Games For Kids: Party Blower Spelling Game

I have been attempting to start spring cleaning and discovered lots of extra party supplies in my craft cupboard. My son’s favorite discovery was two pink party blowers. After exploring with them for awhile, we used them and created three fun learning activities. This week I am going to share a simple spelling activity that we created using a party blower, stickers, and some bottle caps. Materials needed for spelling game:

• stickers
• bottle caps
• party blower
• markers
• painters tape
• cardstock

How to create the spelling game:

1. Write alphabet letters  on blank stickers to spell whatever words you want. We worked on spelling my son’s name.
2. Put the stickers on the tops of the bottle caps.
3. Use the cardstock to make a  game board  showing the word spelled correctly (you can nix writing the letters if your kids don’t need the prompt)
4. Tape the cardstock  game board  to the floor.

How to play the spelling game:

1. Set out the game pieces on the floor or the table a little bit away from your  game board.
2. Find the first letter in the word and use the party blower to push the bottle cap to the proper spot on the game board.
3. Keep moving the pieces until all the lettered bottle caps are in their correct spot to spell the word.
4. Read the word and then either play again with the same word or choose a new one!

This game is hard work! It teaches problem solving skills in addition to spelling and works on blowing too. Sometimes the party blower doesn’t move in the direction that you want it to, so it is fun to experiment with it to figure out how to manipulate it the best to get the bottle caps to move. Blowing activities are great for helping kids improve breath control. Breath control issues can sometimes cause kids to have unclear speech.  Blowing is also helpful with strengthening and controlling the muscles of the lips, which are used to produce sounds such as ˜p ™ in pop and ˜b ™ in bat. We love party blowers and recently did some party blower painting and used them to create a sight word game. How else have you used party blowers for learning, exploring, or creating?