"Eat Or Be Eaten" Turkey Toss

It's eat or be eaten! This turkey toss game is a ton of fun with lots of educational variations. So play to learn or just to play! You could even use this game as entertainment for the kids on Thanksgiving while the adults are cooking and talking. 

Making the Game:

The adorable bean bag turkey was inspired by this post from one of my absolute favorite blogs, Almost Unschoolers. If you need instructions for this little turkey, be sure to visit her tutorial. Our turkeys are different, but it's the same basic concept. I sewed mine by hand, but you could also assemble your turkey with fabric glue. 

I printed the corn pictures from this website. I colored them, cut them out, and then laminated them to make them last. I made the plates by tracing two different sized plates and then laminated them as well. We like to take this game outside, and to prevent the turkey from getting dirty, we put the game pieces on a shower liner we got from the dollar store.

The Play:

The premise of "Eat Or Be Eaten" is to try and toss the turkey onto ears of corn. If your turkey lands on an ear of corn, he gobbles it up and you get a point. But be careful! Laid out among the corn pieces are plates. If you land on the plate the turkey is gobbled up and you lose a turn. You can adjust the difficulty by adding more plates and placing the corn closer to them, or by changing the distance of where you stand. 

It really is a ton of fun. R was so excited to play. He was giggling and squealing the entire time. 

And R loves this turkey and has thanked me daily for making him. He named him Gobble Gobble. It's appropriate, don't you think? He has wanted to sleep with him every night. Gobble Gobble quickly became a part of the family. Plus, he's fun to play with on his own!

Variations on Ways to Play:

• You could reinforce counting by two's and fives, by increasing the point value of the corn. 
• You could use a dry erase marker to write a letter, number, math problem, sight word, etc on the bottom of each ear of corn to practice those skills in a fun way. {I love the lamination for that purpose as well. It's so easy to change it up by just wiping it off!} 
• Instead of losing a turn when you land on a plate, you could lose all of your corn. 
• The list goes on!

How would you play? Do you have any ideas for a fun bean bag game?

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Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

 

We decided to remove a leaf from our fall bucket list and make some autumn themed play dough. This play dough smells so incredibly yummy. It smells just like pumpkin pie. I was constantly opening the bag just to sniff it. I carried it around with me and made all of my friends smell it too. I'm amazed and I adore it.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough Recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp cream of tartar
1/3 of the jar of pumpkin pie spice (the tiny jar)
maple extract
vanilla extract
food coloring

Combine the dry ingredients and the oil. Slowly add the water. Add a few dashes of each of the extracts and a few drops of red and yellow food coloring. Cook over medium heat, stirring until stiff.

As it mixes you can see if you'll need more food dye. We tried to be conservative at first, because I didn't want it to be too vibrant. We added a little at a time until we acheived the right color.

Once it's finished cooking, turn out onto wax paper and allow to cool.

The pumpkin pie spice was too spicy by itself, for my liking. The extracts make it smell sweeter, just like a pumpkin pie. Sniff the dough. Does it smell too spicy? Add a little bit more extract and knead it all together. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. If it's too dry, add a few drops of water.

The Play

The smell is wonderful, and the texture is perfect. We brought it along to a play date and the kids had a lot of fun playing with it. I brought along a muffin tin, some wooden spoons, and a full size rolling pin for them to use. R happily made all kinds of pumpkin baked goods. And he's asked to play with it several times since then.

What are your favorite fall scents?

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