Unplug Project

Sorry I have been missing for a few days around here. We have been busy getting ready for the holidays and having a few sick days around here. So now things are getting a little more undercontrol, for now, I am back. I plan on catching up on all of my missed entries this week. To start with I thought that I would do the Unplug your kids project.
The theme this week was SORT, JUNK, DONATE. The first thing that came to my mind was to use up some of the recycables. Then of course I love to combine activities, so the boys preped for tomorrow's gym class. They made the Game of HAGO ASOBI. It is a Japanese game, similar to badminton. I got the idea of it from this book. Hago Asobi was tradionally played by girls. The hago (shuttlecock) was origanally made from feathers and soap-berry tree seeds. The wooden paddles were decorated with pictures of famous actors.

Here the boys are decorating their paddles. Since the boys do not really know of much famous people, I changed that part for them. I gave them some of their nature magazine's to cut out pictures for it.

Now to make the parts. First for the Hago (shuttlecock). You take styrofoam balls and insert two feathers. Our styrofoam balls are painted. Dh thought that the might make less mess that way. Sam's Hago is the one with orange and white feathers. Gabe has the red and green ones. You only need one for the game but I wanted each of them to have the chance to make one. It also does not hurt to have a spare one ready in case the first one is damaged or lost. :)

The paddles are made from cereal boxes and rulers. The book that we used had a pattern for the shape of the paddles. I just traced it on to an old cereal box. The directions called for paint stirrirs as the handles but we could not get any. Instead we picked up some cheap rulers. They are the ones with the sharp edge built in. To make sure that the kids did not get cut we covered them in electrical tape. Then of course the final touch was for the kids to decorate them. Sam chose to put multiple pictures on his while Gabe chose only one for his.

So do you wanna play with us? The rules are simple. You need no net, just keep the Hago in the air as long as you can.

I hope that you enjoyed this. Make sure to check out everyone else's projects over here. Check back for next weeks project. The theme will be .....Thankful.

If everyone can say Happy Anniversary to my Mother and Father in law today. They have been married 40 years today. So happy anniversary to you.