Bunny bowling

Want to make an easy and fun Easter game with your child? Look no further. This home made game is a great activity during the run up to Easter, or could be given as an alternative chocolate free gift.

                                                     

Who can play?

Children aged 2 years and above. As all activities it depends on the child's age and stage of development.

Safety:

Secure the lid on the bottle by applying cello tape. This will ensure that the lid does not come off and pose a potential choking hazard.

What do you need?

• 6 empty water bottles.
• A ball
• 6 cotton wool balls and glue
• Card
• Scissors
• Felt tip pen
• Food colouring and water
• Chalk to record the score

What did we do?

Firstly, we made our bunny bowling pins by following the steps below:

1. Apply glue to a piece of cotton wool and stick onto the back of the bottle (lower half).
2. Fill the bottles with a few drops of food colouring. Add half an inch of water. This not only helps children develop colour recognition when knocking down the bottles, but helps them stand up.
3. Draw 6 bunny faces on some card and cut out
4. Cello tape around the lid of the bottle to secure it into place
5. Add bunny faces to the top of the bottles.
6. Arrange the bottles in a triangular formation.

Next, we learnt how to play our bowling game. Bee tried rolling the ball on the ground, however she found out that if she threw it, it knocked down more bunnies. At first we just practiced rolling/throwing the ball into the rabbits and lining them back up. We then took it one step further and began recording our scores on the floor with chalk, to encourage mathematical and literacy skills.

 If she knocked down two rabbits she record this by putting two lines under her name. We would then compare how many rabbits we had knocked down and talked about more and less. 

What did we learn?

• Communication and language- Talking about what she is doing and what is happening.
• Physical development- Fine and large manipulative skills (rolling and throwing) and coordination
• Personal, social and emotional- Making relationships, social skills, fun and enjoyment and following the rules of the game.
• Literacy- Recording scores with chalk (mark making)
• Mathematics- Developing an awareness of space and measurement. Recording scores in a table and counting how many bunnies she has knocked down. Learning about more and less.
• Expressive arts and design- Creating her own game and developing an awareness of colours.

What could be done next?

• At the end of the activity, Bee made up her own game, by lining up the bunnies and then knocking them down with beanbags. She asked me to call out a colour and she would try to knock them down.
• Add numbers to the bunnies, so that when you knock them down, you have to record the numbers and then add them together.
• Add letters to the pins, to encourage letter recognition. You could even get the child to try and make up a cvc word with them, such as cat or dog.
• Arrange the bunnies in a line, to encourage precision skills when throwing the ball.