By: Valerie Drapeau
Education Coordinator
Materials:
Scissors
Empty Cereal Box
Empty Small Cardboard Box
2 Laundry Baskets
1 piece of copy paper
Marker
Tape
Variety of small, lightweight balls
Length:
Set up: 20 minutes
Activity: Endless fun!
Academic Subject(s):
Physical Education and Math
Laundry basket skee ball is an easy project to create, and an awesome game to play using materials you already have lying around!
Directions:
Step 1: Open your cereal box on the seam. Using adult scissors, cut down one short panel side of your cardboard box on each edge, so that the flap lays flat. Cutting through cardboard can be tricky, so parents you may need to assist with this step. Tape the cereal box inside of the cardboard box at an angle to create a ramp. This will require some reinforced tape on the sides and top.
Step 2: Take your piece of copy paper and cut it in half. Have your child write “50” on one half of the paper with a marker, and “100” on the other half. Tape your point sheets to the inside of your laundry baskets at the top middle handle.
Step 3: Set up the laundry basket with the label of “50” in front, and the laundry basket labeled “100” directly behind that. Find a partner to make it a friendly competition! Determine how many rolls each competitor gets on their turn. Grab some lightweight balls (for safety) and get started! Add up the points each player got on each roll of their turn to determine their total score.
While this may seem like just a simple kid’s game, it teaches some neat educational lessons such as working through trial and error of a situation (in this case working on your roll to maximize your point total), the speed, angle and distance that are needed to sink the ball where you’re hoping it will go, and even some basic math as you tally up your points each round. If you have a third laundry basket or bucket of some kind, keep the fun going by adding higher point values to the back of your “skee ball lane”!
Vocabulary Words:
Skee Ball: An early arcade and still popular redemption game in which balls are rolled up an inclined lane, aimed at holes of various point values.
Angle: The space (usually measured in degrees) between two intersecting lines or surfaces at or close to the point where they meet.
Reinforce: Strengthen or support (an object or substance), especially with additional material.
