Games for Kids: Learning Action Words with Party Blowers

Last week I shared a simple spelling activity that we created using a pink party blower and some bottle caps. This week I have another party blower activity that packs a punch! We used a party blower, a few Superhero friends, and some recycled materials to help us learn about action words! My son loves Spiderman and the rest of the Superhero squad right now, so I decided to include them in this week’s activity. As we talked about them we reviewed several action words like protect, create, and change. Materials Needed for Action Words Game:

• recycled materials (we used paper towel rolls, cereal boxes, and pasta boxes)
• double stick tape
• party blower
• Superhero images (we just printed these off via Google images)
• markers
• scissors

How to create the Action Words Game:

1. Choose your Superhero images and print them off.
2. Cut them to fit your boxes/materials.
3. Stick them onto your recycled materials.
4. Have your child tell you about each Superhero and talk about action words that you could use to describe each hero.
5. Write the action words on the boxes (older kids could do this themselves).
6. Set them up on the floor or on a table so that they are easy accessible for your child.

How to play the Action Words Game:

1. Set up the materials on a table/counter and give your child a party blower.
2. Describe one of the action words using simple hints or synonyms.
3. Once your child guesses the correct word, have them look for it and then use the party blower to try and hit the word and knock down the box/paper towel roll.
4. You can also play by telling your child to knock down the action word that starts with ___ letter or ____ sound.

As you play your child will notice that by hitting the words that are lower it is hard to knock down the boxes and they will notice that it is easier to knock down the boxes when they hit the words on top. Encourage them to problem solve and explore how to use the party blower to knock down the boxes (blowing faster/slower/at a certain spot/turning the box sideways… it is fun to see what they come up with!) This activity was a great subtle way for me to teach my son some new action vocabulary words and their synonyms. He also liked taking turns describing the words so that I could knock down the boxes. Having him come up with hints/clues for me was another great activity because by being the “teacher” he ended up learning even more! As mentioned in my post last week, 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. Do you have any other favorite learning games that used recycled materials? Here are a few recycled materials games that we’ve tried or have on our “must try” list: Velcro ball game reusing gloves via Creative Connections for Kids Magazine Hockey game via Toddler Approved Jar Lid Letter Game via No Time for Flashcards Beach Ball Sight Word Game via KAB Time Telling Games via KAB How else have you used party blowers for learning, exploring, or creating?