope to see you at (time) on (date) at (place). And remember it’s a secret!

It’s (name)’s **th Birthday. Let’s Surprise Him/Her with

It’s (name)’s **th Birthday. Let’s Surprise Him/Her with a Special Celebration! But do be discreet – keeping this secret will be quite a feat!
When: (date and time)
Where: (address).

Let’s give (name) a surprise treat on

Let’s give (name) a surprise treat on her **th Birthday!
Please join in the fun and don’t let the secret out. And here’s the top secret location, so you’ll know where to go!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We are sending

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We are sending SURPRISE birthday invitations!
The Birthday Star:
Date and time:
Place:

On (date) you are invited to (place) to help create

On (date) you are invited to (place) to help create a wonderful memory for (name) at her/his **th birthday party! Remember, this party is a surprise!

Please keep this invitation quiet, it’s a surprise

Please keep this invitation quiet, it’s a surprise, you see (name) is having a birthday and we’re going to party!

We’re having a surprise party to celebrate

We’re having a surprise party to celebrate the **th Birthday of (name). Shhhh! Mum’s the word!

You are invited to a party for (name) on

You are invited to a party for (name) on his/her **th birthday. We look forward to celebrating with you on (date) at (time).

WATCH OUT WORLD! (Name) IS TURNING

WATCH OUT WORLD! (Name) IS TURNING **! And you’re invited to help celebrate the BIG ** at (time) on (day) at (location). Come early – stay late!

We’re having a surprise party to celebrate

We’re having a surprise party to celebrate the **th Birthday of (name). Please keep this quiet 🙂

**th? He is been telling ladies he’s is only **th

**th? He is been telling ladies he’s is only **th! Come to a Birthday Party and find out the whole truth!
We‘re gathering at (time) on (day) at (location).

It’s Party Time! The Birthday Boy/Girl is (name

It’s Party Time! The Birthday Boy/Girl is (name).
Date:
Time:
Place:

I’m having a super-duper party because I’ve reached

I’m having a super-duper party because I’ve reached the age of **. I hope you can come on (date and time) at (place) and play with me, eat some cake and party!

Shhhh! It’s an invitation to a **th Birthday Surprise Party

Shhhh! It’s an invitation to a **th Birthday Surprise Party for (name):
We look forward to celebrating with you on (date) at (time). The place to be:

We are celebrating the **th birthday of a remarkable

We are celebrating the **th birthday of a remarkable, caring and wonderful woman/man (name). Please come and join us on (date and time) at (location).

You are cordially invited to celebrate with our family

You are cordially invited to celebrate with our family and friends in honour of (name) **th Birthday!
The date and time and location are listed below:

Birthday Party for (name)

Birthday Party for (name)! You are cordially invited to celebrate with us.
The place to be:
Date and time:

Invitation to a birthday Party

Invitation to a birthday Party! Come and celebrate with us!
From: (name)
Date:
Time:
Place:

You are invited to

You are invited to  **-th Birthday Party for (name)!
Date:
Time:
Place:

(Name) has been waiting

(Name) has been waiting ** years for this! Come join the fun!
The place to be:
Date and time:

Please come and help me to

Please come and help me to celebrate on this very special occasion.
Date and time:
Venue:

Birthday invitation

Birthday invitation
In Honour Of:
Date:
Time:
Place:
Given By:

You are invited to share in

You are invited to share in a ** birthday celebration for (name).
Date and time:
Address:

Look who’s becoming a teenager

Look who’s becoming a teenager! It’s an invitation to a party for: (name).
Date:
Time:
Location:
Hosted by:

Birthday Gift Ideas For Pisces (Fishes)

Pisces person is creative, honest and hardworking. They search for harmony, beauty and peace.

Horoscope gift ideas for Piscean women:

Silk robe;
Bedding set;
Aromatic oils;
Decorative cosmetics;
Golden or silver jewellery

Gift ideas for Piscean men:

Photo or video camera;
Original painting;
Tickets to the opera or favourite band’s concert;
Unique articles made from bronze, brass;
High quality perfumes

Birthday Gift Ideas For Aquarius (Water-carrier)

Aquarius people can be perceptive, hard-working, always looking for innovation.

Present ideas for Aquarian woman:

Exotic souvenirs
Oriental perfumes;
Aphorisms book;
Jewellery with various symbols;
A trip to an exotic country

Present ideas for Aquarians men:

MP3 player;
Tickets to modern performance;
Unusual, original interior details;
Art book;
Ambient music DVD

Birthday Gift Ideas For Capricorn (Sea-goat)

Capricorn people are simple, honest and faithful. They enjoy birthday gifts, which are beautiful and practical.

Present ideas for Capricorn women:

Leather handbag;
Cosmetic bag;
Kitchen accessories;
Good quality cosmetics;
Fashionable perfume

Present ideas for Capricorn man:

Business card holder;
Leather wallet;
Digital equipment;
Brand Watch;
Tool kit

Birthday Gift Ideas For Sagittarius (Archer)

Sagittarius people are open and honest, like to sport, travel.

