Materials:

• 2″ x 4″ piece of aluminum foil
• marble
• small metal tin (like one that hold bandages or breath mints)
• long carboard tube
• scissors

Center your marble on one of the long sides of your foil piece then roll it up.

When you’re done rolling you will have formed a tube with the marble in the center.

Tightly pinch the open ends of the tube closed so that you have the rough shape of a giant pill.

Put the foil covered marble inside the metal tin. Close the lid and shake vigorously. The harder and longer you shake, the better your Oppy Poppy Bead will be.

Open the tin and remove the bead which will now be smooth, shiny and perfectly pill shaped.

Next, make a half-pipe track for your bead. Use scissors to cut your cardboard tube in half long ways so you have two long open half pipes.

Prop one end of one half-pipe track on the edge of a chair of coffee table. Set the Oppy Poppy at the top of the half pipe and watch it wobble end over end down the track.

For extra fun, make another bead, grab a friend and set up the half-pipe tracks side by side for an Oppy Poppy Roly Poly Derby!

A big thank you to Paula Day at Copperfield Book Review for taking the time to write about PLAY THESE GAMES! Paula says, “ If it’s a rainy day, or if you just want to get your kids away from their video games for a while, you’ll enjoy skimming through this book to find something fun to do together.” I couldn’t agree more!

Bonus, you’ll find tons of great ideas on this site for your own summer reads while the kids are off playing games.

Marcie over at the To Read or Not To Read blog gave PLAY THESE GAMES 5 Willies (as in Willie Shakespeare, that is). How cool is that?

“I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.” I’m quoting The Bard here, friends.

But best of all, she quoted Phineas and Ferb in her review, too…dude, Shakespeare and Ph & F in the same post…awesome!

Check out her other great reviews, contests, and giveaways for plenty-o-reading fun.

Check out all the other great reviews on her blog…this English teacher reviews tons of books in many genres so you’ll never wonder what to read next!

Shouts to the wonderful blog My Friend Amy for running an interview about PLAY THESE GAMES, which you can check out here:

http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/2012/05/heather-swain-crafty-cheap-eco-minded.html

On Amy’s site you’ll find tons of great book reviews to keep you happily ensconced in summer reading while you’re kids are off playing games. “I’ll be right there, honey…just as soon as I finish this chapter…”

Happy reading!

 Today, Budgie asked if he could cut his own hair. At least he asked, right? Instead of having him look like Moe from the Three Stooges with a home cut, we whipped up this balloon barber shop so he could snip away to his heart’s content.

Materials

• cardboard cereal box
• permanent markers
• balloon
• yarn
• transparent tape

Open up the cereal box so you have one large, flat piece of cardboard. Cut out and decorate a pair of 12-inch shoes from the cardboard. Then, cut a slit from the heels to the center of the feet.

Blow up and tie a large balloon then slip the knot of the balloon into the slit in the feet so the balloon stands up.

Draw a goofy face on the balloon with markers. Tape long pieces of yarn to the top of the balloon to make hair.

Cut and style your balloon’s hair.

Extra Fun:

Spread shaving cream over the cheeks and chin of the balloon and shave the customer with the smooth edge of the plastic knife. Wipe the knife clean with a damp cloth between strokes.

Even More Fun:

When the shave and the hair cut are done, spread extra shaving cream over the surface of the table and draw pictures with your fingers.

Inspired by those kooky New Years Eve 2012 glasses the kids saw in January, we made our own Goofy Reading Glasses this week with different funny words.

Materials:

• toilet paper tube
• ruler
• scissors
• three flexible drinking straws
• stapler
• heavy cardstock paper
• utility knife*
• markers
• transparent tape

*Utility knives or box cutters are very sharp and should be handled only by adults.

Cut two 1-inch segments from a toilet paper tube.

Cut a 1.5-inch piece from one of the flexible straws so that the accordion fold bendy part is centered in your segment.

Staple this part between the eye rings to make the nose piece of your glasses.

Trim two flexible straws so that they’re the right length for the flexible tip to wrap around your ear and the rest of the straw to reach your temple.

Staple the nonflexible end of the straw to the outside edge of each eye ring. These will be the arms of your glasses frame which will wrap around your ears and hold the glasses in place.

Center the glasses on a piece of heavy card stock paper and trace the eyes by running a pencil around the inside of each toilet paper ring.

Use a ruler to draw a cross in the center of each eye you just traced. Then, on a safe cutting surface, run your utility knife over the crosses you drew so you end up with four triangles in the center of each eye ring.

With a pencil, write a word around the eye holes in big blocky letters so that they touch one another. For example, we wrote LOOK, using the eye holes as the Os in the word. Decorate your word with markers.

Cut around the word, so that all the letters stay connected.

Gently push the triangles in the center of the eye circles backwards, so they open through the back of the word.

With the word face down on your work surface, lay the glasses over the word so that the paper triangles are sticking up inside the eye rings.

One at a time, hold a triangle against the inside of the eye ring and attach with a 2-inch piece of transparent tape. Helpful Hint: Start by sticking about 1/4″ o f the tape to the front of the word paper, push it through the eye ring, then wrap it over the edge of the toilet paper ring to secure. Repeat for each triangle until the word is held securely to the glasses.

Wrap the flexible tips of the straws over your ears and see what funny looks you get!