Love to Learn - Toss Games

Toss games are a fun way to improve hand-eye coordination and concentration, learn and review content, and practice social skills such as taking turns and following directions. They are very versatile and can be as simple or fancy as you desire. They can be played alone or with others and tend to entice people of all ages.

Use buckets, boxes, baskets, bowls, or anything else you can find (you can even draw circles in chalk or use paper “targets”) and toss rings, bean bags, balls, or even rolled up socks to create a custom toss game. Line up the targets either in a line or random pattern and label them with point values, actions, etc....A toss then either happens as a result of answering a question correctly or causes something to happen (like gaining points or winning a prize).



Here are some examples:

1.  Read a sight word or answer a question, and get a turn to toss.
2.  Label the targets with story characters and aim for the one that is asked about.
3.  Match a number symbol with its written form. Label the targets with words and the item to       be tossed with the number symbol or vice versa. This also works with upper and lower case         letters.

4.  Match math facts with answers.  This is a good way to limit the number of problems worked       on at a time.  Any question-answer combination would work.
5.  Higher level questions might include vocabulary, amendment numbers, and geography.
6.  Without questions,  make a toss game that fits with a specific theme.

*Note:  For your convenience, I have included Amazon links, however, it has been my experience that many of these things are available at Dollar Tree or can be substituted with items already in your home.

Incorporate teamwork with this human ring 
toss which makes use of inflatable pool rings.

This game uses paper plates
and coordinating bean bags.

Reuse your plastic bottles with pipe cleaner rings.

Each team tries to get their ball in the other
team's buckets.  This could be used with 
only one bucket or even more.  

Sight words are written and circled
in chalk.  The cards indicate which
sight word to throw the bean bag at.

In this version, sight words are written
on different color water balloons.

 

This themed toss game,
uses cotton balls or fake
snowballs to fill a pop-up
hamper decorated like a
snowman. So cute!

Bean bags and dollar store dog
bowls are sure to make this puppy
themed toss game a hit!

I love the idea of using Duplos as targets and 

pipe cleaners as rings! 

**Word of caution: The Lego towers fall easily 

and could become quite frustrating. **

Decorate individual cones 
(buckets, bowls, etc..) to fit 
with your theme.  
I've done this before 
for birthday parties.

Simple paper plate rings and
paper towel roll targets make 
this an easy, cheap, and
disposable game.

Brightly colored buckets are 
each labeled with increasing 
point values.

#BadassandBeautiful2020

I think I'm having a mid-life crisis.  Not a big one, but enough that I am feeling like I am closer to the end of my life than the beginning.  I'm guessing that it's a natural thing to consider when you are starting to have children closer to adulthood than preschool.  Add aging parents to the mix, and you are desperate for the hope you had in your 20's.  You realize that your health as a senior isn't guaranteed and that your years of retirement may or may not be long and prosperous.  It makes you want to make the most of today, and it makes you jealous of those at a younger stage of life.

My journey is causing me to act ridiculously but with positive outcomes.  Like most Americans, our family loves to binge on Netflix, Prime, and when "necessary", Hulu, CBS Access, and other streaming services.  Lately, we've even resorted to using our DVR and (gasp) buying a season from Amazon.  My husband and I bond this way, obsessively making our way through one show at a time-  Law and Order, Hawaii 5-0, Quantico, FBI, Blacklist, and finally the NCIS franchise.  Everytime, we fall in love with the characters, the stories, the theme song.....

In some ways, we relate to Kensi and Deeks (NCIS LA) the most.  It isn't so much what had happened in the past with their characters, but more about who they are to each other.  As their story develops, it becomes more and more evident that these two individuals share much more than an attraction for each other.  They have each other's back.  They rely on each other and take care of each other in the best and darkest of days.  They playfully banter and enjoy each other and ultimately realize that it is only with each other that they are "safe".  It is like that with Steve and me.

One day, deep into the NCIS LA binge, we were stuck away from the house and couldn't watch our show.  As I waited impatiently to get my next fix of what was clearly becoming an addiction, (Don't even laugh-I know you've been there...), I thought, "Well, I guess I can look up the actors and see who they really are."  It was then that I discovered that Daniela Ruah, who plays Kensi, actually married her on-screen partner's (Eric Christian Olsen) brother, David Paul Olsen.  Dave is Eric's stunt double.  Go figure.

https://www.facebook.com/enews/videos/special-agent-kensi-blye-and-marty-deeks-are-getting-married/271585543759662/ 

We can't forget LLCool J, Chris O'Donnell,
Renee Felice Smith, and Barrett Foa!

I would later learn that apparently Eric is married to another actress, Sarah Wright Olsen, and both families get along really well, have 6 year old boys and 3 year old girls, and live and vacation in some gorgeous places, places I'd never been and really knew nothing about even though they were in the United States.  I think what really attracted me, though, is the way that these actors portray themselves in real life.  They are caring, involved parents that have put their families ahead of their careers.  They are super proud of their children and love their spouses.  They are grateful for their fans and gentle, smart, kind,vulnerable, and humble.  They grew up living mostly "ordinary" lives in "ordinary" places, and that gives me hope and makes me want to break out of my own "ordinary" life and be noticed.

Linda Hunt

I want to be like Kensi.  I want to be like Daniela.  I want to be badass and beautiful.

So, yes, I'm acting pathetically like a starstruck teenager in many ways, looking for any and everything about my celebrity "crushes", but I'm also inspired.  I want to be strong again, stronger than ever before.  So, I'm exercising and making very slightly (can't do it all at once) better choices about my diet.  I'm setting goals and amazingly, wearing makeup and taking care of my skin almost every day instead of always letting it go.  I'm clearing out my wardrobe and treating myself to new things.

It has its peaks and valleys.  Yesterday, I was coming out of a valley.  But, I want to be strong.  I want to do things I normally wouldn't, like paintball and target practice.  I want to be able to run.

I really love my life, but I am tired of being a slave to my health issues.  I am tired of anemia, and anxiety, and depression.  I am tired of being weak and having no energy.  I am tired of surgery and checkups.  So, I'm declaring it #BadAssandBeautiful2020 if only to keep to my goals.  I'm too young to fall apart.

I'll probably never be a federal agent (well, they aren't either technically), but I can pick myself up again and again and not let my stumbles keep me down.  God didn't make me to be that way.  He cares about me even when I can't care about myself.  He gives me strength when I am weak.  He gives me hope when I feel hopeless.  He is the Rock on which I stand.

Isaiah 40:29  "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."