Gift ideas for Sagittarian woman:

Exotic interior design elements;
Journey;
Jewellery made of natural stone;
Classic perfumes;
Travel books.

Astrological gift ideas for Sagittarians men:

Sports equipment;
Subscription to the gym;
Atlas of the world;
Antiques;
Traveling equipment

Birthday Gift Ideas For Scorpio (Scorpion)

People with Zodiac sign Scorpio are passionate and mysterious, they like to know everything.

Horoscope present ideas for Scorpio woman:

Expensive jewellery;
Rare perfume;
Original work of art;
Aromatherapy kit;
Yoga lessons

Present ideas for Scorpio men:

Study books and movies;
Antiques;
Binoculars or telescope;
Sports equipment;
Travel bag.

Birthday Gift Ideas For Libra (Scales)

Libra people take care of internal balance, so they need a quiet and beautiful environment.

Horoscope present ideas for Libra women:

Beautiful photo frames;
Perfumes, aromatic oils, salt;
Exotic incense;
DVD with a romantic melodrama;
Stylish book support.

Present ideas for Libra men:

Leather notebook;
Tickets to the theatre;
Intense perfume;
Stylish tie;
Intellectual book

Birthday Gift Ideas For Virgo (Virgin maiden)

Virgo is the most practical zodiac sign, so representatives of Virgo will be glad to receive something practical.

Horoscope gifts ideas for Virgins women:

Subscription for beauty treatments;
Natural cosmetics;
Good quality perfume;
Stylish interior elements;
Artistic jewellery

Gifts ideas for Virgin man:

Leather briefcase;
Office supplies
Selected delicacy;
Expensive wine;
Art books.

Birthday Gift Ideas For Cancer (Crab)

People with Cancer Zodiac sign are very conservative and attached to their family and home.

Birthday gift ideas for Cancer women:

Elegant tablecloth;
Handmade gifts;
Cooking tools;
Decorative cosmetics;
Silk nightwear

Gift ideas for Cancer man:

Delicacies;
Tool kit;
Comfortable bathrobe;
Sauna kit;
Soft fur slippers

Birthday Gift Ideas For Leo (Lion)

People with astrological sign Leo will enjoy an exclusive, high quality gifts.

Present ideas for Leo woman:

Subscription for beauty treatments;
Good quality cosmetics;
High quality vitamins;
Beautiful set of dishes;
Gold jewellery

Present ideas for Leo men:

Expensive Champagne;
Gourmet cheese;
High quality lighter;
Elegant watch;
Shirt studs.

Birthday Gift Ideas For Gemini (Twins)

Gemini will enjoy a birthday gift that will allow them to learn or discover something.

Present ideas for Gemini woman:

A book;
Journey;
Tickets to theatre or concert;
Magazine subscription;
Invitation to the ceramic or painting lessons

Present ideas for Gemini men:

Reference book;
Intelligent magazine subscription;
Documentary or training DVD;
Travel gift voucher;
Tickets to theatre or concert

Birthday Gift Ideas For Taurus (Bull)

Representatives of the Zodiac sign Taurus are font of high quality, practical and tasteful gifts.

Birthday gift ideas for Taurus woman:

Works of art;
Classical music records;
Manicure tool kit;
Exclusive chocolates box;
Elegant cutlery

Gift ideas for Taurus men:

Expensive gloves;
Good quality wine;
Intelligent game;
Delicacies;
The newest model of cell phone

Birthday Gift Ideas For Aries (Ram)

Aries people love to stand out from the crowd, they like everything that is unusual and original.

Present ideas for Aries women:

Original, tasteful elements for interior design;
Exclusive jewellery;
Famous intense flavour perfume brands;
Subscription to the beauty salon;
Tickets to the music concert

Present ideas for Aries man:

Sport accessories;
A solid lighter or a pen;
Subscription to the gym;
Luxury tie;
Expensive leather wallet

Birthday card with poppy

Birthday card with a beautiful red poppy and nice greeting words.

Birthday ecard with party image

A nice greeting card with an outdoor party image and birthday wishes on it.

Birthday card with flowers

Nice and simple birthday card with flowers and words “Happy birthday” on it.

Birthday card with air balloons

A wonderful birthday card with air balloons and greeting text on it.

Birthday card with forest

A card with a beautiful green forest picture and birthday greeting.

Beautiful birthday card

An amazing card with a magical bubble image and birthday poem on it.

Birthday card with wildflowers

An ecard with a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers and greeting text on it.

Birthday card with sea

A nice birthday card with sea image and inspirational greeting words on it.

Birthday card with peonies

A colourful card with a bouquet of peonies and a wish on it.

Birthday card with cake

An ecard with a gorgeous cake and sweet bday greeting on it.

Birthday ecard with garden party

An card with beautiful flowers and a nice birthday greeting text on it.

Nice birthday card with roses

An ecard with a great bouquet of pink roses and a happy birthday wish on it.